Rodel report pushes personalized learning
Some Delaware teachers are working on classrooms of the future, but the state needs to make some big changes before every student can learn in one.
These are the main conclusions of a blueprint released Tuesday by the Rodel Teacher Council, a group of educators from all three counties assembled by the Rodel Foundation of Delaware, a think-tank dedicated to improving the state's education system.
The report offers suggestions for how to personalize learning for students using technology and alternative models for schools and classrooms.
Take council member Jennifer Hollstein's English class at the Charter School of Wilmington.
Students work on research papers, using online resources such as UDLive or TED Talks on their computers. Hollstein monitors their progress on her laptop, approving timelines and research notes.
"Not only are they no longer limited by their library, they're not limited by a classroom structure that tells them how to do everything," Hollstein said.
If Delaware can get to the point where every classroom looks more like Hollstein's, the state could move away from a traditional grade-level model to a "competancy-based" approach, where students advance once they've mastered concepts, the report suggests.
The goal is to create an educational system in which every student learns at their own pace, so that advanced students can more easily work through high school material and start earning college credits while less-advanced students aren't left struggling with a concept just because lesson plans have moved on, the report says.
"We really want to reach the kids who feel disenfranchised by school," said Michelle Johnson, a gifted and talented teacher at Towne Point Elementary School in Dover.
But if this idea is going to gain any traction, there will need to be big changes, the report says.
To make personalized learning widespread, states and districts would need to change the structure for earning course credits away from grade levels towards mastery of ideas. Schools would need more flexibility in "seat time" rules, so that students can spend time on the subjects they need the most help with, not the ones that happen to fall in a certain grade.
Teachers also would need to be trained in the new system, both in new technological tools and a new style of managing classrooms.
"If you go into a classroom that's doing this right, it can look a little chaotic, because everybody's working on their own," Hollstein said. "It's a different way of thinking about the classroom."
Though it's unlikely all these changes will happen immediately, some districts are working together to try to find ways to make personalized learning work.
The BRINC consortium, a coalition of the Brandywine, Indian River, Colonial and New Castle County Vo-Tech districts, has been investing time and money into helping teachers and information technology staffs
"We know the state is looking at this and we all know this is coming in the future," said council member Robyn Howton, an English teacher at Mt. Pleasant High School. "We want to keep pushing this as an issue that needs to be talked about."
Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com or at 324-2428. Follow him on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.