Lake Pend Oreille School District students will begin the academic year by taking the StrengthsFinder assessment, a 30-minute evaluation designed to identify natural talents and individual patterns for thinking, behaving, and responding to challenges.
The rollout represents the culmination of a multi-year initiative that began last year when district staff themselves completed the assessment and underwent professional training. The program was piloted at Sagle Elementary School, Sandpoint Middle School, and Sandpoint High School before expanding to the full district.
Assessment and Application
Tenth and eleventh graders at Sandpoint High School will participate in the assessment this fall. Results will feed into student-led conferences and senior future readiness projects, giving learners concrete data about their own capabilities rather than focusing on areas of weakness.
“StrengthsFinder is a 30-minute assessment that helps identify an individual’s natural talents and their patterns for thinking, behaving, and feeling,” said Janay Moore, a counselor at Sandpoint High School, as first reported by the Bonner County Daily Bee. Moore emphasized the program’s practical application: “It’s observable, it’s measurable and it’s sustainable.”
Classroom Integration
The pilot phase gave staff members like Amanda Balera, a teacher at Sandpoint Middle School, the opportunity to test the assessment’s effectiveness in a classroom setting. That feedback shaped how the district refined its rollout plan for broader implementation.
The strengths-based approach represents a shift in how the district frames student development. Rather than using assessments primarily to identify deficits, the program centers on recognizing and building upon what students already do well—a framework intended to boost engagement and self-awareness as students progress through high school.
The Lake Pend Oreille district has undertaken several instructional innovations in recent years. A free kindergarten prep program previously piloted in Sandpoint expanded to Cocolalla after nearly two decades of operation, and the district navigated legal and administrative hurdles related to its alternative high school relocation plan.
What Comes Next
The full district-wide rollout begins this fall. District leadership has not announced specific timelines for expanding the assessment to other grade levels or campuses beyond those already participating, but the multi-year implementation structure suggests a phased approach through the coming school years.