Source: The Hechinger Report
In the first year of a new program, a large San Diego district experiences small victories despite growing pains… Vista High School principal Anthony Barela had a vivid image of what school here could look like after a $10 million grant to reimagine learning: Rolling desks and chairs, with students moving freely and talking about their work. Better attendance, class participation and graduation rates. One year later, Barela has watched some of this vision flourish — including new classes and ways of teaching — while other parts never took off… Barela contends that Vista’s approach is making a tangible impact in an area he’s long considered paramount: attendance… After Vista High School rolled out personalized learning, its freshman class’s attendance rate was 15 percent higher than the same group’s attendance had been in eighth grade, and its average GPA was 0.2 points higher