September 2022

We just completed our opening round of workshops! The first set of workshops are designed for three specific purposes: 

1. Provide introductory classes so students can prepare for the experience ahead.
2. Provide opportunities for students and teachers to get to know each other.
3. Allow students to set good Academic Credit Goals. Setting Credit Goals is similar to registering for courses in a traditional environment. It is simply declaring which credits a student intends to earn and by when. Since KM Perform credits are not delivered in a rigid, four-term schedule, this goal setting is critical to monitoring pace. As soon as next Friday, you will see more information about the specific goals your student is setting and their progress.

Schedule ahead:

Today (Friday 10/9) students are registering for their next round of seminars. Take a moment to ask your learner to show you this process. Ask them what they are taking and why they chose that. Our process is intentionally collegiate in approach, meaning that we want students to have experience in choosing their schedule based on their goals. Our college-bound students frequently tell us how much this prepared them for their freshman year in college and how much they were ahead of their roommates because of the practice they had in KM Perform. 

This next round of seminars lasts about five weeks. If you have any questions about the choices your child is making for seminars, consult with your child’s mentor -- our advisory is designed to help students to match seminars to their credit goals. 

Our first parent advisory meeting is Monday, September 12 at 7 PM or immediately after the 6:30 PM Kettle Moraine Music Parents Association meeting. Both meetings will be held in the KM Perform Community Room (B21). 

Our topics for Monday night include:

• How to monitor student progress
• School Climate Survey and Goals
• Q&A

Daily assignments and progress towards goals are in our parent digest that is sent home each Friday (beginning next week).  This will be discussed at parent advisory, and you will also get details next week when your learner sends their first progress report home.

If you want a detailed tutorial on our learning method and school design, feel free to read the post at a link below.  What follows is the “In a Nutshell” summary of the most important things to learn as a parent.

• All students in KM Perform are earning credit in Courses. These have similarities to what you experienced in high school, college prep, and traditional content-rich courses. But in our personalized, competency-based model, courses can also include work and life skills, or skills defined in a school’s graduate profile. Of course, there are plenty of arts courses as well.

• Courses have Competencies which are bundles of standards that reflect the essential, transferable skills and knowledge of a course. Most courses have between 5-20 competencies.

• Each competency has a defined amount of artifacts required as evidence. What can be submitted and considered for evidence can be very personalized and broad, and includes class homework, projects, comments in class discussions, standardized assessments, and work students do outside of class.

• Student artifacts are evaluated for quality, and often revisions are requested. Artifacts that meet expectations are considered evidence for a competency.

• When sufficient evidence is presented, an instructor gives a final score. The number of artifacts required is listed in MyLC.  Different schools do this differently. Some use a rubric, some average all of the evidence scores, and others use no grades at all–they simply award the competency. KM Perform uses teacher feedback along with examples to communicate if a student needs to show more evidence. Once there is sufficient evidence a final score is awarded taking into account the most frequent score in the evidence.

When all required competencies in a course are completed, the student has earned credit in that course and receives a letter grade. This may not be on the traditional timeline of a term or semester - and that IS the point of the competency-based model and why your school uses a tool like MyLC. The student may accelerate in some courses and need more time in others, and this may be tailored to personal goals or interests.

Below is our list of staff and contact information for 2022-2023. Typically email is the quickest way to reach staff members directly. Your learner’s mentor is generally the most direct line for information as they have daily contact with students.

Campus line 262-968-6200

Attendance Extension: 6210