Last week, we celebrated the work of this year’s Personalized Learning Pilot Project Cohort. This group of dedicated teachers, occupational therapists, and staff spent the last six months piloting a personalized learning software solution and tracking its effectiveness with their students. Participants worked with KIPP DC’s personalized learning and data teams to assess the impact of software on student engagement and academic growth. Pilots were as wide ranging as providing on grade level listening and speaking texts to English language learners to software that created a digital art portfolio for students to grow during their time in school.
Felicia Thomas, a music teacher at KIPP DC Heights Academy shared, “It was helpful to participate in this cohort that was working on such diverse projects. I was excited to learn how to write a grant, create a pitch, and analyze my student data in new ways.” She plans to continue expanding the use of Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music software next year to create an even more robust curriculum for her students.
The Learning Center’s Jeremy Batka reflected, “I love that at KIPP DC if you have a better way of doing it, they are willing to fund a project to see if it will make a difference for students.” He feels like her is just scratching the surface on the role that personalized learning can play in his students’ lives and plans to expand his use of Odysseyware next year to include science and social emotional components.
This is the third year for the Personalized Learning Pilot Project, an application-based grant that all KIPP DC instructional staff can apply for. To date, eight programs from previous cohorts have been implemented at scale across the KIPP DC network. This year nine projects were part of the cohort and more than than half of them are expected to be adopted in the 2019-20 school year.
Special thanks to the personalized learning team and all cohort members for helping students reach new heights!
