[Guest Blog Post] Personalized Learning in Freehold Township: Reflections on Being a LELA Fellow

By: Dr. Ross Kasun - Guest Author on July 22nd, 2015

[Guest Blog Post] Personalized Learning in Freehold Township: Reflections on Being a LELA Fellow

Personalized Learning | EE Summit | Innovative Leadership

Freehold-_Dr_Kasun_and_LELA

Over the past few months Education Elements has had the pleasure of partnering with the Lexington Institute to provide support to its first class of Lexington Education Leadership Award fellows. As part of this support, we have been working with the ten district leaders selected to support the development of their personalized learning vision and helping them to take the next steps towards implementation. Lexington Institute just announced applications are open for a second round of fellows and we can't wait to see who gets selected as one of ten for this next round.

We asked Dr. Ross Kasun, Superintendent of Freehold Towership School District in New Jersey to reflect on the personalized learning fellowship so far. Freehold Township School District, which serves 3,900 elementary and middle school students, has made substantial progress implementing personalized learning over the past three years. Beginning with an emphasis on targeted professional development to leverage technology’s limitless potential, Freehold is confident that the student-centered classrooms they are developing will produce connected, independent thinkers who are well prepared for the future. Here is what he said:

As our district was embarking on our “next” strategic plan and already had much success infusing technology into our classrooms to enhance learning, we were looking for a partner to help us set goals in our efforts to offer more of a personalized learning approach for our students. Thus, we eagerly applied for the LELA Fellowship; and although only in the first part of the Fellowship, the experience and support have more than exceeded our expectations.

The specialized track at the Education Elements National Personalized Learning Summit, the mentoring, and most importantly, the technical assistance, strategic resources and support have helped us to begin to develop a custom personalized learning framework, which is much more comprehensive than we could have on our own. This critical work has “pushed” our thinking and guided us to set innovative, but realistic, goals that will best prepare our students for a very different future.

I would highly recommend that any district leader who wants to move forward with personalized learning apply for the LELA Fellowship as it offers a unique partnership and learning experience.

Have questions about the fellowship? Please reach out to Don Soifer: soifer@lexingtoninstitute.org

We hope to get to work with you too!

Dr. Ross Kasun is Superintendent of the Freehold Township School District in New Jersey, and a member of the charter class of LELA Fellows.

About Dr. Ross Kasun - Guest Author

Dr. Ross Kasun is currently serving in his seventh year as the Superintendent for the Freehold Township School District in Freehold, New Jersey and was chosen as the 2017 New Jersey Superintendent of the Year. Students being leaders of their own learning is a cornerstone of his vision. For his efforts to use technology to foster personalized learning, Dr. Kasun was chosen to participate in the first cohort for the Lexington Education Leadership Award. This six month Fellowship helped create a vision that transformed learning throughout the district.