National Showcase School Site Visits


Meet the Districts

The Modern Learning Conference launches with site visits to classrooms in our host districts, Churchill County School District and Douglas County School District. Each attendee will be able to choose their own site visit pathways, like specific grade bands you wish to visit. Both districts offer great modern learning environments—take a look at what sets each apart!

Discover how Churchill County and Douglas County School Districts are transforming learning through innovative, learner-centered approaches. Explore dynamic classrooms where personalized learning, community connection, and academic rigor intersect to empower students for success.

Participate in school visits to witness the implementation of modern learning practices, from early childhood education to college and career readiness, across diverse and vibrant communities.


Douglas County School District

Douglas County School District (DCSD) is a public education system nestled in western Nevada. Douglas County includes both the Carson Valley and a portion of Lake Tahoe, serving the communities of Gardnerville, Minden, Genoa, and part of Lake Tahoe. The more than 5,000 students Douglas County serves are successful because their employees, parents, and community work together to provide quality education in a nurturing and rigorous learning environment. 

In 2019, DCSD set out to modernize learning through the implementation of their Portrait of a Learner and EPIC Learning models. EPIC (Empower, Prepare, Inspire, Connect) is aimed at modernizing  the learning experience in Douglas County schools to better suit the latest generation’s needs through personalization. By personalizing education and giving students more of a voice in the classroom, their goal is to create engaged students prepared for success. The hallmarks of EPIC learning are student voice, student choice, transparency of learning, and student ownership. By giving students more agency, they become more interested in learning and better prepared for life after high school. The DCSD Portrait of a Learner and instructional framework were developed as a way to rethink the traditional classroom model and adapt to the modern student. 


Churchill County School District

Located in the northern Nevada desert, Churchill County School District (ChurchillCSD) is a diverse community center for many different cultures and populations, including the Shoshone Paiute indigenous populations, agricultural community, and Naval Military base families. With a population of just under 10,000, their close-knit values and support for families and children are a hallmark of the community. All schools are grade-level schools, allowing  students to grow together, as a family, through their learning journeys. 

In 2020, ChurchillCSD began their modern learning journey. With the interruption of COVID and changes in leadership, they have reignited, rebranded, and are charging ahead with transforming classrooms to support their modern learners. ChurchillCSD is recognized for being one the first competency-based learning communities in Nevada, offering a learner-centered-profile that is a beacon of success, and has also been recognized for the state’s highest dual credit/work-based learning enrollment. 


Site Visit Pathways:

Explore six unique pathways during your site visit with Churchill County and Douglas County School Districts. We’ll start the day together for a comprehensive introduction, you'll then embark on your pre-selected path. All Registrants will receive an email on January 23 with a link to make their site visit pathway selection.

  • Pathway A: (K-1) Lahontan Elementary School

  • Pathway B: (2-3) EC Best Elementary School

  • Pathway C: (K-5) Jacks Valley Elementary School & Minden Elementary School

  • Pathway D: (6-8) Churchill County Middle School

  • Pathway E: (6-12) Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School & Douglas High School

  • Pathway F: (9-12) Churchill County High School

  • Jacks Valley Elementary School is located in a beautiful valley nestled up to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. We are a public elementary school with 367 students in preschool-5th grades.  As a rural, Title I school, we serve a population of 45% free/reduced lunch students and 34% English Language Learners. With a focus on deeper and personalized learning through rigor and relevance, we have designed several innovative programs such as Explorations, Service Projects, Hydroponics, Celebrate School Day and Family Design Challenges. Our dedicated and passionate teachers ensure each student a path to a bright future through continuous academic achievement in a safe, kind, motivating, and positive environment.

    • Empower: Shared Visions, Class Codes, SOPs, Data Notebooks, Student Led Conferences, Student Council, KJVE News Crew, Hiking Club, Multiplication Club

    • Prepare: Roadmaps, Unpacked Standards, Learning Progression, Assessments, Individual Teacher/Student Conferences, Small Group Instruction 

    • Inspire: Explorations, Community Service Projects, Family Design Challenges, Monthly Recognition Awards 

    • Connect: Buddy Classes, Building Community Relationships, Looping Classes, Dance-a-thon, Camp Read A Lot

  • Minden Elementary School is located in Minden, Nevada serving around 380 students in PreK - 5th grade in Douglas County School District. The vision of the MES Rattlers is to encourage independent, creative, critical thinkers who are responsible decision makers; so they can make meaningful connections to benefit the future. A focus at MES has been unpacking standards and using learning progressions, using common assessments, and data notebooks/badge books to make learning transparent. 

    MES is EPIC 

    • Empower: Student Led Conferences, Student Recognition Assemblies, Art, Music, PE, and Counseling 

    • Prepare: What I Need Intervention Time (WIN), Positive Behavior Intervention Supports

    • Inspire: Minden’s Marvelous Mondays 3Ms (interest based electives), 5th Grade Outdoor Education Science Camp, Attendance Initiative (Rock on Rattlers)

    • Connect: Cross grade level Buddy classes, various opportunities to participate in student clubs, Art Show, Walk-a-Thon, Family Nights

  • Located in picturesque Gardnerville, Nevada, at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School is a rural community, Title 1 school with approximately 450 sixth through eighth-grade students. For Douglas County, our school has a culturally diverse population with a high Native American and Hispanic Latino population. We offer a wide range of classes from advanced English and Math to electives like Green Architecture, Ceramics, Outdoor Science, Green Screen Talk Show, and Podcasting. This year, our goal has been to focus on increasing rigor and relevance while personalizing learning for students.  

    See classrooms that feature: 

    • Visions that come to life

    • Roadmaps and learning progressions allowing students to work at their own pace

    • Voice and choice at the secondary level

    • Classrooms that support students with flexible learning environments

    • An EPIC Framework where teachers retain autonomy and creative flair

  • Douglas High School, located in Minden, Nevada, is a comprehensive high school serving Douglas County students. DHS is in the Carson Valley, surrounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, near Lake Tahoe and Reno. This scenic location provides a unique backdrop for academic and extracurricular opportunities.

    • “The Douglas Way” PBIS expectations are simple : be respectful, be willing, be honest, and be kind.

    • DHS serves approximately 1,500 students.

    • DHS has been recognized as an AP Honor Roll School - Bronze Level, offering nearly 20 different AP courses taught by 17 different faculty members and with a 2023-24 pass rate of 87%.

    • DHS has a robust Career and Technical Education Program with 11 Programs of Study. 

    • The EPIC instructional model—Empower, Prepare, Inspire, Connect—guides teaching and learning at Douglas High School. This year’s focus is responsive instruction.

  • Lahontan Elementary serves 450 students ages 5-7, spanning 12 kindergarten and 12 first grade classrooms. The school provides a comprehensive early childhood education environment for young learners, with dedicated classroom spaces for each grade level to support age-appropriate learning and development.


    • Passionate Educators that support learners to be successful

    • Empower Voice and Choice 

    • Innovates Culture - School Motto and Class Visions

    • Roadmaps based on a Learner-Centered Framework

    • Fosters collaboration and communication with colleagues as well as parents

  • EC Best Elementary is a place where students love to learn and teachers love to teach. EC Best was built as a middle school in 1962, but currently is the home to all 2nd and 3rd grade students in Fallon, Nevada. We hope in your brief visit to Fallon you'll be able to feel that small town closeness that makes our community special. 

    • EC Best is a proud Purple Star School supporting the Fallon Naval Air Station which is home to the Top Gun pilot school.

    • Our teachers are at various stages of implementing Student Centered Learning environments that support learner agency.

    • This year our staff is implementing both a new SAVVAS ELA and iReady Math curriculum to help track academic growth.  

    • EC Best is a Title I school with a strong Hispanic and Native American sub-population that creates some beautiful diversity among our 486 students.

    • Using a Multi-Tiered system of support, our staff care for students in a culture of kindness. 

  • Churchill County Middle School serves approximately 735 students, ranging from 6th to 8th grade. Our teaching staff of 44 licensed teachers, 4 counselors / safe school professionals / office teams, along with various instructional aides, strive to provide a school setting built upon professionalism, student success and growth, family engagement, collaboration, and personalization. At CCMS, students receive:

    • Exposure to innovative, new, curriculum with Savvas (ELA) and iReady (Math)

    • All classrooms have developmentally appropriate Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) relative to student learning, class status, expectations, and creating a respectful environment

    • Continuous assessments, both formally and informally, to attain skill sets acquired, which drive instruction

    • All students are 1:1 ratio with electronic devices

    • A wide range of educational staff, ranging from new in the profession, to over three decades of experience in the field with a focus on modern learning

  • Churchill County High School, located in Fallon, Nevada—known as the "Oasis of Nevada"—is a warm and welcoming school nestled in a thriving agricultural community surrounded by the breathtaking Stillwater Mountains. Our Greenwave mascot honors the alfalfa fields that have sustained our century-old farming community and produced generations of outstanding citizens. We prepare students to lead across various sectors of our community and beyond—from farming and healthcare to education. Our hands-on programs in fields like Plant Science, Teaching and Training, Health Occupation Student of America (HOSA), Robotics, Game Design, Construction, Welding, and Culinary Arts equip students with valuable, real-world skills that open doors to numerous career opportunities. 

    • Graduation Rate: 88% for the 2023-2024 school year, reflecting a 10% increase over the past five years.

    • State Athletic Academic Champions: 2023-2024 Nevada State Academic Champion teams include Boys Basketball, Girls Basketball, and Softball.

    • Student Engagement: 70% student participation in Student-Led Conferences (2023-present), a 60% increase over the last two years.

    • Employability Skills: 100% school-wide implementation of Employability Skills incorporated into grading (2023-present).

    • Proficiency Scales: Full implementation of proficiency scales in all core content areas by the 2024-2025 school year.

    • Dual/Concurrent Enrollment: 225+ Dual and Concurrent Enrollment programs with UNR,WNC and TMCC  for the 2024-2025 school year.

About Each School: