Peoria Unified leaders showcase personalized-learning pilots as teachers report gains in engagement and fewer discipline problems
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Summary
Superintendent Darvin Stifler and school leaders told the Peoria Unified School District governing board about classroom pilots using Office 365 and adaptive software; teachers said students are more engaged, discipline incidents have fallen and dashboards let students track progress. The board approved routine contract issuances.
Peoria, Ariz. — Peoria Unified School District leaders on Tuesday outlined a multi-year push toward personalized learning, saying the district will let schools explore different blended models while the central office works to align budgets, assessments and training.
Superintendent Darvin Stifler opened a study session by framing personalized learning as a long-standing district goal that technology now makes more practical. “We are talking about learning. We are not talking about computers,” Stifler said, urging the board to focus on pedagogy and student outcomes rather than hardware alone.
Administrators and principals described a patchwork of pilots across the district. A campus representative said a grant from the Tohono O’odham tribe enabled a freshman 1:1 pilot: “About 425 of our 475 freshmen received a computer,” the presenter said, and staff are now focusing on teacher training and classroom integration. District staff said mobile-device availability is roughly 3:1 now and should approach about 2:1 by the end of the year; technology purchases were funded in large part by a 2012 bond that district leaders said will be exhausted without new funding.
Schools are using a mix of software, administrators said. Programs mentioned included Read 180, ALEKS, i-Ready, Achieve3000, ThinkThru Math, Big Brains and LearnZillion; some products are in single-school pilots while others are in wider use. Rob Miller, principal at Santa Fe Elementary, described a teacher dashboard that shows completed activities and mastery, and said “we had 60 teachers show up on Friday evening” for voluntary training — a sign of strong staff interest.
Teachers who have piloted blended models told the board they are seeing practical benefits. Bobby Scott, a Heritage sixth-grade ELA teacher, said classroom management improved: “We have definitely seen a decrease in the discipline,” he said, adding that online lessons and instant feedback allow teachers to spend more time in small groups or 1-on-1 coaching. Several teachers described flexible seating, station rotations and digital portfolios that follow students and make student-led conferences possible.
District leaders emphasized the exploratory nature of the rollout. Stifler said some decisions will remain local to schools while others will be centralized to secure economies of scale for licensing and support: “We’re going to have to figure out what the magic mix is of which decisions get made at the district level, and which decisions get made at the school level, and which decisions get made at the teacher level.” He said a deliberate, roughly two-year approach is expected so the district can align assessments, budgets and staffing.
Action and next steps: the board approved standard issuance of certified and administrative contracts for the 2017–18 school year by voice vote during the meeting. Board members also heard a request from a board member to add a future agenda item on the district’s substance-abuse prevention protocol.
What’s next: district staff say they will continue to authorize local pilots, collect examples of effective practice and identify where central purchasing or training can reduce costs and spread tools that show results. Stifler told the board the district will convene a broader conversation next fall to review what works and where to consolidate efforts.
The meeting adjourned after a formal motion and vote and participants took a group photo.
