Personalized learning, mentorship, self- direction, goal setting, deeper learning, community,” these are just a few of the words used to describe the new Summit Basecamp learning program that the St. Regis school district will adopt for next year.

“This is a personalized one-to-one learning experience,” said St. Regis principal, Joe Steele, in a recent newsletter, “we received a grant for funding and have been accepted to the Summit Basecamp. We’ve also met with the Kuna Middle School in Idaho who have implemented this program and we went to Spokane to visit another school who has made the transition. We were able to see the program in action and it’s a really great tool.”

Steele said that they will also be sending a team to San Francisco in July for training.

“You’re not running on a track anymore, your more running on a field and you chose which direction you run to,” said a student on the program‘s website, who participates in the program.

This shift in learning is happening on a national level where students have more control over their education. The program is project-based, and more ‘hands-on’ rather than a teacher standing in front of a class.

“Teachers become mentors for students and facilitators of their education to help them reach their goals rather than the distributor of information,” said Steele.

 According to their website, student collaborate and work together, and they can also work at their own pace. For example, if they are ahead of the other students, they can work ahead.

“What this means for our students, staff, and parents is a paradigm shift about what learning is,” explained Steele who has been hired as the new superintendent for St. Regis School. Judy McKay will be retiring at the end of this year.

Both McKay and Steele were hired two years ago and embarked on this journey together. To bring parents and the community into the school, and to see what education could be with the advent of technology and new opportunities the world has to offer.

Steele, who has been teaching for 17 years, explains why these changes are needed in his newsletter sent out on April 7.

He references the book, “Tapping the Power of Personalized Learning: A Roadmap for School Leaders”, by James Rickabaugh. The current method of teaching, or current “practice” is that students are separated by age groups and they are moved through the system in batches. The “assumption” (as described in the book), is that students learn at the same rate at others in their age group. But according to the book, the “fact” is that each student learns at his or her own pace based on their level of interest, learning history, maturity and background knowledge.

Another “assumption” is that by using the same approach for an entire class, the students have the ability to keep pace with the class and learn from a set of standard instructional strategies. But the “fact” is that not all students learn in the same way, and teaching them this way makes it inevitable that some will be held back when they are ready to move forward, while others will struggle to keep up.

Both Steele and McKay are looking forward to the opportunities this new program will provide, but Steele also acknowledges that this process will not be an easy one. He also said that more information will be provided to students, families, teachers and the school board as they move forward with the project.