To create a clear picture of a personalized learning environment, this article walks us through a day at the Waukesha STEM Academy, a Wisconsin charter school serving about 300 students in grades 6-8. The article follows Cal, a student making the transition from his former traditional school (where every week looked about the same) to a school…

Describes the Arizona Consortium for Individualized Learning (ACIL) program, which has been implemented in 52 Arizona schools in grades K-6. (JG)

The reading workshop is not based on ability groups, but provides a venue to focus on each student's strengths and needs. Components include a teacher-sharing time, focus lesson, state-of-the-class conference, self-selected reading and responding time, and student-sharing time. (MLH)

Describes the basic components of the Individually Guided Education (IGE) system of individualized instruction, and reviews some evaluation studies that show IGE to be a success. (JG)

Over 750,000 U.S. school-age children are homeless. Schools can eliminate attendance and environmental barriers sabotaging these children's education by becoming communities of learning that provide specialized education for children, contextualized education for parents, and linkages to needed services. The Bronx's Brownstone School, Chicago's…

The Learning for Mastery approach is clearly more effective than traditional instruction, but individualized programs are better than group-based ones. Students master more objectives with mastery learning because their level of participation is higher. (Author)

With typical funding, Rhode Island's Met School takes the personalized-instruction philosophy to new heights. Using mentors, parents, customized learning plans, journal writing, computer projects, and real-world settings, this school allows high-school students to develop their passions and interests instead of competing for grades. (MLH)

Chicago educators are countering anonymity with smaller schools that have been restructured and "recultured" into small learning communities stressing personalized instruction, high student visibility, and teacher collaboration. Since the mid-1990s, 130 small-design elementary and secondary schools serving 42,000 students have been…