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 ›
Winooski Middle/High School Tackles Equity in Personalization
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
Internships Aren’t All About Careers
This blog post by Tristen Gamboa, a junior at High Tech High North County presents a student’s view of the internship experience, and his growing understanding of the concept of ‘deeper learning’. Tristen’s four week internship at the Center for Research on Equity & Innovation (CREI) influenced his thoughts about college readiness and his career path. He… Read More ›
VR, PBL, and OERs: Four High Hopes for Learning with Edtech in the New School Year
This article highlights four strategies for using technology to improve learning and empower students which the author, Kerry Gallagher, a Digital Learning Specialist, hopes teachers will embrace. Each fall she surveys trends in the ed tech landscape and shares thoughts for the coming year. First, she hopes educators will teach students to create with virtual… Read More ›
Powerful Leaders: Reflections on Student Voice
I have always been interested in public policy and government. I grew up watching the news on Sunday mornings and every day after school. I always knew that I wanted to be involved and have a voice, and joining Young Voices gave me that opportunity. Young Voices, a Providence based-youth organizing group, trains young people… Read More ›
Why Growth Mindset Isn’t Working in Schools…Yet
In this opinion piece, Rupa Chandra Gupta former Redesign administrator at a California middle school, and a founder of the growth tracking tool Sown to Grow, discusses the disconnect between teachers’ sense of the importance of teaching a growth mindset and their confidence that they have the strategies and support to do so. The author suggests… Read More ›