The nation’s education stakeholders increasingly recognize that the fundamental redesign of our preK-12 system around the student is required for our future success. Calls for (e.g., Secretary Duncan) and examples of (e.g., Kansas City) innovative, personalized learning models are growing.
To help give voice and support to this movement, SIIA – in collaboration with ASCD and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) – released “Innovate to Educate: System [Re]Design for Personalized Learning,” based upon the insights and recommendations of some 150 education leaders convened at an August Symposium in Boston, MA (See archive of presentations, summaries and videos). The report provides a primer on personalized learning with definitions and examples and identifies the following essential practices and policies as voted on by Symposium attendees:
Essential Elements
1. Flexible, Anytime, Everywhere Learning
2. Redefine Teacher Role and Expand “Teacher”
3. Project‐Based, Authentic Learning
4. Student-Driven Learning Path
5. Mastery/Competency-Based Progression/Pace
Policy Enablers
1. Redefine Use of Time (Carnegie Unit/Calendar)
2. Performance-Based, Time-Flexible Assessment
3. Equity in Access to Technology Infrastructure
4. Funding Models that Incentivize Completion
5. P-20 Continuum & Non-Age/Grade Band System
CCSSO’s Gene Wilhoit explained the challenge: “The industrial‐age, assembly‐line educational model – based on fixed time, place, curriculum and pace – is insufficient in today’s society and knowledge‐based economy.” ASCD’s Gene Carter explained the alternative innovative model: “that a student’s educational path, curriculum, instruction and schedule be personalized to meet each child’s unique needs.”
Ninety‐one percent of education leaders at the Symposium very strongly or strongly agreed that “we cannot meet the personalized learning needs of students within our traditional system – tweaking the teacher/classroom centered model is not enough, and systemic redesign is needed.”
Ninety-six percent of Symposium attendees identified access to technology and e-learning as a critical or significant cross‐cutting platform to implement personalized learning and bring it to scale.
The time is right for a true paradigm shift. Education leaders at the Symposium left with a sense of responsibility and opportunity to move beyond the current mass production and marginal reforms. With bold leadership around the Symposium-identified roadmap for change, personalized learning opportunities are within reach for all students. Most importantly, this shift is needed to respond to what students themselves believe their education could and should look like to engage, challenge and prepare them for college, career and citizenship.