The Breakthrough system addresses the need to “establish classroom routines and
practices that represent personalized, ongoing ‘data-driven, focused instruction.’”
It identifies three core components that must be “synergistically interconnected” if
the system is to succeed:
- Personalization – Education that puts the learner at the centre, providing
assessment and instruction that are tailored to students’ particular learning and
motivational needs
- Precision – A system that links “assessment for learning” to evidence-informed instruction on a daily basis, in the service of providing instruction
that is precise to the level of readiness and the learning needs of the individual
student
- Professional learning – Focused, ongoing learning for every educator “in
context,” to link new conceptions of instructional practice with assessment of
student learning
The glue that binds these three components is moral purpose: education for all that
raises the bar as it closes the gap.
– Michael Fullan, Peter Hill, Carmel Crévola, Breakthrough (2006)
If education partners lose sight of the moral purpose of “serving all students to a
high standard,” they run the risk of implementing the three components in ways that
may fail to bring about the desired changes in education. The success of the large-scale reform that the Breakthrough system envisions depends on co-operation and
aligned purpose at the level of the school and community, the district or region and
the state.
(Source: Fullan, Hill, & Crévola, 2006)