Redesigning for Student Success: Student-Centered Secondary Schools Showcase

This student-centered professional development showcase brings together 20 of the nation’s most innovative and successful secondary schools from across the country, including schools in New England, to share their high school redesign programs and strategies. These schools have achieved success with diverse populations through the implementation of innovative, student-centered practices. The showcase will provide administrators,… Read More ›

21 Tips for Connecting Learners to Their Community

This blog explores the importance of place and community-based approaches to learning and offers tips on implementation from the author’s experiences in schools. Place and community-based approaches can be transformative for all stakeholders and help students draw deep connections to themselves, their school, and other broader communities. The article offers relevant suggestions in five main categories: Helping students… Read More ›

XQ Expert Series: Technology and Learning for an Interconnected World

This video podcast series, created by XQ America, a national movement to rethink high school, and hosted by Michelle Cahill, a distinguished fellow in education and youth development for the National Center for Civic Innovation, gives an opportunity to listen in on conversations with leaders in education as they discuss a wide variety of education related… Read More ›

The Personalized Learning Summit 2017

The third annual Personalized Learning Summit will bring together 500 innovative district leaders on May 10-12, 2017. These leaders represent districts at every stage of their personalized learning journey, from those who pioneered personalized learning to those just getting started, as well as from experts in the field. This professional development opportunity is designed for superintendents… Read More ›

LEAP Personalized Learning Framework

This tool, created by LEAP Innovations, is an interactive framework for personalized learning geared towards educators ready to embrace new teaching methods. LEAP Innovations set out to translate personalized learning concepts into concrete strategies. The framework, includes a deep dive into four key components of personalized learning; learner connected, learner focused, leaner demonstrated, and learner led. Also… Read More ›

The Shifting Paradigm of Teaching: Personalized Teaching According to Teachers

This report, based on interviews with teachers, instructional coaches and principals from KnowledgeWorks and the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) discusses how the shift to personalized learning has impacted teachers. It begins with an exploration of what drives educators to build personalized learning environments in the classroom. The report then details reflections from… Read More ›

Winooski Middle/High School Tackles Equity in Personalization

Lindsey Cox Headshot

As one of the schools participating in The Growing Equity Together Project, inspired by Sarah Bertucci’s Deeper Learning and Equity fellowship, we are nearing the end of our first continuous improvement cycle aimed at over time progressively supporting Winooski Middle/High School students in grades 6-9 to develop the confidence they need to be successful when… Read More ›

Understanding Blended Learning Through Innovative Professional Development

This short article identifies common pitfalls in professional development (PD) around blended learning and suggests concrete steps to improve PD experiences for teachers. Suggestions focus on designing PD around a pedagogical approach that applies to all teachers and only introducing a new technology tool to support that approach; and utilizing teachers to plan, deliver, and… Read More ›

A Learner-Centered System Student Experience

This graphic presents a story of a typical day in the life of a fictional student, Katrina, at the age of 4, 11, 19, and 27, experiencing student-centered learning. It brings to life learner-centered education and shows the long term impact a shift in the education system could have on students’ future success. To more… Read More ›

CBAM: Stages of Concern About Personalized Learning

This article introduces the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) which provides a structure for understanding and addressing the concerns of educators as they transition from more traditional to more student-centered, personalized learning. A simple chart identifies seven levels of readiness for adoption from “Awareness” which describes educators who are newly aware of the concepts of… Read More ›

Starting Small and other Takeaways for Advancing Student-Centered Learning

Last week, I attended the Advancing Student-Centered Learning Forum in Devens, MA. This forum was hosted by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy. It provided a platform for school and education leaders to discuss the landscape of education in Massachusetts, and how educators with supportive policy can help students excel through personalized, student-centered… Read More ›

Discipline Through a Personalized Learning Lens

This article, written by a former secondary school teacher, shares strategies for harnessing the fundamental principles of personalized learning to help with discipline. The author asserts that a disciplinary culture that uses a personalized learning lens may help transition schools away from punitive, zero-tolerance policies, and create more empowered and successful students. She makes several suggestions, such… Read More ›