A magic wand sits high on a shelf in Patricia Deklotz鈥檚 office. It was a gift in 2005, the day after she accepted the 鈥檚 challenge to 鈥渢ransform the educational delivery system to better and more efficiently meet the needs of all children.鈥� But the board had just cut about $1 million from the budget for the 4,100-student district.
What 鈥渢ransform鈥� meant was undefined, except Deklotz knew that they needed to do something different for less. Innovate on a dime.
At the time, Deklotz was assistant superintendent in the Kettle Moraine district where she had been on the school board for five years before becoming a teacher herself at the age of 42.
She had faced challenges before, but this was a big demand. Hence, the magic wand.
EdWeek鈥檚 Leadership Symposium | Live in D.C.
鈥淭here was no 鈥楾ransformation for Dummies鈥� book,鈥� said Deklotz, who deployed a 17-month task force with 25 educators and non-educators to see what could be done. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 really know,鈥� she says, but the goal was to support three pillars of education: academic excellence, citizenship, and personal development. They held community meetings and read books and journal articles as part of future studies to envision different scenarios for their schools.
- Start With 鈥榃hy?鈥�: Make sure the vision is clear and compelling, and engage students in telling the story. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
- Build on Success: Start small and learn from your efforts. Be transparent with the work and build opportunities to reflect on successes and struggles, incorporating improvements as you work to scale.
- Empower People: Get the right people in the right seats, and empower them to do the right work. Create opportunities by setting clear goals and monitoring 100-day cycles.
Today, hundreds of inquisitive visitors travel to Kettle Moraine, some 30 miles west of Milwaukee, to learn about the district鈥檚 decade-long journey into personalized learning鈥攐ne in which teachers choose or create their own microcredentials to advance their careers, students have multiple options about what they will learn and how within state standards, and their results on international tests meet or exceed those of students from the highest-performing countries in the world.
The magic wand is gathering dust. Deklotz doesn鈥檛 need it anymore for the 鈥淟earning Without Boundaries鈥� vision, because she successfully rallied a small legion of people to make the transformation happen, and she鈥檚 in the thick of it herself.
鈥淚鈥檝e been really committed to empowering educators to influence decisionmaking in our district,鈥� says Deklotz, who also infuses 鈥渟tudent voice, student choice鈥� as a recurring message in her conversations.
A firm believer in risk-taking, Deklotz models it, as members of her leadership teams will tell you.
Stephen Plum, the director of Kettle Moraine鈥檚 , recalls sharing a ride with Deklotz to lobby the state legislature about a charter school issue when he asked if it was possible to be too careful. 鈥淵es, you have to be willing to go out on a limb鈥� for what you believe in, Plum says she told him. Adopting that philosophy has given him license to grow his 鈥渕icroschool鈥� that now has 153 students on the Kettle Moraine High campus, he says. Students experience competency-based learning in an immersive experience. They can earn nursing and emergency medical technician certifications while attending high school, study literacy through science, and learn biology through exploration of human cadavers.
Risk-taking is part of Deklotz鈥檚 roots as the daughter of a sharecropper and one-room schoolhouse teacher who was an early advocate for free library access and bus transportation.
Deklotz, now 63, left college at 21 to raise her infant daughter鈥攕he managed to finish her degree years later when she was on the school board. In the meantime, she held positions as a manager of technical support, a systems analyst, and a consultant. Her background in business translated in some ways to school: She was comfortable using and interpreting data, but surprised at certain parts of educational culture.
Support for School Choice
鈥淲hen I stepped into my first classroom, I was in awe of my teacher colleagues,鈥� says Deklotz, who taught physical science. She was impressed with 鈥渢heir wealth of knowledge鈥� and the fact that so many held master鈥檚 degrees. 鈥淏ut I was also awestruck by the isolation of teachers鈥nd the lack of collaboration or problem-solving in the structure of our educational process.鈥�
With a background in financial software development, Deklotz was accustomed to a team approach to tackling challenges, and she deployed it for schools鈥攆irst when she and other science teachers met to talk about lesson planning once a week, and later as an administrator. It鈥檚 an approach she vowed to emulate with her leadership.
Kettle Moraine鈥檚 transformation began with support for school choice and charter schools. A school for the performing arts, , and another for global leadership were the first two charters, both housed within the district鈥檚 high school.
Creating those schools demonstrated the impact of personalized learning on student success and engagement. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very affirming to have young people talk to you about their aspirations for learning, their learning styles, how they see navigating the expectations of the standards we have, and how they鈥檙e going to move forward,鈥� Deklotz says.
An impromptu lunchtime visit in early December with Natalie DeRoche, a high school senior attending KM Perform, seemed to prove the superintendent鈥檚 point. DeRoche, who interns part-time for Milwaukee鈥檚 mayor during the school day, commutes 45 minutes to attend the school. Rejecting her local high school option, DeRoche chose the district because in her previous school experience, she says, 鈥淚 felt like I was being taught how to go to school, which isn鈥檛 what I felt learning should be about.鈥� Now, she says she 鈥渓oves going to school鈥� for the many different opportunities to learn.
Tapping Student Agency
After the high school charters, Kettle Moraine added , an elementary charter that serves students across the district with a project-based curriculum. Kindergartners through 5th graders form a community, and each student has his or her individual learning plan. Through school-approved projects, students demonstrate their competencies for the standards they have chosen in their learning plans.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the proof point that we don鈥檛 need to start at the high school level,鈥� Deklotz says. 鈥淧ersonalized learning can tap into student agency at kindergarten or the elementary level.鈥�
Early on a December day, 2nd and 3rd grade students worked in small groups and independently to create 鈥渆vidence鈥� that they are meeting their learning targets. Painting rain barrels that would be distributed in the community was part of their plan, as they studied the water cycle. 鈥淭he subjects of math, science, reading and writing are infused into that project environment,鈥� Deklotz says. Teachers work alongside them as guides, asking questions to drive student inquiry to deeper levels, she says.
Once some elementary students had the KM Explore experience, parents wondered how they would be prepared for middle school. Rather than set up another charter, the district set up 鈥渉ouses鈥� for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades that are multi-aged learning environments with a team-based approach to teaching and learning.
Kettle Moraine schools have changed in many ways. In 2014, voters approved a $49.6 million referendum that has allowed for major improvements, including renovated learning spaces designed to give more flexibility for large-group instruction and small-group collaboration. That means installing windows and sliding glass walls that provide open views and allow students and teachers to see one another in different areas while learning in a more fluid, less traditional environment.
Laptops are a fixture at Kettle Moraine. But as ubiquitous as the technology is, it鈥檚 a very small part of Deklotz鈥檚 conversation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 part of every lesson and every class, but it鈥檚 not her focus. It鈥檚 the pedagogy,鈥� says Sara Schapiro, director of the , of which Kettle Moraine is a member.
Deklotz sees the digital tools as a means to an end: 鈥淲ith the technology we now have available, there鈥檚 absolutely no reason to teach to the middle.鈥�
Schapiro credits Deklotz with being the first to raise her hand to join work groups in the 86-district league. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not just cursory involvement,鈥� Schapiro says. 鈥淪he鈥檚 always 100 percent focused, never checking her email in a meeting, and is frank and honest.鈥�
One place Deklotz volunteered to participate was in the emerging for teachers, in which educators can earn recognition for the skills they learn and use throughout their career to enrich their teaching.
As Kettle Moraine was working on how to personalize learning for students, Deklotz realized teachers had not experienced it themselves. Without that awareness, 鈥渋t was difficult for them to get a sense of what personalized learning meant,鈥� Deklotz says. In the first micro-credentialing effort at Kettle Moraine, about 40 teachers signed up to be part of a learning group on 鈥渃lose reading鈥� to improve students鈥� literacy achievement.
Now, the district鈥檚 educators can sign up for micro-credentials from outside sources or propose their own. Once they have completed the work, teachers must submit materials that show evidence of students鈥� completed projects and what they learned, reflections on it, and perhaps even videos from the process.
A teacher can earn $200 to $600 more per year on their base salary, depending upon the sophistication or depth of learning required for a microcredential.
When an educator asks whether all the extra work is worth it, Deklotz says, 鈥淗ow long do you plan to teach? 10 years? 20 years? Is $4,000 worth it? This isn鈥檛 a one-time stipend. It鈥檚 an investment they will take with them.鈥�
It鈥檚 important for me to show that there are hard numbers behind the work we do with personalized learning, that we aren鈥檛 doing it just because we think it鈥檚 right.
Despite multiple rounds of budget cuts, which reduced Kettle Moraine鈥檚 state aid by half in the decade between 2005-06 and 2015-16, the district has continued to innovate, says Alan Borsuk, a senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School who also writes about education for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
鈥淧at鈥檚 a passionate public school advocate at a time when public schools have taken a beating in Wisconsin,鈥� Borsuk says.
International Comparison
To measure Kettle Moraine鈥檚 success against other countries鈥�, Deklotz introduced the three years ago. It鈥檚 patterned after the Program for International Assessment or PISA test, administered every three years to 15-year-olds in more than 70 countries and economies. The Test for Schools gives 85 randomly chosen students in participating districts a PISA-like test.
鈥淥ur children are not competing with those in the neighboring school district,鈥� Deklotz says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e living in a global society, and I need our community to understand where we are on an international benchmark test.鈥�
The students in Kettle Moraine鈥檚 traditional high school performed as well as students in Canada, Finland, and European countries that are highly regarded, and charter school students鈥� performance has been in the same league as Singapore, which came in as the second highest-scoring among the countries taking the test, but 鈥渨ith a learning engagement that鈥檚 off the charts,鈥� she says.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important for me to show that there are hard numbers behind the work we do with personalized learning, that we aren鈥檛 doing it just because we think it鈥檚 right鈥攂ut because student achievement data supports it,鈥� she says.
Deklotz is fast to recognize her own missteps, and work to overcome them.
When she encounters critics, Deklotz addresses them head-on, says Terri Phillips, a Kettle Moraine school board member and the executive director of Southeast Wisconsin Schools Alliance.
鈥淪he reaches out, calls critics, and sits down to talk with them,鈥� Phillips says. 鈥淣ine times out of 10 she gets them on her side.鈥�
Asked what a decade of transformation has meant to her鈥攑ost-magic wand鈥擠eklotz says it鈥檚 more meaningful to remodel than it is to redecorate. While it鈥檚 messier, remodeling gives you something new鈥攁nd you鈥檙e never completely done. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think education should ever arrive,鈥� she says.
