The Promise of Personalized Learning in Rural America
This paper explores the application of personalized learning in rural schools, discusses and proposes solutions to the practical and policy barriers to implementation, and shares lessons learned from early adopters, including three case studies from rural communities in Maine, Wyoming, and Nevada. The paper outlines a number of suggestions to help rural policy makers, administrators,… Read More ›
Can Personalized Learning Work in Rural America?
In this article, the author asserts that personalized learning can help resolve some of the unique challenges that rural schools and students in rural districts face. However, most of the initiatives to implement personalized learning, and the corresponding education research, have focused on urban settings. The article looks at how implementation in a rural setting is… Read More ›
Personalized Learning: How Kids are Getting into College by Mastering Their Skills
In this article, Brian Stack, a Principal from New Hampshire, explores parents’ fears that because colleges do not understand competency education, attendance at a high school implementing this student-centered approach could harm their child’s admissions chances. First, this principal provides a simple overview of competency education for families. Next, he describes competency education efforts at… Read More ›
District Conditions for Scale: A Practical Guide for Scaling Personalized Learning
In this toolkit by KnowledgeWorks the authors begin to explore how to move from isolated school models of student-centered learning to whole systems designed around personalized learning. Researchers at KnowledgeWorks examined existing research in the field and conducted primary research through interviews of more than 30 district superintendents and leadership teams from across the country… Read More ›
The Conditions Necessary to Move from a Traditional School District to a True Learning Community
This article suggests the key to effective personalized learning is creation of learning communities for both students and adults in a district. The author focuses on three critical components needed to create such a community: vision, transparency, and culture. The article is a good introduction for district leaders and other interested stakeholders to a larger… Read More ›
How One District Improved Its Personalized Learning by Failing Forward
In this article, a professional development provider working with teachers at the Ben Davis Extended Day (BDED) blended learning program at Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township, Indiana, describes her experience working with teachers in a dynamic new way. Michele Eaton, the author, applauds the mindset of the teachers who when presented with the failure of a… Read More ›
Place-Based Education: Communities as Learning Environments
This was originally posted on Getting Smart on May 9, 2016 as part of their Place-Based Education blog series. As the emergence of personalized learning, project-based learning and deeper learning approaches, the time is right to connect learning to communities in authentic and meaningful ways. This place-based education approach can serve as a framework to connect learning… Read More ›
Investing in Shared Leadership
This post is part of a series of posts related to the 2015 report, Implementing Competency Education in K-12 Systems: Insights from Local Leaders, which looks at implementation strategies districts are using to convert traditional education systems into environments for dynamic personalized learning. This post looks at the need for superintendents and principals to develop collaborative… Read More ›
Beware the Iconography Trap of Personalized Learning: Rigor Matters
In this thought-provoking article, Betheny Gross, Senior Analyst and Research Director at the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), shares a key lesson learned from the organization’s multi-year, multi-method study to learn how school districts and regional partners can support the successful implementation, expansion, and sustainability of personalized learning. This article is the first in… Read More ›
Personalized Learning, Maine Style
This article in Education Leadership discusses Maine’s move to proficiency-based graduation requirements and the consequent move to increase personalized learning across the state. Mary Bellavance, President of Maine ASCD, and elementary instructional strategist in district RSU #57 in Waterboro, shares the story of her district’s approach to roll out personalized learning approaches with buy-in from… Read More ›
Constant Learning and Creative Response: Charting the Course in Personalized Learning
In this article, guest bloggers Janice Vargo and Mike Wolking from Education Elements discuss the ways their organization is helping districts measure success in implementing personalized learning. Education Elements, which provides consultation services to districts, has shifted its approach to evaluating progress to better mimic the personalized mindset they help schools enact and to embrace… Read More ›
How Teacher-Created Free Online Resources Are Changing the Classroom
In this blog post, Katrina Schwartz, a San Francisco-based journalist, explores why some teachers are putting down the textbooks and instead opting for teacher-created online resources to create personalized learning experiences in their classrooms. She reports on the work of two schools in California who have been creating teacher-designed curriculum using online open educational resources… Read More ›