Education Leaders Visit Aveson Charter Schools

Partnership, leadership and professional education were the focus of Aveson’s top administrators recently as they continued their work on Aveson’s vision of innovative, personalized learning and a strong greater-Pasadena education community.

In February, three Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) board members paid a visit and toured the new Aveson Global Leadership Academy (AGLA) campus. Tyron Hampton, Scott Phelps, and Mikala Rahn met with Aveson Executive Director, Kate Bean and AGLA Director, Larry Simonson, to discuss potential ways Aveson and PUSD can partner to provide excellent education for all Pasadena-area students.

AGLA students demonstrated personal and mastery learning at the middle and high school level, and board members were able to more deeply inquire about the Aveson model. Administrators discussed partnerships around lunch programs, classroom computers, fundraising and community involvement.

“Coming to Aveson to learn firsthand about our school and how we can benefit from partnerships with each other shows tremendous vision,” said Bean. “It was a pleasure to have PUSD board members on campus and we look forward to continued discussions and partnership development.”

Later in March, Aveson hosted two visits by education professionals looking for more information about personalized learning and assistance in communicating how to implement personalized learning at other schools.

Stating that “Aveson is the most authentic personalized learning model around,” Denver Public School administrators toured Aveson School of Leaders (ASL) to observe its personalized learning model. Bean brought the administrators through various classrooms. They reviewed mastery learning portfolios and interviewed students and advisors about Aveson’s personalized learning approach.

The Denver administrators’ visit led to a meeting with Allison Zmuda, an education consultant and author of The Competent Classroom. Zmuda met with Bean, and Director of Curriculum, Dr. Sebastian Cognetta, to discuss a new, yet to be announced, book she is developing. Zmuda interviewed Bean and Cognetta about Aveson’s personalized and mastery learning model and Aveson leaders developed material for possible inclusion in the book that includes examples of personalized learning, a Day in the Life narrative from teachers and students and lesson learned from developing a personalized learning school.

Zmuda’s work to date has focused on helping educators create learning environments where “all participants experience designs that are challenging, feasible and worthy of the attempt.” She calls these environments “competent classrooms.”

The Competent Classroom, is one of six books Zmuda has authored. The others include High-Stakes High School: A Guide for the Perplexed Parent, Transforming Schools: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement, Schooling by Design: An Action Tool, Librarians as Learning Specialists and Breaking Free from Myths of Teaching and Learning: Innovation as an Engine for Student Success.

Zmuda’s visit was beneficial for everyone involved.

“Allison is a well-known, highly regarded education expert on personalized learning and it was a great opportunity to share Aveson’s model with her,” says Dr. Cognetta. “She learned a lot about how we’ve combined personalized and mastery learning and we were able to get some constructive feedback on how to make Aveson even better.”

To stay in touch with what’s happening at Aveson and for more information on the upcoming Zmuda book, make sure to check the News Section of the Aveson website (www.aveson.org) frequently, and follow Aveson Charter Schools on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AvesonCharterSchools) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/AvesonCharter).

About Aveson: Aveson Charter Schools is composed of two public schools serving K-12 students in the Pasadena/Altadena area. Its mission is to redefine teaching and learning so all children have the opportunity to experience an exemplary public education. More information can be found at www.aveson.org.