What an exciting year it has been! This year Education Elements celebrates our fifth school year bringing personalized learning to districts and schools. In 2010, we started with one school in Los Angeles, and now five years later we have supported more than 500 schools across 100 districts. Incredible! Change is happening in education, and we are honored to be a part of it. At Education Elements we believe that the greatest common denominator
Increasing Achievement & Engagement
• The benefits of personalized learning are cumulative, year after year. Several of our districts just completed their third year of implementing personalized learning. Since they started, the number of students who have met or exceeded growth targets on nationally normed tests has increased up to 39% in math and up to 33% in reading. • This school year, across almost 17,000 students from five of our districts that take the
Supporting More Districts
• We support a variety of personalized learning models, from blended learning rotations to flipped instruction to mastery-based progression. We empower our districts to be designers of their learning environments.• We are seeing larger districts embrace personalized learning. Whether our clients start with just a few schools or go all in, we are helping them think through how to personalize at scale. • We love seeing growing momentum in the field. For example, as a result of our work in one district in New York, 11 nearby districts formed a consortium to design and implement personalized learning environments to launch this upcoming school year. • The districts that are doing this work are getting recognized. Throughout this year we have seen these districts highlighted in regional newspapers, local TV stations, and national publications ranging from the Huffington Post to Edsurge and Edweek. We are so proud of their accomplishments.
Connecting Bold Leaders
• Along with our partners at the Lexington Institute, we have supported three cohorts of LELA Fellows. These 30 inspiring district leaders are taking the first steps towards bringing personalized learning to their districts, from New York to Alabama, from California to South Carolina. • Our Personalized Learning Summit continues to be an amazing conference dedicated to the implementation of personalized learning. This year more than 250 personalized learning leaders and practitioners convened in San Francisco to learn from each other, top technology companies, thought leaders, and the Education Elements team at our second annual conference. I want to thank our Education Elements team. You practice the principles of design thinking every day by empathizing with our districts and schools, constantly reflecting and iterating to improve our approaches, and always seeking to support transformational change. Thank you to our content partners for providing the excellent digital content that supports a more personalized pedagogical approach where students can move at their own pace and teachers can use data to drive instructional choices. Thank you to our board members. We are so fortunate to have a distinguished group of passionate professionals in our corner. And of course, thank you to our districts and schools. We are inspired by your passion and commitment to change lives and communities every day.
Anthony Kim Founder and CEO, Education Elements
“If I had to describe personalized learning, I'd say it’s changing from being on the playground with those pull-up bars, to
Our mission is to work with districts to build and support dynamic school systems that meet the needs of every learner, today and tomorrow. We are a team of seasoned educators, designers, technologists, and change management experts with a proven track record in our work with districts. We work with districts to prepare the students of today for tomorrow. We take the time to understand the unique challenges school leaders face, and then customize the Education Elements approach for each district. We bring deep expertise, design thinking, expert facilitation, and the spirit of collaboration with our extensive toolkit of resources and technology to deliver sustainable results. We are passionate and love what we do. We do not think of the work we do as a series of projects, but instead as the building of partnerships and friendships. We measure our success by the success of the districts we support. We want all students to reach their fullest potential. We want all teachers to love to teach. From a single school in 2010 to over 500 today, we are driven by bold leaders, amazing teachers, and the students we serve together. We are so grateful to have the chance to work with so many districts and look forward to many years of working with
142% growth in reading, 121% growth in math across our districts.1
Since 2010 - 33 states, 100 districts, 500 schools, 25,000 teachers, 400,000 students
50% reading 50% math The increase in elementary students scoring college & career ready after 1 year of implementing personalized learning at Piedmont.2 PIEDMONT CITY SCHOOLS, AL
33% reading 39% math The increase in students hitting their growth targets after 3 years of personalized learning at Middletown.3 ENLARGED CITY SCHOOL DIST. OF MIDDLETOWN, NY
65% reading 72% math The percentage of students who met or exceeded NWEA growth targets this year at Uinta.4 UINTA COUNTY SCHOOL DIST. 1, WY
44% reading 32% math The increase in average growth on NWEA after 3 years of personalized learning at Horry.5 HORRY COUNTY SCHOOLS, SC
8 out of 10 teachers agree that students show more self-direction
9 out of 10 teachers agree that they are able to provide more differentiated instruction
9 out of 10 district leaders agree that students are more engaged
¹ NWEA MAP results from 17,000 students across 5 of our districts: Horry (SC), Middletown (NY), Piedmont (AL), Racine (WI), & Uinta (WY) ² ACT Aspire results, grades 3-5 ³ NWEA MAP results, grades K-8 ⁴ NWEA MAP results, grades K-8 ⁵ NWEA MAP results, grades 6-8
Learners of today. Ready for tomorrow.
We work with a wide array of districts and schools across the nation. Each district has their own unique strengths, challenges, and goals, but they all share a common commitment to
Academic Growth, Year After Year
We are immensely proud of three of our earliest districts, Enlarged City School District of Middletown (NY), Horry County Schools (SC), and Uinta County School District #1 (WY). You may remember their outstanding results from our 2014-15 Impact Report. All three of these districts are pioneers in personalized learning. Both Middletown and Horry started their journey three years ago, and Uinta just finished their second year of personalized learning. We’re so pleased to share on their behalf that, once again, we see consistently high growth in reading and math and cumulative benefits over consecutive years of personalized learning.
Understanding NWEA MAP • Students take MAP 2-4 times over the course of the school year. • NWEA provides nationally normed benchmarks to which districts can compare their growth. • Using
We first partnered with the Enlarged City School District of Middletown, a high poverty district in upstate New York serving more than 7,000 students, to design and implement blended learning during SY 2013-2014. That first year a small cohort of elementary school teachers volunteered to pilot a blended learning model of personalization. Today, as a result of their
Horry County Schools, a suburban/rural district in South Carolina serving more than 40,000 students, first piloted personalized learning with a single middle school in SY 2013-2014. Since that first year, we have worked with Horry to roll out personalized learning across all schools in their district - first in their middle schools, then high schools, and finally in their elementary schools. This year on NWEA MAP Horry students in grades 6-8 grew 144% in reading and 121% in math. That means that, on average, their progress over the course of the school year was more than 40% more than national benchmarks would predict for
Uinta County School District #1, a rural district serving 3,000 students in Wyoming, began implementing personalized learning in SY 2014-15. While Uinta is still working toward district-wide implementation of personalized learning, every school is piloting in at least a few personalized classrooms. Before Uinta started implementing personalized learning, students were already performing well on nationally normed tests.
In addition to the year-over-year growth on the NWEA MAP of Middletown, Horry, and Uinta, we’re also pleased to share that some of our clients in their first year of implementation are also seeing early gains.
In Greeley-Evans School District 6 (CO), students in grades 2-5 blended classrooms outperformed the district average on every Math and ELA common assessment. Across the district, 56% of blended students scored proficient or advanced on math common assessments, compared to the district average of 49%, and 45% of blended students scored proficient or advanced on ELA common assessments, compared to the district average of 37%. See the Greeley spotlight below to learn more about their implementation.
At Yuma Elementary District One Schools (AZ), in their first year of implementing personalized learning, Yuma Elementary school students in grades 1-5 grew 10% more in ELA and 24% more in Math, while students in grades 6-8, grew 68% more in ELA and 8% more in Math on the district Galileo benchmark assessments compared to last year.
After just one year of implementing personalized learning in their elementary school, Piedmont City School District (AL) saw huge increases in students in grades 3 through 5 scoring College & Career Ready (proficient or above) on the ACT Aspire summative exam: — from 47% in 2014-2015 to 71% in 2015-2016 in math — from 28% in 2014-2015 to 42% in 2015-2016 in reading Piedmont Middle School just completed their second year of implementing personalized learning and they also showed strong year-over-year improvement in students scoring College & Career Ready on ACT Aspire. — from 22% in 2014-2015 to 47% in 2015-2016 in math — from 27% in 2014-2015 to 41% in 2015-2016 in reading
In DC Public Schools (DC), Browne Education Campus (K-8) completed their first full year of personalized learning after piloting a blended learning model in selected math classes last school year. On the i-Ready districtwide math diagnostic, 63% of K-8 students met their end of year target, which is equivalent to one or more years of growth. Additionally, their K-8 growth was equal to 151% of targeted growth, which means that students showed 50% more growth than average.
It is important to note that these are highlights from our district clients who were ready and able to provide academic data at the time of publication of this report. Some of our district clients were not able to share academic data with us due to the timing of this report, and others were yet not ready to suggest that personalized learning influenced academic performance, due to the myriad of other changes that may have been taking place within their district alongside the start of personalized learning. For many districts, including some of our larger districts like Fulton County Schools and MSD of Warren Township, SY 2015-16 was a foundational year. These districts worked with Education Elements in the beginning of the school year to build a common language and strategy for personalized learning, and throughout the year designed and launched personalized learning classrooms. The personalized learning mindset is just beginning to permeate through these districts and new instructional models are taking root. We’re excited to support these districts over the coming
“Since beginning our personalized learning initiative, I have observed that our teachers hold themselves accountable for the academic progress of individual students. In the past, I don’t think this level of accountability would have been possible. As a result, we are seeing amazing levels of academic growth in all areas.” – MATT AKIN, PIEDMONT SUPERINTENDENT
Education Elements reflected deeply this year about how we help clients measure and track progress. Too often, there is a tendency to think that a change in the district — new curriculum, new training, even the shift to personalized learning — will automatically lead to improved academic performance. While we strongly believe that personalized learning can improve academic performance — and our districts are proving us right! — there are many other milestones along the way that districts and schools should be paying attention to in order to make sure they are on the right course. We’re spending a lot of time thinking about how to guide our districts and schools towards a more proactive approach. We’ve started to frame the conversation as “charting your course.” That phrase implies a journey and aligns with our belief in design thinking — it is imperative to set a vision for your district or school, to not be afraid of failing fast, and to constantly iterate your approach in service of that vision. District and school teams that chart their course look at indicators throughout the year to ensure they stay on track. We use our implementation framework to guide districts through these conversations. It’s all part of a personalized learning mindset in which constant learning and creative response are expectations for all stakeholders, from students to superintendents.
Personalized learning doesn’t only lead to improved academic outcomes, it leads to greater student engagement. We are thrilled to hear from so many districts that student engagement is a driving force for shifting to personalized learning. At the end of the 2015-16 school
“Education Elements really got our school team to start thinking on a different level, and to step outside of their classroom and look at it from the perspective of a student and how we can better serve their needs.” – TEACHER, UINTA SCHOOL DISTRICT ONE (WY)
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“The biggest change I have seen in my students is that they started taking ownership in their own learning. Out of 107 senior English students in my class, only six ended up with an F — two of those earned their credit in an alternate way, three of them were due to attendance — meaning only one was an academic failure. That has not really ever happened before.” – TEACHER, MSD OF WARREN TOWNSHIP (IN)
85% of district leaders say students are more engaged
75% of school leaders say students are taking more ownership of their learning
78% of teachers agree students show more self-direction
93% of teachers agree they are able to provide more differentiated instruction
70% of teachers agree students are more engaged
71% of teachers agree they feel more effective using personalized learning
Education Elements survey of 168 school and district leadership teams from 11 districts 2 Results from 145 teachers from Enlarged School District of Middletown (NY), Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (IN), Lexington County School District One (SC) 3 Results from 203 teachers from Syracuse City School District (NY), Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (IN), Lexington County School District One (SC) 4 Results from 223 teachers from Syracuse City School District (NY), Enlarged School District of Middletown (NY), Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (IN), Lexington County School District One (SC)
Located in upstate New York, the Syracuse City School District serves over 20,000 students across 34 schools. In SY 2015-16, Syracuse began implementing personalized learning at 10 of their elementary, middle, and K-8 schools in order to improve instruction and increase student engagement. The term “Blended Personalized Learning” (BPL) is used at the district to emphasize blended learning’s role in reaching greater personalization for students. Their instructional model focuses on the Core Four of personalized learning: Targeted Instruction, Integrated Digital Content, Data Driven Decisions, and Student Reflection and Ownership. After only a few months of implementing, the initial feedback from teachers and community members has been incredibly positive. In a survey of almost 80 teachers across all 10 implementing schools, teachers overwhelmingly said that they believe blended learning has led to positive outcomes, including greater student learning, increased collaboration with teachers, decreased behavior issues, and greater student ownership and self-direction. Over 90% of teachers reported that blended learning has increased their ability to differentiate instruction. Furthermore, over 90% of teachers feel more effective and enjoy teaching more in a blended classroom. Manami Tezuka, Supervisor of Library Media Services and BPL Project Lead, believes that personalized learning has given teachers a renewed sense of agency and purpose. “We’re coming off a time when there was tension around our curriculum,” Tezuka said. “Now, teachers have a better understanding that personalized learning means that they still stick to the standards, but how they do it is up to them. It was reinvigorating for the teachers to actually get to make instructional decisions about how they were going to change certain things. It allowed them to break down instruction into smaller areas of focus. It has really helped them to think through good instruction. I’ve had a lot of teachers say to me, ‘Now I remember why I became a teacher.’” The cultural and instructional shift has been most notable in two of their historically underperforming schools. “Two years ago if you walked in those doors you were always faced with chaos,” Tezuka said. “You wouldn’t have seen a lot of learning going on. The reputations of the schools were tough. Now, you walk in and students are engaged, they are learning.” Syracuse school board members initially had questions about the impact of personalized learning, but after visiting these two schools they were incredibly impressed and excited about the progress. In SY 2016-17, Syracuse will expand BPL to another 10 schools. “The school board members have been members of the community for such a long time,” said Tezuka. “Just seeing the change and the students and teachers engaged in what they are doing was so powerful.”
“I’ve had a lot of teachers say to me, ‘Now I remember why I became a teacher.’” – Manami Tezuka, Supervisor of Library Media Services, Syracuse
Located 60 miles north of Denver, Greeley-Evans School District 6 has implemented blended learning in nine of its elementary and middle schools. Greeley-Evans adapted the Education Elements Core Four, focusing on Targeted Instruction, Tight Feedback Loops, Student Ownership, and Quality Student-to-Student Interactions. Over the course of the 2015-16 school year, Greeley saw impressive gains among blended students as measured by the district’s common assessments — students in grades 2-5 in blended classrooms outperformed the district average on every Math and ELA common assessment. Visitors from other districts and educational organizations are coming to Greeley to see teachers in action. National recognition for its implementation and strong results led Greeley to design its first blended learning summit for October 2016, which will feature school tours, panels of Greeley teachers, and workshops centered on Greeley’s design process. Education Elements began working with Greeley in 2013 by supporting Bella Romero, a K-8 school, to design their blended learning model. Bella’s approach became the foundational blended model for the district. As an expansion of our work with Bella Romero in SY 2015-16, Education Elements provided professional development and walkthrough support for their two district BL coaches who support 12 elementary and middle schools across the district. In SY 2016-17, we will support 5 middle schools in Greeley through the design and implementation process.
Integrated Digital Content: Digital content allows for a differentiated path and pace
Targeted Instruction: Instruction aligns to specific student needs and learning goals
Student Reflection and Ownership: Ongoing student reflection promotes ownership of learning
Data Driven Decisions: Frequent data collection informs instructional decisions and groupings
In 2010, Education Elements started working with one elementary school in Los Angeles. We designed a new classroom model focused on small group instruction, the integration of digital content, and the frequent use of data to make instructional decisions. It worked — in one year, students moved from 9% to 98% proficiency. This station rotation model became the foundation for blended learning across the country. We’ve now worked with more than 500 schools and more than 100 districts across the country. That’s more than 25,000 teachers and 400,000 students in five years. While the station rotation model continues to be a good starting place for many classrooms to transition to personalized learning, our portfolio of schools now includes those implementing many personalized strategies, including flipped instruction, project-based learning,
“It is clear that personalized learning truly has become a way of life. It is exciting to see that in such a short amount of time, this way of teaching and learning has become ingrained in our day to day life. We have to credit this amazing transformation to the wonderful support we have received
100% of district leaders report that their district has more capacity to support personalized learning
90% of school leaders say that their teachers have the support they need to implement personalized learning
100% of district leaders say Education Elements provides essential support to help their district to develop and/or articulate their personalized learning strategy
Education Elements survey of 168 school and district leadership teams from 11 districts
We’re proud that districts feel more empowered, enabled, and equipped to bring personalized learning to their districts after working with us and we’re humbled that 95% of our SY 2015-16 districts will return next year for ongoing support for year two and beyond.
Education Elements believes that for personalized learning to be successful, everyone from the superintendent’s office to the classroom must be aligned on the vision and purpose, teachers must have support, and change must be sustainable. Our Personalized Learning Implementation Framework provides a structure for districts to think through the decisions that must be made. The framework includes 25 areas of focus aligned to five domains. Here are some examples of the different approaches our clients have taken across three focus areas.
PL Rollout Plan
Like students, all school districts are different — different sizes, different political challenges, and different track records of change. Therefore, the roll-out of personalized learning cannot be one-size-
Culture of Innovation
Education Elements works to help districts develop and formalize a culture of innovation. Without significant changes in ways of thinking, behaving, or working, personalized learning will become another passing educational fad rather than one embedded in how educators think about teaching and learning. Many of these culture shifts involve breaking down the information hierarchy within the district, and encouraging and empowering all teachers to share their ideas, practices, and stories directly with each other. In the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (IN), district and school teams use social media to share new ideas and instructional models using the hashtag #warrenbl. Teachers in Hartford Public Schools (CT) participated in a ‘Design Showcase Showdown’ during which they shared personalized learning instructional strategies that are working for them. The Bettendorf Community School District (IA) hosted an EdCamp professional development day with the motto ‘PD for teachers, by teachers.’ School District 197 (MN) created a Vanguard Teacher program to recruit teachers to develop, practice, and share personalized learning tactics.
PL Professional Learning Plan
Education Elements believes that school districts must have a plan to support teachers as they incorporate personalized learning into their practice. Professional learning plans took many forms this year. Fulton County Schools (GA) organized a
In May 2016, more than 250 personalized learning leaders and practitioners convened in San Francisco for our second annual Personalized Learning Summit. One of the cool things about having our headquarters in the Bay Area is the proximity to some of the most innovative companies in the world. Every participant started the conference by touring an inspiring tech company, including Pinterest, Airbnb, Visa, Zillow, and Yelp, among others. A coach from Riverside Unified School District (CA) summed up the feelings of so many: “What a great experience to hear from today's industries and see what our future workforce has to consider!” During the two-day conference, participants engaged in workshops that were different from other conferences in that practitioners were the spotlight, and the focus was on implementation rather than theory. Workshops were led by current district clients, leaders in the field, and the Education Elements team. We are humbled by the feedback we received — it was a terrific success! Many expressed feelings similar to Gee Kin Choi, Former CTO at Oakland Unified School District and Advisor to Academic Merit, who shared with us, “I have not attended any other event that provided such a dynamic forum for exploring personalized learning.”
"Each component was so well-planned that they all seemed integral to the success of the event overall. I’m not usually much of a networker but it was so simple and infused in everything we did." PRINCIPAL, RACINE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT (WI)
In early 2015 we sat down with our friends at the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit public policy think tank focused on education reform. Both of our organizations have a passion for personalized learning because we have seen the impact it has
“The LELA Fellowship is the most powerful professional experience in my educational career. The LELA Fellowship has positively impacted my learning by changing what I fundamentally believe about not only what teaching and learning
“The Fellowship brought tremendous clarity to me about what exactly personalized learning should look like. It was also an excellent opportunity to not only network but listen to and learn from other districts.
“It is encouraging and energizing to be around people who have the humility and courage to move their districts to the degree they are. That provides the courage and the affirmation to continue our work in our district.” – LELA FELLOW
“The LELA Fellowship has really brought together the pieces for personalized learning and provided our district with a framework for future progression to achieve a truly personalized education experience for all. Coupled with regional work in this area, the Fellowship has also aided in igniting our leadership team with a much clearer vision. The professional networks, relationships, connections, and learning gained through this experience are second to none.” – DENNIS KRUEGER, LELA FELLOW AND ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, HOWARD-SUAMICO SCHOOL DISTRICT (WI)
We are proud of the work we do to help districts and schools bring personalized learning to their students through a combination of vision-setting, whole-school redesign, professional development, and implementation services. We lead districts and schools through several phases of work, including planning, building the foundation (which includes building understanding and identifying schools ready to move forward), designing and launching personalized learning instructional models and support plans, and providing time to reflect and iterate after launch. We approach each client interaction with the mindset that, while we can share what has worked elsewhere, we must seek to understand the current culture and context of each district and school. We honor the goals, priorities, and vision of every leader with whom we work, and we help them to hone those goals, articulate those priorities, and make those visions a reality.
As we look back on 2015-16 there is so much that our districts have accomplished and we are proud to have been their partners in this journey. At the same
Learners of today. Ready for tomorrow.
