Bering Strait School District
Bering Strait School District (BSSD) is a
school district in northwestern
Alaska,
United States, serving approximately 1,700 students in grades K-12 in fifteen isolated villages. All schools in the district serve students of all ages, and most classrooms are multi-age.
The district covers a roadless area of about 80,000 square miles (200,000 km²), roughly the size of
Minnesota and
North Dakota combined. The student population is roughly 98%
Alaska Native, including
Yup'ik,
Siberian Yup'ik, and
Inupiat Eskimos. Travel between villages is by air; the nearest road connection to the outside world is almost 300 air miles east of the district office in
Unalakleet.
The communities in the district are traditional
Eskimo villages which rely on
subsistence activities such as
hunting marine mammals and migratory birds, and gathering berries. Native dance and traditional crafts such as
walrus ivory carving are still strong. At least four villages practice traditional
whaling. There are few cash economy jobs, and the school is most often the largest employer.
Russia is visible from four district schools with the naked eye, and from the Diomede School's steerable
Dateliner Webcam, so called because the
International Date Line is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the camera.
The route of the
Iditarod runs through six district villages, where it is a major event. Many current and former Iditarod mushers live in the district, and participate in school activities focusing on the history and cultural traditions of
mushing.
The district, working with the
Alaska Staff Development Network, the Re-inventing Schools Coalition, and the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has created a standards-based curriculum and abolished
grade level groupings. Students progress through a mastery-based series of standards levels in ten content areas, rather than traditional subjects, in order to graduate.
BSSD recently launched a
MediaWiki-based curriculum content project, the OpenContent Initiative. This wiki system is one of only a few in the United States open to collaborative curriculum development for all teachers, students, and district administrators. Outside visitors and other educators are allowed, even encouraged, to help the district improve and reform its standards and curriculum resources. The wiki content is annually evaluated by curriculum committees to make changes to the official documents used daily.
BSSD plans on extending this into a WikiBook project this year, much like the
South African National Curriculum project, and is leading an effort of school districts in Alaska to collaborate over distance using wiki technology.
All district schools are receiving basic training on how to involve students in adding content to
Wikipedia as a meaningful part of classroom instruction, as opposed to simply consuming others' contributions. This focus on Place-Based Education is a priority of the district's leadership.
* Anthony A. Andrews School (
St. Michael)
* Aniguiin School (
Elim)
* Brevig Mission School (
Brevig Mission)
* Diomede School (
Diomede)
* Gambell School (
Gambell)
* Hogarth Kingeekuk Memorial School (
Savoonga)
* James C. Isabell School (
Teller)
* Koyuk-Malemute School (
Koyuk)
* Martin L. Olson School (
Golovin)
* Shaktoolik School (
Shaktoolik)
* Shishmaref School (
Shishmaref)
* Tukurngailnguq School (
Stebbins)
* Unalakleet School (
Unalakleet)
* Wales School (
Wales)
* White Mountain School (
White Mountain)
*
Bering Strait School District*
BSSD OpenContent Initiative*
BSSD iCommunity
