Bismarck Public Schools Empower[Ed]

Mission

Empower[Ed]’s mission is to “equip [learners] with the competencies critical for success in North Dakota today.” Established in 2020 at the Bismarck Career Academy and later expanded to Legacy High School, Empower[Ed] is a personalized, hybrid program designed to give students an alternate path to graduation. Whether students choose to take one of their core courses (ELA, math, science, or history/social studies) or all four, they progress through content standards and community projects, while also engaging in career learning aligned to their interests, and passions.

Demographics

Bismarck Public Schools serves a student population that is approximately 78% white, 7% American Indian, 6% two or more races, 4% Latine, 3% African American, 1% Asian, and 1% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. A total of 12% of their student population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and 2% receive English language services.

High school students in Bismarck who consider enrolling in Empower[Ed] analyze their level of agency to determine if the program is the right placement, including whether they are ready to independently connect standards and learning, value learning in connection to their personal goals, and are eager to initiate and lead their own projects. Students are expected to work toward demonstrating Career Ready Practices, such as self-directed learning aligned to personal goals, demonstrating creativity and innovation, and applying appropriate academic and technical skills.

Experience Overview

Empower[Ed] is a hybrid program for 11th and 12th grade students attending Bismarck Public Schools (BPS). The program offers personalized, standards-based learning that connects students’ areas of interest and career goals with specific core subjects and independent study. Students attend school in person but complete Empower[Ed] courses independently alongside a virtual learning platform. Throughout their courses, students engage directly with educators who act as learning facilitators in a learning lab setting and work with other adults through research or community partnerships.

Empower[Ed] is a high-quality hybrid program. It intentionally builds relationships by offering choice in content, including passion-, inquiry-, and community-based projects, as well as through individualized check-ins and progress monitoring with educators. By employing a standards-based educational pedagogy, students experience progressive autonomy focused on mastering content rather than seat time. Empower[Ed] personalizes its approach to technology by connecting students with industry-specific tools such as aviation simulators and welders, as well as by providing responsive IT support and easy-to-use virtual platforms. To fully prepare for the self-directed learning required by the program, students participate in foundational activities such as self-paced “disorientation” modules that teach them how to approach learning, review clearly articulated expectations, and receive individualized support to ensure they are progressing through standards appropriately.

Learning In Action

Empower[Ed] focuses on breaking the traditional model of school by empowering learners and educators to customize content to specific areas of interest, college and career goals, as well as community partnerships. With this approach, core subjects are taught through the lens of individual interests, and students are provided ample opportunity to work independently to drive their learning. Further, students partner with industry mentors, building both social capital and competency in their areas of interest.

Students work with their teachers to ensure the content they are engaging with is aligned to relevant standards. Depending on the students’ needs, they may receive additional coaching and progress-monitoring to support standards progressions, or they may have more independent opportunities to identify which standards to target across subjects.

Teaching In Action

Teachers with Empower[ED] have flexibility and freedom to approach teaching differently so that they are able to tailor instruction to the individual student and lean in on areas of passion. Within this structure, educators try and test new approaches to instruction and often visit other school systems to learn from their experiences.

Teachers communicate progress percentages and standards to help students stay on track. They also attend professional learning communities (PLCs) to identify students who need additional support. For example, some students may need activities to support standards progression while others may need a check-in/check-out system for daily support.

Since instruction is individualized, students do not feel singled out if they need additional support or acceleration. With this customized approach, teachers use student interests to actively differentiate instruction by content, process, and product. The goal of their instruction is to support student mastery of standards for areas that have not yet been achieved.

Conditions for Success

• Technology: Empower[Ed] provides 1:1 technology for students as well as universal easy-to-use platforms such as Google Classroom, Mastery Transcript tools, Edgenuity, and Powerschool. Technology is also differentiated based on student needs, allowing for students to access platforms and tools focused on their goals such as career-specific equipment and software.

• Student Support Programming: Students experience personalized coaching and support with differentiated levels of intervention to ensure they make progress towards their goals, standards, and graduation requirements.

• Time: Within the hybrid structure, students have agency in pacing and place, with many students learning offsite alongside community partners based on their interest-based projects.

• Systems Visioning: Empower[Ed] has strong support from the BPS central office, allowing them to intentionally scale and innovate to best meet the needs of students.

Other Key Highlights

Empower[Ed] is focused on helping their students understand who they are and what they want to do in the world. Their whole-child approach encourages students to explore areas of interest and passion, as well as test whether particular careers or opportunities are right for them, in a safe and supported learning environment.