Fresno is a city of a half a million people (twice that in the metro area) in the middle of California's central valley. It's a diverse city with large Hispanic and Hmong populations.
The Fresno Unified School District (@fresnounified) serves 75,000 students, of which almost nine in ten live in or near poverty, in about 100 schools.
Fresno has a well developed Personalized Learning Initiative (PLI, #FresnoPLI) developed by CTO Kurt Madden and Philip Neufeld, Executive Director of IT (featured image in front of the CART career center) in conjunction with the curriculum and instruction unit.
The PLI goal is greater personalized, competency-based learning at and beyond the classroom. The initiative advances student-centered learning focused on #AsYetImagined futures with competencies, content mastery and agency. Neufeld said, "If the shift to digital changes student readiness then so should our models for student preparation." PLI pedagogy is about high-quality instruction with the intentional use of technology, effective use of collaboration while honoring and activating student voice.
This article originally appeared on Edweek. Access the whole article here.
