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A New York City Department of Education Innovation Zone Two Year Initiative 2010 - 2012

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** PLS PRINCIPAL'S REFLECTIONS ON THE PILOT ** media type="custom" key="20514744" align="center"

** Celebrating the PLS Teachers of Excellence ** media type="custom" key="19397940" align="center"

**PLS Pilot Overview** A classroom setting in which we expect all students to achieve high academic standards requires fast-paced, targeted differentiated instruction. The technology-driven transformation of the workplace over the past two decades has led educators from all sectors to wonder how technology can assist teachers with their complex, challenging work.

Personalized Learning Systems (PLSs) that leverage technology to **advance each student at his or her optimal pace** have tremendous promise for accelerating student learning and closing the achievement gap. PLSs feature a significant **repository of computer-based learning activities and assessments** that teachers use to develop and assign **individually-tailored** learning plans. The PLS then **reports on student progress in real-time**, enabling teachers to quickly identify trends, diagnose student learning needs, and focus their efforts on the topics students find most challenging.

High-potential PLSs combine the following technologies to manage and accelerate each student's learning:
 * Computer-based diagnostic assessments to identify students’ current levels of mastery and learning gaps
 * Rich library of standards-aligned interactive digital content and learning activities that appeals to students' interests and engages their higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills
 * Lesson planning tools that allow teachers to easily find, assign, and sequence content and learning activities to students on a whole-class, small- group, and an individual level
 * Classroom management tools that enable teachers to view progress of each student across each standard and learning activity, including reports that highlight areas needing corrective instruction for each student and suggestions for appropriate lessons and content.

The 2010-2012 NYC PLS pilot consisted of 30 elementary schools serving over 7,000 students across all five boroughs in grades three through five for a period of 2 years. In each school, two grades were selected to participate in one of the three programs and one grade was selected as a control group.

The programs participating in this pilot are: **Odyssey by Compass Learning, SuccessMaker by Pearson and Time to Know**. These programs were integrated into literacy and mathematics for a minimum of 30 minutes daily or 2.5 hours weekly in each subject. Schools received a series of professional development offerings to prepare them for successful integration of the programs as well as **in-school support** by vendors and DOE personnel. In addition, schools also received equipment such as laptops, netbooks, laptop carts, printers, LCD projectors, and headsets. To insure that the infrastructure was sufficient to support this initiative, initial and subsequent upgrades for electricity and bandwidth were provided at every school. Since the programs were an integral component for ELA and Math instruction and maintaining consistent usage was required for the pilot evaluation, a team of specialized technicians were selected to provide prioritized support to the PLS schools.

Schools also received professional development from [|Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs] on:
 * aligning their respective PLS programs with existing curriculum
 * unpacking the new Common Core State Standards
 * using [|Rubicon's Atlas Curriculum Mapping]online tool to collaborate to create maps, to analyze the content and rigor of the **//real//** curriculum that is being taught, and to share best practices among colleagues within each school and with other pilot schools
 * examining how Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) can be used to increase academic rigor
 * understanding how to modernize the curriculum through the integration of online tools and resources
 * how to add //Rigor, Relevance and Relationships// to lessons to help students meet and exceed the new Common Core State Standards

The pilot culminated in the PLS Moving Forward Conference, hosted by the [|Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University], in June of 2012. The internationally reknowned keynote speaker, [|Alan November], shared personal observations of how schools around the world are leveraging technology to improve student engagement, global awareness, information literacy, communication & collaboration skills, and content understandings. Alan shared ideas for next steps for harnessing the power of the training and technology resources that schools received during this initiative. Conference attendees participated in hands-on workshops and were exposed to tools and resources to support their efforts to innovate and improve the learning environment and continue to personalize instruction for every child. The pilot was evaluated by [|Harvard's EdLab] for its effectiveness in elevating student academic performance and engagement, as well as its scalability and sustainability. Students, teachers and administrators were observed and surveyed throughout the school year and assessed with [|Scantron's Performance Series]at the beginning, mid-year and end of both school years. The formal evaluation report will be published in late Fall of 2012.

Videos of Principal and Teacher reflections can be located below.

Program Goals
 * **Goal 1** All students will achieve high academic standards by participating in fast-paced, targeted differentiated instruction
 * **Goal 2** Teachers will improve pedagogical practice focused on providing targeted differentiated instruction for all students
 * **Goal 3** Principals will be informed about the project implementation in their schools and understand best practices for integrating PLS programs with NYS Academic Standards and the New Common Core Standards
 * **Goal 4** Data will be collected for the purpose of 1) evaluating whether participating in fast-paced, targeted differentiated instruction improves student engagement and academic performance and 2) documenting best practices for replicating this model.
 * **Goal 5** All Project Stakeholders will have online access to project details through the use of web 2.0 tools for the purpose of fostering improved communication and collaboration and capturing best practices
 * **Goal 6** All students will develop skills for becoming self-directed learners who are aware of their personal learning style and in control of their own learning outcomes.

For further information please contact the Pilot Implementation Managers: Teresa Bader, tbader@schools.nyc.gov Valrie Edwards, vedwards@schools.nyc.gov