Defining Student Readiness Outcomes for All Using the IB Learner Profile

Over the course of the 2016-2017 school year, the leadership team at Ocean View High School decided to take a step back and, specifically looking at their student outcomes, evaluate whether or not they were striving toward a holistic definition of student readiness. During this process, Ocean View realized what is true in many comprehensive high schools . . . In a world where students increasingly need to make connections and inferences, students instead experience a disjointed set of learning experiences.

But OVHS also realized that they had an opportunity to develop a systematic approach to instruction that is shared by all members of the school community. We look at how they embraced the International Baccalaureate (IB) Learner Profile as the outcomes they want for students.

What was the need?

Over the course of the 2016-2017 school year, the leadership team at Ocean View High School decided to take a step back and evaluate whether or not they were striving toward a holistic definition of student readiness. During this process, Ocean View realized what is true in many comprehensive high schools—that their instructional practices often differ by department and by teacher. In a world where students increasingly need to make connections and inferences, students instead experience a disjointed set of learning experiences.

However, Ocean View also realized that they had an opportunity to develop a systematic approach to instruction that is shared by all members of the school community. To start this work, they needed to establish a universal understanding of the skills students should have when they leave school ready to be lifelong learners. Ocean View had embraced the International Baccalaureate (IB) Learner Profile as the outcomes they want for students, but knew students needed to better understand how they are gaining these skills and behaviors throughout the school day.

What did Ocean View do to address the need?

To ensure they had a holistic definition of the skills students need to be college and career ready, the Ocean View leadership team explored the best way to use the IB Learner Profile as a backbone, while at the same time connecting all the other learning opportunities students have daily at Ocean View High School.

To do this, Inflexion consultants developed Life Ready Maxims that the school community can use every period, every day, so that both teachers and students can draw clear connections between all that they are learning
and teaching.

How’s it working?

Ocean View’s leadership team finalized the Life Ready Maxims that align with the IB Learner Profile and their tagline You can’t spell LOVE without OV. They are using their maxims in conjunction with the IB Learner Profile, to bring cohesion and alignment to all that they offer at Ocean View High School. The leadership team is using the maxims and the IB Learner Profile to provide students with the opportunities to continually learn to:

Share new ideas, which explicitly means being inquirers, thinkers, communicators, and knowledgeable.
Care for each other, which explicitly means being principled, open-minded, and caring.
Work for a better world, which explicitly means being risk-takers, balanced, and reflective.

The goal is for students to identify and articulate how they are using and exemplifying the maxims no matter what they are doing throughout the school day, whether it is in a math class or an after-school club. Ideally, they will start to see the connections to what they do outside of their school day, too. Part of this strategy is to identify what a classroom looks like that allows students to gain these skills, as well as what a student is doing throughout the day when they are gaining these skills. Once this process is in place, the leadership will explore how they will monitor students’ progress.

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