The Riverview School District will soon join a handful of school districts nationwide that have adopted a formal set of outcomes and indicators for students, and a thinking skills model. Starting in August, the district will distribute the new standards to all teachers.

“We will be posting the outcomes and indicators in all classrooms throughout the district. Teachers will be receiving ongoing training and each school year, we will be focusing on one of the six indicators to make sure we are constantly elevating practice in this area, district-wide,” said Assistant Superintendent Dr. Anthony Smith.

The outcomes, indicators, and thinking skills model are the results of a two-year effort by the district’s Thinking Skills Committee. The committee used information from national research within the corporate world, both for-profit and non-profit, and both basic and higher education, to determine the essential skills students need to be successful.

Committee members agreed on six outcomes, descriptors they want to apply to all district students. They are: self-directed learners, complex thinkers, quality producers, community contributors, effective communicators and collaborative workers.  Each outcome is accompanied by a list of indicators that demonstrate an outcome has reached. For instance, self-directed learners are students who: set goals and use time effectively; problem solve as reflective learners; take initiative for learning; practice resiliency and gather knowledge.  The district also identified specific thinking skills that will be necessary to achieve these outcomes and indicators, based on Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised. The model includes, in order of increasing difficulty, remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating.