Excitement builds in children when they dream about their futures, a middle school principal said.
"It creates a purpose and a meaning for their education," said Hellstern Middle School Principal Todd Loftin.
Hellstern will join all Springdale elementary and middle schools in adopting a new system designed to help each child set goals and develop a plan for reaching them with the guidance of a teacher.
Personalizing school is a key theme for Springdale schools, said Marsha Jones, grant coordinator. The system the district is developing will give students more of a voice in setting goals for academics, social skills and their future, she said.
The personalized learning focus is gaining interest from educators and policymakers in many states.
Jones hopes the effort to personalize learning motivates students to work hard because they understand why their education matters, she said.
The U.S. Department of Education in December named the Springdale School District one of five national winners of the department's Race to the Top grant competition. The $25.88 million grant will be spent over four years on 11 projects.
While much of the grant is budgeted for outfitting all classrooms with high-tech whiteboards and purchasing laptop computers for teachers and computing devices for every student, a small portion of the grant is budgeted for projects that focus on personalized learning. One project involves the continued development of advisory classes across the district, and another project supports the implementation of personal learning plans and student-led parent-teacher conferences.
An advisory class provides time for children to meet with teachers to talk about how they are doing in school, as well as character development, interests and goals, Jones said. Students will document short- and long-term goals in a written personal learning plan and will track their progress with a portfolio. Students will give presentations on their goals, plans and progress during student-led conferences with their parents and teachers.
Grant spending thus far has included paying $3,000 to teachers working on implementation plans for personalizing learning, Jones said. The district also has about $90,000 in invoices from the Center for Secondary School Reform for six to eight specialists who are assisting Springdale.
The district anticipates spending $120,000 during the 2014-15 school year for teachers to work outside the normal school day on the new system and on notebooks and binders to help students organize their work, Jones said.
Implementation begins this fall with third- through eighth-grade students, said Kathy Morledge, Springdale assistant superintendent. Children will begin discussing portfolios and selecting goals at the beginning of the school year.
Students will discuss their goals with parents and teachers during the fall parent-teacher conferences, Morledge said. In the spring, students will lead the conferences.
In middle school, Loftin said, the process will focus both on academics and on students' personal goals. Instead of teachers telling students they need to improve in math, students will analyze how they are doing in their classes to set goals to improve, he said.
Part of the plan will be designed for students to think and dream about where they see themselves in the future, Loftin said. Teachers will work with students to understand why improving in math is important and how it relates to their interests or career goals.
He also intends for parents to participate in the process, he said.
changing school culture
The goal of personalizing learning is to find a way to energize and engage each student, said Joseph DiMartino, founder of the Center for Secondary School Redesign, based in Rhode Island. The for-profit center provides assistance and training in schools.
Work to personalize education has been ongoing for 20 years and can take different forms, and the concept has gained renewed interest in the past several years, DiMartino said.
"There's been a growing understanding that our schools were failing a lot of kids," DiMartino said. "The whole impetus of No Child Left Behind was too many kids being failed by the school system. That knowledge has led to a lot of people trying a lot of different things."
An advisory class of 10 to 20 students assigned to one teacher ensures all students have at least one adult in the building who knows them well, said DiMartino, who has co-written books on personalizing high schools. That teacher will know what motivates each student and can use that knowledge to shape the education around the student's interests.
The student-led conferences that result from the work of advisory classes and personal learning plans transform the culture of a school, he said.
"It leads to more parent participation, which leads to students taking more ownership of their learning," DiMartino said. "They take ownership when they have to present it."
In the mid-2000s, the National Association of Secondary School Principals suggested that middle and high schools consider adopting personal learning plans and student-led conferences to personalize the educational experience, according to a school improvement framework the association developed. The recommendations continue to apply, spokesman Bob Farrace said.
"A personalized environment is essential to school success, which requires knowing each student well and empowering them by incorporating student voices in important decisions," Farrace said.
Flexible but accountable
Springdale district administrators are learning from a group of New England schools that in 2010 were announced as winners of a five-year, $5 million U.S. Department of Education grant for Investing in Innovation. The award is shared among 13 high schools involved in the New England Network for Personalization and Performance.
The New England schools' focus is on personalizing high school in part by giving students more flexibility in how they earn credit toward graduation, said DiMartino, who also is involved with the New England schools. Students must demonstrate mastery of all competencies of a course to earn credit, but how they get there is based on their interests.
Advisory classes, personalized learning plans and student-led conferences in the New England schools all work to help students connect school with their interests, aspirations and talents, DiMartino said. Students present the finished results of a project during student-led conferences to show their parents how they are meeting the goals identified in their plans.
At Hellstern, the daily schedule already sets aside 30 minutes a day for sixth- and seventh-graders to meet in advisory classes, but this year, the structure will provide time for students to work on personalized learning plans and portfolios, Loftin said. Teachers will guide students in setting academic and longterm career and life goals.
NW News on 08/11/2014