Teacher Appreciation

“Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.”    ~ Andy Rooney

May 6^th – 10^th has been designated as Teacher Appreciation Week, and while teachers everywhere deserve our thanks and appreciation all year long, the staff at the Institute wanted to take this opportunity to send a shout out to the innovative teachers who are involved in the Personalized Learning Initiative. These educators, and the districts they are employed by, are pioneers, engaged in an effort to truly transform the education system. They are working to gain an understanding of each student and then focusing on changes to learning and teaching that ensure each student gets the tools, supports and guidance they need, when they need it.

This is hard, unfamiliar and often uncomfortable work. Examining old assumptions about education and the delivery system and helping to design a new one is really hard work. This has led them to a very different, but much more powerful way of teaching. Yet, others often don’t understand what it is they’re doing, which can be uncomfortable.

However, every teacher we have talked to who is involved in the Initiative tells us that they would not want to go back to their legacy teaching practices. As hard as this work is, the results they are seeing in their students – academically, emotionally and behaviorally – reinforce to them that they are doing the right thing.

So we applaud your efforts and thank you for being courageous, for being willing to take this leap with us and try something different: To get learning right the first time, every time.

THANK YOU!

Jim               Kathy            Jean             Kim

Carolyn      Teresa           Laura           Diane

2nd Annual Youth Summit

This week, the Institute is pleased to have a guest blogger. Jessica Singer is a member of the Institute @ CESA #1 Youth Advisory Council, a group of students formed this year to inform ongoing program development and communications efforts. They also helped to plan and implement this year’s Summit.

As personalized learning becomes implemented in more school districts to re-design public education, 15 school districts gathered at the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield on March 12^th, 2013 for the 2^nd Annual Institute @ CESA #1 Youth Summit. A ‘successful day’ is an understatement, as students collaborated, engaged, and made decisions on what changes they would like to see. The day began with an overview of personalized learning to orient new individuals and districts and also for a brief recap for districts and students already involved in personalizing learning. Five students experiencing personalized learning proceeded with interviews and impromptu questions. This allowed students to create an image of their typical day. Students then participated in an interactive discussion to share their opinions about education and how personalized learning would change their future. Later in the day, each district gathered together to collaborate about their new ideas, and how they could create positive impact within their educational community. By engaging in discussions with other schools, students had the opportunity to understand what other school districts are doing. Lastly, these intelligent students could voluntarily participate in an interview on their educational experience thus far and how they viewed their future education. Students attending the Summit were provided opportunities to maximize their knowledge about personalized learning and learned the endless possibilities still to come.

As a member of the Institute @ CESA #1’s Youth Advisory Council, the opportunities have been infinite. The Youth Advisory Council engages students in various discussions on how to improve learning and how to create a personalized learning system that works for each individual. Over the course of 8 months, the Council became an efficient team assisting in the organization of the highly successful Youth Summit. We generated ideas and activities for the students to stay engaged and attentive during the Summit. The hard work, multiple meetings on Friday nights, and collaboration and deliberation, paid off at the Summit. The Council allowed us all to create a positive impact on our education and truly have our voices heard. As a student I was provided the opportunity to discuss my education on a personal level with a few of my teachers and administrators.

It is clear that education is a very important part of my life and will continue to be in the upcoming years. I wanted to make a difference in my education and truly have a say in personalized learning. This journey has been incredible, as I have made endless memories and opened countless doors for my future.

Garnering Maximum Benefits from Improved Network Engagement

We experience networks in many aspects of our lives, from personal acquaintances and professional relationships to professional associations, formal learning and collaborative support groups. For those involved in the work of the Institute @ CESA #1, efforts to leverage the power and support of an innovation network in the development of a scaled personalized learning system are very familiar.

Yet despite our frequent involvement with networks, we may not spend much time thinking about how we can garner the greatest personal and professional benefits these relationship structures can offer. The staff at the Institute has been thinking about how we can assist individuals, teams and full staffs to tap the potential of our shared network. Our search has led us to an emerging framework or rubric to understand networks.

The framework includes five levels or dimensions of benefit from low level emotional support to life transforming experiences the we long to replicate throughout our professional careers. Each dimension can serve a purpose and offer personal and professional benefits, but as with most activities, the greater the investment, the greater the return.

At the lowest level of network engagement our involvement may be confined to sharing our frustrations, complaining about our situation or bemoaning the absence of what we desire. This type of network experience can provide a measure of emotional release and shared experience, but we rarely expect or experience any significant answers or learning.

At the next level we can find ourselves and associates swapping “war stories” about past experiences, past wins and the “good ole days.” Some learning may result from this experience, particularly for novice members. However, the application of the learning is often random and inefficient. Still, the feelings of association and camaraderie can make the experience worthwhile enough to stay associated with the network over time.

The third level of the network benefit framework involves “solution sharing.” At this level, group members may present a challenge or problem and other members of the network share how they solved the problem or how they see its significance. However, there is little effort to understand the context or nuances of the problem presented. Again, learning can result, but the solutions offered must be evaluated and modified in light of the specific and unique elements of the problem presented. This level of network involvement can offer even greater benefits, but full engagement and deep understanding are neither expected nor offered.

A fourth level of network engagement presents the opportunity for members to share their challenge or problem and other members of the network actively attempt to understand the dimensions, significance, context and implications of the situation presented. Observations and insights are shared and examined within the group. Solutions are crafted to address the uniqueness of the specific problem described. Members offer their ideas, experiences and expertise in service of the good of other members with an understanding that at another time the same commitment and efforts will be made on their behalf. Learning at this level of network involvement can add significantly to our expertise and professional confidence. Often at this level, the interaction is so powerful that continued and repeated experiences of this type are a strong attraction to remaining involved in the network.

The fifth and most powerful dimension or level of network involvement presents the unique opportunity to be a part of a group committed to create a solution, address a challenge or invent something that will benefit all members, but requires the collective efforts of the network to achieve the desired outcome. This level of engagement presents the opportunity to be part of an effort that is larger than each of us with a collective benefit greater than can be generated by individual and isolated efforts. Each member brings his or her best thinking, most creative ideas and complete commitment in service of shared success. Learning at this level often is profound and life changing. The experience can be so powerful that we spend much of the rest of our professional lives seeking to replicate the experience and the benefits it generated.

While each level of network engagement offers benefits, the work of designing and scaling a new educational approach that transforms the experience of learners in a personalized environment beckons us to build a network with the benefits of the two highest and most powerful levels of engagement. Our work is to make this experience not just possible, but regularly accessible to network members.

PLN Mid-Year Collaboration Meeting

More than 50 people gathered at the Oak Creek Community Center on Friday, January 18^th for the Personalized Learning Network Mid-Year Collaboration Meeting. The Personalized Learning Network (PLN) is a collaborative effort between the Institute @ CESA #1 and our three largest districts. The network was formed last year as a way for Kenosha Unified School District, Milwaukee Public Schools and Racine Unified School District to begin implementation of personalized learning and find ways to bring it to scale.

The PLN is part of the Institute’s Innovation Zone, but this “network within a network” structure allows PLN districts to learn from each other and build personalized learning environments based on the unique characteristics of large, urban districts. The PLN engages with the entire Institute membership as well, sharing their experiences and results and learning from other districts that are doing similar work.

The schools represented at the meeting were:

Kenosha

• Nash Elementary
• Stocker Elementary

Milwaukee

• Goodrich Elementary
• Hi-Mount Community School
• Eighty-First Street School
• Reagan High School

Racine

• Julian Thomas Elementary
• Gilmore Middle School
• Horlick High School

The PLN schools are at varying stages of implementation, ranging from the concept and design phase to active projects already underway in the classroom.

After a brief review of personalized learning concepts, participants completed a reflection activity based on the honeycomb model to help them define areas of readiness for possible project implementation.  “Learn and share” sessions allowed individuals to engage with others around a series of self-selected topics related to personalized learning.

At lunch, participants were seated in like groups (teachers with teachers, principals with principals), so they could network with PLN members from other schools and districts. The afternoon was devoted to team planning time and the completion of each school’s 30-60-90 day action plan.  Participants were highly engaged throughout the day and most left with actionable goals for the near term. These goals will continue to be reviewed and revised as the schools continue with the implementation of their personalized learning projects.

Watch for another update on the progress of the PLN schools in late spring!

All Learning is Personal

All learning is personal. Regardless of the information we encounter, experiences to which we are exposed or examples we see, we only learn if we make a connection, experience some type of interaction or identify a context within which to place the experience. Every day, every minute and every second of our lives we encounter stimuli that could result in learning. Yet we only notice, engage and absorb a small portion of what we could learn.

In reality, the same stimulus might engage one person and go completely unnoticed or be rejected by another. Unless we are open and ready to learn; learning is not likely to happen. Herein lies the reason why the most compelling lecture, the most creative experiment or amazingly clear explanation typically engages only a portion of the class and generates learning for only a portion of students.

This dynamic presents a challenge to educators. We must create the conditions and environments that will offer the very best chances for individual learners to notice, engage and learn what they need to be successful.  We can no longer “sow” information like the farmer of yesteryear and hope the “seeds” of knowledge will take hold and grow. Our challenge is to assure that learner connections and engagement occur with the highest frequency and greatest depth of meaning and purpose that can be mustered. This combination of increased frequency of learner connections and greater depth of engagement holds the secret to dramatically increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our educational efforts and system.

The research documenting the power of this approach is three decades old. Repeated research studies conducted by Benjamin Bloom and his graduate students at the University of Chicago showed that on average a personalized approach to instruction could dramatically improve the level of learning – two standard deviations or an average of 98% improvement – compared to traditional whole class instruction. Even more impressive, 90% of learners performed at a level equal to the top 20% in traditional classroom environments. (Bloom – Two Sigma Problem – Ed Leadership, May 1984) Unfortunately, at the time, Bloom did not see how it could be scaled. Thirty years ago we did not have access to the sophisticated technology tools available and under development today. Additionally, in the intervening years we have learned much about the brain, learning and teaching that promises to make personalized learning at scale within reach.

Still, we must start with a deep, rich understanding of the characteristics, learning preferences, interests, learning history and readiness of the learner. Without this understanding we cannot hope to increase the frequency and predictability of engagement and connections learners experience with what they are to learn.

Armed with this information and the active participation of the learner, we can dramatically increase the predictability of our efforts to engage learners in ways that result in connections, interactions and context building and new learning.  In fact, we can co-design and construct with students a learning path that accelerates progress and deepens understanding for each learner.

This frame for thinking about learners and learning represents a fundamental shift from traditional, legacy education approaches. In this frame the learner is not a receptacle to be filled with information, knowledge and skills. Rather, the learner is seen as a resource to inform, accelerate and enrich his or her learning. Individual learners are seen as key resources to be understood and tapped to design strategies and experiences that will result in learning that has meaning and purpose, and that leads to mastery.

Further, the thinking frame of the learner as a resource positions us to consistently gain feedback on the effectiveness of the learning experiences we design and instruction we provide. After all, unless our actions make a positive difference to the learner, they are not effective. If we do not have access to what is working from the perspective of the learner, we cannot calibrate and otherwise adjust in ways that improve the effectiveness of our instruction and predictability of the learning outcomes we seek.

So, what does all of this mean? If we hope to dramatically improve learning quality and accelerate the rate at which learners progress, we must start by designing learning environments around what will be effective for the learner – and we must include the learner as a resource and active partner in this work. We know from research conducted decades ago that this approach holds the promise to make a dramatic difference in learning for virtually all types of learners. Our work is to scale this approach and support it with the strategies and tools to move it to the level of a system; not just an exception or “boutique” innovation without the capacity to reach all learners.

Learning Progressions

This week’s post is by Jean Garrity, Associate Director at the Institute.

Exciting work is underway in several middle schools in the West Allis – West Milwaukee and Waukesha school districts.  As part of its ongoing research and development, Educational Testing Service is supporting a research initiative titled CBAL (Cognitively Based Assessments As, Of and For Learning). As part of its work with the Innovation Lab Network, Wisconsin is one of just three states (along with Maine and New York) nationwide that are participating in CBAL research examining English Language Arts learning progressions in the area of argument.

Rooted in learning sciences research, CBAL defines learning progressions as “a description of qualitative change in a student’s level of sophistication for a key concept, process, strategy, practice or habit of mind.”  Learning progressions may be similar for many students, but are not identical for all students.  Think of it like crossing a stream – we may all have the same destination, but we will likely step on different rocks as we cross to the other side.  Learning progressions help in the scaffolding of instruction and the design of assessment tasks.  Different from traditional scope-and-sequence, learning progressions are highly interconnected and dynamic.  This is important to our work as they are intended to inform instruction rather than define curriculum.  Learning progressions are mapped to the Common Core State Standards and range from preliminary to foundational, basic, intermediate and advanced.  Students in the project write at about an 8^th grade level.

The CBAL Learning Progressions pilot began last fall in Wisconsin with two days of professional development.  A team from CBAL ETS worked with middle school teachers on the implementation of the CBAL English Language Arts materials, including learning progressions, formative assessments in support of argumentation, summative assessments, and adapting and customizing tasks to meet individual student needs.   As the year progresses, students are participating in instruction on reasons and evidence, taking a position and summarization.  Students also participate in both formative and summative assessments.  The teachers meet periodically in professional learning communities to examine student work, discuss what is working (and what is not), and plan for further instruction.  The CBAL ETS team will return in January to provide further support to our local teachers.  In addition to piloting learning progressions, formative and summative assessment tasks, teachers are also piloting professional support materials.

This is the first year of a multi-year project, and work around the provisional learning progressions is still in its early stages.  We look forward to sharing the results and making the work available for more of our Institute districts.

State Superintendent’s Youth Summit

At the end of November, some of us here at the Institute @ CESA #1 had the pleasure of participating and facilitating the State Superintendent’s Youth Summit: A Dialogue on Learning and Education in the Future. About 100 students from Wisconsin Education Opportunities Program sites from Green Bay, Eau Claire, Madison and Wausau attended this invitation-only event. Since we’re not in schools every day, events such as these are refreshing and energizing for us to be able to connect with students.

The morning began with remarks from State Superintendent Tony Evers, who indicated that we cannot move forward as a state without students’ input on education and learning. The State Superintendent hosted this event to bring high school students from across the state to share their ideas on what education and learning should be like in Wisconsin. Following, Jim Rickabaugh, Executive Director of CESA #1 provided a brief orientation to students about the current education system and the faulty assumptions that it is based on, indicating that it’s time to redesign the system to better meet the needs of today’s society. The opportunity we have is to create a student-centered, customized approach — to make learning personalized for every student. Jim then moved into an interactive clicker session with the students, asking about their current educational experience, what personalized learning may look like for them, and what the most effective learning style is for them. The results were clear; one student said “everyone learns differently.” In the late morning, Jean Garrity, Associate Director, facilitated a panel discussion of students attending programs in the CESA 1 area that are more personalized. They shared their experiences with the attendees via video chat.

After lunch, the students were asked to work with their tables collaboratively to create their ideal personalized learning environment. The energy in the room was palpable as students were on task and engaged in thinking and discussing their recommendations. Each table then shared their ideas with the others in the room as the students participated in a gallery walk to ask each other questions, probe, and learn from each other. They then had an opportunity to come back together as a table to share what they learned and make revisions to their own ideas. Before closing, students were asked about their experience of the day and also participated in another clicker activity. One of the questions asked was: “Do you believe you are capable of achieving more than your current grades reflect if you were given the opportunity to learn in the way you learn best?” 97% of students said yes.

The Summit closed with remarks from Scott Jones, Special Assistant to the State Superintendent who thanked the students for their time and ideas. The information gathered during the event will be compiled into a report that will be shared with the State Superintendent.

In addition, we’ll take the insights we found from the day to our Youth Advisory Council. Planning will be underway shortly for the CESA 1 Youth Summit in March – we hope to design a new program with the help of the students on the Council. Coming from this event, we can’t wait to start planning for the next event!