Charting a Course for North Kingstown Student Learning

Purpose of our Work

The North Kingstown School Department has undertaken an effort to establish a district-wide Vision of a Learner, in order to clearly identify the essential skills, learning progressions, and performance outcomes that ALL students must demonstrate in order to show readiness for college and career. These skills are not aligned to a particular grade level, nor do they exist within independent content areas, but rather they apply broadly across all disciplines, and they must be practiced and honed over the entirety of the student experience. The Vision of a Learner Design Team is made up of a variety of North Kingstown stakeholders, including administrators, teachers, students, parents, and community partners. Our work is facilitated by Abby Benedetto of Core Shifts.

NKSD Guiding Skills

After several months of research, learning and discussion, the Vision of the Learner Design Team has identified the Guiding Skills for the North Kingstown School District's Vision of the Learner. These skills, which are framed as actions, represent the broad-based learner outcomes that will drive the learning experiences for all North Kingstown students. The skills are as follows:

Communicate to Express
Collaborate to Connect
Analyze to Think Critically
Problem Solve to Innovate
Navigate Change to Adapt and Thrive

Learning Progressions

In addition to the Guiding Skills, the Design Team identified grade-based learning progressions, which clarify the continuum of learning that students will experience as they move through the North Kingstown school system. These progressions take the form of "I Can" statements, in that they indicate the skills that students will aim to demonstrate within certain grade level bands. They are directed aligned to the Guiding Skills that were determined by the Design Team.

Click HERE to view the progressions, organized by Guiding Skill area.

Click HERE to view the progression, organized by Grade Level Band.