FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact for Knowledge Works:
Mary Kenkel, 513-929-1310
kenkelm@knowledgeworks.org
Media Contact for NCTAF:
Karen Cheeks, 240-233-4110
karen@cheekscommunications.com
Personalized Learning Empowers Teachers in Classroom, Career
New KnowledgeWorks and NCTAF report sheds light on what personalized learning looks like in the classroom
WASHINGTON – July 11, 2016 – Today, KnowledgeWorks and the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future (NCTAF) release “The Shifting Paradigm of Teaching: Personalized Learning According to Teachers,” painting a better picture of what personalized learning looks like from a teacher perspective.
“Historically, teachers have been somewhat isolated in their own classrooms,” one teacher shares in the paper. “The personalized learning movement has changed the way that we think about communication, both inside and outside the classroom.”
“It was my job to envision how personalized learning, [and] this shift in my approach to teaching and learning, would be successful in my kindergarten classroom,” another educator reflects. “This afforded me the opportunity to build the culture that I wanted from scratch and share my vision of what school ‘should be about.’”
Based on interviews with teachers, instructional coaches and principals, the report explores what drives educators to build personalized learning environments in the classroom. It also provides excerpts from educator interviews and teacher reflections on how vision, culture and transparency have impacted personalized learning implementation.
Finally, the paper aligns teacher insight to 10 district conditions for scaling personalized learning, such as curriculum, instruction, technology policy and assessment systems. KnowledgeWorks originally published “The District Conditions for Scale: A Practical Guide for Scaling Personalized Learning” in 2014.
“We’ve spent the past few years researching how to support an education system that puts students at the center of their education,” KnowledgeWorks President and CEO Judy Peppler said. “We’ve learned a lot from school districts about the environments needed for personalized learning, from the local, community level to ideal state-wide policies. This paper considers perhaps the most important level of the system: the teachers who spend every day with our students.”
Finally, the report finds that the power to transform teaching and learning for students is first, and foremost, in teachers’ hands – as long as district leaders and policymakers allow the space for classroom innovation and trust educators as experts in their field.
“This report makes it clear that great teaching and personalized learning go hand in hand. As a nation, we must ensure that the proper supports and conditions are in place to encourage teachers and students to take ownership of their learning,” said NCTAF President Melinda George.
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About KnowledgeWorks
KnowledgeWorks is focused on ensuring that every student experiences meaningful personalized learning that allows them to thrive in college, career and civic life. We develop the capabilities of educators to implement and sustain competency-based and early college schools, work with state and federal leaders to establish aligned policy conditions and provide national thought leadership around the future of learning. Our subsidiary, StriveTogether, manages the national cradle-to-career network and helps communities improve student outcomes through collective impact. Learn more at www.knowledgeworks.org.
About NCTAF
The National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future (NCTAF) is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1994 as a bipartisan effort to engage education policymakers and practitioners to address the entrenched national challenge of recruiting, developing, and retaining great teachers in order to ensure that all students have access to quality teaching in schools organized for success. For 20 years, NCTAF has worked to drive and inform the national dialogue about the importance of great teaching, especially in hard-to-staff schools. NCTAF’s research and recommendations inform innovations and improvements in teaching quality nationwide, focus attention on the importance of equitable distribution and retention of teachers, and promote promising practices for the development of teachers’ skills and career pathways. For more information, visit www.nctaf.org. Follow NCTAF on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to NCTAF’s News Digest.