Tampa Bay
Approach to Learning
How do we support mastery-based learning?
Content
Our approach to content is personalized.
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Each student’s education is developed and shaped by the student, working with our team.
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Whenever possible, the education experience is customized to the student’s academic path and pace.
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We leverage blended learning as an important tool in an effective personalized strategy.
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How do we support mastery-based learning?
Concepts
Our approach to concepts is based in Inquiry and Mastery.
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Meaningful inquiry gives direction to student projects. Concepts, “the big ideas,” are explored through inquiry arcs. The inquiry connects knowledge from core skills to context and concepts.
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Inquiries are geared toward solving real world problems. Students develop the skills to create meaningful inquiries themselves.
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Learning and advancing through our curriculum happens when each student has fully mastered target objectives, concepts, and skills. In most schools, time spent learning is constant while the quality and level of content mastery varies. At IPS, the opposite is true: learning time is variable — but the quality and level of mastery for all students is constant.
Continuous Improvement
Our approach to continuous improvement is based on assessment and analysis.
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The approach to learning is informed by diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment, goal tracking, frequent one-on-one conferences with teachers, and review of data from online tools. Qualitative and quantitative assessment data is shared with students and parents on an ongoing basis and during student-led parent-teacher conferences.
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Research & Development:
We monitor existing and new findings in education research and learning science to inform our programmatic choices. We continuously reflect on our successes and challenges, student outcomes, and stakeholder feedback. And we commit to agile iteration to improve our program and share our learning broadly.