Bering Strait School District
Encyclopedia
School district
School districts are a form of special-purpose district which serves to operate the local public primary and secondary schools.-United States:...
in northwestern Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, serving approximately 1,700 students in grades K-12 in fifteen isolated villages. All schools in the district serve students of all ages, and most classrooms are multi-age.
Communities
The district covers a roadless area of about 200000 square kilometres (77,220.4 sq mi), roughly the size of MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
combined. The student population is roughly 98% Alaska Native, including Yup'ik, Siberian Yup'ik
Siberian Yupik
Siberian Yupiks, or Yuits, are indigenous people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. They speak Central Siberian Yupik , a Yupik language of the Eskimo–Aleut family of languages.They were also...
, and Inupiat Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
s. Travel between villages is by air; the nearest road connection to the outside world is almost 300 miles (482.8 km) east of the district office in Unalakleet
Unalakleet, Alaska
Unalakleet is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States, in the western part of the state. At the 2000 census the population was 747. Unalakleet is known in the region and around Alaska for its salmon and king crab harvests; the residents rely heavily on caribou, ptarmigan, oogruk , and...
.
The communities in the district are traditional Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
villages which rely on subsistence activities such as hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
marine mammals and migratory birds, and gathering berries. Native dance and traditional crafts such as walrus
Walrus
The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
ivory
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...
carving are still strong. At least four villages practice traditional whaling
Aboriginal whaling
Aboriginal whaling is the hunting of whales carried out by aboriginal groups who have a tradition of whaling....
. There are few cash economy jobs, and the school is most often the largest employer.
Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
is visible from four district schools with the naked eye, and from the Diomede School's steerable Dateliner Webcam, so called because the International Date Line
International Date Line
The International Date Line is a generally north-south imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, passing through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that designates the place where each calendar day begins...
is 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the camera.
The route of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race runs through six district villages, where it is a major event. Many current and former Iditarod mushers live in the district, and participate in school activities focusing on the history and cultural traditions of mushing
Mushing
Mushing is a general term for a sport or transport method powered by dogs, and includes carting, pulka, scootering, sled dog racing, skijoring, freighting, and weight pulling. More specifically, it implies the use of one or more dogs to pull a sled on snow or a rig on dry land...
.
Academics
The district, working with the Alaska Staff Development Network, the Re-inventing Schools Coalition, and the Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationBill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family"...
, has created a standards-based curriculum and abolished grade level groupings. Students progress through a mastery-based series of standards levels in ten content areas, rather than traditional subjects, in order to graduate.
All district schools are receiving basic training on how to involve students in adding content to Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
as a meaningful part of classroom instruction, as opposed to simply consuming others' contributions. This focus on Place-Based Education is a priority of the district's leadership.
Wiki-based curriculum system
The district’s OpenContent wiki curriculum project has over 13,815 pages of education standards, curriculum content, staff development tutorials, and various user-oriented pages. Although some pages are very well populated, and some are article stubs, the body curriculum resources is increasing rapidly. Over 6,224 files have been uploaded, and daily use by students and staff was exponentially increasing as of October 2007.Nearly all of the organization's teachers, students and administrators have contributed in the first two years of the project. All content is Creative Commons licensed, and editing by educators and interested parties outside the district is encouraged.
Although this is the official curriculum used by the school district's 16 K–12 facilities, outside contributors are welcome. The content changes and talk pages are used by the BSSD Curriculum Advisory Standing Committees to revise and edit the official, standards-based curriculum.
DART: Data Analysis and Reporting Toolkit
In addition, the BSSD has designed, created and released an Open Source standards-based tracking and student information system (SIS) called the Data Analysis and Reporting Toolkit (DART). The latest build completely replaced the district's use of an expensive proprietary student information system (Pearson's PowerSchool) while still remaining free and open under the GPL.DART directly links the OpenContent project standards information and resources in the its wiki to the individual and group needs so that teachers and learners can plan instruction, identify patterns of strengths and weaknesses, and monitor progress.
The software was built, and is running on the Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (LAMP) platform. There are at least eight known installations of the first version released last year, and some are supporting up to 2,300 total users at this time, with up to 15 different school buildings.
Tech support needs have been minimal after initial configuration, and the system is quite stable and intuitive for users.
DART <=> Wiki Integration
The integration of the BSSD OpenContent Project with DART has changed the way BSSD teachers teach, and students learn.BSSD welcomes collaboration with other like-minded school districts interested in sharing our collaboratively creating Open Content curriculum products, and Open Source solutions for K-12 users.
DART / Wiki modules have already been built that also monitor:
- Standards Tracking - Group & individual progress monitoring and reporting
- Attendance Data and Reporting
- Discipline Logging
- Dashboard Tool - Tracks overall school progress, attendance, discipline
- State and Federal Programs Data Exports
- Analysis and Data Visualization - links state required testing with standards progress data
- Basic Special Education compliance reporting
- School Improvement Planning & Report Generation
- Success for All (SFA) reading data
- Transcript Creation
Modules are planned or in progress for:
- Special Education Process (Forms & data for referral and IEP monitoring) - This will be directly linked to wiki resources for IEP objective writing and intervention support.
- ePortfolio - Integration with wiki and Moodle with an ePortfolio system, and Career and Technical Education tracking
- School District Report Card (SDRC) - Annual NCLB accountability report generation
Live Demo of DART / Wiki Integration - Note: This is DART V.1, and only shows the standards tracking. Demo of extensive SIS features will be up in early November, 2007, as will V.2 source code for download.
DART Instructions & Basics
http://wiki.bssd.org/index.php/DART_System
DART Demo Direct Link
http://dartdemo.bssd.org
Demo Admin User - Andy Admin
Username: aadmin
Pass: bssd
Demo Teacher User- Tommy Teacher
Username: tteacher
Pass: bssd
Demo Student User - Sally Student
Username: sstudent
Pass: bssd
Schools
- Anthony A. Andrews School (St. MichaelSt. Michael, AlaskaSt. Michael is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 368.-Geography:St. Michael is located at on the east side of St...
) - Aniguiin School (ElimElim, AlaskaElim is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 313.-Geography:Elim is located at ....
) - Brevig Mission School (Brevig MissionBrevig Mission, AlaskaBrevig Mission is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska. The population was 276 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Brevig Mission is located at ....
) - Diomede School (DiomedeDiomede, AlaskaDiomede is a city in the Nome Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on Little Diomede Island...
) - Gambell School (GambellGambell, AlaskaGambell is a village on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 649.-Geography:Gambell is located on the northwest cape of St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, southwest of Nome...
) - Hogarth Kingeekuk Memorial School (SavoongaSavoonga, AlaskaSavoonga is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, one of two on St Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. As of the 2000 census, Savoonga's population was 643.Savoonga was incorporated in 1969, and in 1971 became the joint owner with Gambell of the entire island....
) - James C. Isabell School (TellerTeller, AlaskaTeller is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 268. According to a 2009 estimate, the population had increased by exactly one person....
) - Koyuk-Malemute School (KoyukKoyuk, AlaskaKoyuk is a city in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 297 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Koyuk is located at...
) - Martin L. Olson School (GolovinGolovin, AlaskaGolovin is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 144.-Geography:Golovin is located at ....
) - Shaktoolik School (ShaktoolikShaktoolik, AlaskaShaktoolik is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 230. Shaktoolik is one of a number of Alaskan communities threatened by erosion and related global warming effects. The community has been relocated twice.-History:According to the Alaska Dept...
) - Shishmaref School (ShishmarefShishmaref, AlaskaShishmaref is a village in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States, located on Sarichef Island in the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait and five miles from the mainland. It lies within the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve...
) - Tukurngailnguq School (StebbinsStebbins, AlaskaStebbins is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 547.-Geography:Stebbins is located at , on the north side of St...
) - Unalakleet School (UnalakleetUnalakleet, AlaskaUnalakleet is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States, in the western part of the state. At the 2000 census the population was 747. Unalakleet is known in the region and around Alaska for its salmon and king crab harvests; the residents rely heavily on caribou, ptarmigan, oogruk , and...
) - Wales School (WalesWales, AlaskaWales is a town in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 152. It is the westernmost town on the American mainland.-Geography:...
) - White Mountain School (White MountainWhite Mountain, AlaskaWhite Mountain is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population is between 220 and 250. The city is an Iġaluiђmuit Iñupiat village, with historical influences from and relationships with Kawerak and Yupiaq Eskimos. 86.2% of the population is Alaska Native or...
)