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There are thousands of school district chief academic officers that spent a decade building and running managed instruction regimes. Now they鈥檙e trying to pivot to personalized learning or getting a lot of pressure from their boss and teachers to consider an update.

It鈥檚 easy to say that managed instruction is old school and personalized learning is the future, but this debate is worth unpacking. The lack of alignment of instruction and assessment, as well as schedule, structure, and support services, is a big problem in education. It leads to poor student performance and frustration on the part of educators.

Charter management organizations brought a built-from-scratch 鈥榥o-excuses鈥� alignment but did so around the old model of a centralized standards-based curriculum, with a traditional age-cohort school model. Talented teachers, common pacing, and a rigorous focus on execution resulted in pretty good outcomes (at least on traditional measures).

School districts saw this improvement and began implementing similar 鈥榤anaged instruction鈥� (or 鈥榓ligned instructional system鈥�) schemes yielding some improvement. Even with marginal execution, these programs ensure that students are receiving grade level instruction (whether or not they are on grade level) which can improve results on standardized grade-level assessments.

But now it鈥檚 possible to create personalized learning environments where adaptive diagnostics pinpoint challenges and gaps and where student progress based on demonstrated mastery. Here鈥檚 a quick summary of managed instruction versus .

This change reflects a dramatic change in the mental model of senior district officials in terms of how they understand systems, what they look for in classrooms, and how they organize roles and goals of staff members. One talent development leader said, 鈥淣ext generation CAOs must be comfortable with software and data. And, because the transformation includes replacing core processes like textbook adoption with cloud-based platform management strategies, the CAO must also be the chief change management architect.鈥�

Many professions, like doctors, go through shifts in technology-mediated treatment that result in significant shifts in practice. But this is more like a train conductor becoming an air traffic controller. To complicate things, we don鈥檛 really have this new model fully baked yet, so it takes a small leap of faith and a lot of iterating.

A midwestern EdLeader said, 鈥淲e have identified a need to educate the mid-level managers between the principals and the superintendent, known as 鈥淓xecutive Director of Academics and Director of Curriculum and Instruction,鈥� noting that these positions are responsible for improving and maintain high marks on the state report card. 鈥淭hey seem to be the keepers and protectors of current practices.鈥�

Following are 10 elements of comprehensive solutions to the challenge of helping chief academic officers reframe their work:
1. Build, don鈥檛 break. Brian Greenberg, , suggested building CAOs a bridge from managed instruction to personalized and blended learning. That鈥檚 good advice since all of the teachers in a managed instruction system will need to make the same trip.
Both systems share goals for high-quality learning every day in every classroom. Both systems value reliability and productivity. The CAOs interest in differentiated learning may be just the hook, according to Greenberg. It would be very difficult to flip a big system from managed instruction to personalized learning, so a phased approach beginning where there is the most leadership makes sense. Work can start at schools, levels, and subjects most ready to make the shift.
2. Host community conversations.The direction the superintendent and board set is obviously important both in terms of vision and organization. This direction should be a product of community conversations. As Tony Wagner has been advocating for 20 years, conversations should cover three important questions about 鈥淲hat鈥檚 different?鈥� 鈥淲hat should young people know and be able to do?鈥� and, as a result, 鈥淲hat kinds of learning experiences do they deserve?鈥�
In El Paso, community conversations resulted in a new graduate profile and vision of : challenging, personalized and engaging work with strong supports.
3. Visit schools. 鈥淭he roadshow is what gets them,鈥� said Brian Greenberg, . Field trips have been life changing for us. It鈥檚 the best way to build a new mental model of powerful learning experiences. (See worth visiting and worth visiting.)
4. Support teacher-leaders. CAOs should identify and listen to their best teachers. Given the flood of inexpensive devices, free apps, and open resources, good teachers are doing more to supplement a core curriculum with flipped lessons and blended classrooms.
There are several good examples of cities identifying and cultivating teacher leadership. Georgia schools have identified four teachers in every school; the Vanguard Teachers meet regularly, provide real-time PD to other teachers, and support the development of school-based blended learning plans.
5. Make mini-grants. kicked off their transition by hosted an and invited a select group of vendors. On a release day teachers visited the conference. Teams of teachers were invited to submit applications for mini-grants.
In Lubbock, a provides mini-grants for teachers.
6. Leverage tiered support. A system of earned autonomy and tiered support focuses district resources where they鈥檙e most needed and gives high performing schools autonomy to design innovative learning experiences. A tiered accountability system allows a phased shift to personalized learning by allowing top performing schools to select a personalized learning model and by identifying a partner for the lowest-performing schools.
7. Adopt Adaptive. Shifting from periodic benchmark assessments (designed to assess a one speed, one size fits all curriculum) with adaptive assessments (e.g. from Curriculum Associates or from NWEA) provides better information and can be combined with individually targeted instruction that makes up an important part of a blended learning program.
8. Seek school grants. Participating in a regional or national new school grant program can be transformative for a school and a district CAO. and its regional affiliates supported about 150 next gen models. sponsors innovative new schools. Carnegie鈥檚 supported new school development in Cleveland, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, and Providence.
9. Experiment. Starting small with a few experiments is a great way to learn. coaches and invests in people to test new learning spaces and tools with students and families in their local communities.In suburban Milwaukee, kick-started their transformation with four micro-schools.
10. Join networks. Perhaps most importantly, don鈥檛 try to innovate alone. Join regional, thematic, and national networks.
El Paso kick-started their transformation with a and now have 10 great schools to showcase active learning.

In Pittsburgh, leading districts formed the . They also participate in the regional and are members of the .

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The image above was taken by Tom Vander Ark.