Dive Brief:

• Rand Corporation's latest report, "Informing Progress," looks at data from about 6,145 students and 241 teachers from 40 schools participating in the Next Generation Learning Challenge initiative — which funds schools to develop highly personalized learning approaches — finding overall that personalized practices may be related to positive effects on student outcomes, but more research is required. 
• The study found that personalized strategies used by NGLC schools could be lumped into four main, but interrelated types: learner profiles to record individual student strengths, personalized learning paths with curriculum materials and instruction informed by profiles, competency-based progression with individualized goals and assessments, and flexible learning environments that allow schools to adapt resources, like teachers and classroom space. 
• The study's key findings show that teachers reported implementing some aspects of personalized learning at higher levels than the national average, but didn't differ from other schools with more difficult-to-implement forms — and while students in these schools benefited from positive math and reading achievement, NGLC participants still faced similar implementation barriers as their peers, including poor integration of data systems. 

Dive Insight:

Personalized learning is a topic that has gained steam in K-12 education for several years, especially as educators try to move away from the "factory model" of teaching and embrace 21st century learning strategies. As a method of teaching, personalized learning can open options for underserved students — particularly those needing more attention, ELLs, or low-income students without much outside support — because it offers students autonomy over their own growth and learning process. Teachers who struggle to keep their students engaged have often seen that creating personalized lesson plans tailored toward individual learning characteristics can not only increase engagement but enhance outcomes. In fact, Rand's last report, "Continued Progress," highlights that personalized instruction led to positive effects on math and reading overall for students in a variety of schools. It concludes that the effects of personalized learning on student achievement are generally promising. 

However, the current report, which also shows a positive correlation between personalized learning strategies and student outcomes, does caution that educators ought to take a step back before investing in techniques without the challenges. In looking at only NGLC schools, required to invest in personalized learning, the report found that they still faced significant barriers to implementation, like poor use of data systems, tensions between competency-based goals and grade-level standards, and a lack of time needed to create personalized lessons. And on the strategies that were more difficult to implement, the NGLC schools looked more like the national sample, even though they were specializing this area.

This report highlights the importance of administrators spending resources on training and allowing teachers to have a voice in procurement decisions of personalized learning platforms. Additionally, it shows that administrators and teachers should work together to identify which types of tools are actually going to be useful in the classroom, rather than going all in on a strategy and not knowing how to deal with the challenges. For state level policymakers and leaders, the report also suggests making it easier for schools to hire staff that fit their learning goals, creating accountability policies that ensure value growth and other metrics of success, and looking to early adopters of personalized learning for ways of creating large-scale policy changes.