How SCRIPT has helped Coronado Unified Extend Their Computer Science Implementation Journey

Coronado Unified School District (CUSD) has been engaged in visionary work with SDCOE. They’ve completed a 15-year vision through SDCOE's Portrait of a Graduate program and are working hard to bring computer science (CS) implementation across their entire district. With some help from a Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) grant, they’ve been engaged with SDCOE’s SCRIPT protocol to help envision, set goals, and implement CS education over this past year.

Megan Battle, senior director of the CUSD Learning department, Sarah Yakutis, K-8 STEM teacher on special assignment (TOSA), and Stacy Morrisey, math/science TOSA, explained how they interacted with the protocol and what they learned along the way. 

What was the motivation for applying for the DoD grant? Did some of the SDCOE Portrait of a Graduate  (PoG) work guide you into thinking more about CS? Or was this kind of simultaneous?

Megan Battle: It was definitely simultaneous. We wrote the grant the same year we were going through the visioning process with the San Diego County Office of Education. And so it was simultaneous, but also part of that visioning with PoG was what do our students need 15 years from now? We're in a changing world, and so we really feel strongly as educators that CS learnings are foundational skills. Knowledge and skills that our students, all students, need to be successful in any job that they pursue.

Sarah Yakutis: And that was reinforced by the idea that many of the PoG data points come from the community, from parents, and from kids. That said, work in CS is also their desire. Our portraits were guided by everybody in the community.

You employed the SCRIPT process in doing this. Tell us a little bit about how that's been for you from your perspective.

Yakutis: It is just nice to have guidance. It's not like you're getting a new math curriculum or something that we're super familiar with. This is new territory for most of us. And so it's nice to have that rubric to take a closer look at where we are now and where we want to go.

Stacy Morrisey: The process was instrumental in assessing our current operations and defining our long-term vision. By breaking our strategic plan into manageable three, six, and 12-month milestones, we were able to maintain clear direction. Having an objective external facilitator was invaluable — Mark Lantsberger provided the necessary guidance and asked the critical questions needed to refine our goals at every stage.

Yakutis: It's easy to ask yourself, where are we right now, and where do we want to be? But these rubrics are so intense and so specific! There are so many rubrics and that the verbiage is so clearly defined and obviously well thought out, that it was so much more thorough than anything we could have done on our own.

Battle: Right. There were components of the rubric that I hadn't even considered or thought about. I would also add that the makeup of our SCRIPT team was critical — having representation from all levels, all sites. We are a small district and we don't have a lot of opportunities to get K-12 educators in one room all the time. We're doing that with a PoG planning committee right now too, and that's one of the highlights that's voiced consistently in their feedback is that, oh my gosh, it's so nice to hear what elementary and middle school thinks and high school thinks. So it is eye-opening. It just keeps us all focused. We are a K-12 family system, and what we're doing in kindergarten is just as important as what we're doing in middle and high school. The SCRIPT process really lended itself to highlighting all the different grade levels and how we are all working towards the same common vision and goals for our kids.

Do you feel that the team set reasonably attainable goals in the process?

Battle: Yes, absolutely. What's nice about the SCRIPT rubric and the process that you're guiding us through is that the goals are flexible. And so when we came back at three months, realizing that we'd already probably accomplished the 12-month goal. Let's revise this. So while we were being cautious and wanting to make sure it was attainable, the evidence showed that, oh, we have momentum in this area, and it's a flexible plan, and that's what's good about it. We can go as slow or fast as we feel we can. I think we have the documentation and evidence, whether it's quantitative or qualitative, to show that we have momentum and buy-in into the vision. I also think it's a process that at least I find myself replicating in other areas. Even though the rubric is CS focused, when I'm working on a different initiative, I find myself thinking through the broader lens of the script rubric categories as they can easily be revised for other curricula or topics. The rubric and process forces you to think short-term and long-term at the same time, working backwards to develop attainable action steps. This experience has helped our team and has made our planning meetings more focused.

If you were talking to somebody who worked in a different district in your same capacity, what would you say about SCRIPT? If they were unsure about using it, what's something that you might say to encourage them or dissuade them from engaging in the protocol based on your experience?

Morrisey: I would recommend the SCRIPT program because CS standards can be daunting without a technical background. SCRIPT provides the expert scaffolding necessary to lead with confidence. It transforms the planning process from an "internal best guess" into a credible, standards-aligned TK-12 roadmap. This level of expertise respects our teachers’ time and ensures that the momentum we build is grounded in best practices.

Yakutis: It has really helped to have an outside expert come to guide us through this process. And the SCRIPT protocol, while it felt like the rubrics were overwhelming at first, once we started, we saw how quickly we started moving through them. Yes, could the three of us, maybe with one other person, have gone through those rubrics and done all that scoring for the district? Yes, we could have done that. But, when we were doing it, the conversations we were having from different people in different capacities, bringing stuff that I didn't know anything about, that other teachers didn't know anything about, we were educating each other about what's actually happening in our district at the moment. And so that was invaluable to me. Just the thoroughness of it, and as Stacy said, just the rubrics alone, we could never have come up with on our own. They're already fleshed out, vetted, and well thought out. I would highly recommend it. 

Battle: I would highly recommend the process to any district that's in a similar spot. I think breaking it up gives the time in between for the team to reflect, maybe have a conversation with a colleague, and complete some of our homework, for example to look at the rubrics ahead of time. And so I think breaking it up was critical to make sure that they are representative of the voices of their sites. And whether the participants know it or not, we're growing their leadership capacity in this area where they will become part of those working groups in leading and feeling more confident because they've been a part of this experience. I think another benefit of the SCRIPT process is it's adaptable to our unique context. Whether the structures that we have in place to support professional learning or no matter what district it's utilized in, it's flexible and adaptable to their own unique circumstances, context, and how they want to roll it out. I would also say that it's a commitment. It's not a one-year, one-and-done. The first year truly is getting that foundational knowledge, where are we at. Our school board recognizes the importance of it. Our Portrait of a Graduate work recognizes the importance. Sarah mentioned the 80,000 data points from our community, staff, and students. And so our entire culture recognizes this is important. So that was something else that has made it successful so far in implementation because the buy-in is there. And we have the support from the top down as well as from the broader community in this work.

The SCRIPT protocol is available through the San Diego County Office of Education. If you’re curious and would like to discuss what SCRIPT is all about and how you can help bring equitable computer science education across your district, email mark.lantsberger@sdcoe.net