ERIC Number: EJ1059729
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Apr
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0276-928X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A Sense of Balance: District Aligns Personalized Learning with School and System Goals
Donsky, Debbie; Witherow, Kathy
Journal of Staff Development, v36 n2 p36-40 Apr 2015
This article addresses the challenge of personalizing learning while also ensuring alignment with system and school improvement plans. Leaders of the York Region District School Board in Ontario knew that what took their high-performing school district from good to great would not take it from great to excellent. The district's early model of improvement, centered around prescribed diagnostic assessment and prescriptive professional learning, did not ensure ownership from teachers, nor did it value the voices of students, teachers, and other stakeholders. Moreover, with increased access to social media and online professional learning tools, staff members were finding their own ways to learn. In a section titled "Focus on Collaboration and Inquiry," school principal, Debbie Donsky, describes how her school's leadership team meets to talk about what has gone well, what has been challenging, and where growth needs to occur. Superintendent of curriculum and instructional services, Kathy Witherow, discusses the need to re-examine not just what is being learned, but also how, when, and where learning occurs in a section titled "Alignment and Coherence Are Key."
Descriptors: Alignment (Education), School Districts, Individualized Instruction, Educational Improvement, Educational Objectives, Educational Change, Educational Practices, Improvement Programs, School Effectiveness, Educational Administration, Educational Planning, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A

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