Dive Brief:

• A panel hosted by Clayton Christensen Institute cofounder Michael Hornat this year’s ASU GSV Summit in San Diego showcased four new models of schools deisgned for project-based learning and self-directed goal-setting.
• Design Tech High School in San Mateo, CA; The Incubator School in Los Angeles; the national, decentralized Big Picture Learning program, and the Silicon Valley-inspired Khan Lab School, Mountain View, CA were all mentioned.
• Each of those new models are aimed at teaching students real-world skills for after high school, and they stress the importance of critical thinking and problem solving with real-life examples. 

Dive Insight:

Trends like personalized learning and real-world skill-based instruction continue to gain traction in education. Big Picture Learning students participate in an internship at a local business or nonprofit twice a week and take core classes the rest of the week, but they get to choose their classes and design their own schedules in a way that suits their chosen interests and career path.

The ongoing move toward more flexible learning structures that allow students to chart their own course and focus on career earlier have also made inroads to some charter schools. Personalized learning programs, also known as PLPs, have snagged the interest of parties ranging from the Gates Foundation to Facebook. One recent report found that students engaged in personalized learning reportedly “made gains in mathematics and reading over the past two years that were significantly greater than a comparison group made up of similar students selected from comparable schools.”