We can sometimes get confused by all the acronyms…. MCL, Mass Customized Learning refers to a vision that Chuck Schwahn & Bea McGarvey wrote about in their first book, “inevitable Mass Customized Learning, Learning in the Age of Empowerment”. In their book they help us see what learning communities could look like if willing to change the long-standing, assembly-line structures that were designed to sort learners, an important purpose of schools in the past…

MCCL, Maine Cohort for Customized Learning, was an organization of schools in Maine that started, in 2010, working on transforming their systems (based on the MCL vision) to provide the “Ideal Learning Experience” for every one of their learners. In 2000, MCCL reorganized to recognize the additional members who had joined their cohort from other states and to emphasize their purpose, to provide a collaborative of school leaders supporting each other as they transform their systems. At that point MCCL became the Collaborative for Customized Learning (CCL).

The Collaborative for Customized Learning (CCL) is a member of a national alliance, the Mass Customized Learning National Alliance which includes partners across the country who are supporting the transformative work of MCL Schools.

So, all our acronyms refer to the transformative work that leads to customizing our learning communities to provide the “Ideal Learning Experience”. This is an important, and different purpose, for schools. It is not okay to continue to operate as a sorting machine… We must educate ALL at a higher level and recognize that everyone learns in a different way and in a different time frame. No excuses anymore!!