According to a presentation given at the Jan. 10 CCISD board workshop meeting, personalized learning is “active and ongoing” and defined as “a student-centered approach to learning that calls on educators to be responsive to the needs of their students.”
“I’m very impressed by this,” board trustee Michelle Davis said. “I know with COVID[-19] and everything it has done to everyone’s lives, it’s got to have just magnified the different levels where kids are because of learning. I love the fact that you can sit at the desk with the ones who need the intimate one-on-one attention.”
The four core values the district is focusing on include reflection and goal setting, flexible path and pace, collaboration and creativity, and targeted instruction, according to the presentation. Before COVID-19, the district was focused on certain aspects of personalized learning, such as goal setting for students; having flexible content; and using adaptive learning tools, such as DreamBox, a math program designed to adapt to both elementary students’ answers and problem-solving approach, as previously reported by Community Impact Newspaper.
During the first wave, the approach was implemented at a total of 10 schools, including Armand Bayou Elementary, Bay Elementary, Ferguson Elementary, Gilmore Elementary, Hyde Elementary, North Pointe Elementary, Parr Elementary, Ross Elementary, Weber Elementary and Wedgewood Elementary schools. The official program kicked off in September 2021.
District officials completed learning walks in October, which helped them collect data about personalized learning from observations and interviews. This helped inform recommendations for the next phase of the project, according to the presentation. During the first learning walk, they interviewed 107 stakeholders, including 49 students, 49 teachers and nine school leaders.
The district is planning on having two more strategy sessions during the remainder of the 2021-22 school year after already having two prior ones. These sessions will help provide further direction from district leaders when it comes to personalized learning. Officials will also have two more learning walks before the semester ends.
In the spring, the district will also host a second coaches academy session. During the first session, which occurred in December, leaders were able to take a deep dive into personalized learning and were able to plan for the next steps in the project, according to the presentation.
In March and May, the district will be evaluating the effectiveness of personalized learning through the data it has collected.
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