Planning for Personalization

A standards-based curriculum can be accessible to learners at many different readiness levels. The key is to base it in rich concepts.

Several years ago, we were facilitating a workshop on personalized learning at a large international school in China. The school had spent years developing a standards-based curriculum, including benchmarks for what students should achieve at different grade levels. Teachers had spent considerable time unpacking these benchmarks, and the school had embarked on a comprehensive curriculum-mapping initiative using the latest software.

Just before the coffee break, a clearly frustrated participant raised her hand and offered this comment:

We've just spent two years developing standards and benchmarks for our curriculum. We have standardized our expectations of student achievement at each grade level. And now you want us to personalize learning! You want us to treat each student as a unique learner. Aren't the concepts of a standards-based curriculum and personalized learning mutually exclusive?