Nothing governs the school day quite as strictly as time.
This is especially true in middle and high schools, where subject-specific blocks break up the day, and bells control when they stop and start. Often, these schedules are created at the district level, informed by state requirements that tie school funding to seat time.
These structures help organize and manage instructional time for the hundreds鈥攐r thousands鈥攐f students in a building. But they can also be major headaches for educators who are trying to give each student more control over when and how fast they learn鈥攅ssentially personalizing the pace of their education.
Personalized learning emphasizes that students have some control over what, how, where, and when they learn. Addressing all four of those variables can require some big instructional changes. But there are especially intractable issues around when and how quickly students should learn.
鈥淵ou do start running up against policy barriers and structures that assume that schedules are still stuck on a factory model,鈥� said Susan Patrick, the president and CEO of iNACOL, an online-learning research and advocacy organization.
And even if schools can get around these barriers, they face new challenges鈥攕uch as how to find time-management software that鈥檚 equipped to manage more flexible school scheduling strategies.
鈥淚 still think we鈥檝e barely scratched the surface on how to use time effectively in schools,鈥� said Buddy Berry, the superintendent of the Eminence Independent Schools in Kentucky.
His district moved to a competency-based-learning framework almost a decade ago. The school system developed a graduate profile that linked back to individual standards in grades K-12.
But figuring out how to maximize learning time and pacing for each student? 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 probably the next great quest for education,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e there yet.鈥�
In Berry鈥檚 district, personalized learning is tied to these standards that link to the graduate profile. Students have to demonstrate that they meet those standards, through tests, portfolios, or project-based work, in order to advance.
In theory, that means when students meet those benchmarks, they can move on. In practice, it鈥檚 more complicated, Berry said.
Traditional Schedule, Innovative Teaching
When the nearly 900-student district first started using a competency-based model, it tried to shake up schedules. At Eminence High School, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were reserved for core instruction. Tuesdays and Thursdays were more flexible, open for enrichment, acceleration, and project-based learning.
But the system wasn鈥檛 sustainable. Many of the students at the high school took career-tech-ed courses offsite or were spending some part of the day in early college. Eminence鈥檚 nonstandard schedule made it difficult for students to slot in these off-campus opportunities.
Now, the enrichment time still exists, said Berry, but as a period within a traditional school day.
For the most part, all students are moving at about the same pace. For example, most 11th graders take chemistry at the same time, every year. But some teachers at the district are finding creative ways to let students move at a nontraditional pace, within a traditional schedule.
Take that 11th grade chemistry class. Michael Quist, a chemistry teacher at the district鈥檚 only high school, knew early on in his career that he didn鈥檛 want to spend every class lecturing, delivering the same content to all his students at the same time. 鈥淚 was so over that after my first year of teaching,鈥� he said.
He knew that all his students had to master the same content and skills. But he wanted to let students move through material at different speeds and learn it in the way that made most sense to them鈥攚hether that be research reports, projects, labs, or some other approach.
So Quist broke down his units into two main parts.
The first he dubbed 鈥渇oundation"鈥攖he core ideas that students need to understand before moving on. In every unit, there鈥檚 a reading and writing assignment, a math piece, and partner work鈥攕kills that are essential for students to develop in science class, said Quist. Still, students can tackle these assignments in different orders and at their own pace.
Once they can demonstrate that they know the foundation skills, through a written or oral test, students can move on to 鈥渆xploration.鈥� That鈥檚 when they have the opportunity to do enrichment projects, like conducting lab experiments, building molecular models, or writing research papers. Taking on more of those activities can lead to a higher letter grade at the end of the course.
On any given day, Quist said, there will be four or five different activities going on in the classroom, with some students in foundation and some in exploration.
Still, equipping students with the time-management and reflection skills to self-pace can be challenging. He sometimes needs to intervene when a student is far off-schedule. Within each three-week unit, Quist expects most students to be done with foundation by the end of week one. 鈥淏y the end of week two, I鈥檝e already stepped in if they鈥檙e struggling,鈥� he said.
One student, for instance, couldn鈥檛 focus on getting a reading and writing assignment done. It was the only step he needed to move on to exploration. Quist assigned him to finish it on a specific day, at a specific time. 鈥淚 had to be very, very particular with him on getting that done,鈥� Quist said.
Overall, though, most students learn self-regulation skills through the process鈥攕kills that are just as important as the science content, Quist emphasized. He focuses a lot on procedure and expectations during the first few units, so that the framework is second nature to students later on in the year.
Tough Questions, Technological Responses
In Quist鈥檚 class, students sometimes use Excel to analyze data or simulation software to explore chemical systems. But technology isn鈥檛 ever-present, Quist said, and it isn鈥檛 necessary for the work he鈥檚 doing around pacing. Instead, he tracks each student鈥檚 progress on a paper cover sheet that he gives them for the unit.
But what happens when teachers are experimenting with pace across classes鈥攁nd across subjects? How do you manage the schedules of hundreds of students, when each one is slightly different?
Those are the questions that educators at Pioneer Ridge Middle School in Chaska, Minn., were wrestling with when they decided to dismantle part of their block schedule.
The decision was made in service of a larger goal at Pioneer Ridge: Make school more learner-centered. The school鈥檚 principal, Dana Miller, had tapped three teachers to come up with a new instructional model: Carly Bailey, now a personalized-learning coach; Dan Thompson, an intervention specialist; and Jennifer Larson, a language arts teacher.
After researching different student-centered models and visiting other schools to see them in action, the teachers decided they had to remove scheduling constraints that divided up subjects and kept each student in the same space for the same amount of time. They wanted to differentiate for student ability, while allowing for more interdisciplinary connections.
So they decided that for most of the school day, they would blow up the bell schedule. The three teachers offered a variety of options: whole-group instruction, small-group work, one-on-one coaching, seminar-style discussion.
鈥淜ids would say, 鈥業 need this tomorrow, I鈥檓 ready for this,鈥� 鈥� said Bailey. Teachers could also assign students to specific activities, based on their assessment of students鈥� needs.
Thinking Big, Starting Small
The 500-student school started small, with a group of 60 students in 2012. Even so, keeping track of all the moving parts was challenging.
At first, teachers used a giant whiteboard covered in hundreds of magnets that represented individual students鈥� time. But the magnets would fall off, or get lost, or students would switch them around when they weren鈥檛 supposed to. They also tried Google Docs and Microsoft Access, but neither of those applications could do what they wanted: a flexible system that would allow for a lot of activity offerings with different participant caps, where some could be assigned by administrative users (teachers) and others could be selected by regular users (students).
Because they couldn鈥檛 find the perfect system, the school decided to create one. Working with a developer in the Eastern Carver County district, Pioneer Ridge created software called Flex Scheduler. Since then, the school has expanded the program to other grades.
鈥淚t was critical for us to have that collaboration with somebody who knew how to build and how to code, so that we could talk about the philosophy of things, and the pedagogy behind it, and make that technology work for education,鈥� said Thompson.
The technology makes varied pacing possible, but it doesn鈥檛 drive instruction鈥攊t鈥檚 a scheduler and a tool to analyze students鈥� progress. That鈥檚 an important distinction, said Miller, the principal.
鈥淭here鈥檚 this myth or this confusion out there that [personalizing pacing] means all these kids are sitting in their room on their devices, and they鈥檙e going at their own pace, and the teacher is a check-in spot,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not the case at all.鈥�
But it takes more than a well-run scheduling system to personalize pace effectively. Teacher buy-in is essential, said Miller, and it鈥檚 something Pioneer Ridge is still working on.
Much like teachers at other schools around the country, a good number of Miller鈥檚 teachers prefer lecturing, or mostly direct instruction. 鈥淭he biggest struggle has been helping teachers to move beyond, 鈥業 have to be the person in charge [in the classroom],鈥� 鈥� she said.
She鈥檚 had to halt the implementation process this year to allow for more professional learning. Some teachers are still on the flex schedule, but the school is deciding how, or if, to incorporate other subjects, like math. Going slow could make the difference between success and failure.
鈥淔orcing people to do this work isn鈥檛 how it鈥檚 going to be successful,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淵ou need them to be on board.鈥�
