Staff report
Last week, 80 representatives from nine New England communities traveled to Tucson, Arizona, to visit and learn from Desert View High School and the Sunnyside Unified School District.
Nine of those attendees were from Woodstock High School. They included two students: Owen Whalen (11th grade) and Anna Young (10th grade); two educators: Vanessa Cramer (science department chair and teacher) and Heather Vonada (math department chair and teacher); and five administrators: Aaron Cinquemani (principal), Sherry Sousa (superintendent), Elliot Rubin (board member), Sofia Bertocci (counseling department chair) and Jennifer Settle (director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment).
“The goal of this trip was to see innovative teaching and learning in person and develop actions to try in our school,” Settle shared in the agenda prepared for the May 5 Mountain Views School Board meeting.
The Spring 2025 Innovative Schools Learning Excursion to Arizona was organized by the national nonprofit Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) with funding from the Boston-based Barr Foundation.
The nine visiting communities were selected through a competitive application process and received a grant, ranging from $11,200 to $12,600, to support their participation and follow-up activities from the visit. These teams all included representatives in a variety of roles, from students and parents to teachers and administrators and school board members.
“Every team is required to include two high school students,” explained NGLC co-director Dr. Carlos Beato. “Students have the most important perspective to contribute when it comes to learning. Teams on past NGLC excursions have treasured the variety of roles on their teams, broadening their perspective on what’s possible in their high schools.”
In addition to Woodstock’s Mountain Views Supervisory Union, the eight other New England school communities were:
Blackstone-Millville Regional High School (Massachusetts)
Gateway Regional School District (Massachusetts)
Hamden High School (Connecticut)
Hinsdale School District (New Hampshire)
Holyoke High School North Campus (Massachusetts)
Salem Public Schools (Massachusetts)
Taunton Public Schools (Massachusetts)
Wachusett Regional School District (Massachusetts)
This excursion is part of a series of such trips that NGLC has offered, with support from the Barr Foundation, for the past eight years. This is the program’s first visit to learn with Sunnyside Unified School District. NGLC has co-designed this experience with Angélica Duddleston, principal of Desert View High School, and Pam Betten, chief academic officer of Sunnyside
Unified School District. They, in turn, have brought in the high school’s student ambassadors plus many teachers and school and district staff to lead activities for the New Englanders.
While in Tucson, visitors learned about the high school’s college and career academies; the district’s profile of a graduate and commitment to identity, agency, and purpose; student agency; and intentional teaching and assessment strategies. They observed classroom learning, toured the high school, listened to student panels, sat in on teacher-led roundtables, and engaged in interactive workshops about the many strengths of Desert View and Sunnyside Unified’s approach to learning.
“The kinds of discussions that participants have with each other and with their colleagues in Arizona are rare in public education, especially across the variety of roles represented on the excursion,” the press release stated. “Inspired to think differently and explore new ideas and strategies, teams are also provided a foundation to apply what they learn to advance their own community’s vision for learning.”
“We have seen the amazing energy coming out of these Learning Excursions to create the kinds of learning and schools that our young people need and deserve,” added NGLC co-director Andrew Calkins. “It is truly remarkable what happens when school communities come together like this. It gives us hope for the future of public education.”
For more information, visit: nextgenlearning.org or barrfoundation.org.
