(A Calais Elementary Student celebrates what he’s learned through BARR)
Nestled in the tight-knit community of Calais, Maine, is Calais Elementary, a pre-k through sixth-grade school full of enthusiastic students and dedicated teachers. Calais Elementary is one of more than 70 Maine schools using the Building Assets Reducing Risks (BARR) education model, and this week, Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin visited to experience BARR in action.
“We started BARR at the elementary school in September,” Principal Sue Carter said. “We applied for the state-provided program, and it has really grown and become part of our school, culture, and climate.”
The BARR framework combines relationship building (staff to staff, staff to student, and student to student) and real-time data to strengthen engagement and wellbeing for all students. By building solid relationships with students and fellow educators, teachers work together to support the whole student.
At Calais Elementary, they are implementing BARR with fifth and sixth-grade teams. Fifth and sixth grade teachers hold weekly block time to discuss student strengths and what they need to thrive. Teachers also engage students through weekly U-Time activities.
“U-Time is the classroom activity part of the BARR Structure where educators and students in their classrooms dedicate a little bit of time to building relationships, deepening their knowledge of themselves as learners, as individuals, and really helping to understand one another,” said Makin.
While at the school, Commissioner Makin had the opportunity to participate in a sixth-grade U-Time activity called “What’s on your plate?” Every U-Time is different, and in Carly Davis’s sixth-grade class, it was all about self-discovery. Sixth graders and DOE team members were each given a paper plate, which they folded in half. On one side were the participants’ responsibilities, and on the other were the things they did in their free time. After making the plates, Davis engaged the students through a series of discussion around having a balanced plate, which portions are taking up too much time, which portions they love, which portions they wish they had less of, and so forth. On the back of the plates, students wrote one thing they wished they could add or take away from their plate.
Delilah, a sixth grader at Calais Elementary, described U-Time as a class where you learn “about your classmates, the people around you, your teachers, and you.”
Jackie, a fellow sixth grader, said that in U-Time, she has learned “to help people if they are going through a hard time, and that if you see someone crying, you should go over there to talk to them.”
“It really sparked a lot of conversation,” said Commissioner Makin. “I could see how it was creating relationships within the classroom, building trust and knowledge of themselves and others.”
Students learn about one another through these activities, about themselves, and teachers about their students in a deeper way. Teachers also share these valuable insights at their block meetings so the entire teaching team has that information.
For example, after the “What’s on Your Plate?” exercise, Davis brought a few of the sixth grader’s plates to a block meeting. “[Davis] talked about the two plates, what they said, and that was put down,” Principal Carter explained, “and we will come back around to that in our next block meeting.”
Block meetings happen weekly, with teacher cohorts discussing not just BARR-informed data but every student’s strengths, passions, and personal goals. This opens a broader,
more positive discussion around the whole student. The team works off a spreadsheet that builds a picture of each student by reviewing a variety of in-school factors, including progress in class, attendance, and behavior. The team also discusses factors outside the school, such as extracurricular interests, personal health, issues with other students, or troubles at home. All this data collection allows the team to flag challenges early and work together to solve problems. Importantly, teachers track not just problems but student strengths to identify achievable goals to get or keep students on track for success. For students coping with the toughest situations in and out of school, BARR’s model requires a weekly Community Connect meeting that involves more specialized staff, such as the school nurse and school psychologist along with school administration.
“BARR really does give the teachers the ability to have a team to work from,” said Superintendent Mary Anne Spearin. “It also allows them to sit and look at the positives that are coming from all the work that they’re doing.”
At this week’s block meeting, the team spent most of their time discussing highly successful students. These students can often receive less attention than students exhibiting behaviors or academic performance requiring intervention. Those students still get the support they need, but BARR focuses conversations on all students.
“To see that data over time is pretty amazing,” remarked Principal Carter. “No other programs that we had held us to that level of accountability.”
“BARR offers two things you don’t usually see in other programs and that is a curriculum that you could work from and the data to prove that the curriculum is working,” said Superintendent Spearin.
Calais Elementary is not the only Calais school utilizing BARR. In 2016, Spearin implemented BARR for ninth graders at Calais Middle/High School.
“It really made a difference. We could see the number of failures in our coursework had changed significantly in the first year and then changed again the next year,” recollects Spearin. “From the superintendent’s role and perspective, I would say that I am 100 percent in support of BARR. When I speak to people, I tell them they should consider the BARR method. It is just crucial to the things that are happening in our world right now. Everybody needs somebody.”
When Commissioner Makin asked Principal Carter if she would recommend BARR to other schools, she enthusiastically responded, “Absolutely!”
“Every person, adult and student, is able to vocalize what they are getting from BARR,” Principal Carter told Makin. “There’s no way that can’t carry over outside of school because it’s in them. It’s a part of them, and they’ll take that with them when they move on to middle school.”
Interested in joining Calais to become a BARR school? The DOE is offering additional funding for schools to become BARR schools. To learn more, please attend the DOE’s March 14th webinar.
Click Here To Register for the Thursday, March 14th BARR Webinar at 3:00 PM ET.
Applications are now open to all willing and qualified public schools that would like to become a BARR (Building Assets, Reducing Risks) school. Click here to apply. Applications are due by March 22, 2024, by 5:00pm EST.
The Maine DOE will cover all costs of implementing the program for schools new to BARR for the 2024-2025 school year. (Note: if you are already a BARR school with an existing contract, your costs will be covered for the 2024-2025 school year as well, and you do not need to reapply.)
The Maine DOE used American Rescue Plan funding to create a competitive BARR grant to help schools invest in the model.