The Learning Accelerator’s new platform offers educators real-world strategies for data use, personalized instruction, and mastery-based progression
Cupertino, CA — August 22, 2016 — The Learning Accelerator, a national nonprofit catalyzing the transformation of American K-12 education through blended learning, today released a new collection of resources designed specifically for educators who are implementing blended and personalized learning in their classrooms. The Blended and Personalized Learning Practices at Work project offers a free, open, and shareable bank of practical teaching and learning strategies that help to bring personalized learning from theory to practice.
“Since our founding, The Learning Accelerator’s belief has been that each child in America must have an effective, equitable, and engaging education that is personalized, informed by data, and mastery-based,” said Beth Rabbitt, CEO of The Learning Accelerator. “Blended learning is a key mechanism for making this vision possible and the Blended and Personalized Learning Practices at Work project fills a pressing need educators have for really specific, authentic examples about how to put ideas into action in their classrooms.”
The Learning Accelerator’s Blended and Personalized Learning Practices at Work project is the culmination of more than a year’s work exploring over 100 schools and systems to identify places successfully implementing blended and personalized learning. The Learning Accelerator worked deeply with six schools to share their work through videos, audio recordings, and screencasts, as well as narrative descriptions and tangible artifacts that are free for educators to download and share.
“The resources on the Blended and Personalized Practices at Work platform contain larger observations and patterns we saw, as well as specific school practices,” explained Rabbitt. “Our goal is to help educators discover and share real-world strategies to apply to their own practices today.”
“What is incredibly unique and exciting about this project is that for the first time educators can find in one place very tangible, granular, teacher-led strategies for blended and personalized learning that they can implement into their classrooms and hear from fellow educators,“ said Jin-Soo Huh, Personalized Learning Manager at Alpha Public Schools. “Also, the schools that they pull from are tremendously diverse, which means the practices are ones that work for a wide range of students, with varying needs.”
The six schools profiled in the Blended and Personalized Learning Practices at Work project serve predominantly minority and low-income students, and/or English language learners:
-
CICS West Belden is a high performing charter school in Chicago, Illinois. Serving roughly 500 students, it is part of the Chicago International Charter Schools Network and is managed by Distinctive Schools.
-
Lindsay Unified School District is a 4,200 student K-12 district in California’s Central Valley. Lindsay High School serves all grade 9-12 students in Lindsay Unified Public Schools, and uses a performance-based approach to personalized learning.
-
Leadership Public Schools (LPS) Richmond is a nonprofit network of public charter high schools located in Richmond, Oakland, Hayward, and San Jose, California. These schools serve over 1,500 students and have developed a personalized academic numeracy program called Navigate Math.
-
Pleasant View Elementary School (PVES) is a Pre-K-5th grade school serving 425 students in Rhode Island’s Providence Public School District. The school partners with Summit Public Schools to implement personalized learning in the 5th grade.
-
ReNEW DTA Academy is a PK-8 non-selective public charter school in New Orleans, LA that serves approximately 770 students. ReNEW has developed a mastery-based, 8th grade math program.
- Roots Elementary School is a K-2 charter school in Denver that uses technology along with innovative staffing, curricular, and physical structures to provide a student-centered learning experience.
“It was really important for TLA to work with a group of schools that are using blended and personalized learning as a mechanism for closing the achievement gap. All of these schools have that commitment,” said Rabbitt.
The Learning Accelerator will continue to update the Blended and Personalized Learning Practices at Work platform over time. For more information, to offer feedback, or to get involved, contact TLA Partner Daniel Owens.
