Durango School District emphasizes student-designed pathways, discusses access to CTE and Big Picture programs

Durango School District No. 9-R administrators, students and parents discussed efforts to let students co-design their academic pathways and improve access to career and technical education programs during a board meeting. The discussion covered an advisory curriculum prototype, 8th-grade transition work and steps to resolve scheduling, safety and data issues that limit cross-campus participation by Big Picture students in Durango High School (DHS) courses.

District staff framed the change as part of the strategic plan goal to make students “co-designers” of their pathway, and said the district piloted a new curriculum this year that will be adopted more widely next year. A staff member (administrator) said, “We're getting better and better. We're getting more comprehensive, and we're getting more student directed in that. So I think next year is gonna be our first year. We we adopted the curriculum as well as the assessment, and we prototyped that curriculum this year.”

The nut of the discussion…