Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S13

Taking Stock of Personalized Learning > www.edweek.org/go/personalized
EDUCATION WEEK OCTOBER 22, 2014 | S13
n
From left, 6th graders Willyum
Oliver and Michael James
discuss a performance task for
planning a recipe during a
blended learning math class at
Whittemore Park Middle School.
District's Ambitious Effort
Fuels Personalized Learning
Conway, S.C.
A
s students file into
math teacher John
Williams' 6th grade
class at Whittemore
Park Middle School
here, they eye the
back wall carefully.
That's because their
names are displayed there, for all to see,
along with what percentage of coursework
they've completed. No grades are
posted, but each day students can watch
their progress toward curriculum completion.
The
idea for the wall, a similar version
of which appears in most classes at
Whittemore Park, arose during the past
school year as the low-income school
put in place a personalized,
blended learning program. As
part of the effort, students
often work independently
on school-issued iPads or
MacBooks, using interactive
curriculum tailored to their
learning needs. But teachers
soon discovered that students
were slacking off when they were
working on their own, so they came up
with the idea of publicly showing individual
progress.
The idea was controversial, said JenniBy
comparison
to their peers."
In Mr. Williams' mathematics class in
late September, the wall showed many
students' names hovering in the 10 percent-
and 20 percent-completed categories,
which is normal for the beginning
of the school year. But two students had
already finished 75 percent of the 6th
grade math curriculum, something the
teacher said would have been impossible
without the differentiated instruction
provided by the math software.
The schoolwide personalized learning
effort has transformed instruction at
Whittemore Park, boosting test scores,
student engagement, and teacher attendance.
Now, much of the 42,000-student
Horry County district is attempting to
follow suit through the district's Personalized
Digital Learning initiative,
though without some of the supports
that Whittemore Park
has enjoyed.
Michelle R.
Davis
Funded in part by a local
sales tax, this new educational
model will expand
to include nearly all grades
in the Horry district over
a three-year period. It began
districtwide in August 2013, when
fer M. Howard, a 6th grade English/language
arts teacher, but teachers found it
helped hold students accountable. "The
kids are really motivated by tracking
their progress," Ms. Howard said. "Even
if they're not motivated by grades, they
are interested in how they're doing in
teachers in the rest of the county's 10
middle schools received their iPads
and students got them in January. This
school year, the district's 14 high schools
and secondary schools programs are
rolling out their own versions, providing
each student with a $600 Dell Venue
tablet, which they can take home. After
that, an elementary-grades team will select
a device, and teachers and students
will receive them.
Horry officials know the change is significant
for students and teachers, and
they say it won't be a surprise if they see
an innovation dip-a drop in student
performance as the district adjusts to a
new way of operating.
"We know we're going to keep having
issues and we're going to fix them as we
go along," said Edi R. Cox, the district's
executive director of online learning and
instructional technology. "We might have
an innovation dip, but that's OK. We're
doing the right thing for kids."
Turning Around a School
The Horry district includes Myrtle
Beach and its central tourist area,
where visitors can see shiny attractions
like the Elvis and Dolly Parton impersonators
at Legends Music Hall, the
memorabilia-filled dining room of the
Hard Rock Café, or the shark tank at
Ripley's Aquarium. Whittemore Park,
with 85 percent of its students from
low-income families, isn't far from the
restaurants, hotels, and attractions
that employ many students' parents.
The districtwide personalized learning
initiative has its origins at Whittemore
Park, where dismal test scores
earned the school a D grade from
the state for the 2011-12 school year.
Horry district officials ordered an overhaul,
bringing in a new principal, Judy
Beard, who had school turnaround experience.
When
Whittemore Park won a Next
Generation Learning Challenges grant
for $150,000 in 2012, the school bought
PAGE S15 >
SCHOOL PROGRESS REPORT
Whittemore Park Middle School
Conway, S.C.
Horry County School District
805 students
85 percent qualify for free and reduced-price lunch
During the 2013-14 school year, Whittemore Park Middle
School implemented its personalized, blended learning
program. The initiative started by providing 6th grade students
with iPads at the beginning of the school year. Midway through
the year, 7th and 8th grade students received their iPads.
RESULTS FROM THE FIRST YEAR:
% of 6th grade
students
meeting state
growth targets
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
MATH
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE REPORT CARD,
results for the 2013-14 school year compared with the previous year:
2012-13
2013-14
600
In- and out-of-school
suspensions dropped from
2,000 to 600 for WPMS
2,000
WPMS
DISTRICT
AVERAGE
READING
Teachers were satisfied with
the learning environment
92%
37%
98%
Teachers were satisfied with the social
and physical environment of the school
55%
SOURCE: Education Elements and the Horry County School District
95%
53%
Teachers were satisfied with
school-home relations
James Jason Lee for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org/go/personalized
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report

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