Literacy challenges have intensified through the pandemic, demonstrated in states like California where 3rd grade English Language results were lower in 2022 than they were in 2019, leading to the following statement regarding our current reality: “The scores may be brutal … but they’re far from shocking. Some experts view this uproar over falling test scores as a distraction from the sobering fact that these challenges persisted long before the pandemic, in terms of teaching kids to read.”

Our legacy approach hasn’t been effective in meeting the needs of all learners. Now is the time for us to rethink the ways in which we organize our efforts to improve the impact for the benefit of learners, communities, and society as a whole.

From Grade Levels Classrooms to Literacy Launchpad

Imagine if we could break away from these rigid one-classroom, one-teacher school structures and instead organize our elementary students into microschools with a dedicated focus on ensuring each and every child is literate by 2nd grade.

As an example, a neighborhood elementary school that currently houses 600 students organized into grade levels could be organized into 4 microschools of 150 students each on the same campus. The microschools could be multi-aged, incorporating looping and team teaching to develop strong relationships, and held accountable to locally-developed outcomes as well as family choice among the microschools.

We also can envision that the aggregation of microschools can help us address one of the most pressing challenges of our time to dramatically improve early literacy rates that we know are foundational for future success. An early-literacy focused microschool with clear competencies could be the initial placement for all students until they demonstrate mastery of those competencies at which point they would matriculate out into one of the other site-based microschools. This early-literacy microschool could be deliberately resourced with extensive expertise, personnel, and programming to ensure that ALL learners have a strong and stable language and literacy base to set the stage for lifelong learning.

Targeted teaching and learning that includes phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary building, fluency practice, comprehension strategies, structured reading time, and culturally-responsive methods would be delivered by teams of educators in a literacy-rich environment who work closely with families to ensure that every learner makes significant progress.

What Sets the Literacy Launchpad Apart?

The Literacy Launchpad represents a departure from traditional primary age classes in several key ways:

●  Focus on Literacy Proficiency: The primary and most significant difference is the explicit focus on literacy proficiency. In a traditional primary classroom, literacy skills are one component of a broader curriculum. In contrast, the Launchpad places literacy at the forefront of its educational mission.

●  Specialized Expertise: The Launchpad is staffed with highly specialized educators who are experts in literacy development. These educators have extensive training in evidence-based literacy strategies and have a deep understanding of how to support students in mastering foundational reading and writing skills.

●  Competency-Based Assessment-Driven Instruction: The Launchpad utilizes frequent and thorough competency-based assessments to identify each student’s literacy strengths and weaknesses. This data guides the development of personalized, assessment-driven learning plans for every learner.

●  Intensive Intervention: For students who require additional support, the Launchpad offers intensive, evidence-based interventions. These embedded interventions are designed to target specific skill deficits and help struggling learners catch up to their peers.

●  Small Learning Communities: The Launchpad is organized into smaller learning communities, creating a more intimate and personalized learning environment. This improved adult-student ratio allows for greater individualized attention and fosters stronger relationships between students and educators.

●  Multi-Age Grouping: Unlike traditional grade-level classrooms, the Launchpad may incorporate multi-age grouping. This approach allows students to learn alongside peers at different developmental levels, promoting collaboration and peer mentoring.

●  Flexibility in Progression: Students progress through the Literacy Launchpad at their own pace, based on their mastery of literacy skills. There is no rigid grade-level progression. Instead, students move forward when they have achieved proficiency in reading and writing.

●  Individualized Learning Plans: Every student has an individualized learning plan that outlines their unique literacy goals and the strategies and resources required to achieve them. These plans are continuously updated based on ongoing assessments.

●  Community Engagement: The Launchpad actively engages parents and the local community in supporting literacy development. It recognizes that literacy proficiency is a shared responsibility and involves all stakeholders in the learning process.

●  Inclusive and Equitable: The Launchpad is committed to inclusive and equitable education. It ensures that all students, regardless of their starting point, have the opportunity to reach literacy proficiency. Special education services are seamlessly integrated for those with diverse learning needs.

Overall, the Literacy Launchpad represents a paradigm shift in primary education, where literacy development is the central pillar of the curriculum, and personalized, evidence-based approaches ensure that every student becomes proficient in reading and writing. This innovative model seeks to address literacy challenges comprehensively and set students on a path to lifelong learning success.

A Bright Future Awaits

The evolution of elementary education from grade levels to literacy-focused microschools is not just a vision; it’s a tangible possibility. The Literacy Launchpad could be a game-changer for our young learners, setting them on a path to success in all subjects and success in and out of school.

As we move forward, let’s embrace our responsibility to co-create a brighter future for teaching and learning. The time is now, and the way forward is together. Let’s configure schools that unlock the full potential of education for all learners by ensuring that every learner has a strong language and literacy foundation for lifelong learning.

The post The Future of Elementary Education: Literacy Launchpads that Ensure Literacy for All appeared first on Getting Smart.

In a recent workshop a teacher reflected, “Everything we do is focused on getting students to go to college.” When asked how many students go to college she shared, “usually about 30%.” The next question might be what you are also wondering: What is the plan for the other 70%? “Well,” she acknowledged, “we don’t really talk about that.”

You might be assuming this is an anomaly. How could a school, a state, or a country set up a system that only serves 30% of the population without acknowledging and serving the majority of students? We decided to look at the data for college preparedness and found out that this school’s 30% of students going to college was, in fact, below the national average. Unfortunately, it wasn’t by much.

Nationally, the data shows that  43% of students go to college, which means that the focus in most high schools to get good grades, take AP classes, and earn high scores on standardized tests such as the ACTs or SATs to get into college does not serve the majority of students. Worse yet, only a select few attend elite colleges with such competitive requirements.

The truth is that college matriculation rates vary widely throughout the country. In contrast to the teacher whose school only had 30% of students going to college, there are many schools that have 70% of students go on to college. We don’t intend to dismiss this, but the reality is that college isn’t the plan for all students. And even if it is, elite institutions aren’t the plan for most students. Given this reality, there are opportunities to improve pathways for all students, including those who do go to college, so that we better prepare every young person for their future.

Most Colleges Accept A Majority of Their Applicants

Out of the some 2,000 accredited four-year colleges featured on CollegeData, only about 50 of them routinely admit fewer than 30 percent of applicants, qualifying them as highly selective universities. These schools include Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and Yale. In terms of the total population of adults, these selective schools serve less than 2% of Americans.

So what this means is that if your heart (or your children) is set on one of these elite colleges, focusing on AP courses, perfect GPAs, high SAT or ACT scores, and extensive extracurriculars seems like a necessary path. However, for the other 98% of students, your chances to be admitted to the vast majority of colleges may actually be quite promising. Most colleges accept more than half of their applicants. The average acceptance rate for all four-year colleges in the U.S. is about 66 percent (or two thirds of applicants), according to a 2017 report from the National Association for College Admissions Counseling. This list includes well-known names such as St. John’s University in New York (67.7%), Virginia Tech (70.1%), Quinnipiac University (73.9%), the University of Missouri at Columbia (78.1%) and George Mason University (81.3%). It seems we confuse the prerequisites to getting into a college that is a good fit, proximate, and has reasonable admission criteria with the landscape for elite schools intentionally reserved for a select few.  

Elite College Admissions For Few Drive K-12 Processes For Most

In spite of the reality that most colleges accept a majority of applications and college enrollment has been declining for a decade, the highly selective college admissions requirements of the tiny but influential network of “selective school” universities essentially establish the baseline process for the rest of the field.  What’s more, the admissions procedures for these selective schools focus on efficiencies through standardization of the data, compelling the field to stick with seat-time-based courses, traditional letter grades, and tests like the SAT and ACT.

What does this mean? If less than 2% of students attend these selective universities, this data reinforces the uncomfortable reality that 52.2 million students aren’t served by K-12 schools that are largely organized around the needs of admissions criteria of this small number of highly selective universities.

Broadening The Path To Post Secondary Success

As educators and parents, we believe it is worth considering the adverse effects of this myopic focus on elite college admission requirements: High schools are plagued by increasing levels of pressure, late nights cramming for tests, increasing depression and anxiety … for what? Even at these selective colleges, the depression rates are alarming with studies indicating that “adolescents in high-achieving schools can suffer significantly higher rates of anxiety, depression, substance abuse and delinquent behaviors, at least two to three times the national average.”

When we expand our definition of success beyond getting into elite institutions to a plan for a prosperous life beyond K-12 that is built on the strengths, interests, values and aligned job prospects for young adults, we can improve student well-being and help all learners discover their unique potential.

The solution is to decouple our view of success with admissions into the small number of universities and to engage our communities in conversations about what matters most and collaborate to create multiple pathways that lead to success for all students, not just those who aspire to attend elite colleges.

Multiple Pathways Create More Access To Success

In our experience, when we engage in authentic conversations with students, families, and educators about what they really want for the future, we hear about the importance of relationships, health, happiness, and contribution. The process of clarifying what is most important in local communities has led to the development of inspiring new models such as the California State University San Marcos guaranteed admissions agreements with schools in North County San Diego as well as career pathways that leverage local interest-based learning opportunities within the community. Students can demonstrate progress toward their goals through meaningful performance assessment, learner portfolios, and defenses of learning aligned to a local profile of success.

Given the staggering number of students who are not well-served by the efficiency-focused college admissions process for a small number of elite universities, it is time for us to redefine success, prioritize authentic learning, and offer relevant pathways to ensure that all students know who they are, thrive and actively engage in the world as their best selves.

Dr. Katie Martin is the Chief Impact Officer at Learner-Centered Collaborative and the author of Learner-Centered Innovation and Evolving Education.

Dr. Devin Vodicka is the Chief Executive Officer at Learner-Centered Collaborative and the author of Learner-Centered Leadership.

The post The Tail is Wagging the Education System appeared first on Getting Smart.

What does the word “evolve” mean to you as an educator? For us, this is an important word. Yes, it is about continuously getting better through intentional reflection, but the gradual element is also critical. Not because we want to go slow, but because we want to, with great care and intention, improve our practice, not just quickly jump from trend to trend but based on what our learners need. Evolving is also about an asset-based approach, leveraging effective practices that help us achieve our goals like relationships, authentic learning, feedback to continuously examine what is working, what is not, and what is possible.  

Great educators and great practices can evolve and adapt to a changing context. Evolving in education is about aligning our practices in education with the world we live in. This means that we will need to prioritize what matters most and hold tight to the practices that we know are working for our learners and context. It also means that we have to let go of what no longer works, and continue to evolve to meet learners where they are. But how do we meet learners where they are? We must start by connecting to our learners to nurture the whole child and build community.

More meaningful connection with learners, less focus on quantity of content

Despite the awareness of students’ diminished sense of belonging and lack of engagement in their learning, we also feel the pressure of outside forces pushing us to cover massive amounts of content as quickly as possible. To be clear, we know we are here to educate and academics are essential. However, a dangerous overcorrection to a sense of falling behind is to aggressively push for “more” and “faster” which leads to stress and anxiety. According to Dr. Marc Brackett, research psychologist and Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, emotions impact:

• Attention, memory, and learning

• Decision making

• Relationship quality

• Physical and mental health

• Performance and creativity

If we are really focused on the whole child, we can’t neglect our learners’ well-being. First and foremost because people matter more than their test scores.  But if that is not enough, we also have to recognize that if students aren’t connected to their teachers, one another, and the work they are doing, we won’t have the conditions where learning is likely. We can start with simple things like greeting kids at the door by name to make sure they feel seen and a sense of belonging. We can also embed social and emotional learning (SEL) into our every day.

More opportunities to grow through feedback, less ranking, and sorting

Instead of adhering to a fixed timeline, we can create systems that move beyond ranking and sorting students based on how they perform at a given point in time to help them understand their mistakes, learn the material, and revise their thinking and understanding. When we provide high-quality feedback and multiple opportunities and ways to demonstrate what they know and can do, students can focus on and be held accountable for learning and growth. This is prioritizing personalization over one-size-fits-all. The impact of the multiple opportunities to develop competencies is not only that it allows students to improve their grades, but it also ensures that they understand the important concepts. If developing competency in these skills is truly the goal, getting clarity on what we value most and what students should know, as well as developing policies and practices that help them improve is key. We can evolve by having important conversations like rethinking grading practices and ways to empower learners in the assessment process. 

More relevant application, less busywork

If we let our high-stakes tests (that primarily measure content knowledge and basic skills) drive what we do every day in school, we will narrow the curriculum. Instead, we need to allow for learners to engage in authentic tasks and apply skills in relevant ways that matter to them. If we don’t, we will continue to see disengagement and students failing to reach their full potential. When students are behind or lack skills, what they need is more context. They need to understand the purpose of what they are learning. Instead, we reduce their education to drill and kill and never-ending worksheets, and then we wonder why they hate reading or think math is irrelevant. Foundational skills are absolutely necessary, but learners won’t master them without the motivation to practice and guidance to improve. Design Thinking, Project-Based Learning (PBL), and Challenge Based Learning (CBL) are inquiry-driven pedagogical methods that are learner-centered, taking what research proves is best for teaching and learning while also allowing us to design prosocial learning experiences that are relevant and can even solve real-world problems.

With an asset-based approach, our practice can evolve to focus on nurturing the whole child through connections, feedback, and relevancy. We can create safe, equitable, empowering learning experiences so all children (and adults) can reach their potential. How do you plan to continue to evolve?

Lainie Rowell is an educator, international consultant, writer, podcaster, and TEDx speaker. She is the lead author of Evolving Learner and a contributing author of Because of a Teacher. An experienced teacher and district leader, her expertise includes learner-driven design, community building, online/blended learning, and professional learning. Since 2014, Lainie has been a consultant for the Orange County Department of Education’s Institute for Leadership Development.

The post Evolving Through Connections, Feedback, and Relevancy appeared first on Getting Smart.

The first step is to co-author a shared vision for graduates with your community stakeholders. From there, we recommend the following considerations as a way to make your vision a reality.  

Review and share out the Profile of a Graduate (POG) with the community at large and share that you will be setting a course to achieve this goal.

• Share that you will update them on growth and next steps.
• Plan on stakeholder events as ways to share and gather information and feedback.
• Work with a communications team or department to make the POG accessible and on the website.
• Share in the ownership of this work and enlist a team approach with distributive leadership.

Change Management. The learning culture of an organization has always been extremely important, but it is more critical than ever for our communities and districts. This work is at the forefront to build readiness for change and is a continuous process to revisit as opportunities for growth arise.

• Driving from your collective commitment to understanding change, design intentional feedback loops and transparent pathways for stakeholders to learn, engage, and co-design.
• Be clear and transparent with leadership teams to lead with their values, and to actively use these values and outcomes to make decisions, and create the conditions in which they can succeed.
• Setting the culture for change and growth is essential. Lead with mindset and dispositions toward transformation and lay the groundwork for the path ahead. See toolkit for teachers.

Define success metrics that align with desired outcomes in your profile of a graduate. Review, revise, refine your data collection. Define an aligned assessment platform that supports growth and deeper learning. This will lead to cleaner data collection protocols.

• Create student, educator, and community surveys that gather input on experiences aligned with your POG.
• Create expectations for student learning exhibitions and demonstrations of learning to show their growth in the desired outcomes. This is true for all learners.
• Ensure that the report cards or other reporting mechanisms include metrics that align with your POG in addition to grades or standards reporting. This may require you to seek out other learning management tools to meet this need.
• Set goals and track leading measures such as student progress, school attendance, discipline referrals, and enrollment.
• Design aligned performance assessments that will help build an assessment model.

Use your POG as a north star to guide your strategic plan. Your POG needs to be visible and used to guide your strategic priorities and what is no longer needed.

• Design budgeting practices that make the POG a priority.
• After instructional needs have been determined, embed these into the Human Resources practices and eventually evaluation.
• Review current reporting practices. Consider connected practices, a presentation of learning, digital credentialing, extended transcripts, and portfolio assessments.

Design or revise your learning model. Is there a clear vision for what learning experiences students should be engaged in that align with your desired outcomes? Do your resources, guides and schedules reflect the learning that you aspire to see in all classrooms? Where is the learning model meeting the need and where is it falling short? Instructional models are most effective when this is co-created or codesigned with a mix of stakeholders.

• Refine your teaching and learning model. After instructional needs have been determined, align these with professional learning, coaching, and evaluation.
• Codesign opportunities to help educators create experiences aligned with your learning model. This will be an iterative process as related needs are revealed when refining instructional practices.
• Review effective strategies in place, highlight them and support teachers to use them.
• Build off of strengths and strong instructional practices already in place.
• Review induction and evaluation to make space for educators to try new strategies and evolve their practices.

Create transparent look fors across learning levels. These can be referred to as progressions, or rubrics – essentially competencies – that help guide a system to vertically plan for the acquisition of desired knowledge, skills, and mindsets to be supported for learners across the system. Representation of learning needs from across the system should be at the heart of this work.

• Make the profile accessible and clear for grade levels or grade bands.
• Use co-designed look fors to highlight what is work and aspirations, not just checklist
• Reflective questions on process alongside look fors invite teachers to self-reflect and assess their strengths and their needs for professional learning.
• Empower students to self-assess and capture evidence of their learning, growth, and next steps.

Build a professional learning system that aligns with your desired outcomes to validate what is working and support new areas of growth and expectations. This is most effective with representation from educators who are fluent in working with learners of varying levels and backgrounds.

• Engage with teachers to design educator competencies that support the learning model that will help achieve the graduate profile.
• Create personalized learning pathways with and for teachers to understand where they are and learn based on their needs, context, and goals. Consider micro-credentialing teachers as they develop competency in desired areas.
• Consider hiring instructional coaches that are either trained or will be trained to coach, advise and support educators.
• Ensure professional learning time that is consistent and agile to respond to the needs of the system as it grows. This requires additional time that is embedded into the system for teachers to meet, share, collaborate and grow their practice.
• The system could invest in learning communities across their system for leaders, related providers, paraprofessionals, and other related staff members that serve student learning.

Demonstrate and highlight examples. You may be able to go see aligned instructional practices in action that are outside of your district, and we recommend this! As soon as you can set up local examples, do. These opportunities will support understanding and professional growth.

• Set up opportunities for peers to observe one another. These classrooms can be referred to as demonstration classrooms or sites, that are simply demonstrating where they are in the journey to meeting a shared vision for graduates.
• Give careful consideration to framing observations and practices for professional growth. Not all observations provide examples where everything is aligned.
• Treasure systems and teachers who are open to sharing their practices, receiving feedback, and collaborating. This commitment is how networks are started.

Celebrate and share learning to scale at each step of the journey

As we work with systems leaders to align their aspirations of what we really want school to be with daily practices, it can be also overwhelming to think about so many things that need to shift. As you continue to grow and evolve, it is critical that you make time to acknowledge what’s working and build from where you are. When you are meeting with students, families, or colleagues, try to identify progress, growth, and positives for your team and others so we can all learn and grow along with you.

Need more? Or did you start the process and have since found your team needing additional support? Getting Smart and Learner Centered Collaborative have worked together to support several districts in creating, updating, and implementing their POG. We’d love to support your team as you start your journey. Email Jessica to learn more.

The #NewPathways campaign will serve as a road map to the new architecture for American High Schools, where every learner, regardless of zip code, is on a pathway to productive and sustainable citizenship, high wage employment and economic mobility. Interested in telling your future of high school story? Email Editor.

The post So You Designed a Profile of a Graduate, Now What? appeared first on Getting Smart.

Getting Smart and Altitude Learning would love to support your design, strategy and implementation efforts for your summer learning and back to school plans. Together we can provide professional learning, school design, coaching and strategic advising for school and district teams. If you’re interested in learning more about our joint services, email Taylor.

I was working with educators on their summer school plans recently. We were discussing what students needed first and how to meet them where they were. Without the constraints of “school” their creativity flourished: camp style, intramurals, individualized education plans, outdoor spaces, mentoring, community planning, building things, and all with a focus on building relationships, connection, and flexibility.

This conversation was inspiring because as many prepare for summer school I hear the pervasive narrative of learning loss and how we have to catch kids. Instead, these educators were so in tune with their students and teachers and knew that this was an opportunity to design for learning not out of fear. How we frame things matters and will impact our students and communities.

Addressing “Learning Loss”

I understand that there will be gaps in content knowledge, skills that have been out of practice (including social skills), trauma that will impact student (and adult) wellbeing and more. We are collectively exhausted from a year that took continual navigation, major pivots, and lots of loss- not just of learning– but of life, community, and a world that for better or worse we had known. Adding to this the overwhelming pressure to recoup a year of “learning loss” is 1) deficit based and fails to help us focus on each child and what they need, 2) puts unrealistic pressure on educators to catch everyone up since they have never been at the same place to begin with and 3)  not likely to really improve outcomes unless we do something different than what most people did over the course of the school year.

Although what we know about school compels us to work through the curriculum with more worksheets, tests, and group kids by “ability” according to the aforementioned tests in order to catch them up, if we really want to improve outcomes for students and help them deepen expertise, improve motivation, and develop fluency with foundational skills and application to solve meaningful problems, we have to use principles that we know impact learning.

What Impacts Learning and Growth

Edutopia recently published an article summarizing two research studies of thousands of students in diverse school systems across the U.S. where their findings showed project-based learning significantly outperformed traditional curricula, raising academic performance across grade levels, socioeconomic subgroups, and reading ability. Engaging in well-designed projects taught students how to apply what they were learning and also showed they were able to demonstrate on a test as well.

6 Questions to Consider When Planning for Learning in Summer School and Beyond

1. Design to meet the needs of the whole child

Students are more than test scores and GPAs. To ensure powerful learning, consider what is needed to ensure each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. How can you make sure students are getting to connect with adults and peers and that their social, emotional, and academic needs are addressed?

2. Use competency-based assessment to understand what students can do

Students may have received Fs or not attended a class, or missed instruction but that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t know something. Consider the barriers that exist and how students can show what they know in a variety of ways. How can you design instruction, assessment, and reporting based on what students can do and the application of what they know?

3. Develop learner agency

When learners have the power to act, they are more invested in the work. How can you create opportunities where students have the power, combined with choices, to take meaningful action and see the results of their decisions?

4. Engage students in relevant and authentic learning experiences

When students have opportunities to explore, discuss, and meaningfully construct concepts and relationships in contexts that involve real-world problems and projects that are relevant to the learner, they are more motivated to persist. How might students investigate and learn to solve problems that matter to them and others?

5. Create personalized plans to meet students where they are

Personalized playlists and content allow each student to get what they need. When you leverage technology, mentors, and flexible scheduling to customize learning with students based on their strengths, needs, skills, and interests, we can support learners to achieve the desired goals at their own pace, place, and path. How can you create individualized plans to support students’ academic, social and emotional needs?

6. Invite learners to be part of an inclusive community.

When learners are recognized and valued for what they bring to the group and they feel like they truly belong, they become a community of learners.  How might you create a community and make students feel welcome, safe, and excited to engage in their learning?

We know that students are all at different places and have varying strengths and challenges which is why there is a need more than ever to create more personalized, learner-centered classrooms where each child gets what they need to move forward, not just more pressure to do more work and to catch up.

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The post Strategies and Considerations When Designing for Summer Learning appeared first on Getting Smart.

Today, building on these approaches, some believe (count us among them) that a shift to an entirely new education paradigm is within reach. Harnessing new technologies, aided by advancements in transportation and communication, and required in order to adequately respond to deep and disruptive social, economic, environmental, and political forces, we envision a fundamental shift in how learners experience their education. Specifically, we envision moving from a school-centric, industrial-age model akin to factories and assembly lines, to a learner-centric, networked-age model characterized by lateral connections and flexibility. In short, we envision learner-centered education.

But what does the movement towards learner-centered education mean for the many methods for designing learning and differentiating support to students developed in recent decades?

In this piece, we identify some of the most-broadly adopted methods developed by educators to differentiate support, improve learning design, and meet the individual needs of learners. They include Response to Intervention (RTI), Positive-Behavior Intervention Systems (PBIS), Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS). Then, we seek to compare learner-centered education to these approaches, exploring the implications for each. Ultimately, we will make the following arguments:

1. Learner-centered education is about a paradigm shift, not a specific methodology.
2. Learner-centered education requires learning design that is flexible and adaptive, similar to or expanding upon the principles of UDL.
3. Learner-centered education may include specific methodologies for differentiating support (e.g. RtI or PBIS), but it is more likely to extend and/or replace them.
4. Learner-centered education is additive to and inherently strengthens existing systems-level approaches such as MTSS.
5. Learner-centered education is fundamentally adaptive and outcomes-focused (rather than technical and process-focused).

All of the approaches we name above recognize the same problem. The current industrial model for teaching and learning was designed based on an assembly line metaphor, expecting students to move through school in the same amount of time with more or less the same amount of support regardless of where they enter, unique challenges they may be facing, or strengths they may bring.

Within this rigid system, educators have sought ways to differentiate support. Over time, some of the techniques educators developed to provide each student the support they need have been built upon to create school and systems-level approaches. Tiered systems of support and intervention such as Response to Intervention (RtI) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) were developed to introduce achievable levels of differentiated support (e.g. 3 tiers) within the constraints of the industrial paradigm.

• Response to Intervention is a multi-tier approach and framework for instruction that screens all students for learning needs, and then provides progressive levels of intervention to students on an as needed basis. Interventions scale-up in the level of intensity such as supplemental instruction within the large group (typically Tier 1), targeted small group instruction (Tier 2), and individualized, intensive instruction aimed at skill deficits (Tier 3), though tier definitions and strategies differ by school. In practice, RtI models may call for individualized interventions (problem-solving models) or preselected interventions (standard protocol models). The three essential components are tired instruction and intervention, ongoing student assessment, and family involvement. RtI originated from the goal of proactively identifying and providing special education interventions to students before they fall too far behind.
• Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports is also a three-tier approach and framework but focused on student behavior and social-emotional development. The goal of PBIS is to proactively promote positive behavior. Similar to RtI, PBIS typically scales interventions starting with universal and proactive routines and support provided to the full classroom or school (Tier 1), then targeted behavior support (Tier 2), and lastly individualized, intensive support (Tier 3).

Recent innovations with tiered systems of support by organizations such as Turnaround for Children expand these models to include an understanding of trauma and adversity as well as taking into account how to adjust for hybrid and remote learning options.

These systems were developed based on a recognition that all students are capable of reaching similar outcomes, but require different amounts of time and support to get there. They were helpful steps towards providing each student with different amounts of time, support, and attention based on their needs. They have positively impacted tens of thousands of students in achieving desired standards however this often comes at the cost of removing students from their peers and narrowing the curriculum and will continue in such a manner as long as the traditional paradigm exists.

At the same time that these methodologies proliferated for differentiating and targeting support by pulling students out, complementary methodologies were developed for designing learning in a way that was flexible enough to meet the needs of learners with different motivations, interests, (dis)abilities, and needs. One example is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is an approach and framework for designing instruction and learning environments that are accessible to all students. UDL emphasizes providing flexibility in how students access content (e.g., visual, audio, hands-on) engage with it, and demonstrate knowledge or mastery. The goal is to remove barriers to learning. UDL is rooted in the premise that while accommodations and flexibility are necessary to ensure learning accessibility for some individuals, they in fact benefit all individuals (sometimes in unforeseen ways) and therefore should always be in play.

More recently, attempts have been made to create overarching systems that build on and integrate these into an overall coherent framework for systems change. One example that has gained widespread interest and adoption is Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS). MTSS is a framework for meeting the academic, social, and emotional needs of students. It builds upon and may include data-driven, tiered intervention strategies such as RtI and PBIS as part of the approach. However whereas RtI primarily focuses on academic learning and PBIS focuses on behavior and social/emotional development, MTSS aims to bring a more comprehensive lens and integrated approach to meeting the needs of learners. Moreover, MTSS is often described as a system-level approach with implications for aligned leadership, resource allocation, professional development and more.

This now brings us to the term that is at the center of our inquiry: learner-centered education. Like MTSS, learner-centered education has been growing in popularity. Learner-centered attempts to define an alternative to the industrial-era education model itself. The graphic below, borrowed from Education Reimagined, makes this clear.

Learner-centered education is about a paradigm shift, not a specific intervention methodology. It pushes education leaders to critically consider the purpose of school and to re-envision how the complete education ecosystem prepares students for the future. Learner-centered education demands that we move away from the traditional industrial model towards a transformative one that designs learning in response to the diverse needs of students. This future-oriented paradigm requires a new set of student outcomes and aligned success metrics as part of its vision, whereas most of the above can function within the traditional set of outcome metrics. Lastly, learner-centered education goes beyond schools as the unit of change. Instead, it looks at the needs and goals of the individual learner and macroscopically at opportunities for learning within an education ecosystem.

An example of a learner-centered student outcomes framework:

Because learner-centered education is referencing an alternative paradigm, rather than a specific methodology, it is compatible with the previously referenced strategies to varying degrees.

Learner-centered education is compatible with the implementation of a learning design that is flexible and adaptive, similar to or expanding upon the principles of UDL. Because humans naturally learn, process, and express themselves in different ways, UDL rightly emphasizes the need to incorporate flexibility into (1) how learning content is represented for accessibility; (2) how students are motivated to engage in the learning process; and (3) how understanding or skill mastery can be demonstrated.  This type of learning design should be pursued within a system that is learner-centered, in a way that increases learner agency, is personalized, relevant, and contextualized, socially embedded, and extends beyond the walls of the school. The chart below shows how learner-centered and UDL are not only compatible but additive.

UDL + Learner Centered Education

Learner-centered education may include specific methodologies for differentiating support (e.g. RtI or PBIS), but it is more likely to extend and/or replace them. Because a learner-centered system typically has a competency-based progression (as compared to seat time and lock-step progression), individual goal-setting elements, and a heavy emphasis on student agency, it is more flexible and aggressive in creating personalized learning experiences than existing tiered intervention models such as RtI or PBIS. Additionally, RtI and PBIS largely operate as a safety net and focus on providing targeted interventions to lower-performing students. As part of its paradigm shift, learner-centered education shifts the concept of “intervention” to be less about addressing deficits for lower-performing students and more about providing individualized support, guidance, and agency to all students.

Learner-centered education is additive to and inherently strengthens existing systems-level “solutions” such as MTSS. MTSS is a methodical framework for guiding school- and system-level action so that everyone is rowing in the same direction. It is a tool for systems-level change, and it is a useful framework for aligning tiered support with UDL, along with an emphasis on education equity. That being said, it is also process-oriented and can be effectively used in the traditional paradigm OR in a learner-centered paradigm. In other words, MTSS can be used to nurture learner-centered education IF it is oriented around such a vision and includes the appropriate supports and practices.

Learner-centered education is fundamentally adaptive and outcomes-focused (rather than technical and process-focused). It is for this reason that learner-centered education is complementary to all of the aforementioned methodologies, and, further, can actually serve as an overarching vision and educational philosophy that encompasses and leverages the best of them in combination. Learner-centered education challenges educators to consider what school is all about, and what outcomes should serve as the north star. Instead of taking a school-centric approach to education, learner-centered education calls on schools to co-design (with learners) flexible learning experiences that meet the unique needs and tap into the unique motivations of individual students.

In conclusion, RtI, PBIS, UDL, and MTSS are important innovations that continue to have a place in schools today. These methodologies provide useful structures that enable educators to implement evidence-based practices, assess and respond to student needs, and create accessibility and equity throughout the system. That being said, alone they are insufficient for achieving the transformative changes needed in schools around the nation. Learner-centered leadership is needed to extend these systems to focus less on standardization and the needs of the schools, and more fully on the needs of every child.

In doing so, we must be careful to maintain learner-centered education’s positioning as a paradigm, and not as a methodology. There are likely many ways to realize it, and no one has the one right answer, hence its adaptive nature. In our effort to define learner-centered, and clarify what it is and isn’t, we should be careful not to lose this important characteristic.

For more, see:

• A Reliable Hybrid Learning Model: Cedar Rapids Schools Responds to Setbacks 
• It’s Time to Reimagine Our Accountability Systems 

This post includes mentions of a Getting Smart partner. For a full list of partners, affiliate organizations, and all other disclosures please see our Partner page. 

The post Why Learner-Centered Education is the Key to Meaningful School Improvement appeared first on Getting Smart.

I asked a district leader what his ideal learning environment looked like, and he responded, “It’s hard to put my finger on it, but I know it when I see it.” This response is common but also problematic. Think about it for a minute: If you can’t articulate what desired teaching and learning looks like, how can teachers be expected to meet the expectations?

Leaders commonly use strategic plans or vision statements that describe the desire to develop life-long learners, global citizens, critical thinkers, and the like, yet a misalignment often occurs between the vision, policies, and practices. The tension between what we say we want our students to know and be able to do and what we prioritize and assess often tell a different story.

The Texas Learning Exchange seeks to support district leaders to design a learning solution that aligns with their vision. The Texas Learning Solutions Case Studies feature world-class learning systems in Texas that can be adapted and scaled by other districts statewide. The case studies feature details on each learning solution, which we are defining as intentional, explicit, and coherent plans that include vision, success metrics, resources, and learning model alignment connected to impact student outcomes.

Each solution highlights the following:

• At a Glance
• Shared Vision and Mission
• Theory of Action
• Desired Outcomes
• Learning Model
• Staffing Model
• Flexible Learning Models
• Curricular Resources
• Technology
• Professional Learning
• Partnerships and Funding
• Impact

To empower educators to develop the type of learners and people that vision statements espouse, administrators, teachers, families, and the greater community must work together to develop a shared understanding of the desired outcomes for and align the vision, policies, and practices. Our hope is that these case studies can help as you engage in more conversations with your communities.

The following protocol can be used to structure a conversation and seek to better understand what’s working, what’s challenging, and what’s possible. You can leverage these resources and protocol to inspire conversations in a variety of contexts such as a district leadership meeting, staff meetings, or you can convene a cross-functional group to include administrators, teachers, support staff, families, and community members.

Step 1: Celebrations: Share what makes you proud of your school/ district. It can be helpful to capture these ideas in a digital document or on a chart to ensure equity of voice and to capture the many things that are worthy of celebration.

Step 2: If you have a learner profile, remind the group of your goals as you dive into these case studies. If you do not have one that is widely used or known, have the group share the most critical skills, knowledge, and mindsets you hope to develop in learners.

Step 3: Visit the Texas Learning Solution Case Studies for comprehensive models. For national examples of school/program level innovation dimensions to consider, visit our New Learning Models Library. These case studies are meant to inspire district leadership teams in design and implementation as you begin planning for the upcoming school years.

• Option 1: Pick 1 or 2 that you would like everyone to read
• Option 2: Allow each group member to pick a different case study to read

Step 4: Invite your team to make notes about the 4 As as they read each case study:

• What do you Agree with?
• What do you Aspire to?
• What is misAligned with your work?
• What would you Argue with?

Step 5: Share out in small groups. Ask a team member from each group to capture ideas on a shared document.

Step 6: Highlight big ideas from each group.

Step 7:  In small groups, answer questions and identify priorities based on the following questions:

• What are the desired knowledge, skills, and mindsets?
• How might we leverage bright spots or test our ideas out before scaling?
• How might we measure success?
• How might we define and share the desired learning model?
• How might we allocate staff to support our learning model?
• What curricular resources are necessary to support our model?
• What is the role of technology? What tools do we need to leverage?
• How might we create learning experiences that support educators?  professional learning
• What partnerships might we consider to support our work?
• How can we all work together to achieve our desired outcomes?

After going through this protocol you can use the input to identify next steps based on the conversation and what surfaced. You might consider reaching out to one of the case study communities to learn more or read additional case studies and go through this protocol with additional groups. The key is to keep learning and to improve strategic clarity. There aren’t necessarily any right answers to these questions as they will differ based on context, but we can’t assume the answers are the same as they have always been. What it seems that we are lacking in education is what renowned educators and authors Michael Fullan and Joann Quinn define as coherence or the “[s]hared depth of understanding about the purpose and nature of the work.” When systems struggle to meet desired goals, it is often a result of a misalignment between the vision, assessment, and practices.

Empowering and inspiring those you serve to achieve great success requires leading with a unified vision, confidence, and sense of purpose. To better align schools with the world in which we live, it is critical to engage in conversations among diverse stakeholders to develop a shared vision and then work together to make it happen.

For more, see:

• Using OER to Increase Collaboration, Relevance, and Engagement

Stay in-the-know with innovations in learning by signing up for the weekly Smart Update. This post includes mentions of a Getting Smart partner. For a full list of partners, affiliate organizations and all other disclosures, please see our Partner page.

The post What Does Your Ideal Learning Environment Look Like? appeared first on Getting Smart.

As I connect with educators, I hear a common trend: many districts that moved from traditional textbooks to a robust digital ecosystem with devices, connectivity, learning platforms, and flexible (and digital) curriculum have fared much better as they navigate school closures, hybrid, and virtual learning. As many schools are facing the reality that they need to revert back to distance learning amidst building closures, there is a growing gap between districts that have access to high quality content and resources and those who have relied on the traditional textbooks. While some are seamlessly transitioning (the curriculum at least) from home to school due to the digital infrastructure, some are left with packets that are sent home for students to complete with little feedback, guidance, or relevance.

Despite our deepest desire to be back in schools, we know that students and teachers will likely have to engage from a distance as the numbers increase, which can be more efficient, relevant, and effective when resources are digital.

Empowering Teachers as Designers

As we navigate the shift toward digital ecosystems, there is great potential to use Open Educational Resources (OER) to ensure learning experiences continue to evolve with the world in real time. This shift in the resources used requires a shift in how many teachers plan, design, teach, and assess.

Empowering teachers as designers is critical but it can be overwhelming too. When I talk to teachers in districts that are replacing static textbooks with OER, the major challenges that they share include the following:

• Many teachers who have been teaching with prescribed curriculum have little to no preparation for curating and designing learning experiences in person or virtually.
• With much more flexibility and access to content, teachers struggle to evaluate content for alignment to standards and are not sure where to begin to look for quality resources.
• Without clear parameters, many feel uncertain about where they have flexibility to be innovative and where they don’t.
• Designing learning experiences in a Learning Management System and leveraging technology can be effective and efficient but requires new and different skills to maximize this potential.

In lieu of guidelines, resources, and time, teachers can revert back to old textbooks and teaching methods that aren’t designed to reach students in hybrid or virtual learning environments.

Teacher as Designer Continuum

Creating the high-quality foundation to build from is critical to supporting teachers in this important work. In my book, Learner-Centered Innovation, I describe how resources and frameworks allow for creativity and innovation when they provide the foundation—not the ceiling—for what teachers can build on, adapt, and innovate. Based on the context, the resources, and the desired learning goals, in a digital ecosystem, teachers should be able to leverage foundational resources across the following continuum to meet the needs of the learners:

• Replicate—Uses externally designed curriculum and resource in existing sequence and format as designed.
• Adapt—Uses externally designed curriculum and modifies existing sequences and format based on the learning goals and needs of students.
• Integrate—Curates resources from a variety of sources to meet the needs of the learners and learning goals.
• Innovate—Creates new and better learning experiences based on the context, learning goals, and needs of the learners.

Using OER to Increase Collaboration, Relevance, and Engagement

If we need people to think differently, solve problems, and be prepared for jobs that don’t exist, how can we structure learning experiences with the curriculum that is linear and standardized?

This case study by ASCD highlights how three districts increased relevance, collaboration, and engagement in their teachers and students through an innovative and collaborative project. “We used current information, including open educational resources,” said Erin English, Director of Blended and Online Learning for Vista. Open educational resources are licensed in such a way that educators can share, reuse, and adapt them to meet the needs of their students—a perfect vehicle for this project. In addition to developing units of study tied to standards and finding appropriate resources for activities, the COW (California, Ohio, and Wisconsin) teachers designed the specifications of a project through which students would demonstrate their learning.

As we are in the midst of the pandemic there is a tremendous opportunity to leverage the lessons throughout this project highlighted by ASCD to support teacher collaboration, leverage OER resources, and focus competency based assessment where students demonstrate what they learned.

Teacher Collaboration

Teachers, like all of us, have their own strengths and areas of growth. As we are all facing immense challenges and steep learning curves, there is no better time to support teacher collaboration to co-design projects and resources. Just like the teachers in the COW project, all teachers should be provided time to collaborate and leverage their strengths while benefiting others’ expertise to design meaningful learning experiences. Imagine if teachers worked together and some who were great at the project design could focus on that and curate resources while leveraging the most effective teaching strategies. Another educator who is great with the technology tools to engage learners can focus on that, while others might be great at explaining the content and some are great on small group settings. Could we reimagine how teachers work with students to lessen the load and increase the effectiveness and impact?

Open Educational Resources

Traditionally, curriculum has been organized in a linear path that promotes a one size fits all approach to success. When teachers are expected to follow directives or implement programs without taking the context and unique individuals in their room into consideration, it often creates frustration because they see their students need something else, something different, but don’t feel they have the authority to make those changes.

The Texas Learning Exchange curated an OER library to help educators find and use high quality and free resources to support meaningful learning anywhere, anytime.

Competency-Based Assessment

A standardized or traditional education system is designed to move kids along a certain path at a certain period of time and often ignores the variability in learners or their circumstances. In a mastery or competency-based system the learning goals are clear and transparent to the students and instruction, resources, learning experiences, and assessment are leveraged to meet the learner where they are and help them navigate their path.

This shift in assessment requires a different view of the role of the teacher, which shifts whole class lessons to more small group instruction, 1:1 check ins, and peer collaboration to move learners from their point A to their point B.

If you begin with your clear learning outcomes in step 1, some powerful tools for competency-based assessment are:

• Student goal setting and tracking
• Progress monitoring
• Student-led conferences
• Digital portfolio

The Impact of a Digital Ecosystem

Plans have been changed, revised, and remain short-sighted and week-by-week in many places. It is clear that our schools must evolve and create systems to meet learners. As I reflect on my own experiences and the countless educators I have observed and worked with, it is clear that the best teachers do not use a single approach or follow one curriculum; they create the context and experiences for diverse students to learn and grow. This video from Cajon Valley highlights the power of a robust digital ecosystem that helps teachers, students and families stay connected and engaged as they navigate learning from anytime, anywhere.

In the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment gear Future Ready highlights how, “Access to multimodal, multi-format, and multi-sourced high-quality academic content greatly improves learner experience and promotes equitable academic opportunities.” As described in the teacher as designer continuum, high-quality learning experiences that teachers can replicate should be the foundation that educators can use to collaborate and build from. Traditionally, curriculum has been organized in a linear path that promotes a one size fits all approach to success. Yet, this year has made it impossible to ignore that there is no standardized approach that will meet the needs of learners in 2020. It’s time to evolve.

This article was originally published here on katiemartin.com. 

For more, see:

• 5 Ways OER Empower Teachers To Choose Their Own Classroom Adventure 
• Getting Smart Podcast | The Role of OER in 21st Century Classrooms
• OER Curation at Scale: An Opportunity to Support Personalized Learning

Katie Martin is the VP of Professional Learning at Altitude Learning, where she works with educators and technologists to support partners with tools and support to create learning experiences that are designed to meet the needs of learners in a changing world. You can follow her on Twitter at @katiemartinedu. 

Stay in-the-know with innovations in learning by signing up for the weekly Smart Update.

The post Using OER to Increase Collaboration, Relevance, and Engagement appeared first on Getting Smart.