Past Work
The Personalization 2020 Conference was designed to showcase the best classroom, school, and district implementers across the nation and is hosted in Providence, RI. Previous annual iterations of this event were titled the Blended & Personalized Learning Conference. Unlike many conferences throughout the year, this event was a chance for educators and leaders to discuss personalized learning as it exists today on the ground - both in terms of the day-to-day implementation in classrooms, and the strategies and systems that have effectively supported replication and scale across schools and districts. Note: the Personalization 2020 Conference was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Fuse Fellowship strives to share, implement, evaluate, and scale best practices of personalized learning by connecting educators across district lines. Through the Fellowship, we assembled a “dream team” of Fuse Fellows made up of educators and administrators with coaching and implementation expertise, matching them with another district (separate from the one they work in) to assess readiness, analyze data, and help disseminate strategies based on each district’s specific vision and needs.
Fuse RI: ran from 2014-2020 with support from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation & Overdeck Family Foundation
Fuse MA: provided in partnership with The Education Cooperative
Fuse Architect was an 18-month high school redesign project funded through the Nellie Mae Education Foundation's Integrated Learning Systems grant. Seven high schools in six districts throughout the state of Rhode Island joined the program and tackled two of the most challenging aspects facing high schools across the United States - transforming systems towards Student Centered Learning Models and developing Integrated Learning Systems that tie together the diverse ecosystem of technology products used by teachers and administrators.
Fuse Classroom was a yearlong professional development program for individual teachers to advance their own blended and personalized classroom pedagogy. Participants in this free program received embedded support from Fuse Classroom Coaches, as well as in-person and online professional development. The Fuse Classroom cohort met periodically throughout the school year for whole-cohort days that included site visits to districts around the state. Programming was designed around a September-March “sprint” that frontloads direct instruction and coaching. In the spring, Fuse Classroom teachers had the opportunity to earn designation as a Lighthouse Classroom in up to 4 domains. Fuse Classroom produced 3 successful cohorts from 2016-2019.
Fuse Leader convened principals and instructional leaders implementing blended and personalized learning models in their schools. The program provided a forum for these leaders to share experiences and grapple with the challenges inherent in this complex work. In sharing their stories and seeing blended and personalized learning in action through rotating site visits, principals provided each other with a supportive professional learning community. Facilitated by current principals leading blended schools with organizational and structural assistance from Highlander Institute, this group met monthly, alternating site visits and face-to-face gatherings.