CICS West Belden

Demographics

Percentage of students*

Why CICS West Belden was nominated

West Belden has pursued a path towards high-expectations whole-child development for the past five years, with exemplary results. They are working with a challenging urban school population (K-8), and have put into place a deeply personalized approach that builds on knowing each child deeply and enabling increasing degrees of agency among the students, helping them develop a broad set of competencies. They are very articulate on how they have worked with the staff to co-develop this model, across three cohorts of teachers. Colleen Collins gave us an important lesson from her work there as principal: ""everyone needs to feel that they're part of the pilot."" Meaning: initially the school worked deeply with its first cohort to co-develop the model, and then did the same with the second cohort; when it came time to bring the third cohort into the work, those teachers were told to watch the other cohorts and ""do what they do."" That strategy produced some pushback from those teachers and convinced Colleen and other school leaders that in fact, it is crucial in designing and implementing agency-driven learning models to make sure that the adults are all experiencing the same kind of agency-driven culture. Later cohorts of teachers can't simply be asked to implement; they must be invited to co-create as much as earlier cohorts, even as they also are able to build on the work of those cohorts. This is a crucial lesson for the field. The change processes and the professional culture of teachers must mirror the 21st-century goals and learning strategies that we are all holding for students.

Student experience design

At CICS West Belden, we support each child in becoming an engaged and curious learner, a confident self-advocate, and a creative problem-solver by setting high expectations and nurturing a positive culture that honors diversity, collaboration, and optimism.

Core Practices

Core Practices	Length of Use
AI Literacy	Less than a year
Community And Workforce Partnerships	1-2 years
Family And Community Support Services	1-2 years
Culturally Responsive Practices	3-4 years
All Courses Designed For Inclusion	1-2 years

All Practices

Adaptive Learning Software

Student Advisories

AI For Teacher Productivity

Anti-racist Practices

Assessments For Agency And Self-directed Learning

Assessments For Social-emotional Skills

Co-leadership

Flexible Staffing & Alternative Teaching Roles

Individual Learner Profiles

Mental Health Services

Multi-tiered System Of Support (MTSS) In Academics

Restorative Practices

SEL Curriculum

SEL Integration School-wide

Students Access Their Own Data

Student-led Goal Setting

Trauma-informed Practices

key reasons for innovating