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Friday, June 16, 2017

Massachusetts Teachers Take A Stand Against “Personalized Learning” – Wrench in the Gears

Massachusetts Teachers Take A Stand Against “Personalized Learning” – Wrench in the Gears:

Massachusetts Teachers Take A Stand Against “Personalized Learning”


During the annual meeting in May, representatives of the Massachusetts Teachers Association overwhelming approved three New Business Items opposing the roll out of so-called “personalized” learning programs in the Commonwealth via the MAPLE/LearnLaunch initiative. Additionally, a commitment was made to expand research the MTA has been conducting on privatization to include “personalized” learning and to create a webpage to share information and document the harm being done by such programs to teaching and learning.
I have written about digital curriculum in Massachusetts HERE and HERE. Mark Zuckerberg’s “personalized” learning platform Summit Basecamp has been making its way into a number of Massachusetts districts as well as districts in neighboring Rhode Island, which reformers have targeted for conversion as the nation’s first “personalized learning” state. More on that HERE.
In an email to members yesterday, Delegates say NO to personalized learning and YES to funding, MTA president Barbara Madeloni highlighted a number of NBIs passed by delegates during the meeting, including those related to Personalized Learning. See the screenshot below.
MTA Personalized Learning
The email also acknowledged the need to incorporate “personalized” Massachusetts Teachers Take A Stand Against “Personalized Learning” – Wrench in the Gears: