Future Ready Learning

PUTTING LEARNING ON DISPLAY: SUMMIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS’ STUDENT
DASHBOARDS PERSONALIZE LEARNING
Each morning, students at Summit Public Schools connect to their Personalized
Learning Plans by using their devices. Here, students find both their short-term and
long-term project views, the materials they need to complete their projects, and
just-in-time formative feedback to improve their individual learning, all in one location.
Using a color-coded system, each project is linked explicitly with the associated content
knowledge standards, and students can see the progress they have made toward
those standards as well as areas in which they need more practice.
This automated feedback and work management system gives students easy access
and greater control over their learning and frees educators to spend more time teaching
and less time on administrative and organizational tasks. “It was really difficult to track
where my students were on their progress towards meeting a learning objective and giving
them timely feedback,” says Elizabeth Doggett, a teacher at Summit Public Schools.
“Often I would take student work home over the weekend, but by the time I got through
giving them all feedback, it would be too late for them to make meaningful changes.” 22
With the Personalized Learning Plan system, students have the formative feedback
they need in real time, and their educators, such as Doggett, are able to plan and execute
differentiated instruction more efficiently and effectively so that all of her students
can succeed. Students also are benefiting individually from the student-facing side
of the Personalized Learning Plan. Educators have taken notice of how these plans
promote student agency and motivation. “Students should be able to access what they
need at the moment they need it, and we provide the resources so that they can do
that,” says Jon Deane, the former chief information officer of Summit Public Schools. 23
Doggett sums up the effect of implementing the Personalized Learning Plan, saying,
“It makes the students’ lives so much easier. It makes me a better teacher, and it makes
them more successful students.” 24
Set of Shared Skill Standards
As we shift toward personalized learning, there is increased need for a shared set of common
skill standards. The development of micro-credentials is one approach to address this need
by creating a shared language and system for communicating success in developing these
competencies.
Micro-credentials, often referred to as badges, focus on mastery of a singular competency and
are more focused and granular than diplomas, degrees, or certificates. The earning and awarding
of micro-credentials typically is supported by a technology-based system that enables
students and evaluators to be located anywhere and for these activities to take place everywhere
and all the time. Micro-credentials also allow for the portability of evidence of mastery.
Information about the student’s work that earned a badge can be embedded in the metadata,
as can the standards the work reflects and information about the awarder of the badge. As
with other data systems, a key goal for the next generation of micro-credentialing platforms is
interoperability with other educational information systems. 18
OFFICE OF Educational Technology
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