Devonna Alatorre, a teacher-resident in a Math III class at Summit Tahoma high school, works with 11th graders. She’ll teach Math II there in the fall. Photo: Heather Vega Summit Public Schools, a charter network that’s replicating its personalized and project-based teaching model, has created a residency program to prepare teachers to lead personalized-learning classrooms, I write on EdSource. On Fridays, all teachers in training gather at a Milpitas office to work through a

Operating under a “cloud of legal uncertainty” and often housed in portables, Washington state’s charter schools are attracting students, reports Claudia Rowe in the Seattle Times. The oldest charters opened less than three years ago, writes Rowe. Legal challenges “continue to work through the Washington courts.” Yet there are now about 2,400 students from the Seattle, Kent, Tacoma, Highline and Spokane school districts enrolled in charters, which have more freedom than tradi

Summit Public Schools‘ personalized-learning model, which focuses on project-based learning and mentoring, is replicating rapidly, I write on Education Next in a follow-up to my story in the fall 2017 issue. The charter network’s Summit Learning platform and methods are now being used by more than 300 partner schools, most of them traditional public schools. Mark Zuckerberg talked with Summit Learning students in Eastern Kentucky in September. Students demonstrated “games, ro

Personalized learning shows promise, but there are implementation challenges, writes RAND’s John F. Pane on Brookings’ Chalkboard blog. A 2015 RAND study showed large achievement gains, while a 2017 RAND study reported smaller gains, he writes. The 2015 sample included only schools that had been implementing whole-school personalized learning for at least two years, and many were members of charter networks that were early pioneers of the concept; more than two-thirds of stud

Schoolwork is “irrelevant,” San Diego-area teens said in a series of interviews. Vista High hopes personalization will engage students, reports Hechinger’s Mike Elsen-Rooney in The Atlantic. Senior Hernan Hernandez, 17 (left), and junior Ray Garcia, 15 (right), hope to design a new skateboarding course at Vista High School near San Diego. Photo: Mike Elsen-Rooney For example, Principal Anthony Barela has agreed to let skater Hernan Hernandez, 17, design a skateboarding course

Milpitas Unified, a school district near San Jose, is using the Summit Learning Plan in several schools. At Pomeroy Elementary, 6th-grade teacher Sarah Thomsen (center) spent last summer revising SLP projects for her students. Summit charter network’s personalized learning model is being piloted in schools — 70 percent district, 25 percent charter and 5 percent private — across the country, reports Education Next. I’m the author. The model includes an online platform, develop