A Look Back: I Am Intrigued By The Idea Individual Student Learning Plans That Are Co-Created & Asset-Based

(I’m republishing my favorite posts from the second half of 2023. You can see them all here)

GraphicMama-team / Pixabay

Last year, I read about the L.A. school district’s plan to create “Individual Acceleration Plans” for each of their students.

The idea would be each student and their families would receive a plan on how to “catch-up” from the pandemic.

L.A. teachers told me last week that they hadn’t heard anything about it since the big announcement, so I figured it was just another district initiative with zero follow-through, which every teacher on the planet knows happens very frequently.

However, the day after I learned that from teachers, the LA Superintendent announced at a glitzy meeting that “Ed,” an Artificial Intelligence – powered chatbot, was going be communicating this individualized information to parents.

I wouldn’t bet a lot on it going well.

I was and am, however, intrigued by the idea.  Of course, it’s likely the L.A. effort will be a flop, since it sounds like it’s deficit-driven and is not going to have any student input.  And that’s typical of this kind of individual plans (see this recent Ed Week piece about Florida).

But, on the other hand, an individualized plan, co-created with students and leading with their assets?  That, I thought, could have some potential.

So, I gave it a try last spring, and you can read about it at The “Student Personal Reports” I’m Co-Creating With My ELL Newcomer Students & What We’re Doing With Them.

It was very well received by students and families alike.  However, it was extremely time-consuming, and I wasn’t able to complete them with all students, and I also wasn’t able to do the follow-up on them that they required.

One of my goals as the new school year approaches is to think about what changes I can make to reduce the time something like this requires, and I’m all ears if anyone has any suggestions!