In this Dec. 13, 2017 photo, school Superintendent Jeffrey Solan poses at the board of education headquarters in Cheshire, Conn. Schools in the town have suspended use of the Summit Learning program, a go-at-your-own-pace personalized online learning platform built by a California charter school network with help from Facebook engineers. Parents who organized against it said there was no need to change what's worked in a town with a prized reputation for good schools. Solan said he accepted the change was too much for some, and announced the program would be suspended. (AP Photo/Michael Melia)
In this Dec. 13, 2017 photo, school Superintendent Jeffrey Solan poses at the board of education headquarters in Cheshire, Conn. Schools in the town have suspended use of the Summit Learning program, a go-at-your-own-pace personalized online learning platform built by a California charter school network with help from Facebook engineers. Parents who organized against it said there was no need to change what's worked in a town with a prized reputation for good schools. Solan said he accepted the change was too much for some, and announced the program would be suspended. (AP Photo/Michael Melia) Credit: Michael Melia

Cheshire, Conn. — The fast-growing online platform was built with help from Facebook engineers and designed to help students learn at their own speed. But it’s been dropped because parents in this Connecticut suburb revolted, saying there was no need to change what’s worked in a town with a prized reputation for good schools.

The Summit Learning program, developed by a California charter school network, has signed up over 300 schools to use its blend of technology with go-at-your-own-pace personalized learning.

Cheshire, Conn. school administrators and some parents praised the program, but it faced criticism from others who said their children were spending too much time online, some content was inappropriate, and students were not getting enough direct guidance. Superintendent Jeffrey Solan said this week he accepted the change was too much, too soon for some.

“Some people were more comfortable with a model where a teacher stands in front of a class and lectures for 40 minutes. We haven’t been comfortable with that model for a long time,” he said. “That’s an old factory model that doesn’t fit in to contemporary learning.”

The reversal was vindication for parents who started a petition drive against the program and blasted it at public meetings.

“What was broken in the Cheshire school system, a highly successful system, that they needed to experiment with our children?” parent Heidi Wildstein said.

Many schools around the country have stories of successful technology initiatives, and one lesson from other districts is the importance of getting parents as excited as teachers, according to Lindsey Tepe, a policy analyst at the nonpartisan New America think tank in Washington, D.C.

“This huge shift we’re seeing in classrooms around the country increasing the use of new technologies is going to be bumpy in places that aren’t laying a groundwork,” Tepe said.