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Meeting the Personalization Challenge with New Roles + Blended Learning

written by Sharon Kebschull Barrett on May 24, 2018

Amid all the buzz about personalizing learning, what can we learn from schools getting great results? In Public Impact’s new report with the Clayton Christensen Institute, Innovative Staffing to Personalize Learning, we analyzed eight schools and school networks that are not only personalizing learning, but also getting strong learning results with disadvantaged students.

What’s different about these schools compared with the norm? New staffing models combined with blended learning. In these schools, blended learning does not replace teachers. Instead, blended learning augments the ability of multiple adults to understand and meet the needs of individual students in a collaborative workplace.

Research about Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture initiative has already shown positive student learning gains in district schools where multi-classroom leaders lead small, collaborative teaching teams, many of which use digital tools to keep track of student progress. But what about these other efforts?

[Read more…]

Innovative Staffing to Personalize Learning: School Profiles

written by Sharon Kebschull Barrett on March 14, 2018

How can schools begin to address all their students’ individual learning needs? Blended learning is increasingly part of the answer schools consider—but what about a broader rethinking of how schools are organized and staffed?

At Public Impact, we’ve been working with the Clayton Christensen Institute to take a close look at eight schools/school networks around the country using innovative staffing models to personalize learning—district, charter, and private schools. We’ve just published the first of two sets of short profiles of these schools. The profiles, many with accompanying videos, show the challenges they aim to address and their early years of staffing innovations.

In the coming months, we will publish a second set of profiles and a white paper connecting the dots and analyzing the patterns of their experiences.

We focused on schools or school networks serving disadvantaged populations that achieved better-than-typical student learning and provided students with more personalized experiences while using new staffing models and blended learning.

[Read more…]

Opportunity Culture Voices: For Truly Personalized Learning, I Had to Try, Try Again

written by Sharon Kebschull Barrett on November 27, 2016

 
lori-treiber-2

After 26 years of teaching, I was the model of a traditional teacher.

Class began with review, then new material and cooperative or independent work, then closure. But two years ago, intrigued by my district’s request that I pioneer an Opportunity Culture biology blended-learning class, extending my reach to more students (and for more pay), I took the challenge: Could I learn some new tricks?

Yes. Just not the way I expected.

–Cabarrus County, N.C., Biology Blended-Learning Teacher Lori Treiber in For Truly Personalized Learning, I Had to Try, Try Again

For Lori Treiber, “truly personalized learning” was the goal as she set out to design the structure of her blended class:

For the first semester in fall 2015, I extended my reach by seeing one group of students every other day, teaching a second group on the first group’s “off” days—nearly doubling my student load for this period to 46. I planned to cover two days of material during each face-to-face day—through labs and activities with minimal lecturing—while students worked online in the classroom on off days.

To “flip” the classroom, I recorded my usual lectures that summer, using PowerPoints and animations. I embedded questions in the videos to help students stay on track, and gathered remediation and enrichment resources.

I divided my students three ways: half met with me for half the period, while half worked online next door, then switched; half met with me for the whole period, switching the next day; or all 46 met together in a large room.  I could design each day to best fit students’ needs and each topic’s objectives.

I also gave students personal choice and some freedoms. I broke the assignments into 80 percent “basic work” and 20 percent “uPicks,” letting students select from an assignment list. Students got all assignments at the beginning of the topic and could set their pace. Basic work was due daily, uPicks any time before the test. Freedom, right?

Well, yes and no, as Treiber found out. She hit some bumps that first semester, and made some useful adjustments. But she still wasn’t satisfied. Read her inspirational story of how her class–and her teaching–evolved over the past several semesters in the latest column in the Opportunity Culture series on Real clear Education.

Every School Can Have a Great Principal: A Fresh Vision for How

written by Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan on April 22, 2016

This column first appeared on Education Next.

Great teachers matter—we all know that. But great principals matter nearly as much. We recently profiled three principals who achieved strong student learning growth in their schools in tough circumstances. Forming and leading a team of teacher-leaders proved crucial to all. But then what?

Can great principals take their leadership to the next level and stay connected to teachers and students? Could they reach all schools, not just the fraction they reach today?

We asked just that, and here’s our answer: yes.

In An Excellent Principal for Every School: Transforming Schools into Leadership Machines, we share our vision for how districts and charter networks can reach a lot more students and teachers—potentially all—with great principals, for much higher pay, within regular budgets.

You might recognize this concept, since we’ve floated—and implemented—similar ideas with teachers in Opportunity Culture schools in several states already (including unionized districts). We’ve now extended our thinking to principals.

[Read more…]

Put Technology to Work in Rural Schools

written by Bryan and Stephanie Dean on March 30, 2015

Technology makes it possible for each of us to do more, learn more and be more connected.

Need to pay your bills and register your kid for swim lessons while locating a recipe for dinner? Jump online. Want to learn more about something you just overheard while in line at the grocery store? Type it into a search engine. Wonder what your former Little League teammates are up to? Check your Facebook newsfeed.

Imagine what we could do for education if we maximized the potential of technology for teachers and students. Technology’s potential seems particularly compelling for rural schools, which struggle to offer an array of learning opportunities, to transport students to a central facility and to get the best combination of teachers from small candidate pools.

Technology in education sounds terrific: It can bring the world to a classroom. It can give students access to courses and resources they might not otherwise get. It can inject engaging fun into the classroom, as students learn through games and create in a digital medium.

[Read more…]

Public Impact®

Chapel Hill, NC
919-240-7955
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New from Public Impact

Autonomous District Schools–A New Kind of High-Quality, Innovative Public School
Report illuminates how districts are implementing autonomous district schools to gain charter-like flexibilities and opportunities.

Built to Grow–A Case Study of IDEA Public Schools
Report describes how IDEA continues to expand and thrive as the charter sector slows.

Employment Opportunities—Join the growing Public Impact team!
We are hiring entry-level consultants for Summer 2019 start dates. Smart, driven candidates committed to excellence please apply! Deadline for applications is February 13, 2019.

Closing Achievement Gaps—In Diverse and Low-Poverty Schools
Report commissioned by Oak Foundation proposes a fresh, complete package of approaches to closing achievement gaps in diverse schools.

Design for Impact—Teacher Residencies that Last
Report provides actionable guidance for designing financially sustainable teacher residency programs.

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