Leveraging the PLP to enhance Personalized Proficiency-based Learning

Schools are notorious for taking on a plethora of initiatives that, all too often, feel disjointed and overwhelming. No doubt, the intentions behind the various initiatives are rooted in best intentions, but implementation often feels disconnected for students and teachers.  We have a tremendous opportunity in Vermont, with a convergence of statewide initiatives rooted in best practice and brain research about learning to bring coherence and strength to transformational practices in the classroom while at the same time strengthening relationships within schools and communities. Proficiency-based Learning (PBL), Personalized Learning (PL), and Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs) are at the heart of these initiatives, bolstered in Vermont by state policies like the Education Quality Standards and Act 77. These three initiatives should be integrated as a unified framework for schools to embrace for transformation of learning. Don’t get me wrong, no policy or set of policies should be the sole impetus for implementation, nor will they be successful if that is the stance a school or district takes in moving things forward. It is crucial that the rationale for any guiding policy be rooted in the values of the school and community. Revisiting (and possibly revamping) the vision and mission of the school or district should be a first step in any transformational work. Regardless, schools and districts must anchor their work in making school student-centered. It must be relevant and engaging to learners, tending to the whole student with their social, emotional, and physical development as well as their academic excellence. Enter Personalized Learning. Personalized Learning aims to give students ownership of their education. Increasing flexibility in the possibilities for learning experiences allow students to navigate learning through an environment that knows the learner and focuses on growth. Schools should work to ensure opportunities for personalization at many levels, whether that be in best practices in instruction and assessment within classrooms or in systemic opportunities that allow for flexible pathways to graduation. Such a system maximizes the opportunity for each individual to engage in diverse learning experiences in varied settings with a wide range of tools and supports along the way. Personalized Learning on its own, however, faces many challenges without structures to ensure validity and reliability. Enter Proficiency-based Learning. Proficiency-based Learning provides the framework for personalization. With clear learning goals or targets defined for content and transferable skills, anticipated instructional strategies and sequences, aligned assessment and feedback, and meaningful reporting, PBL will ensure more valid and reliable outcomes. A robust PBL system will allow students to answer these questions: Where am I going? Where am I now? How can I close the gap (or get better if I’m already there)? Teachers and students should know the answers to each of these questions while teachers have anticipated them in such a way that allows them to have instructional strategies and resources on hand to help with the answer to the last question. Clear and rapid feedback guides students in their learning. Aligned assessment brings meaning to tracking and reporting of the learning. This practice challenges some of the age-old structures and methods that have existed in schools for over a century, but will drive us toward more equitable systems. Teaching and learning will need to extend beyond classrooms and grade levels, giving students the capacity to make connections between their learning and interests.  Enter the PLP. The personalized learning plan can be the process that explicitly supports students in making connections between their learning and interests. More than that, it drives self-discovery through intentionally modeling and practicing cycles of inquiry and reflection. When done well, it provides a platform for engagement between students and adults as students navigate the intersection between their personal, social, and academic lives. As schools transform the notion of schooling, it is more important than ever that a process for understanding change happens alongside of and in support of the changes themselves. PLPs at Mt Abe. I have been heartened as of late by the work, although imperfect, around personalized learning plans at Mt Abraham Union MS/HS. As a teacher that has seen years of fits and starts to the PLP process, I am under no illusions that work lies ahead to keep the process fresh and relevant. I also see that some aspects of our implementation are substantially different from those of the past. As a team of teachers, administrators, parents, and students collaborated to redefine our PLP, what is most clear is that we’ve done a better job of understanding our own position in our journey as a truly personalized proficiency-based school. The PLP process has emerged as an essential connector of personalization and proficiency. What’s more is that students are becoming increasingly cognisant of the importance of the PLP process to understanding their own agency in learning. As I sit down with students to support PLP work, I have found it to be a place where we can converse and reflect on the convergence of their personal lives with their education. Invaluable conversations emerge and relationships are built through dialogue and discussion that is driven by the student  

Gabe Hamilton is currently the Proficiency-based Learning Coordinator and Coach for Mt Abraham Unified School District in Bristol, Vermont.  Prior to this position, Gabe taught Middle and High school Science and Photography for 18 years in Oregon and Vermont.  Gabe is an adjunct instructor for Castleton University and Southern New Hampshire University and has taught courses and led workshops in proficiency-based learning across the state.  He holds a Masters degree in educational leadership and is a 2015 Rowland Foundation Fellow.