{"id":389,"date":"2014-03-18T18:42:53","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T18:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.rsed.org\/?p=172"},"modified":"2017-12-17T05:43:53","modified_gmt":"2017-12-17T05:43:53","slug":"personalized-learning-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipschools.org\/en\/latest-news\/blog\/personalized-learning-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Personalized Learning: What’s Next"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sometimes I think back to our first Rocketship school, when we began to pursue blended learning through a rotational model.\u00a0 At that time, elementary students rotating to different teachers and a dedicated space for online learning was considered incredibly \u2018innovative.\u2019\u00a0 The first year of pursuing this instructional model was quite challenging\u2014I can recall many days standing in the middle of a leased church space with hot, cramped quarters, digging deep to make it all work.\u00a0 Persistence paid off and we were able to figure out how to execute this rotational model in a manner that delivered for our Rocketeers\u2014both socially and academically.\u00a0 At the end of that first year at Rocketship, we felt a great sense of triumph.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Yet, in rethinking elementary school from the ground up, we will never be satisfied.\u00a0 In our work to transform the lives of students and eliminate the achievement gap, we know that we must constantly be reflecting on ourselves, our work, and our pedagogical approach.\u00a0 We need to make decisions that are grounded in data with the best interest of our students and communities in mind.\u00a0 \u00a0At the same time we must continuously ask ourselves if our schools are optimizing every moment of every day for each one of our incredible Rocketeers.\u00a0 Are we truly personalizing education?<\/p>\n

As Steve Jobs said, \u201cInnovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last two years, the Rocketship team has engaged deeply in further innovating on our instructional model.\u00a0 We wanted to push the limits, to see if we could realize even greater results and opportunities for our Rocketeers, to put technology, tutoring, and blended learning in direct control of our amazing teachers, and help our older Rocketeers become even more successful as independent learners. To do so, we pursued what we called a \u2018flexible model<\/a>,\u2019 which we implemented in an open space classroom.<\/p>\n

Responsible Reflection<\/h2>\n

Across the aisle from innovation sits responsibility\u2014\u200aas we innovate, we must regularly assess the results, look at the data, listen to feedback from our students, families, and staff, and measure progress to ensure that we are moving forward responsibly. \u00a0Every decision should be informed by data and feedback as we improve our schools for our Rocketeers and their families.<\/p>\n

In reflecting on our progress with the flexible model, we poured over the data, engaged our teachers, and surveyed students and families.\u00a0 We made several discoveries:<\/p>\n