West Shore

School District

Future Ready Framework

Academic & Career Planning

The Future Ready Framework
When high quality teaching is infused with the dynamic use of technology, personalized student learning becomes possible. The Future Ready District Pledge is designed to set out a roadmap to achieve that success and to commit districts to move as quickly as possible towards a shared vision of preparing students for success in college, career, and citizenship. This roadmap can only be accomplished through a systemic approach to change, as outlined in the Future Ready Framework. With personalized student learning at the center, a district must align each of the seven (7) key categories, called "Gears", in order to ensure a successful digital conversion.

Personalized Student Learning: A Future Ready Vision
Personalized learning is a student-centered approach designed to help all students develop a set of skills collectively known as the deeper learning competencies. These skills include thinking critically, using knowledge and information to solve complex problems, working collaboratively, communicating effectively, learning how to learn, and developing academic mindsets.

Under a personalized learning approach, teachers, school staff and, as appropriate, other adults:

Develop caring and trusting relationships with their students, who, because of these relationships, are more engaged in their education and put more effort into their school work;
Connect the curriculum to students’ interests, strengths, and aspirations;
Provide students with tools to monitor their progress in mastering critical knowledge and skills, enabling them to take greater ownership (student agency) of their learning;
Provide students with targeted instruction, practice, and support in areas where they are struggling, while ensuring they learn challenging academic content and skills;
Create more flexible learning environments, incorporating multiple instructional approaches and the effective use of technology; and
Connect learning to real-world applications.

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
In a Future Ready district, curriculum, instruction, and assessment are tightly aligned, redesigned to engage students in 21st Century, personalized, technology-enabled, deeper learning. Curricula and instruction are standards-aligned, research-based, and enriched through authentic, real-world problem solving. Students and teachers have robust and adaptive tools to customize the learning, teaching, and assessment, ensuring that it is student-centered and emphasizing deep understanding of complex issues. Assessments are shifting to be online, embedded, and performance-based. Data and associated analysis serve as building blocks for learning that is personalized, individualized, and differentiated to ensure all learners succeed.

The elements that comprise this Gear are as follows:

21st Century Skills/Deeper Learning
Personalized Learning
Collaborative, Relevant, and Applied Learning
Leveraging Technology
Assessment – Analytics Inform Instruction

Use of Space and Time
Personalized learning requires changes in the way instructional time is used and the learning space is designed. Many schools are shifting away from Carnegie units to competency-based learning. This type of system adapts learning to meet the needs, pace, interests, and preferences of the learner. As the pedagogy shifts, so too must the learning space.

The elements that comprise this Gear are as follows:

Flexible Learning; Anytime, Anywhere
New Pedagogy, Schedules, and Learning Environment for Personalized Learning
Competency-Based Learning
Strategies for Providing Extended Time for Projects and Collaboration

This transition is made possible through innovative uses of technology for diagnostic, formative and summative assessments, for managing learning, for engaging students in learning, and for providing anywhere, anytime learning. Such transitions required districts to rethink and more effectively leverage the use of instructional time and space.

Community Partnerships
Community partnerships include the formal and informal local and global community connections, collaborative projects, and relationships that advance the school’s learning goals. Digital communications, online communities, social media, and digital learning environments often serve as connectors for these partnerships.

The elements that comprise this Gear are as follows:

Local Community Engagement and Outreach
Global and Cultural Awareness
Digital Learning Environments as Connectors to Local/Global Communities
Parental Communication and Engagement
District Brand