Pathways to Personalization: Introducing a Framework for School Change
Friday, April 3rd, 8:30am - 11:30am
This introductory workshop will explore the five phases of the Pathway to Personalization Framework, which supports school leaders and teams as they design and implement personalized learning initiatives based on local needs. Through interactive activities, strategic conversations, and planning opportunities, attendees will dive deeper into principles of improvement science and change management and discuss lessons learned from Highlander Institute partnerships in over 500 classrooms. Attendees will walk away understanding how to establish representative design teams, design and launch relevant pilot initiatives, determine criteria for success, and create a path for replication and scale. This workshop is based on the book Pathways to Personalization: A Framework for School Change, and recommended for participants who have not previously attended sessions with Shawn and Cathy.
As the Chief Education Officer, Shawn manages the Institute’s personalized and blended learning initiatives. Shawn also leads the FUSE RI fellowship and co-founded various programs including the EdUnderground, EdTechRI, and Metryx, a start-up software company building flexible formative assessment tools for educators where he serves as CEO. Shawn earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and his Master’s in Education at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA and served as a founding faculty member of the Highlander Charter School before joining the Institute in 2011.
Cathy Sanford is an experienced educator, education consultant, and nonprofit administrator. She has consulted as an adjunct faculty member of the Brown University Graduate School of Education, and has participated as a Board member of the RI Branch of the International Dyslexia Association and of Breakthrough Providence. She is a founding board member of Decoding Dyslexia RI. Cathy leads Research & Development efforts at Highlander Institute. As the first Director of Programs for the Institute, she launched programming and strategic priorities for the organization, and built a regional network of educators spanning four states and dozens of communities and districts. Before her move to the Institute, Cathy coordinated curriculum at Highlander Charter School, a Pre-K-12 urban school that specializes in supporting students with diverse learning styles. Prior to this role, she taught math at the Oundle School in Northamptonshire, England, and the Wheeler School in Providence, RI. Cathy holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia and an MA in Education Policy Analysis from Stanford University. She lives with her husband and two daughters in southeastern Massachusetts.