Blending a District the Lean Start-Up Way

As in most districts, Reynoldsburg City Schools (RCS) is looking to solve the problems associated with:

• An unlimited range of student needs, paces, and preferences
• Increasing career and college readiness expectations
• Limited time and resources

The Learning Accelerator (TLA) and RCS are partnering to rethink and address this equation by advancing the district’s blended learning strategies — to help every student go farther, faster.

Our primary goal is to learn together how to effectively implement district-wide blended learning. Because we’re really searching for new models, we needed a new way to move forward. The lean start-up model, which emerged from the business world, serves as inspiration.

The chart below is our starting point for tackling problems and enabling ever-more powerful forms of learning. Are you using similar forms of R & D? Have tools we can borrow? What’s missing from this chart? We would love to hear from you.

This initial framework (1.0) is intended to support implementation of blended learning in all schools across the district at the same time we are pursuing system-level changes to lay the foundation for scaling increasingly personalized learning—with a relentless focus on results. Together we will re-engineer many of the district’s priorities and core functions and amplify its ability to generate and embrace successive disruptions in learning that provide opportunities to students.

We'll be sharing our experiences and related artifacts like this chart on the blog later this fall. In March, we hope to bring together some of the individuals working on the demonstration with the broader learning community at SXSW.edu to engage in a candid conversation about the journey.

Panelists include:

Marcy Raymond, Director of High Schools, Reynoldsburg City Schools

Steve Dackin, Superintendent, Reynoldsburg City Schools

Lisa Duty, Partner, The Learning Accelerator (@LisaDuty1)

Interested in learning more, or want to support our idea? Check out our panel proposal, and give us some feedback and as well as a "thumbs up" on SXSWedu's PanelPicker site by September 6th.