Why the change, why now?
“Education cannot sit in this customized world as an island, embracing the Industrial Age, and expect to survive." - Bea McGarvey
Although each district was moved to change for varying reasons, the availability of technology in recent years has played a major factor in schools taking a second look at customized learning. Once textbook adoption was taken off the table and schools started adopting 1:1 initiatives, the once vision of a customized education suddenly became within reach. Danville, Garrett, and Plymouth each took the time to evaluate the education they were providing their students and decided that it was time for a change. It was time to stop leaving behind struggling students. It was time to start challenging their high performing ones. It was time to move away from a teacher-centered environment and shift to an environment where students owned their learning and were given the flexibility to work slower or faster than their neighbor. For these reasons Danville, Garrett, and Plymouth are making the change to customize learning for all students.
Beliefs held by each district:
- Learning should be the constant, time should be the variable
- Teaching self-directedness leads to lifelong learning
- Inquiry & interest based learning is the key to motivation
- Students progress at different rates
- Content needs to be available 24/7
- Students need the opportunity to demonstrate mastery in a variety of ways