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Spring Update
May 2017

Dear Friends,

A few weeks ago, TLA joined the Highlander Institute and Clayton Christensen Institute in hosting the Blended and Personalized Learning Conference in Providence, Rhode Island. More than one thousand educators and leaders joined from across the country, and we explored topics ranging from the nitty-gritty of in-the-classroom strategy to broader areas like equity, adult cultures, and learning science.

As I listened to and learned from these practitioners leaders, I was struck by the sector's enormous progress since TLA launched our work. No longer are we stuck in the theoretical. We've moved beyond ideation to in-the-trenches implementation, integration, and adaptation. Surely, there are many questions to be answered, ideas to be shared, and collective barriers to overcome. But we have more energy available than ever to realize the vision of highly personalized, data-rich, mastery-based learning for every student in every school.

I hope you'll join us next year.  

Onward!
Beth


Recent Activities
TLA Selected for New Profit Personalized Learning Initiative
TLA is thrilled to be one of seven organizations
recently selected by New Profi t, a venture philanthropy organization, to receive a one million dollar, four-year grant for our work in personalized learning. The initiative is supported by a collaboration between the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We will be joined by the Highlander Institute , imBlaze (Big Picture Learning) , iNACOL , PowerMyLearning ,


The Teachers Guild Personalized Learning Design Journey
TLA will be teaming up this fall with  The Teachers Guild, a non-profit incubated by IDEO's Design for Learning Studio, to run a 10-week design journey on personalized learning. To kick-off this collaboration, we invite your educator networks to participate in a "sprint" on personalized learning. Share a favorite artifact - whether it's a lesson, unit, or general resource - used to personalize learning for students. Find out more here.



Networking Learning Through TLA ThinkTanks
With generous funding from the Overdeck Family Foundation, we've launched the TLA ThinkTank project to understand and network regional and national supports for blended and personalized learning. We're convening diverse groups of education leaders in eight geographic regions across the U.S. By identifying shared problems of practice and common challenges, and deeply mapping local needs and assets, TLA will build and openly share a comprehensive analysis of blended and personalized learning ecosystems and progress, as well as connect leaders to accelerate the scale of high-quality blended learning. We plan to disseminate results of the first phase of this initiative in fall 2017.





 
Communications Planning for Innovation in Education
TLA partnered with Education Elements to update and expand our popular communications planning guide for districts shifting to blended and personalized learning. The new guide provides a streamlined planning process, as well as real-world examples from school districts across the country, and offers up-to-date resources and artifacts.


TLA Impact Stories
TLA recently released a series of Impact Stories that illustrate how TLA works to create solutions to the barriers which prevent blended and personalized learning from reaching scale. The initial stories address our work with Internet Connectivity, Open Education Resources, and Human Capital.




TLA in the News
"Beyond Technology: Blended Learning Conference Debates Equity, Cultural Inclusion" -  EdSurge: An in-depth review of the sold-out 6th annual Blended and Personalized Learning Conference in Rhode Island.
"Solving the Problem of 'Teaching to the Middle'" - ASCD Express: TLA Partner Juliana Finegan writes about how to personalize learning to reach all students, based on real teachers and real experiences.
"Tech's Favorite School Faces Its Biggest Test: the Real World" - Wired: TLA CEO Beth Rabbitt is quoted in this overview of the current challenges and successes of personalized learning.
"3 ways to keep education innovation alive at your school" - eSchool News: Thomas Arnett, with the Christensen Institute, highlights TLA Partner Saro Mohammed's Measurement Agenda as a noteworthy effort to ensure that blended learning continue to make progress in producing improved student outcomes.
"What student choice and agency actually looks like" - eSchool News: TLA Partner Daniel Owens highlights specific strategies from six schools profiled in TLA's Blended & Personalized Learning Practices At Work site.
"Schools Shift to Free, Public-Domain Curricula" - Wall Street Journal (paywall): This national story gives an overview of the OER landscape and features the work of Open Up Resources, an early TLA incubation project.
"New Profit Dishes Out $1M to 7 Organizations in Personalized Learning Initiative" - EdSurge: A news story that reports TLA's receipt of a major grant from New Profit to be part of its Personalized Learning Initiative.


Thank you for your support!

Contact:
Beth Rabbitt, CEO