Outside of Superintendent Joe Steele’s window is a pen full of chickens, “It’s part of the FFA program,” he explains, “we used to have a rooster, boy he was a noisy thing.”

It’s not a typical setting for a school’s administrative office, but St. Regis is no longer a typical school. Last year Steele took the helm and helped to lead the way to a different path for learning. They adopted the Summit Basecamp Learning Program which is project-based and a more hands-on method compared to traditional modes of education.

Steele said it’s been great to watch teachers take hold of this new method of teaching and break down “the castle walls that used to be classrooms”. Now students are allowed to have control over their own learning experience.

“After eight months of using the new system, kids are now starting to understand that they do have some control and they are starting to run with it,” said Steele.

He pointed out one student who completed all the content areas in all four of his classes and so he could spend more time doing what he really loves, shop. He still has to be in class for his project time, but the rest of his day is devoted to shop class.

A new approach to grades

There’s a Summit component, the book learning piece, and students have to score a “B” or better which is 80 percent, by answering at least eight out of ten questions correctly on an assessment.

“We encourage them to go back through and get those other two points because that indicates there’s some skill, a piece of knowledge, they’re missing,” said Steele.

Then there’s a cognitive piece which is using the content in a new way and applying it to a situation. It’s more hand-on and students have to get a 70 percent or better in order to pass that unit. The teachers and the students evaluate the projects and they get feedback from the teachers. It’s through that feedback where the student goes back and tries to improve.

There’s also a variety of ways for the information to be delivered including videos, documents, graphs and photos all available online. If a student is struggling with a concept they do what’s called an “interruption” and they do a mini-workshop on that particular concept and work on it until they pass.

St. Regis junior, Gracie Shope said she likes this new method better, “when the teachers were giving lectures, I would be falling asleep every day and I was getting D’s. Right now I have English, biology and chemistry classes and I’m in honors. I was struggling and now I’m a straight “A” student.”

She said it’s because the new method is more engaging.

Fifth-grader, Jack Connolly, also likes this new method of learning over the old concept of books and a teacher standing in front of the class, “A lot of times you already knew everything but it was still required as a curriculum to teach it. So the teachers would teach it and it would feel super slow. With this, you can blow through it to what you don’t know.”

World History teacher, Ryan Antos pulls up a screen and shows what a student’s module looks like. There’s a series of green and red boxes. The green boxes are completed sections and the red boxes indicate those that still need to be done. There’s a line on the far right side of the computer screen, which shows when the assignments are due in order to stay on track.

He explains that students can’t just look at questions, memorize the answers and take a test. They have to really comprehend the material. The study questions do give them an idea of the type of answers they need, but those questions aren’t necessarily in the material. The students need to apply the knowledge. It’s not ‘recall” but understanding concepts and this is a shift away from students traditional way of learning.

However some students like Noah King, a sophomore, are struggling with the new platform, “I like a text book and a piece of paper. I have taken hours of notes, and then I take the test and maybe get seven (correct) and seven should be passing, but I need eight. 70 percent should be passing.”

He also expressed frustration over the test questions not always being in the material he just studied.

“We’ve up the rigor and some students are struggling,” said Mrs. Kelly who teaches Spanish. “The same kids struggling with the new platform also struggled last year.”

JD Booker is another one of those who is having difficulties and said he’s struggling even more this year, “I feel like it’s impossible to catch up,” he said.

Antos commented that the feedback portion can be very deep. With the traditional method a teacher puts a red mark on a paper and turns it back to the student. But now it’s a continual stream of feedback. Students are not just learning the material, but they are also learning how it applies to the real world. Antos said the lower and middle level kids are more engaged and it’s been more challenging for the higher level kids. It also means fewer kids are left behind to pass with lower grades.

Grading has been an issue with the new platform. Parents expressed concerned early in the year when their straight A student was now coming home with a B or a C.

“That’s because of competing rating programs,” explained Steele, “Summit much more accurately reflects a student’s progress. Our traditional system on Infinite Campus would break down into quarterly sections which conflicts with the year-long approach with the (Summit) platform.”

The solution they came up with is to put quarterly reports up and say whether the student is “on track” or “off track”. “On track” means they are right where they should be based on the time-line to make progress and so by the end of the year they’ve mastered everything. If they’re “off track” they either haven’t passed a test or mastered some content, or missed a deadline.

New teaching methods

In the beginning, a few of the parents didn’t like this new method of teaching but Steele said now they’ve become more familiar with it and have accepted the platform.

Antos and Kelly said they are also teaching students how to set goals and are helping to prepare them for college.

“I teach them SMART goals: Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely,” he said. “Oftentimes you will ask them “what’s your goal for this unit?” They’ll reply with “I’ll do them today” but that’s not realistic.”

Rather, they are taught to set specific tasks, such as reading a certain number of pages, or answering specific questions. Kelly uses “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens,” by Sean Covey to guide her students. She helps them see big goals, such as what they want to study in college, and then goals for right now, with specific action items.

A state-wide shift in learning

Currently, St. Regis is the only school in Montana that uses this particular program. However, it’s starting to catch on. Darby uses a different model but they’ve found that it’s not as flexible and after visiting St. Regis they’ve decided that they like this model better and are shifting to it.

Fort Benton is also shifting to this model and Conrad is going to this method of teaching but using a different model. Billings also came over and they are looking at it for their alternative school.

Darby and St. Regis are also discussing some collaborative programs. Since they can’t afford to hire a Spanish teacher, they may set up a program where their students use St. Regis’ Spanish teacher. St. Regis has Spanish content online and Darby could add their kids to the platform. Then Darby could help cover the costs of the Spanish teacher.

The new platform also has the administration considering a four-day school week.

“Teachers need more time to get that feedback for the student’s projects,” said Steele, “it takes a lot of conversation to look at what they’ve done, what pieces are missing, what needs to improve. Right now they don’t have time to do that piece.”

But parents have expressed concerns over childcare, kids not being fed and the stress of longer school days. At this point the school board, parents and administration are looking at various options in order to make the new platform work more efficiently.

Another issue facing the school is a Tech Levy which is will be voted on May 2. Steele said it would cost residents approximately $12 to $25 per person.

“Technology drives everything,” said Steele, “we need to be able to support that. We get limited funds from the state, and we’re currently pulling from our general fund.”

The Levy will be used to fund the purchase and maintenance of technological equipment, bandwidth and other associated costs.