In 2018, the Kentucky Department of Education found in an audit that JCPS was inconsistent in “ensur[ing] equity and rigor in curriculum” across all schools. Disturbingly high achievement gaps were seeing no improvement, and JCPS was faced with the threat of state takeover if this equity problem, among many other issues, was not addressed.
In an effort to avoid state takeover, JCPS implemented the “Backpack of Success Skills” initiative in August 2018, which was framed as a project-based approach to evaluating student readiness. This program requires every JCPS student to upload projects into a digital backpack which they must defend at the end of 5th, 8th, and 12th grade. In theory, requiring this necessitates that “all students must have the opportunity to take part in rich, meaningful learning experiences” and receive a high-quality education regardless of which school they attend.
But, despite the admirable goals behind the Backpack of Success, the past six years the program has been implemented have been largely unproductive. Additionally, recent changes in the program look as if they will only exacerbate existing issues.
Lack of Motivation
In an attempt to execute this shift towards project-based learning, JCPS requires that “each school should have a system in place for making sure that planning for the kind of authentic, deeper learning experiences leading to potential Backpack artifacts are a regular part of the PLC process.” In other words, teachers must plan experiences that they deem Backpack-worthy throughout the year.
However, this requirement is vague and allows practically any assignment to be framed as an “authentic” and “deep” experience. Because there is a lack of criteria to define what an “artifact” is allowed to be, nearly any plain assignment can be successfully used in Backpack defenses. What this means is that there is little reason for teachers to create new meaningful experiences solely for Backpack.
Experiences so far with the Backpack of Success reflect this issue. Many artifacts that students regularly use in their defenses are exactly the type of traditional assignments JCPS is attempting to deemphasize through the Backpack program. “A lot of what I’m using is just random art projects and papers, some of them aren’t exactly projects,” says Ballard senior Alana Aphaivongs.
An additional component in this lack of motivation is the fact that there are essentially no consequences to doing poorly on the Backpack defense. Being deemed unprepared to transition does not mean a student will be held back from transitioning. Instead, “when a student is determined not to be transition ready, those working with the student should support them in creating and implementing a plan to ensure readiness.”
Often, a student’s “readiness plan” only involves redoing their defense. But, in many cases, extra support means remedial summer programs. This program, called the Summer Success League, functions like a summer camp and aims to “support student growth beyond the traditional school day” and “create learning artifacts” that can be used in future Backpack defense presentations. While this program is an amazing opportunity and will certainly benefit struggling students, it is ultimately “not mandatory” for those determined not to be transition ready. Effectively, there is no consequence to receiving the lowest possible score, which is “Progressing With Support.” In the end, without the threat of remediation, students and schools are unlikely to take Backpack defenses seriously.
Students don’t care about Backpack. Alana goes on to describe how little of an impact the Backpack of Success Skills has had on her education. “Throughout high school, I low-key didn’t add artifacts into my backpack, so a lot of it’s random because I feel like I kind of forgot about it sophomore year, and then junior year I had like nothing so I had to pick out some random frigging projects.”
For most JCPS students and teachers, the Backpack of Success Skills is only a pesky formality. The reality is that it isn’t something students work towards consistently over their entire JCPS experience as envisioned, but rather just another hoop to jump through before promotion or graduation. Ultimately, there is hardly any motivation for lasting change to be made in response to the Backpack initiative.
Resources Down the Drain
To make the Backpack of Success Skills accessible, JCPS decided to implement a digital platform that would store artifacts and student reflections. This digital platform was built as an extension of Google Drive, thus allowing students to easily upload work that was already completed on Google platforms. While certainly helpful, creating a Google Drive extension does come with a price. In 2018, the year that the Backpack of Success Skills was first implemented, the district had invested $255,000 into the Backpack initiative. Additionally, the platform costs the district $100,000 per year in support and subscription fees. While not an exorbitant price, this expense is still a noteworthy use of JCPS’s budget.
More importantly though, the Backpack of Success Skills is a severe waste of time. Each student’s Backpack defense is expected to take 10-15 minutes and must be watched and graded by a panel of teachers or administrators that are losing time to plan, grade, or monitor students. On top of the time required for the defense itself, class time must be dedicated to instructing students on how to prepare for their defenses and each student must put time into creating their presentation. While this may not seem like a significant amount of time, the hours add up quickly. Many JCPS schools, including Ballard, have hundreds of graduating seniors that must all complete defenses. This costs valuable instruction time.
This loss of instructional hours is especially harmful considering that Backpack defenses come at a critical time of year when students should be preparing for testing. While defenses can technically be completed at any point in the school year, they are often pushed off until spring to allow students time to complete artifacts. This becomes problematic considering that in springtime, state testing for 5th and 8th graders and AP testing for many 12th graders is right around the corner. Preparing for and completing Backpack defenses directly subtracts from the time students have to learn and review content for upcoming tests.
In fact, here at Ballard, engineering capstone students ran out of time to complete defense presentations and still have yet to allow each student to defend their Backpack. Engineering student Sam Shumway describes how Backpack defenses took from important class time. “It was hard because they were trying to take a big chunk out of some of the most precious weeks we had before our big capstone project presentation.” He also noted that “it seems like most people don’t really care whether they get done or not.”
Additionally, with many severe weather days missed, time taken from students is particularly difficult this year. Ballard senior Taylor Thompson, who has five AP exams coming up, details her experience preparing for her defense. “Due to all of the delays from school we’ve had from the weather, it has caused me to be even more behind on studying, and we have less built-in review time. Backpack is kind of just one more thing I have to do.”
Missing Metrics
Upon its implementation, Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio set extraordinarily high expectations for the results of the Backpack of Success Skills. Pollio went so far as to say that the Backpack would soon “become a national model” and would contribute to “how JCPS became the number one urban school district in America,” certainly a lofty goal.
To quantitatively measure progress, Pollio assured that “we’ll know we’re successful when every student is creating high-quality artifacts, … which will in turn lead to higher student proficiency rates on state and National Assessment of Education Progress assessments.” Pollio also stressed that “it takes three to five years to see the results of turnaround effects.” However, five years have now gone by, and these results are nowhere to be seen.
In fact, since the Backpack initiative has been in place, not only have state test scores not seen the growth promised, but they have actually decreased significantly. In the 2018-2019 school year, the first year the Backpack of Success Skills was implemented, 37.2% of JCPS highschoolers scored proficient or higher on state reading assessments, and 30.5% scored proficient or higher in math. Five years later, in the 2023-2024 school year, reading proficiency rates have dropped to 35%, and math proficiency rates to a startling 26%. Similar score drops can be observed among elementary and middle school students.
While some of this drop in test scores can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, the bottom line is that JCPS is still well below state averages. The Backpack of Success Skills has not seen real results.
Deepening Existing Problems
In summer 2024, JCPS announced that the Backpack of Success Skills would be reframed into the “Journey to Success” in order to better “focus on student-centered learning” and improve the Backpack initiative. The Journey to Success will still include presentations where students defend artifacts, but with a few key changes.
Not all of the changes are necessarily bad. In fact, some of the changes truly look as if they will ease existing problems. For example, the district seems to be making an effort to more clearly define criteria for Backpack defenses. They have put their “Quality Work Indicators,” which include that the artifact “creates complex work,” “demonstrates craftsmanship,” and “creates authentic work,” at more of a forefront. While still somewhat vague, having defined expectations represents a significant improvement from the Backpack of Success Skills.
Many of the changes, however, seem to have missed the point entirely. By far, the biggest change coming out of the Journey to Success is that each JCPS student will now be required to complete “Milestone Experiences” at all grade levels besides 5th, 8th, and 12th grade. No exceptions will be made, including for kindergarteners. To complete a Milestone Experience, a student must complete either a Mini-Defense, Student-Led Conference, or Exhibition of Learning that presents how they have showcased the Success Skills.
Essentially, each JCPS student regardless of grade will now have to complete some version of a Backpack defense every year. By more than quadrupling the number of students who must give a Backpack presentation of some kind, the instructional time lost to preparing for and completing presentations will skyrocket. Much more time will now be allocated to complying with the Journey to Success instead of learning content, completing projects, or preparing for testing.
Another significant change being made as the district transitions to the Journey to Success is that students are now “able to include experiences outside of school assignments or work.” In other words, students are no longer confined to only defending experiences done in class.
While this may make it easier for some students to complete defenses, it strays against the original goals of equity that the Backpack of Success Skills set. The Backpack initiative was originally meant to provide students with unique project-based learning opportunities as part of their in-school experience, especially those who would not otherwise have access to such experiences outside of school. So, by shifting the focus towards what students can accomplish on their own time and with their own resources, disadvantaged students are losing the attention they deserve. In terms of equity, this is not a step in the right direction.
Overall, the Backpack of Success Skills and the new Journey to Success program are not worth it. At the end of the day, it is just more red tape for students and teachers to navigate. Real progress towards greater equity is not being made.