Personalization Has Become The Hallmark Of Exemplary Schools Essay

According to Domenech et al. (2016), personalization has become the hallmark of exemplary schools. One of the essentials in a personalized curriculum is flexibility. Innovations Early College High School in Salt Lake City, Utah provides a perfect example of how flexibility is beneficial to learning. Student can begin their day as early as 7:00 a.m. and stay as late as 5:00 p.m. Each student’s schedule is customized to meet his or her individual needs. Students progress through a proficiency-based process and can finish a course when they demonstrate competency on all required standards. There are no periods and no bells. The principal, Kenneth Grover, created the school after surveying students who were not doing well in their current schools. His research led him to two problematic scenarios. Some students struggled because they failed to understand the material covered before the teacher moved on to new material. Others complained they already knew the material but were made to sit through the “one-size-fits-all lessons.” According to Domenech et al. (2016), the idea of personalized curriculum is exploding as parents, students, and stakeholders rally against standardization and over-testing. Our nation is becoming more and more diverse. Consideration of the growing levels of student transience, socioeconomic differences, and language diversity is essential. School districts need to examine the word curriculum and determine how it should look in a…