Friday, January 26, 2018

The Rugby Early Learning Center is now taking applications.



Our preschool is now taking applications for the 2018-2019 school year. The application is due on April 6, 2018 and can be dropped off at any of these sites: Rugby High School, Ely Elementary, and the Rugby Early Learning Center. The program is free to all those who attend. Your child is eligible for the program if he or she is age three or four. It is a four day a week program (Monday - Thursday) and follows regular school hours.

If you have further questions about our program please contact Michael McNeff at Rugby Public School District at (701) 776-5201. Thank you!

For more information and an application form please click here.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

SBG and Responsibility/Accountability

Responsibility and accountability often come up when I talk with teachers, parents, and other stakeholders about standards-based grading and reporting. In the old model, we would often give one shot opportunities for students to learn. It became more important that students knew the material by a certain date or time. Those that took longer or displayed negative approaches to learning (late work, zeroes, etc.) were often left behind. Grades didn’t necessarily depict what the student knew or what they were able to do.

Some schools have called these behaviors employability skills. We have chosen to call them approaches to learning. We know that for students to be successful in their learning they must exhibit certain behaviors. For example, our teachers in grades 4-6 have identified these behaviors to report separately from the grade: responsibility, respectful, stays on task, completes work on time, and work is neat. Our teachers in grades 7-12 have identified work habits, self-reliance, and sound character as their approaches to learning.

In a standards-based system we allow opportunities for second chances. Some may question as to whether we are holding students accountable and preparing them for life when we allow second chances for learning. I am not diminishing the importance of accountability and responsibility. I believe we need to instill these skills during a student's school experience. My response is that when we separate behaviors like late work and zeroes from the grade we become much more accurate. Under this new model we elevate the significance of accountability and responsibility, because we report it separately from the grade.

You can read more about our work here.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Professional Learning Day: January 15th

Our school district and several others will be taking part in an excellent day of learning on January 15th. Thanks to NCEC for organizing this event in coordination with our member school districts. You can find the sessions and links to the presentations below.

*You will need to right click the presentations and view in a new window to access them. 


Saturday, January 6, 2018

Congratulations Mr. Blikre!

It is my pleasure to announce that Jared Blikre our high school principal has been named Region 2 principal of the year. He is now in the running for the North Dakota Secondary Principal of the Year. Mr. Blikre has served as our high school principal for the past six years. Under his leadership he has implemented several innovative measures that have led to improved student achievement. These innovative changes have increased our graduation rate, lowered failure rate, increased ACT scores, and increased the percentage of students that qualify for the North Dakota Academic and CTE Scholarships.

We are very fortunate to have Mr. Blikre as our high school principal. He is an excellent school leader and keeps students at the forefront of his decision making. This is very exciting for our school district. Mr. Blikre joins Jason Gullickson our elementary principal as region principal of the year for this school year. They will now both compete at the state level for principal of the year in their respective fields. Congratulations Mr. Blikre!