See personalized learning in action at the Kenowa Hills Public School District

You have heard about personalized learning, but what does it actually look like in a classroom, school, and district?  On Monday, May 6, 2019, Kenowa Hills is welcoming up to 50 educators to visit their elementary, middle, and high schools for guided classroom tours, mini-presentations, and Q & A sessions with teachers, students and school leaders. This is a FREE opportunity open to all educators

How Kenowa Hills is Personalizing Learning

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Between 2013-2016, Kenowa Hills Public Schools worked with Marzano Research and Re-Inventing Schools to begin transforming the district from a traditional time-based system to one based on personalized learning and competency-based practices.  They call this approach “Personal Mastery”.  Kenowa Hills utilized Marzano’s High Reliability Schools (HRS) (2014) framework to develop a strategic implementation plan to support this paradigm shift.  As such, the site visit will be framed around the following HRS components:
  • Safe and Collaborative Culture
  • Effective Teaching in Every Classroom
  • Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
  • Standards-Referenced Reporting
  • Competency-Based Education​

​2016-2017 School Year

To start this school year, Kenowa Hills Public Schools has partnered with KnowledgeWorks to deepen their implementation of a Personal Mastery system of education.  KnowledgeWorks is a non-profit organization, “committed to providing every learner with meaningful personalized learning experiences that ensure success in college, career and civic life” (website, n.d.).  With a presence in over 30 states, KnowledgeWorks brings a national perspective on best practices to the important work of personalizing learning.  During the site visit, Kenowa’s KnowledgeWorks coach, Laura Hilger, will join participants for conversations and informal dialogue.  This will be a great opportunity to connect with Ms. Hilger about how others districts throughout the nation are implementing highly effective personalized learning practices.

Beyond highlights of the five HRS components, the site visit will also include:
  • Student and teacher-led discussions and tours, 
  • Choice activities to meet individual needs, 
  • Demonstrations and discussion surrounding Kenowa Hills’ Learning Management System (LMS): Empower, and 
  • An opportunity to tour the Knights STEM Academy; an off-site learning environment located side-by-side to an advanced manufacturing business within the district.

Time and Location

This site visit experience is at Kenowa Hills Middle School on
​May 6, 2018 from 8:30AM - 3:00PM.

Site Visit Schedule
​Time               Event
8:30AM          Welcome, Overview, Mini-Presentations (K-12)
9:30AM          Middle School Classroom Tours 
10:10AM        Travel to High School
​10:20AM        High School Classroom Tours
11:00AM        Secondary Debrief with Q & A
11:45PM        Lunch (Provided by Kenowa Hills)
​                         Travel to Central Elementary
12:55PM        Welcome & Overview
1:15PM          Elementary Classroom Visits
2:05PM          Debrief with Q & A
2:35PM          Personalized Learning:
                        What’s happening in Michigan and the U.S.
3:00PM          End of Site Visit
Kenowa Hills Middle School
3950 Herdershot NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49544
NOTE: Conference registration is separate from site visit registration. Please be sure to register for both the conference and site visit separately.