Under the Hood of Personalized Learning: A New Hampshire Teacher of the Year Explains
In this opinion piece, Kim Carter, a Students at the Center Distinguished Fellow, and 1996 New Hampshire Media Educator of the Year, describes the successful use of personalization at New Hampshire charter school MC2 School. The MC2 School places a high emphasis on building relationships inside and outside the classroom and creates opportunities for student-directed personal learning… Read More ›
Five Things You Need to Know About New Hampshire’s Completion-Based Funding Model
This article describes five key findings from a Center for Innovation in Education report on a New Hampshire completion-based funding (CBF) school finance model. New Hampshire embraces a competency-based education system, and this funding approach provides student funding based on assignments completed rather than enrollment numbers. The article details how the funding model works and… 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 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 ›
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 ›
Beginning Your Journey to a More Learner-Centered Classroom
In this article on pages 7-10 in Issue 17 of Pioneer, Dr. Jim Rickabaugh, the Senior Advisor to the Institute for Personalized Learning and a former Superintendent, attempts to answer the question for teachers, “Where do I start?”. He suggests beginning with small changes in the classroom, starting with giving students more voice and choice… 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 ›
Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners: The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance, A Critical Literature Review
This frequently-cited report from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research provides a comprehensive review of the connection between noncognitive factors and academic success based on existing research. After a literature review of over 400 resources, the authors organized a large number of noncognitive traits, skills, behaviors, and attitudes into five categories. The report… 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 ›