{"id":11858,"date":"2016-03-22T12:09:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T16:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lexingtoninstitute.org\/?p=11858"},"modified":"2016-04-05T15:31:42","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T19:31:42","slug":"good-great-personalized-learning-loudoun-county-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lexingtoninstitute.org\/good-great-personalized-learning-loudoun-county-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"From Good to Great Through Personalized Learning in Loudoun County, Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to download the article as PDF.<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Executive Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This fall, Northern Virginia\u2019s Loudoun County Public Schools will introduce a new personalized learning approach in 15 elementary and secondary schools, adding a powerful strategy to the district\u2019s overall vision of preparing students for an increasingly competitive, but collaborative world. Moving deliberatively – and quickly – to bring personalized learning to the large district may prove to be a key strategy in moving Loudoun to deeper, more relevant learning. Details follow.<\/p>\n

From a Fear of Change to a Fear of Not<\/u> Changing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Is personalized learning needed in a large, successful, suburban school district?<\/p>\n

To some, leading Loudoun County Public Schools<\/a>\u00a0might seem like an ideal situation to maintain the status quo, to not rock the boat.<\/p>\n

Loudoun County, located in bucolic northern Virginia just outside Washington, DC, has been consistently ranked as one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. The biggest challenge facing Loudoun County schools would appear to be the explosive population growth in the county, which has doubled since 2000.\u00a0 The school system has been building multiple schools every year to keep pace. \u00a0\u00a0But for two innovative educational leaders who came to Loudoun in the last two years, just maintaining consistently good academic performance and coping with growth was not enough.\u00a0 Dr. Eric Williams, who became superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) in 2014, and Cindy Ambrose, the new Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, realized they had an even more difficult challenge than growth: how to deepen and enrich student learning beyond producing strong summative assessment results.<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>

Students at CS Monroe Tech Center’s Health and Medical Science Program combine project-based learning and personalized blended learning<\/p><\/div>\n

To be sure, sustaining academic quality in a rapidly growing, 75,000-plus student school district is no easy feat. A great deal of effort and innovation goes into continuing to meet the lofty expectations of Loudoun parents, who have grown used to the district\u2019s consistent 80-90% proficiency rates on Virginia\u2019s Standards of Learning exams. Though achievement gaps remain, LCPS consistently ranks near the top of all Virginia districts on traditional measures of school performance.<\/p>\n

It is rare for a district\u2019s board to be unsatisfied with such a successful status quo, but they wanted more for Loudoun students, which is why they brought in Williams, who then found Ambrose.<\/p>\n

Going Deeper Than Test Scores<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dr. Williams and Ms. Ambrose quickly understood there were missing elements in Loudoun\u2019s educational approach, most prominently that:<\/p>\n