Personalized Learning is a unique, blended classroom and nonclassroom-based
public educational model that is tailored to the needs and interests
of each individual student. Personalized Learning is a 21st century, "on
the leading edge" approach to public education that honors and recognizes
the unique gifts, skills, passions, and attributes of each child. Personalized
Learning is dedicated to developing individualized learning programs
for each child whose intent is to engage each child in the learning process
in the most productive and meaningful way to optimize each child's learning
potential and success.
The key attributes that comprise the Personalized Learning model
are based upon a solid foundation of the latest educational research
findings as to how students learn most successfully, including a strong
emphasis on parental involvement, smaller class sizes, more one-on-one
teacher and student interaction, attention to differences in learning
styles, student-driven participation in developing the learning process,
technology access, varied learning environments, teacher and parent development
programs, and choices in curriculum programs. No other educational model
offered in today's public education system has integrated these proven
educational research results in such an in-depth and comprehensive manner
to serve the diverse needs of today's public education students.
Our public education system is experiencing student failures in learning
successfully even the basic core subject areas at an unprecedented and
alarming rate. Yes, our class sizes are too big. Yes, we are experiencing
teacher shortages, a budget crisis, overregulation of education codes,
shortage of facilities, safety issues, and more. However, solve all these
problems and will we then be able to ensure the learning success of all
students? Unfortunately, NO!
Why? Because education research confirms beyond any semblance of doubt
that not all students are able to learn successfully at the same pace,
with the same approach, in the same environment, on the same path, and
in the same style and manner. Research confirms that every individual
assimilates information according to their own unique learning style,
need, and interest. Learning styles vary. Some people are visual learners,
others learn by auditory means, others kinesthetically. Some people learn
at a faster pace, others need more time. Some people are distracted when
trying to learn in a noisy environment with 30+ other kids. Some people
feel intimidated or unsafe in a large classroom environment. Motivation
to learn varies significantly from student to student. Interests and
passions vary. And countless other reasons and differences...
The underlying problem is that today's public education system continues
to insist that a "one size fits all", full time classroom-based
model can and shall effectively serve all students, in spite of the overwhelming
research to the contrary. More and more students are not able to achieve
learning successfully in this single model approach. Tragically, those
that are not are instead labeled with some abnormality. They are labeled "at
risk", "ADD", "ADHA", "special needs", "disabled", "disruptive", "disengaged",
and every other "dis" imaginable. The public education paradigm
continues to be to try to force every student into learning one way through
one model, despite the increasing diversity and complexity of today's
world that demands choice, opportunities, and more individualized solutions.
It is time to recognize and acknowledge that a one size fits all model
can no longer effectively serve the needs of all public education students.
The real solution for our public education system must be founded upon
a paradigm shift. Rather than trying to force-fit every student into
one model, the answer is to provide, in addition to the traditional model,
an alternative model that offers flexibility to fit the needs of the
student. The Personalized Learning model is such a model to serve
the growing percentage of students who are yearning for an alternative
to the full-time classroom-based, traditional approach.
President Bush's No Child Left Behind program is intended to ensure that
every child has the opportunity to learn all core subject areas successfully.
This lofty goal cannot be achieved, however, as long as the public education
system insists on offering only one model for all students. No amount
of money or resources will ensure that goal. The answer is, particularly
for those students at both the high end and low end of the "bell
curve", whose needs are not being met by a fulltime classroom model,
to provide a model that is tailored to their needs. The Personalized
Learning model is the solution for those students whose need an
alternative approach to be able to learn successfully. The Personalized
Learning model is the solution to turn the fate of our public
education system from continuing and increasing failure rates to one
of success for all students, one that will truly ensure that "no
child is left behind".
The Personalized Learning approach embodies a unique combination
of key components that qualify it as a distinct education model within
the public school system. As a model that embodies flexibility, innovation,
and individualized student learning, Personalized Learning offers
positive and encouraging hope as an alternative choice for a growing
segment of public school children who need or desire a more tailored
approach to learning to succeed academically.
Personalized Learning is a leading, "21st Century" educational
approach that incorporates the results from the most recent leading education
research studies. In congruence with these research results, the Personalized
Learning model recognizes that every student is an individual,
with a distinct learning style, learning pace, learning path, and learning
aspiration. Research confirms that children look to their parents as
their primary role models for learning. Parents, in turn, are ultimately
responsible for guiding their child's learning and education. The Personalized
Learning model recognizes the value of parent involvement and participation
in their children's education and learning process, and the value of
ongoing teacher development training. Personalized Learning supports
a collaborative relationship between parent, student, teacher, and school
in creating an optimal learning process. Personalized Learning supports
a variety of learning choices and opportunities, both within and beyond
the classroom, to address each student's individual learning needs and
optimize each student's learning potential.
The key components that, when utilized together, distinguish the Personalized
Learning approach as a unique educational model within the California
public school system are as follows:
Personalized
Learning schools follow a university-type
model with a "hybrid' or "multi-strand" approach.
Schools provide a wide variety of curriculum
choices, attention to individual learning styles,
technology learning access, and a variety of
learning environments and opportunities both
within and beyond the classroom so that learning
programs may be tailored according to the individual
needs and preferences of each student.
Parents
are strongly encouraged and supported to be
actively involved in their children’s
education and to take personal responsibility
for ensuring that their children are learning
successfully.
Personalized
Learning schools support and facilitate
learning program development and oversight
through an ongoing collaborative relationship
between parents, students, teachers, the school,
the greater community, and the state.
Personalized
Learning schools are committed to reduced
class sizes, generally limiting attendance
to no more than 15-20 students per class.
Personalized
Learning schools combine multiple assessment
levels of student academic achievement. Certificated
teachers oversee student progress toward satisfying
state academic standards through the regular
recording of detailed learning records, compiling
extensive student work portfolios, and conducting
annual state mandated testing programs.
Personalized
Learning schools devote the majority
of their budget for the instructional benefit
of their students. This includes providing
students with certificated teaching expertise
and oversight, technology access, and a wide
variety of learning choices and environments
that students need to be successful academically.
Personalized
Learning schools emphasize dynamic teaching
staff development programs that help teachers
learn how to tailor learning according to their
student’s learning styles, needs, and
aspirations.
The Personalized Learning education model is embraced by dozens
of charter schools throughout California. Many of these programs provide
educational services to students from kindergarten through the twelfth
grade. Some specialize in educational programs only for students at the
high school level, while others specialize in educational programs only
for students in the kindergarten through eighth or ninth grade levels.
These distinguished charter schools fall under the Independent Study
guidelines in California, which enables these schools to serve students
in a broader geographical region than either traditional public schools
or charter schools that only offer a strict classroom learning option.
Personalized Learning schools may serve students who reside within the
county of the school's sponsoring district, as well as students who reside
in all counties that are contiguous (adjacent) to the county in which
the school is sponsored.
Beyond the basic key components listed above that define this unique
education model, Personalized Learning schools are afforded flexibility
and latitude in the administration of their programs, so that each school
can optimize their processes and procedures according to specific or
unique educational needs within their individual communities. Personalized
Learning schools can range in size from around 100 students to as large
as several thousand students. Each school develops its own "charter",
which determines the school's basic education philosophy and approach.
Each school is then managed by a team of education and business administrators
and a governance committee consisting of parents and community representatives
who ensure that the charter is being followed in accordance with its
stated goals and in accordance with state regulations and guidelines.
Personalized Learning has its roots in the homeschool movement,
where, for decades, parents have privately tailored learning for their
children according to their individual needs and preferences. Prior to
the 1990s in California, parents had few choices for their children’s
education: the public school system, a private school, or private homeschooling.
In 1992, California’s elected officials enacted California’s
Charter School Act, which established public charter schools as an option
for parents, students, teachers, and community members to design self-governing
schools within the public school system to meet the needs of their community.
Charter schools were envisioned to provide new, better, and more flexible
and innovative opportunities for California students within the public
school system as an alternative solution to a voucher system.
The Personalized Learning approach to education emerged within
the public charter school system in California, in a growing segment
of schools that have evolved through the Independent Study California
charter school movement. The California charter school movement was established
in 1992 to provide flexibility and innovation within the public school
framework, and to enable citizens and communities at the local level
to have more control over administering educational approaches that better
serve the needs of students in their immediate communities. These more
expansive principles of innovation and flexibility through the public
charter school movement provided new hope for a dynamic partnership between
members of the private community and members of the public education
system. As the charter school movement grew in California, so also evolved
a partnership between members of the private homeschool community and
public educators who saw great educational potential and value in learning
opportunities beyond the classroom. Through this specific partnership
evolved a new model of education that rose far beyond what had been originally
envisioned by many charter school lawmakers.
To this day, many lawmakers who voted for the Charter School Act in 1992
admit that they did not envision a model that would evolve into an approach
that embraces learning choices and opportunities both within and beyond
the classroom. They had simply envisioned the Charter School Act as a
vehicle to provide a more flexible, but standard "classroom" environment.
However, through the flexibility and innovation provided through Charter
School law, teachers, parents, students, and administrators have successfully
demonstrated that an effective learning "classroom" goes well
beyond the walls of a standard public school building. The "hybrid" or "multi-strand" approach
of the Personalized Learning model enables students to pursue
learning choices that optimize their learning potential according to
their individual needs, particularly where an exclusive classroom-based
approach does not serve them effectively.
Many lawmakers though, backed by the education establishment and unions,
continued to resist the growth and expansion of these "hybrid" charter
schools, nor acknowledge or recognize that they were evolving into a
distinct and unique education model. In the late 1990s, legislation was
enacted that "lumped" these programs into the existing Independent
Study model guidelines, because guidelines did not exist that fit this
newly evolving model. Thereafter, media reports surfaced that a handful
of these programs were misusing public funds and engaging in profiteering
activities. Legislation was then enacted to restrict the spending flexibility
of all "Independent Study" charter school programs, even though
the vast majority of them were doing a very effective job of educating
their students. These restrictions, which also included a reduction of
funding levels to programs that did not meet strict spending criteria,
were also founded upon the misperception that these programs were strictly "non-classroom" based,
and therefore did not require an equal amount of funding as traditional
classroom based programs. Proponents of this legislation argued that
it costs less to administer education in a non-classroom model than in
a classroom model because of the high costs of maintaining classroom
facilities. The facts presented in response to these misperceptions that
these schools offer and fund both classroom and non-classroom learning
choices, and that the costs to administer an "individualized" learning
approach are in fact higher than the standard "one size fits all" classroom
approach went largely ignored.
The Personalized Learning movement began in late 2001 as a strategic
and more proactive response to these numerous, long-standing public and
legislative challenges facing the “non-classroom” or "Independent
Study" charter school programs. As described above, these public
and legislative misperceptions resulted in a series of restrictive legislative
action toward these programs that now threaten their future existence
in public education. Many of these misperceptions and responses resulted
from misunderstandings and misperceptions as to how these programs administer
learning and account for learning progress and results. The term Personalized
Learning was created to more accurately define and describe this
unique approach to education, and distinguish this approach from others
that have been inaccurately associated with this model of education.
As described above, Personalized Learning programs have been defined
in the past using terms such as non-classroom, homeschooling, Independent
Study, distance learning, non-site, and others. While Personalized Learning programs
do incorporate as components of learning both classroom and non-classroom
learning environments, technology access, home study support, community-based
learning, and Independent Study options, none of these terms in and of
themselves ever accurately described the foundation of their educational
approach, that foundation being that learning is "personalized" according
to the needs of each individual student. This grassroots movement culminated
in the establishment of APLUS+, the Association of Personalized Learning Services,
a network association exclusively dedicated to promoting the value of
the Personalized Learning model and to serving the needs of Personalized
Learning schools.
Personalized Learning is a model that deserves a viable and respected
position in the public education system in California. Through its unique
approach of individualizing learning, the Personalized Learning model
is responsible for bringing tens of thousands of students back into the
public school system, students who had left because their needs were
not being adequately met through the "one size fits all" strictly
classroom based model. The Personalized Learning model is also
responsible for providing an effective alternative for thousands of students
who were on the verge of failing and dropping out of the standard classroom
based public school model. The Personalized Learning opportunity
has given these students renewed hope for success in education by offering
them an alternative model that better fits their needs.
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