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Waukesha’s Personalized Learning Highlighted Nationally
Thursday, February 4, 2016
One thing that stands out about students from Waukesha’s FLIGHT Academy, in a national video profiling the program, is how advanced many of these middle school students are in thinking about their own learning.
Student Morgan Shurrer speaking
FLIGHT student Morgan Shurrer, from a video produced by the CCSSO.
Learning is “a different thing for everyone,” observes student Morgan Shurrer.
The academy, situated within Horning Middle School, centers around personalized, self-directed, self-reflective learning.
“They have high expectations for us. They give us high school work sometimes! It’s kind of crazy -- but they challenge us in a way that we’re trusted with a lot of responsibility.”
The national Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has launched a new website, Next State of Learning, about innovative education practices, and FLIGHT Academy is one of a small number of local efforts profiled via video.
The name comes from Facilitating Learning through Integration, Guidance, High expectations, and Technology.
A student and her mother on a sofa for an interview. Student speaks as mom looks on.
“It’s allowed me to be a lot more independent, at school and at home,” says student Ava Savelkoul. Adds her mother, “What I’ve learned about my daughter is that she is infinitely more capable than I thought she was.” Image: CCSSO video
The academy is highlighted as an example of what some innovative schools in Wisconsin are doing. Other states featured are Colorado, Maine, and New Hampshire.
Taege in a hallway of the school, talking to someone off camera
Jeffrey Taege. Image: CCSSO Video.
Co-Founder Jeffrey Taege, who also coordinates personalized learning for the local district, says FLIGHT Academy “shifts the model on what is the learner’s role and what is the educator’s role. We’re asking kids to be active participants, not passive recipients.”
Each child charts their course, explains the other co-founder, Krista Krauter, who is also the English and social studies advisor.
Teacher in classroom setting
“I want each kid to be setting their own goals, knowing what they want to work on in all their different subject areas.” The goal is “really having different paths for each one of our students,” says Krista Krauter. Image: CCSSO video.
Students have one-on-one conferences with teachers every week – to help them keep on track toward their goals.
Taege says he and Krauter spent a year developing the academy, thinking through “everything from how we teach to how to set up a physical space.”
They started by considering ways to repurpose “underutilized space… We needed visibility, a sense of openness, but we also knew that we needed to be able to close off spaces and control volume and those types of things.”
Spaces aside, when it comes to personalized learning, the real restructuring is the process teachers and other educators use to plan their work, says CESA 1 Institute Director Jim Rickabaugh.
Jim Rickabaugh in an image from the video
Jim Rickabaugh. Image: CCSSO Video
“It's one thing to teach a good lesson. It's another to ensure that students are learning. So the sort of ‘fundamental redesign’ is the idea of starting with the learner rather than starting with the lesson,” Rickabaugh says.
A 45-year veteran of education, he says, “I think we're on the cusp of a fundamental shift.”
Students who learn to teach themselves are better prepared for learning whatever is needed down the road.
“If we educate learners as though the future is predictable, we’re short-changing them,” Rickabaugh observes.
Of course, self-direction has the added benefit of providing motivation for many students.
Student John Chapman in interview.
John Chapman, FLIGHT Academy student: "In elementary school I didn’t get all my work done and stuff. But now, it’s definitely: bursting bases to get my work done, turn all my stuff in, and be a positive influence to the others." Image: CCSSO video
State Superintendent Tony Evers is featured on the site, expressing support for growing this kind of program at the grassroots level and helping to explain the governance structure in Wisconsin and the value of regional agencies such as CESAs for educational innovation.
Wisconsin also participates in the CCSSO’s Innovation Lab Network, tying together that effort with The Institute for Personalized Learning, a movement that’s part of Cooperative Educational Service Agency #1 in Southeastern Wisconsin.
Many schools in this network are going full speed to explore personalized learning.
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