Personalized Learning

Fulton County Schools Launches 3-Year Personalized Learning Transition

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 04/23/15

Fulton County Schools (FCS) is launching an initiative to turn its 101 schools into personalized learning environments.

Goals of the three-year plan include a 90 percent graduation rate, ensuring that 85 percent of students are eligible for admission to a Georgia college or university and that 100 percent of students are career ready.

"The district believes that with a one-size-fits-all model it will not be able to realize these goals," according to a news release, "but that by focusing on creating personalized learning models in each of its schools, student needs will be met and its goals achieved."

For the first phase, 32 district schools are working with Education Elements, which will provide guidance on developing a design thinking process, offer support and push "them to reach for ways to constantly evolve and improve their pedagogical approaches," according to a news release. A second group of schools will begin a similar process in the fall, with groups of 15-20 schools beginning the transitions every few months until the entire district has made the leap.

The company will also help to ensure strategic alignment throughout the district while helping individual schools create personalized learning models and select digital content most appropriate for their students.

"Education Elements has provided support to a variety of districts and schools with success. Their ability to bring those experiences to us, in Fulton County Schools, is very valuable." said Stephanee Stephens, instructional technology program specialist at FCS, in a prepared statement. "We insist that our focus remains on transformational practice rather than the 'tool', and in that respect we are absolutely in sync with Education Elements' vision of personalized learning."

The district developed and released its personalized learning roadmap in March of last year with the support of Gartner.

"Gartner has been fortunate to serve as a trusted partner to FCS and proud to see the initiatives detailed in their roadmap come to life and positively impact how kids learn," said David Irwin, managing partner and K-12 education practice lead, in a prepared statement.