Superintendent Bruce Borchers Named Tennessee’s ACT K-12 Champion

Tennessee’s ACT K-12 Champion is Oak Ridge Superintendent Bruce Borchers. The ACT College and Career Readiness Champions include high school seniors, K-12 professionals, postsecondary professionals, and workforce professionals who are making a positive impact on their communities through their efforts to advance college and career readiness for all. The ACT College and Career Readiness Champions are individuals across the country who support ACT’s mission of education and workplace success. ACT State Councils--comprised of education and workforce professionals from all 50 states—serve as the selection committee to select one Champion per category for each participating state.

Bruce Borchers received this award for his commitment to the Seven Keys for College and Career Readiness he formulated with members of the Oak Ridge community. Borchers explains, “The Seven Keys are intended to improve the college and career readiness of all Oak Ridge students and to provide them with a better foundation of knowledge and skills, allowing them to be prepared for a more technologically sophisticated and internationally competitive working world. The Seven Keys allow us to measure just how well we are doing in preparing our students for their futures.” They start with Key 1, focusing on all students reading at grade level by grade 3. Key 2 states that math proficiency will be at grade level by the end of grade 4. The focus for Key 3 is to have all students at grade level in both subjects by the end of grade 6. Key 4 focuses specifically on ensuring 8th grade students meet college and career readiness benchmarks on the ACT Aspire test. Key 5 states that students will be fluent in financial literacy by the time they graduate. The goal of Key 6 is a lofty commitment to get all of our students scoring a 27 or higher on the ACT. “That key progresses all the way to the ultimate key, Key 7, which asks all of our students to participate in advanced placement, dual enrollment, industry certification, or our Navy JROTC program.”

In 1943, the city of Oak Ridge was born in innovation, technology, and creativity. We continue that legacy through our focus on STEM and project-based learning. Our entire district is now AdvancED STEM certified in all grades K-12. Our middle school students are working with NASA to send a cube satellite into space. Teachers collaborate across the curriculum to create a problem-based learning environment for our students. Borchers continues, “They are passionate and committed individuals who go the extra mile for students every single day. By focusing on the Seven Keys, we have seen our graduates go on and be very successful because of the skills they have developed right here in the Oak Ridge Schools.”

Oak Ridge Schools Recognized for Strategic Planning Process that Promotes Achievement, Engagement, Transparency, and Accountability

HUNTSVILLE, AL. (February 21, 2018) –Oak Ridge Schools was recognized by LEAN Frog and the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents (TOSS) as a Tennessee finalist in the Tri-State Best K-12 Practices Contest. Executive Director of School Leadership Bruce Lay and Supervisor of Career Readiness and Communications Holly Cross accepted the $1,000 cash prize for their school system’s entry at the 2018 TOSS Legislative and Learning Conference. As a finalist, ORS will compete for the $4,000 grand prize with Tennessee co-finalist Warren County Schools, Alabama co-finalists Eufaula City Schools and Muscle Shoals City Schools and co-finalists from Louisiana who will be determined this spring.
The Oak Ridge Strategic Plan 2020 is an initiative developed by the superintendent, teachers, administrators, and community members to improve ORS processes in five critical areas: academic excellence, educator excellence, learning environment excellence, operational excellence, and stakeholder excellence.
“The Oak Ridge Strategic Plan 2020 is a hallmark of engagement, transparency, and accountability,” said Dr. Sherri Headrick, LEAN Frog Director of Marketing and Personnel. “The use of KPIs and the scorecard is the extra step that many school systems do not take. Our judges were very impressed with the commitment ORS has made to continuous improvement.”
Superintendent Bruce Borchers, in partnership with educators, administrators, and community members, began the development of the insightful and sustainable strategic plan in 2016. Through a collaborative process, goals (i.e., academic, educator, learning environment, operational, and stakeholder excellence) were identified, clearly defined, and communicated. Each goal was assigned a designated owner. The owner tracks progress toward the goal and reports on the goal to the board of education and the community. ORS celebrates met goals. For example, students were recognized for being certified in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as part of the academic excellence goal of promoting critical thinking skills and problem-based learning. Improvement opportunities and strategies are identified for goals that are not met. The ORS team identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to improvement in each area. The result is a best practice that enhances stakeholder engagement, increases organizational transparency, and helps Oak Ridge Schools accomplish its mission of preparing students for college, career, and life success.
“I am extremely proud of our staff, students, and the community for coming together to create our ORS Strategic Plan 2020,” said Dr. Borchers, Superintendent of ORS. “This Strategic Plan is all about continuous improvement and achieving excellence in education. It is an important and detailed framework for ORS that envisions our future and sets strategic goals to realize that future. We truly appreciate this recognition from LEAN Frog.”