The Croton-Harmon school district belongs to New York’s Compact for Learning, a group of innovative schools that share common goals reflecting Essential School principles. To chart progress toward these goals up and down the pathway, Superintendent Sherry King devised a “system map” whose columns tracked the ways in which local initiatives (both current and planned), data, and the district’s decisions and actions supported each of the common principles. Here is a section excerpted from that chart:

Principles
All children can learn
(Essential Schools Principles)
All students will learn to use their minds well
Goals of the School should apply to all.
Student as worker
Personalized teaching and learning

Local Initiatives
mainstreaming, initiated 1989, revisited at Board work session, fall 1992
Inclusion, initiated in 1991, 5 students to date(1/2 year)
Extended Learning Program
Socratic Seminars
Math Their Way

Planning
problem-solving approaches

Data
student achievement

Decisions & Actions
how we use data to improve student learning