{"id":1313,"date":"2016-05-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/how-states-build-local-capacity-to-implement-personalized-learning\/"},"modified":"2022-11-04T17:40:07","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T21:40:07","slug":"how-states-build-local-capacity-to-implement-personalized-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/how-states-build-local-capacity-to-implement-personalized-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"How States Build Local Capacity to Implement Personalized Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
States are much more likely to be successful in their support of innovation and <\/span>personalized learning<\/span><\/a> if they are intentional about building the capacity of <\/span>school leaders and educators<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Personalized, competency-based learning<\/span><\/a> is a fundamental transformation of education from the one-size-fits-all factory-based model, to an approach customized to the needs and interests of each individual student. <\/span><\/p>\n In these learning environments, <\/span>students tailor their education<\/span><\/a> based on their own learning goals, interests and passions. Students work with their teachers to decide on learning objectives based on personalized learning plans, engage in meaningful learning to accomplish rigorous goals and take ownership of their education. <\/span><\/p>\n In student-driven, <\/span>blended learning<\/span><\/a> environments, educators take on new roles <\/span>not often emphasized in traditional, teacher preparation programs<\/span><\/a>. In addition, personalized learning generally requires districts to redesign and <\/span>update certain system structures<\/span><\/a> and procedures. For these transformations to be successful, states and districts need to increase school leader and educator capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n State departments of education can support personalized learning by:<\/span><\/p>\n The following provides specific state examples of each of these support strategies. <\/span><\/p>\n Some state educational agencies \u00a0are providing actionable information to support school leaders who are ready to innovate through their websites.<\/p>\n The <\/span>Kentucky Department of Education\u2019s website for innovation<\/span><\/a> contains a wealth of useful, curated information to help Kentucky move to personalized learning. The website includes <\/span>Exemplars of Design Principles of Innovation<\/span><\/a> to help school leaders understand the most important elements of a next-generation learning system. It also outlines the state\u2019s <\/span>Districts of Innovation<\/span><\/a> program. In addition, the department supplies a <\/span>survey tool<\/span><\/a> for school districts to self-assess their readiness for innovation. Lastly, it highlights <\/span>Innovative School Models<\/span><\/a> for school leaders to learn about specific examples of highly-personalized schools. <\/span><\/p>\n These resources allow school leaders throughout Kentucky to easily find <\/span>high-quality information<\/span><\/a> on personalized learning and how to begin to transform learning environments. <\/span><\/p>\n Some state departments provide direct technical assistance to schools ready to move toward personalized learning. <\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>Arkansas Office of Innovation for Education<\/span><\/a> provides research and technical assistance for schools to <\/span>create transformational, student-centered learning environments<\/span><\/a>. The Office employs specialists to work with schools to match personalized learning approaches with each school\u2019s specific needs and contexts. The Office also takes groups of school leaders to schools and conferences around the country to learn about and see leading personalized learning models in action. <\/span><\/p>\n In the fall of 2015, the New Hampshire Department of Education released its <\/span>Vision 2.0<\/span><\/a>, where it explains how, over the next five years, the Department will provide training and professional development for school districts to transform learning environments by expanding the trainings related to its <\/span>Performance Assessment of Competency Education (PACE)<\/span><\/a> program. <\/span><\/p>\n They plan to implement a system of supports to interested school districts \u201cbased on tiers of readiness from building awareness\/literacy to whole district transformation.\u201d For Tier 3 and tier 2 districts, not yet ready to move to full transformation, the department plans to provide access to professional development from state and national experts on performance assessment, and technical assistance on performance task development, instructional design considerations, and creating local structures, such as professional learning communities, to support the work.<\/span><\/p>\n For Tier 1 districts, ready to move with transformation and able to \u201cboth gain and share expertise in competency-based learning and performance assessment,\u201d the state plans to provide \u201cworkshops facilitated by experts, consultants and coaches allowing cross-school learning of performance assessments within specific content areas and across grade-spans.\u201d These districts will have the opportunity to participate in the development and implementation of common performance assessment tasks for accountability purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2012, Iowa passed legislation to <\/span>create a competency-based education task force<\/span><\/a>. The task force recommended the legislature direct the Iowa Department of Education to \u201cidentify up to 10 districts that would serve as models across the state.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n The Iowa Department of Education created the <\/span>Iowa CBE Collaborative<\/span><\/a> to regularly convene leadership teams from each of the 10 participating school districts. Some of the <\/span>Collaborative\u2019s objectives<\/span><\/a> are to establish demonstration sites in the participating school districts, to develop model competencies and performance assessments and to create tools and processes to document and share results, challenges and lessons learned from implementing <\/span>competency-based learning<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The Idaho Legislature passed Laws 2015, Chapter 68 (<\/span>HB 110)<\/span><\/a> to advance mastery-based education in the state. The legislation directs the Idaho Department of Education to identify an initial cohort of 20 school districts to serve as mastery-based learning incubators in 2017. The Idaho Department of Education recently created the <\/span>Idaho Mastery Education Network<\/span><\/a> to support these incubator schools and to create a professional learning community amongst these schools whereby the can learn from one another.<\/span><\/p>\n Many of the states and regions to have most successfully advanced personalized learning have leveraged partnerships with other organizations to increase local or state capacity to support personalized learning. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For example, the state departments of education in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont have partnered and worked extensively with the <\/span>Great Schools Partnership<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>New England Secondary School Consortium<\/span><\/a> to advance student-centered learning in their states. Other examples include Colorado partnering with the <\/span>Colorado Education Initiative<\/span><\/a> and Kentucky partnering with <\/span>CCSSO\u2019s Innovation Lab Network<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>Center for Innovation in Education<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n One strategy which holds potential to significantly enhance educator capacity, is the use of micro-credentials and digital badges. These are competency-based, portable, and shareable approaches to professional development. <\/span><\/p>\n Digital Promise<\/span><\/a>, whose mission is to \u201caccelerate innovation in education to improve opportunities to learn,\u201d has developed a <\/span>framework<\/span><\/a> to ensure <\/span>micro-credentials<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n In February, iNACOL hosted a webinar with Digital Promise and <\/span>Relay Graduate School of Education<\/span><\/a> titled, \u201c<\/span>Micro-Credentials: Personalizing Professional Development for Educators<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>MacArthur Foundation<\/span><\/a> defines digital badges as \u201can assessment and credentialing mechanism that is housed and managed online. Badges are designed to make visible and validate learning in both formal and informal settings, and hold the potential to help transform where and how learning is valued.\u201d The Foundation supports <\/span>Mozilla Open Badges<\/span><\/a> which allows any organization to create, issue and verify digital badges.<\/span><\/p>\n Wisconsin\u2019s <\/span>Kettle Moraine School District<\/span><\/a> has successfully utilized micro-credentials to improve staff capacity to implement innovative learning models. The district incorporated micro-credentials in its professional development and compensation systems. Educators can choose from the <\/span>micro-credentials offered through Digital Promise<\/span><\/a>, others offered by the district, or suggest ones of their own making. Over 50 percent of Kettle Moraine\u2019s teachers have earned at least one micro-credential.<\/span><\/p>\n A few leading states are exploring ways to effectively utilize micro-credentials. <\/span><\/p>\n The New Hampshire Department of Education, in <\/span>Vision 2.0<\/span><\/a>, plans to develop a system of micro-credentials \u201cto promote personalized, on-demand professional learning across the state.\u201d Their goal is to achieve 10% growth per year in attainment of micro-credentials.<\/span><\/p>\n Additionally, <\/span>Colorado Commissioner of Education Rich Crandall<\/span><\/a> recently indicated that his agency is looking for partnerships in this area to develop and roll out a system of targeted micro-credentials so that teachers can develop specific skills to succeed in innovative learning models.<\/span><\/p>\n To improve understanding of personalized learning, iNACOL recommends states: <\/span><\/p>\n To build educator capacity to implement innovative, student-centered learning models, iNACOL recommends states:<\/span><\/p>\n In personalized learning environments, <\/span>educators take on new roles and duties<\/span><\/a> not often emphasized in traditional, teacher preparation programs. In addition, districts often redesign many systems and procedures. For these transformations to be successful, states and districts need to increase school leader and educator capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n States are more likely to see personalized learning at scale, if they are intentional in providing the necessary support to <\/span>school leaders and educators<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Interested in other promising policies for personalized learning? See our other resources and blogs in this series:<\/span><\/p>\n States are much more likely to be successful in their support of innovation and personalized learning if…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"issue":[377],"location":[],"class_list":["post-1313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-state-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nState Strategies to Build Capacity in Local School Districts<\/b><\/h3>\n
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\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nProviding Relevant, Actionable Information<\/b><\/h4>\n
Offering Technical Assistance<\/b><\/h4>\n
Creating Specialized Training and Professional Development Programs<\/b><\/h4>\n
Facilitating Peer Learning Networks<\/b><\/h4>\n
Leveraging Partnerships to Improve Local or State Capacity<\/b><\/h4>\n
Enabling and Scaling the Use of Micro-Credentials<\/b><\/h4>\n
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Recommendations for States<\/b><\/h3>\n
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