Growing Toward Systemic Change: Developing Personal Learning Plans at Montpelier High School.

Research traced the flow of such events as faculty development, school district initiatives, state and federal policies, student experience, and systems changes in Montpelier (Vermont) High School over six years to identify patterns of activities that supported growing reform. To understand how community-based learning (CBL) for a few students laid the groundwork for what was to become personalized learning plans (PLPs) for all, students, teachers, and administrators were interviewed. The CBL effort began as faculty sought information on alternative programs to engage reluctant students and became a community vision that was validated by district policy in a strategic plan. The administration instituted a long-block schedule, and a mentoring program and CBL internship were established. CBL emerged in the form of a system-wide program for everyone. As paths of the activities converged, the CBL program expanded to include PLP. What makes the PLP program distinctive is its placement of the student's aspirations at the center of a quest: what is he or she doing here, and what is he or she learning and preparing himself or herself to do? The PLP conversation is sustained over the course of four years and dips into all aspects of the student's life. The four phases of the innovation at Montpelier were team and individual capacity building; shaping community vision; structural alignment and adaptation; and systemic resonance. (YLB)