Indigo helps schools personalize learning

Differences in learning styles can often make education difficult for both students and teachers, leading to a need for more personalized learning.

Niwot-based Indigo works with schools both locally and in different states to help create a more personalized education experience.

“The ultimate vision behind Indigo is giving schools all the resources, training and information they need to be able to teach their students based on who they are,” Director Joel Kaplan said.

With schools having up to 3,000 students, it can be easy to lose track of who its students are, and what their strengths and motivations are. Indigo believes “in a future where an evolved education system” can help students “identify a future where they will love what they do.”

“We go into high schools and test everyone in the building, from ninth graders to administrators,” Nathan Robertson, director of Indigo, explained, “so now everyone is joining in on this conversation about the non academic strengths—the things that make us who we are.”

The company’s strategy is to give an assessment to students first, which is a 4-science test that helps students understand how they communicate, what motivates them, and what their strengths are.

Indigo also tests all the teachers and administrators, including the principal, and holds workshops and trainings with every group. The purpose is to bring everyone into the same conversation and start thinking about how they can implement changes in the classroom.

“The neat thing about Indigo is that the assessment is so multi-dimensional, it uses four sciences,” Kaplan said. “You can get even deeper than your strengths. [You can] start having conversations on how you implement those strengths in relation to the things that you care about, and in relation to who you are.”

It’s no each task getting everyone in a school on board for such a big undertaking, especially when schools are focused on making sure students are safe and passing each grade. Kaplan and Robertson said the best way to make sure schools are making changes is to immerse themselves in the schools, and get people involved.

“We decided that the only way to actually initiate change in a school—and sustainable change—is to go in and get the students engaged, get the teachers engaged and get the principal engaged,” Kaplan explained.

“I think what we see happen a lot is, whether the school is performing fantastically or whether they’re inner city and struggling, a lot of the schools that come to us have reached a point where they realize there is a disconnect happening,” Robertson said of why schools use their services.

Indigo works with multiple schools at a time, one of which is New Vista High School in Boulder. Principal Kirk Quitter said Indigo helped the “non-traditional school” see what it was doing well and capitalize on it.

“For a school that really looks at interpersonal growth, there aren’t a lot of standardized tests out there that can tell us how our students are doing in that realm,” Quitter explained. “The Indigo assessment has really helped show us that what we’re doing works well. That students are making huge growth, not only academically but socially and emotionally as well.”

New Vista uses the results from the survey to help students figure out what they want to do when they graduate, to plan classes and even to solve conflicts.

“We’ve been able to collect some data that shows that students are growing more and more resilient as they spend time with us,” Quitter said of the results he’s seen. “They’re needing less and less intervention because our program is empowering them to be self advocates and to know their strengths.”

“I think a lot of schools are starting to shift their mindset toward the student—to a much more holistic approach of education,” Kaplan said.

The assessment itself won’t solve all the issues a school may be facing or help a school continue to perform well, but it will help them get to where they want to be.

“We do say that the Indigo assessment is not the end, it’s the means to an end,” Kaplan explained. “Once you have those conversations it really gets the ball rolling, and starts bridging those gaps and connecting those three levels.”

Indigo doesn’t expect schools to change overnight, but hopes that after the first year it will start planning how to implement changes. Hopefully there will be changes within the classroom and with the individual students.

“I want to see a school ready to start taking the steps it needs to take with its staff and faculty, to start planning change for the next school year,” Robertson said about what he hopes to see happen in schools. “I want to see some beginnings to the changes of students saying ‘I have value, I have worth, I have something to give because of who I am.’”