Expertise: Policy

Personalized Learning for All: Actions for States to Make Aspirations a Reality

This report by the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) looks at the potential of large scale shifts to personalized learning for students with disabilities. Based on interview with close to 100 leaders in Colorado, New Hampshire, and North Carolina, including expert practitioners, researchers, policy leaders, parents, and others, NCLD identified benefits and associated challenges… Read More ›

Competency-Based Education: Staying Shallow or Going Deep?

This report examines what it means to be competent in the 21st century. It begins with an overview of competency-based education. It then explores the competencies needed for career and college readiness with attention given to existing personal and deeper learning competency frameworks. The report concludes that competency in the 21st century must include academics as well as… Read More ›

State Policy & K-12 Competency-Based Education

This issue brief from iNACOL offers advice for state leaders who want to support policy for K-12 competency-based education. The brief includes background on the development of and an overview of competency, sometimes called mastery-based education. It features a series of recommendations for state policy-makers hoping to stimulate a shift towards competency-based education or nurture… Read More ›

Using Title I to Promote Deeper Learning

This webinar will address how states can use resources provided by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to implement deeper learning practices in schools and school districts. State and local policymakers, in addition to district and school leaders can use deeper learning as the framework from which to design their plans to meet the ESSA requirements… Read More ›

Making Sense of Personalized Learning: What It Looks Like and How It Helps Students

In this webinar, leading national experts will make practical sense of common personalized learning approaches. They will discuss what these approaches look like in the classroom, policy conditions for implementation, and how they can be used to promote specific aspects of college and career readiness. Presenters will include leaders from the College and Career Readiness and… Read More ›

Tools for Looking Under the Hood of Competency-Based Education

This webinar will highlight the forthcoming Competency-based Education (CBE) 360 Survey Toolkit, a resource that uses surveys from a recent AIR CBE study to provide a comprehensive picture of CBE implementation in six research-based core areas. States, districts, and schools that want to realize competency-based education’s (CBE) college and career readiness potential must ensure that core CBE features are… Read More ›

Research Collaborative Seminar: What We’ve Done, Where We’re Going

The Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative launched in November 2016 with over 100 researchers, practitioners, and policymakers coming together to break down silos and advance the field. Join Eric Toshalis, Research Director at Jobs for the Future, as he kicks off the second year of the Research Collaborative by highlighting its exciting progress, future plans, and… Read More ›

iNACOL Symposium 2017

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning’s (iNACOL) annual conference focuses on competency-based, blended and online learning for grades K-12 and brings together experts, practitioners, educators, policymakers, and researchers. The symposium includes more than 200 sessions, each with a specific track to guide attendees toward sessions that fit their unique professional learning needs. Additionally, the… Read More ›

Informing Progress Insights on Personalized Learning Implementation and Effects

This report and accompanying research brief, written by the RAND Corporation and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, synthesizes findings from a study of the personalized learning (PL) practices at schools in the  Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC)’s Breakthrough School Models program. Researchers identified the PL strategies used and implementation challenges faced by these schools… Read More ›

Online Courses for Credit Recovery in High Schools

This report, prepared by The University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute for the Nellie Mae Education Foundation (NMEF) examines promising practices for online credit recovery programs. These programs help underserved students achieve a diploma through a more personalized approach with the flexibility to work anytime and anywhere and progress based on mastery. This report draws on a study of… Read More ›

The MyWays Initiative

MyWays is an initiative of Next Generation Learning Challenge (NGLC). It is an effort to synthesize a broader, deeper definition of student success: success for learning, working, and living in the fast-changing world facing today’s youth. The initiative seeks to help school communities address big questions in education today by: Fully understanding why a changing world requires reimagining… Read More ›