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You can register and get more info at the MBLC Site: bit.ly/MBLCsite or check out our Google Calendar of Events: bit.ly/MBLC_Eventcalendar. You can also view the Year at a Glance.
For events open to Friends of MBLC, look for this symbol: 💟
MBLC Monthly Meeting
January 14 & February 4
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. PST
For all Cohort 1 & 2 MBLC school teams and interested staff
Friends of the MBLC, you are welcome to join the presentation (first 40 minutes of the meeting). Break-out rooms are for MBLC member schools only, so please jump off when we transition to the break-out room portion of the meeting. 💟
The MBLC Meetings are a series of online events that happen throughout the year. In these meetings we will share webinar presentations on essential components of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Mastery-Based Learning. Each webinar will be followed by breakout room sessions during which MBLC educators will be able to connect with others from across the collaborative to discuss the ideas shared in the webinar, and to share dilemmas, questions, successes and resources.
In January, we will focus on setting up and sustaining effective systems to do whole school change work.
In February, we will look at designing or revising culturally responsive-sustaining units and projects.
We strongly encourage teams to attend together.
Register your team today!
MBLC School Intervisitation: Tumwater Schools (in-person event!)
January 30
8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. PST
Location: Tumwater Middle School & Bush Middle School
On Thursday, January 30, the MBLC will be holding its first School Intervisitation of the year! We will be hosted by Tumwater Middle School and Bush Middle School, both in the Tumwater School District.
During the visit, attendees will be observing classroom instruction, interviewing teachers, and talking with students at both schools. There are two focus areas for the visit: Shared Outcomes and Mastery-Oriented Feedback. Space is limited! (25 guests max, max 2 guests per school)
Register Now!
Impact Fellows Meeting
January 30
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. PST
The MBLC fellows are a group of educators from across the Collaborative who work to achieve educational equity in schools through leading and facilitating learning in their own schools and districts, and through the facilitation of sharing and learning among MBLC schools.
MBLC Youth Advisory Council
February 11
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. PST
Youth Advisor meetings will convene up to 24 students who attend MBLC schools to provide opportunities for them to learn more about the MBL/CRSE efforts happening at their schools and to share their experiences. Students will be able to make connections not only with fellow students in their own schools, but also across the state.
There is still space available on this Council, so please complete a registration form for any interested students at your schools! NOTE: This Council is only open to students at current MBLC schools.
Register Here
Winter Community Gathering (in-person event!)
February 25
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. PST
Location: University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma, WA
Join us for our second MBLC all-community event of the year! In the morning, we will engage in this question: How can we make schools and workplaces more welcoming so that everyone can be their full selves every day? Clyde Cole, MBLC Coach, will introduce educators to two compelling activities they can use with staff and students that will have them sharing and reflecting on how they see the world, how the world sees them, and how they see themselves.
In the afternoon, Sui-Lan Ho’okano, Cultural Educator Practitioner, along with additional facilitators, will lead events focused on helping MBLC schools weave together the John McCoy (lulilaš) Since Time Immemorial Standards, Social-Emotional Learning, and Culturally Responsive Indigenous Sustaining Practices to build respectful learning environments where all students feel brave and valued.
All MBLC schools are expected to send a team of at least two educators to this event.
Register Now!
Event Announcement: New York City Trip to Competency Collaborative Schools
March 2025
 You will soon be invited to register 1-2 people from your school/district for an optional trip to visit schools in the Competency Collaborative, a network of K-12 public schools across New York City that use Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CRSE) together with Competency/Mastery-based Learning (MBL).
This trip is designed specially for MBLC member schools. We will visit 4 NYC middle and high schools with strong CRSE/MBL practices. Visits will include interactions with staff, leaders, and students, shared resources, classroom rounds, and time to reflect on connections with your own school or classroom context. Visitors will be picked up each morning at the hotel, travel by bus to schools, and return in the mid or late afternoon each day to the group’s Manhattan hotel. Informal working breakfast and lunch will be included on visit days—and you will be on your own in midtown Manhattan for dinner/evenings. Clyde from GSP and Joy from NLC will accompany participants to school visits.
Trip details—host schools, hotel location, registration info, and costs—will be available at the MBLC January 14 meeting. There are 30 spots available. Registration will run January 14-31. Last year's trip had a wait list, and we expect a wait list this year, also.
Trip costs are NOT included in your MBLC membership—this is an extra/optional professional learning opportunity. Participants would be expected to use their school’s MBLC funding for this trip.
This MBLC optional trip is organized by Joy Nolan, New Learning Collaborative—former Director of the Competency Collaborative and former MBLC Professional Learning Coach.
MBLC Event archive: Our growing event archive on the MBLC Community Site is a treasure trove of recordings and resources from past events.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Board Accepting Applications for Student Representative
The Washington SBE is seeking a current high school sophomore eager to make a difference in the state’s education system by serving as the Board's Student Representative for the 2025–2027 term. Visit the Association of Washington Student Leaders (AWSL) website to access the application form and learn more about this opportunity.
Applications are open until March 28th, 2025.
Finalists will be notified by April 7th, 2025.
Apply Here
Looking for Math Educators
XQ Math is a new project-based high school algebra curriculum in development and designed to bridge the equity gap and activate the mathematician in every student. The XQ Math team is looking for bold, experienced and passionate educators who want to help shape the future of algebra teaching. Refer to the linked document to see how you can join them in piloting XQ Math Algebra and be part of revolutionizing math education.
Graduate Program Opportunity in Learner-Centered Education
The National Cohort Graduate Program, developed by 2Revolutions in partnership with Spalding University, offers a Master of Education degree designed to empower educators and leaders across the country to reimagine education through learner-centered practices, collaborative learning, and hands-on mentorship.
Applications are now open for Spring and Fall of 2025. The application deadline for spring start is February 1, 2025. Visit the program page to learn more and apply.
READ THIS, WATCH THAT!
Here are some MBLC highlights from our coaches. Enjoy, and let us know your wish list for next time!
Lind Ritzville Schools Pour on the Hot Sauce With Mastery-Based Approaches!
One of the central tenets of mastery-based learning is that schools should establish shared, rigorous success criteria or learning progressions that help students envision exactly what mastery will look like for the standards they are working on. Many MBLC schools have been working hard for the past few years to write these criteria. However, the most important challenge for mastery-based schools is not designing the criteria or using them to score students' work: it is getting them in the hands of students.
LRMS: Inviting Students to Self-Assess Using Student-Facing Learning Progressions
At Lind Ritzville Middle School, principal Don Walker is excited to see teachers using the student-facing learning progressions in many creative ways. Walker has created a teacher evaluation system that is rooted in the Student Growth Goals. He works with teachers to establish clear student growth goals, then observes at least twice over the course of a unit, paying special attention to the ways in which the teacher is using learning progressions/rubrics to help the student set goals, self assess, and demonstrate mastery. He describes one observation in which a student explained the learning progression to him, pointing out the elements they had learned and what they still had yet to learn. “That was like the Aha moment, like a light bulb” he says. “I realized, this is totally the right way to go, getting kids to reflect, using the proficiency scales to mark off their knowledge as they progress through the content.”
In a physical education class, Walker noticed that the teacher had changed the labels on the progression, so that the highest level was labelled “hot sauce!” As students left the class that day, they held up 1-4 fingers to indicate where they thought they were on the progression; as they went by, the teacher interacted with them, asking questions about why they had assessed their skills at a particular level or high-fiving their progress. The criteria for success were fully incorporated into the students’ experience, helping students name what they had learned and how they had grown.
LRHS: Using Teacher-Facing Learning Progressions to Help Educators Envision Success in Mastery-Based Learning
At Lind Ritzville High School, principal Kevin Terris decided that if learning progressions/success criteria are helpful for students to self assess and set goals, then they should be helpful for teachers as well. He has used a learning progression for teachers created by Debbie Nicolai, a presenter from the Marzano Institute, to help teachers measure their own implementation of mastery-based approaches. This teacher-facing learning progression lists three indicators as being at target (or at a “3” level on a 4 point scale):
- Target 1: Teachers have proficiency scales posted in the classroom and explain the process of following or using a scale and learning target to students.
- Target 2: Teachers communicate their daily learning goals and align the daily goals with progression up the levels on a scale.
- Target 3: Teachers design tasks and activities that align to the scale and use rubrics for specific tasks.
At an advanced level, teachers will do these things:
- Teachers have systems for students to track their own learning progress.
- Teachers make suggestIons to revise scales, assessments, unit plans, and instructional materials to better serve the needs of students.
As Terris explains, “We wanted to provide a scale for teachers to evaluate their implementation or their foundational knowledge, and to see if they're hitting the target or not at a level, 3 or level 4.” At the beginning of the year, all teachers set a goal for themselves; it did not matter where a teacher felt they were starting - at a 1, 2, 3 or 4; what mattered was setting a goal. This approach mimicked the kind of work that we believe in doing with students - it was both mastery-based (being clear about indicators of success) and asset-based, sending the message to teachers that it does not matter where you start - what matters is that you set goals and grow. The focus is on progress, rather than perfection, explains Terris.
Since implementing this approach this fall, Terris has observed teachers engaging in these ways with the learning progressions:
- Aligning their assessments to the rigor and content of the learning progressions for their subject areas;
- Giving feedback using the learning progressions/success criteria
- Placing the learning progressions/success criteria on classroom walls so that students can refer to them
Best of all, Terris reports that now when he visits classrooms and asks students about what they are learning, more and more of them are pulling out the proficiency scales for the class to identify where they are in their learning.
Terris is thrilled at the work being done by teachers. “They've set their own goals based on where they see themselves landing, and I've seen teachers start to communicate with each other during professional development times about where they are,” he says. “They are seeking out similar folks doing the same kinds of work, or asking really good questions of each other.” The alignment work takes time, Terris stresses, and school leaders need to make space to support teachers who are thinking deeply about what their current assessments ask of students and how the tasks could best reflect level 3 and 4 thinking. In the language of proficiency scales, level 3 is demonstrating mastery of the target content and level 4 is demonstrating mastery of the more cognitively demanding content. One of the ways in which the use of scales or shared success criteria can shift teacher practice is that when these levels are spelled out clearly, educators can engage in thoughtful alignment, ensuring that each task gives students chances to demonstrate the highest level of mastery.
As these examples demonstrate, Lind Ritzville teachers are not just implementing mastery-based learning, they are mastering it themselves, setting ambitious goals and supporting each other on their journey to 'hot sauce' success. Bravo, Lind Ritzville!
FEATURED MBLC SCHOOL PROFILES
 La Conner Middle-High School
 West Valley Middle Level Campus
 Deeper Student-Centeredness: Where Cultural Heritage and Mastery-Based Learning Meet
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