DPS isn’t the first district to have educators at odds with administration over personalized learning efforts.
In a 2018 evaluation of several school districts implementing personalized learning practices, the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell found that central offices, though encouraging experimentation, “generally failed to fundamentally change structures, policies, and supports to facilitate innovation in schools.” The current education system, they write, “was never designed for innovation.”