THE PRACTICE: Fostering Independent Learning Students learn to design pathways toward their own futures through personalized learning plans, an advisory system, and student-led conferences. These and other strategies help them to identify and achieve personal and educational goals.
Content Presented By:
The Education Alliance at Brown University
National Association of Secondary School Principals

What is it?

Teachers in personalized high schools prepare students to set their own goals and gather the skills and knowledge they need for success. An advisory system prevents anonymity and allows school staff to teach targeted skills and guide students in choosing courses. It also allows staff to engage in a variety of other activities designed to help students reflect on their own goals and progress. Chief among these is the development of a personal learning plan that connects students' own learning goals to the standards of the school. In personalized high schools, teachers' instructional strategies also promote independent thinking and lead students to take a personal stake in their own learning.

Questions to Think About

• Is each student known well by at least one adult at your school? Are teachers' student loads small enough to make this a realistic goal?
• How do advisors at your school ensure that the academic and social needs of their advisees are being met?
• How do teachers at your school stimulate independent thinking in their classrooms?

Breaking Ranks Recommendations

Breaking Ranks: Changing An American Institution is a 1996 publication of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It offers a series of recommendations that have become a guiding force for high school redesign throughout the nation. Listed below are the recommendations applicable to this practice. For a clearer picture of what each recommendation looks like in action, click on it, and its "indicators" will appear.

Every high school student will have a Personal Adult Advocate to help him or her personalize the educational experience.
Breaking Ranks, Ch 3, #03

Indicators:

• Each student has an adult member of the school community who knows that student well and serves as a personal advocate, mentor, or advisor.
• To foster personalization and reduce the sense of anonymity felt by many high school students, the school has a formal program that connects each student with an adult member of the school community.
• Each student is assigned an advisor/advocate (in addition to the guidance counselor) who is charged with supporting every aspect of the student's educational experience (e.g., advocates meet regularly with their students, generally in groups of 12-20, throughout the year and often will be assigned to work with the same students for all 4 years; advocates routinely call parents to keep them informed about the progress of their students in meeting all learning expectations; advocates serve as the prime facilitator of the Personal Learning Plan for each student; and advocates develop a rapport with students so that students feel comfortable in seeking their assistance).
• Advocates are generally teachers and other professional members of the staff (e.g., the principal, guidance counselors, nurse, curriculum leaders), but secretaries, custodians, and other staff members can also act as advocates (i.e., to enhance their roles as members of the school community who are concerned about students and to reduce the ratio of students to adult advocates).
• The school provides additional opportunities for adult members of the school community to get to know students well (e.g., adults collaborate with students on school-related projects adults serve as mentors for senior projects teams of teachers work with the same group of students).

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Teachers will be adept at acting as coaches and facilitators to promote more active student involvement of students in their own learning.
Breaking Ranks, Ch 2, #03

Indicators:
Rich and varied teaching strategies are evident throughout the school and lines of desks and teacher-centered approaches are not the norm. Teachers demonstrate a repertoire of instructional strategies that accomplish the following:

• Personalize instruction: Teachers meet regularly with individuals or small groups of students to address individual learning needs; teachers select the appropriate instructional approaches to address various learning styles; teachers call home to talk with parents; teachers show respect, positive rapport, etc. in day-to-day conversations with students; teachers act as 1:1 advisors/mentors.
• Engage students as active self-directed learners: Teachers act as "coaches" who facilitate student learning by asking students to do independent research, work in cooperative groups, apply knowledge in real-world situations, etc; teachers routinely ask students to reflect on their work and to self-critique (e.g., through the use of portfolios).

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The school will accord meaningful roles in the decision-making process to students, parents, and members of the staff to promote an atmosphere of participation, responsibility, and ownership.
Breaking Ranks, Ch 3, #04

Indicators:

• Teachers and other staff members, students, and parents have a voice in decision-making that is sufficiently meaningful to promote an atmosphere of participation, responsibility, and ownership.
• The principal models accessibility and openness to feedback from students, faculty, and parents.
• The principal offers regular coffee hours, lunchtime chats, and other forums to allow the voices of all constituents to be heard.
• Formal mechanisms are in place to provide decision-making roles for students, teachers, and parents (e.g., faculty councils or steering committees, community councils, school improvement teams).
• Surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, and other vehicles are used regularly to collect data/feedback from all constituents that become part of the decision-making process.
• The school climate is positive, respectful, and supportive in a way that it promotes a sense of pride and ownership to the entire school community.
• Randomly selected students and teachers talk with enthusiasm and pride about their school and its academic values.
• The school facility reflects the sense of ownership and pride felt by students (e.g., clean and well-maintained, minimal or no graffiti or breakage, etc.).
• Teachers and students speak to each other with respect; a tone of decency and trust is evident.
• All members of the school community are treated equitably.
• Students respect the diversity of backgrounds and interests of their peers and show no noticeable segregation by cliques or alienation due to unique differences.
• In non-classroom settings (e.g., cafeteria, auditorium, hallways, media center, athletic events, etc.) students demonstrate values of respect and habits of behavior that indicate that they are independent and responsible.
• The student body is well-behaved at all school and school-sponsored events.
• Discipline and attendance policies and procedures are consistent with the school's mission and expectations for student learning.
• The integrated-curricular program promotes student involvement and school pride.
• The school routinely reflects on its climate and takes steps to improve it.
• Students and their families are actively engaged as partners in the students' education and are encouraged to participate in school programs and parent support groups.
• Outreach efforts are made to engage parents in the scholastic lives of their sons and daughters (e.g., frequent parent forums and seminars, invitations to open houses and parent coffees, parent support groups, calls to the home by teachers, etc.)
• Parent support groups are formed to encourage good parenting skills, to provide support around such issues as divorce, drugs, and alcohol, etc.
• Parents are regularly contacted and involved in conferences regarding the learning needs of their children.
• Training is provided to teachers for conferencing with and assisting parents in how best to support student learning.
• Site-based councils or other forms of school governance engage parents as members.
• Parents are involved as tutors, lecturers, and aides within the school.
• Parents are invited to programs that showcase student work, to roundtable presentations of student portfolios, etc.
• Students participate in parent/teacher conferences that deal with their learning needs and progress.
• A school website keeps parents informed about events, strategies, and their children's education.

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Teachers will convey a sense of caring to their students to that their students feel that their teachers share a stake in their learning.
Breaking Ranks, Ch 2, #05

Indicators:

• All staff members (not just teachers) assume responsibility for promoting the well-being and learning of students.
• Administrators, support service personnel, and other non-teaching professionals engage in conversations with teachers about the quality of and issues associated with student learning.
• Where appropriate, support service personnel are integral members of teams who consult about the needs of individual students.
• Teachers routinely alert appropriate personnel and/or contact parents when they have concerns about students.
• Staff members keep one another appropriately informed about individual student needs/issues and how they impact student learning.
• School personnel (e.g., administrators, faculty members, secretaries, custodians, aides, cafeteria workers, etc.) treat students in respectful and supportive ways.
• Students are involved in parent night presentations with teachers.

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Each student has a Personal Plan for Progress to ensure that the high school takes individual needs into consideration and to allow students, within reasonable parameters, to design their own methods for learning in an effort to meet high standards.
Breaking Ranks, Ch 1, #06

• All students have opportunities to practice and achieve each of the school-wide academic expectations.
• A core curriculum is required of all students that addresses all of the school-wide academic expectations.
• The design of the curriculum ensures that each student is provided with the learning experiences necessary to achieve the school-wide academic expectations at the desired level.
• When appropriate, alternative paths/programs and time options are available to those students who need significant additional support or time to meet the expectations (e.g., night school, summer school, or Saturday programs; Algebra 1 is offered over three semesters for some students).
• Ancillary support mechanisms are in place to help all students achieve the expectations, but they should not be the only vehicle for providing students with the necessary learning experiences (e.g., teachers are available to provide extra help; learning centers are open to provide support both during and after school; tutoring is available).

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Experiences in high school acknowledge multiple talents and ways of learning to help students achieve the meaningful success that leads to further achievement.
Breaking Ranks, Ch 3, #02

Indicators:

• All teachers use a variety and range of classroom assessment strategies and are able to determine which tools and strategies are most effective for assessing particular outcomes.
• All teachers are well versed in various approaches to assessment and grading including alternative assessment strategies that extend the teacher's understanding of student learning beyond the results of traditional paper-and-pencil tests.
• Most teachers use exhibitions and performance assessment approaches routinely.
• Portfolio assessment is used in areas such as writing and the arts to measure growth in learning over time.
• Authentic assessment approaches are used to expose students to real world interpretations of their work.
• Teacher collaboration is evident in determining appropriate approaches for assessing particular outcomes.

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The high school will assess the academic progress of students in a variety of ways so that a clear and valid picture emerges of what they know and are able to do.
Breaking Ranks, Ch 6, #01

Indicators:

• Assessment of student work should provide a rich collection of information that reflects on a student's progress in moving through the curriculum.
• For assessment to depict a student's academic growth, it should not be static, and will have multiple dimensions.
• Student's accomplishments are demonstrated in the forms of portfolios, performance tasks, standardized tests, etc.
• The school presents assessment results in a way that is useful to parents, admission officers, managers, and the student.
• The assessments are rigorous and people have confidence in them.
• Teacher's work together to design assessment strategies, and professional development is provided to the school community.

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The school reviews each student's Personal Progress Plan continually and indicates the extent of progress toward graduation and post secondary transition plans.
Breaking Ranks, Ch 6, #02

Indicators:

• Teachers and the school as a whole clearly communicate to students and their families how student work and progress are being assessed.
• The school makes special efforts to communicate frequently in writing about student progress in achieving course-specific learning goals and school-wide expectations.
• The school makes it clear that assessment is an integral part of the learning process.
• Teachers work hard to demystify assessment (e.g., they make continuing efforts to state clearly to both students and their families ahead of time what type of assessment will be used to judge the quality of particular student work, how final grades will be determined, what measurable criteria will be used, etc.)
• When alternative forms of assessment are used, teachers clearly indicate how the results will be translated into grades or other final reporting documents.
• Teachers provide models to inform students of the expected quality of work.
• Teachers give students specific feedback on how to improve future performance.

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This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu