萝卜AV视频

Promoting Positive Risks in Rural Schools

By Christopher R. Nesmith

In Elma, Wash., a rural school district tucked between the Pacific Coast and the Cascades, we have learned that preparing students for the future means teaching them to take 鈥減ositive risks.鈥�

We define positive risk as the courage to step into the unfamiliar: to join a new club, speak up in class or design a solution that didn鈥檛 exist before.鈥疐or me, this isn鈥檛 just educational theory. It is personal.

When I arrived in Elma as the new superintendent in 2021, I saw the challenge of belonging through the eyes of my own daughter, who was 13 at the time.

As a new student, the hallways can feel vast and isolating. She found her connection not just in a classroom, but by taking a risk to join the wrestling team and our Skills USA chapter. Today, her education is defined as much by her time on the mat and her preparation for public speaking competitions as it is by her course work. She didn鈥檛 just find a hobby. She found a team and a voice.

Belonging with Data

My daughter鈥檚 experience illustrates our districtwide goal. We strive for every student to be actively engaged in at least two co-curricular activities. To make this a reality, we adopted the 萝卜AV视频Redefining Ready! Dashboards.

Our work began with a simple question: How do we know every student has a place to belong?

We developed what we call our Redefining Ready Dashboard to track students involved in co-curricular and extracurricular activities. We monitor participation in Future Farmers of America, Skills USA, youth apprenticeships, performing arts and athletics, alongside grades and attendance.

When our activity engagement data show a student is disengaged, it triggers an intervention by a staff member to connect the student with a program that sparks his or her interest.鈥疎very student is represented in the dashboard, and our data tell us whether they鈥檝e found connection and purpose beyond the classroom.

Not Just 鈥淓xtras鈥�

We have stopped viewing these activities as extracurricular. They are co-curricular, essential vehicles for meaningful growth.

In youth apprenticeships, students are not just observing. They are on job sites gaining industry certifications and work-based learning experience.鈥疘n FFA and Skills USA, students are strengthening self-regulation and leadership by managing projects and competing at state levels. In performing arts and athletics, students learn that mistakes are not failures but part of the process of improvement.

These moments of risk taking are where self-regulation, collaboration and adaptability are formed. In this model, risk taking is not punished. It鈥檚 expected. Students learn to plan, pivot and persevere through feedback.

We鈥檝e replaced the question 鈥淒id they learn it?鈥� with 鈥淐an they show it?鈥�

Project-based learning experiences have ranged from building community gardens to designing digital portfolios, from welding industry-level equipment to organizing peer mental health campaigns. Each one reinforces the habits of self-direction, teamwork and problem solving that define the new basics of public education.

The Outcomes

The impact of this mindset is measurable. Since implementing the Redefining Ready! Dashboard four years ago, engagement rates in co-curricular activities have doubled. Graduation and postsecondary readiness metrics are improving, but more importantly, students are describing school as a place that feels like theirs.

We have learned that when students see learning as something they can shape, they don鈥檛 just prepare for the future, they begin building it. It turns out that the best way to prepare students for the world is by empowering them to build real skills for real life by taking positive risks.

Christopher Nesmith is superintendent of Elma School District in Elma, Wash., and co-leads AASA鈥檚 Redefining Ready! Cohort.