Challenging the norms“There is a shift that has happened, school used to be a place where you go to get knowledge. Now it is a place where you go to learn how to use knowledge,” said Aaryn Schmuhl, Assistant Superintendent for Learning and Leadership. Since the 1990’s Henry County Schools, a district in one of the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, has experienced tremendous change. Demographics shifted and the district doubled in size from 20,000 students to more than 40,000, becoming the 7th largest school district in the state. “This shift in what school is drives our conversations and has helped us challenge the norms of education, especially around personalized learning, time and space, and the role of teachers. So we are implementing structural change, not reform, but real structural change by 2020,” said Schmuhl.

Personalized learning is at the heart of the changes that administrators at Henry County Schools want to implement. Through working with a large consulting firm, the District was able to solidify their vision and create a plan for implementing it in six pilot schools. Schmuhl added, “This kind of change at scale is really messy and hard. You can change the structure of your school day all day long, but if you don’t change instruction within that structure, you are just moving things around for no good reason. So it involves both, the structure and the instruction, coming from a student-centered place rather than instructor-centered.”

Henry County School District2020: A Personalized Learning Odyssey

Steve Thompson, Program Administrator, agreed, “We need to change the structure to enable learning to happen in the ways it happens, naturally.” Schmuhl continued, “One of our first steps has been to untangle the perception that personalized learning is entwined with technology, putting kids on computers. The premise of personalized learning is about starting with the student. So we have gone to our schools explaining personalized learning and what it means for our district. Because of this misconception, we have had to explicitly say to our teachers and principals that we have no intention of replacing teachers with computers or putting kids on websites. We know teachers are essential, but now it is all about being student centered.”

Thompson added, “We now see it happening in our district where students have been given voice and choice about their learning. They own their learning experience. When that happens, the idea of time goes out the window. Kids work when they need to work. They create what their educational experience looks like. In this model, teachers are more central than ever. They become facilitators and advisors guiding learning paths, supporting and ensuring students meet learning expectations through a variety of learning experiences and assessments. Voice and choice applies to teachers and principals too.” Principals and teachers have been given voice and the freedom to make changes; however, district administrators set some foundational tenets to guide the effort.

“We have devised a set of five tenets that we believe all schools should use as a model for what personalized learning looks like on the ground,” explained, Schmuhl. “They include a learner profile; the idea of competency-based education with flexible pacing for kids; project-based learning or authentic assessments where kids are applying their knowledge to real-world experiences; and 21st century skills that we define as the ‘four C’s’: creativity, collaboration, effective communication, and critical thinking. Our fifth tenet is the idea that all of this needs to take advantage of technology in making those first four tenets possible.”

The Unschool School Hampton High School, one of the first six schools chosen to develop student centered cultures and learning environments, used the five tenets to create an “unschool” high school. While the school was being built during the 2013-14 school year, Principal Todd Finn and Assistant Principal Daniella Stamm assembled a team of 35 innovative teachers and staff to build a personalized learning environment that looks nothing like a traditional school. Finn explained, “Instead of ordering desks, they designed student collaboration stations and we had them built. Everything is on wheels, all of our chairs and our funky shaped stations. We also got one-to-one technology. So, every child has access to a great teacher, a room that fosters collaboration, and they all got laptops for free.”

He continued, “Since this is our first year we don’t have seniors yet. But, if you’re a sophomore or junior, you have a choice. You can take core classes in the morning or the afternoon. If you take them in the morning, you’re going to take your electives in the afternoon. If you take your core classes in the afternoon, you’re going to take your electives in the morning. This format helps personalize not only their schedule, but also build relationships with their classmates and teachers because they will be with them the entire year. If you are a freshman then you have your electives in the morning and core classes in the afternoon. But even they along with the higher grade levels can choose how they want to learn. Kids who want to stay in the classroom can, but for the kids who want more freedom, we allow them to work independently in what we call our Edge Academy. Two to three days a week kids can work in several areas of our building where we moved desks.” Teachers monitor each student’s progress and adjust their learning paths accordingly.

A new kind of teacher“We are changing what teachers do on a daily basis, so that they’re truly responsive to kids instead of necessarily being responsible for 30 kids in a classroom. They make sure a set of learning occurs and help move kids toward competency,” Schmuhl explained. At Locust Grove Middle School, one of the six pilot schools, teachers interact with students in a lab rotation model using a blended learning format. Due to budget constraints, only half of the school moved to the blended learning format last year. He continued, “Some 75-80 kids in a lab work through an instructional delivery system for one to two hours in core subject areas. From the data generated by the system, teachers go to classrooms with about 15 kids for another two hours where they do group work. Teachers respond to the needs of kids as well as guide their project-based learning.”

At Hampton High School, teachers work more collaboratively. Every day core-subject teachers work together for 100 minutes to plan for the next day or week. Finn explained. “We put them all together in what we call a collaboratory for teachers. That’s where they literally set up their day. That’s when they’re talking about how much time they need. They ask each other, ‘What room would you like to use?’ and ‘How can I help you?’ ‘Do you want to combine classes?’ Each core class is 50 minutes, but teachers can give another teacher part of their time if they don’t need it. So if a Biology teacher is going to only need 30 minutes to do an assessment, she can give the extra 20 minutes to the math teacher.” Schmuhl added, “Teachers and classrooms are more collaborative. However, we have virtual opportunities as well. For example, a 9th grader at Stockbridge High School can take core classes online, but take Spanish in person and be in the marching band. We have a number of flexible models in place and that continues to grow as personalized learning grows for us.”

Positive signsHampton High School opened its doors September 2014, but already students are responding positively. Attendance exceeds 95% and the school has the fewest disciplinary incidents in the district. Finn said, “We know [students] want to come here and when they are here, they are acting right for the most part, so we are doing something right.”

Locust Grove Middle School began using the blended learning model during the 2013-14 school year. Schmuhl explained, “Locust Grove had a traditional side, and a blended learning academy side of the school where they used instruction in different ways. Data from formative assessments given throughout the year and from the state-level Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) showed positive signs. Students in the blended learning model outperformed students in the traditional model across all content areas in all subgroups anywhere from 3 percentage points to 12 percentage points (see Figures 1-3). That’s an early indicator for us that if we think differently about where kids get instruction, what ownership they have over the pace of instruction, and how it applies to what they know and need to know that we can see some definite shifts for our kids.” Finally, Schmuhl explained, “Several of our schools reflect that Henry County is in a promising practice stage, and at the same time, we understand that we are not fully there yet. We’ve made it to the starting gate but we have a long way to go before we finish.”

“ There is a shift that has happened, school used to be a place where you go to get knowledge. Now it is a place where you go to learn how to use knowledge.”

Aaryn Schmuhl Assistant Superintendent for Learning and Leadership

For more information on Personalized Learning, visit pearsonschool.com/three

Figure 1: 6th Grade CRCT Competency Scores

Figure 2: 7th Grade CRCT Competency Scores

Figure 3: 8th Grade CRCT Competency Scores