NEW PARIS — National Trail High School has implemented Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
During his report at an NT Board of Education meeting on Aug. 22, high school principal Brian McKnight said the purpose of UDL is to make education accessible for all students.
According to the National Center on Universal Design for Learning, “UDL is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone – not a single, one-size-fits-all solution, but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.”
McKnight added, “The image I relayed to the teachers is out in public when you’re walking up to a door – you know those electronic doors that just open – that can be used by everybody. Where it used to be that they didn’t have those and people with disabilities had a hard time accessing certain places. This is the same concept, but with education.”
“The UDL allows the teachers to develop their lessons to benefit every single student,” he said. “That is what we’re building on slowly. The other piece is the R Factor. You have probably seen the E + R = O — I used it over the summer with my own kids and it worked pretty well. The R Factor requires you to watch your response and how you respond to each other and how you talk to your colleagues, so your positive response will typically receive a positive outcome.”
“We want to continue to build the culture here better,” McKnight added. “We can always go up. We have a great culture, but the sky’s the limit.”
In other high school news, McKnight reported the school is passing out laptops to all of its students.
As for student enrollment: the freshmen class is at 98, sophomore class at 67, junior class at 75, and senior class at 76. National Trail has 51 students attending MVCTC, and three seniors coming back to National Trail after having attended MVCTC last year. Total enrollment for National Trail High School is 316.
