GInnovation & Personalization-Education Elements

3:00 p.m.

Background Information:

This work session will be a continuation of the discussion from the March 6th Work Session on Innovation and Personalization.  Additionally, some of the Board was able to attend the March 29th Administrator In-Service Meeting where Dr. James Rivet presented an overview of Education Elements and their approach to supporting School Districts with Personalization.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has always been a high achieving district that works hard to meet the needs of our students, families, and the greater community.  KPBSD has a philosophy grounded in continuous improvement and innovation that anticipates rather than reacts to complex changes in our society, the education environment, and the world.  Over the past several years we have undertaken efforts and initiatives to position our system to be prepared for these dramatic changes and to able to adapt our instructional system and practices to ensure a personalized learning environment where every KPBSD student graduates prepared for their future.

We believe personalizing learning is essential for us meet the needs of every student in our diverse district.  As Superintendent Dusek has stated:

 “Personalized learning is the structuring of schools, classrooms and instruction so we can better respond to the individual needs of students, instead of expecting students to fit the current mold or adapt to structures that may not be successful for them. Many of our teachers implement elements of personalized learning in their classrooms right now.  Key elements include:

• Integrated Digital Content: Digital content that allows for a differentiated path and pace
• Targeted Instruction: Instruction aligned to specific student needs and learning goals
• Data Driven Decisions: Frequent data collection that informs instructional decisions and groupings
• Student Reflection and Ownership: Ongoing student reflection that promotes ownership of learning

Unfortunately, a common misconception is that Personalized Learning efforts are simply a step toward replacing teachers with computers, which is unequivocally not true.  With personalized learning, the teacher is more important than ever. The role shifts, however, from primarily delivering information to creatively facilitating and problem solving so all students can learn at high levels. Using real-time data, teachers frequently assess where each student is at, give immediate feedback, determine individual learning needs, and help them figure out the best path to success.

We want to shift our instructional model to better prepare our students for their future.  This will require a more rigorous and relevant learning experience that leverages all instructional tools we have at our disposal.  Ultimately, all our students should be for life, college, and career ready.  Personalized learning is an approach that will move us even closer to this goal. We believe that our teachers are doing great things, and many teachers are already innovating to best meet the needs of their students.  Our challenge, however, is to ensure that such approaches to teaching and learning are occurring in a systematic and systemic approach, rather than in “pockets” of innovation.”

In order to assist the district in successfully pursuing this endeavor and providing our teachers with the necessary support they will need, we intend on partnering with Education Elements over the next 3 years. Education Elements is an organization that supports schools in the complex and daunting task of systematically designing and implementing personalized learning throughout an entire school district.  They have successfully partnered with more than 116 districts, 500 schools, and 25,000 teachers.

The Instructional Team has worked closely with our Finance Department on a funding plan that adds zero dollars to the budget to support this professional development partnership.  The plan involves a transfer of funds from curriculum materials to a direct investment in professional development for our teachers.  Another long term benefit of this effort should allow for significant reduction in future budgets in the area of curriculum materials.  Attached is budget transfer #755 which will be presented for your approval later this evening during the Board of Education meeting.