D181 Name Change: 'Advanced Learning Plan' Becomes 'Learning For All Plan'

District 181’s Advanced Learning Plan is now known as the Learning For All Plan.

The new name was used for the first time at a board of education meeting Monday night. The change, made by administration, was inspired at least in part by the misconception among some community members that the Advanced Learning Plan only concerned high-achieving students, when in fact it has affected curriculum for all students.

“Some parents said they were not aware that this was affecting more than the advanced learners,” Superintendent Renée Schuster said.

The new name casts the plan as one that indeed challenges every single student and likewise every teacher and administrator.

“Learning For All encompasses all of the goals we wish to [accomplish],” Schuster said.

Board member Brendan Heneghan brought up the topic of the name change Monday night during a discussion of the district-wide math program for 2013-14.

He said “labels and names matter,” and that the new name does represent a departure from the original intent of the plan that was derived after Tonya Moon’s 2011 report on the district’s methods of addressing high-achieving students.

“We have a good chance of losing what the original goal was, which was to increase advanced learning in the district,” Heneghan said.