NESSC School Redesign in Action

Vermont has an unprecedented opportunity to help students believe in themselves as learners and reach their full potential through personalized learning and proficiency-based assessment, yet research conducted with 2,490 Vermont high school students and 378 faculty members suggests that existing mental models of key stakeholder groups stand in the way of this happening. Data collected by UP for Learning’s Communicating School Redesign schools surfaces some of the basic challenges that arise in shifting mental models as a new student-teacher paradigm is introduced.

Participants will learn about how the data have informed the efforts of 12 Vermont high schools committed to positioning students at the center of implementing personalized learning through team-generated communications campaigns. Presenters will share compelling tools and effective dialogue strategies that highlight the capacity and power of students as change agents in the school redesign process.

Participants will learn how students, working in youth-adult teams, are taking a lead role in encouraging personalized learning throughout Vermont in a variety of creative mediums. Participants will also take away a new student peer-to-peer advisory teaching model, “M3: Mindset, Metacognition and Motivation”, to help build students’ independent learning skills in readiness for personalized learning opportunities.