Up Close and Personal: Chronicling Learning Practices Across the Nation

This website from EdSurge showcases stories illustrating what personalized learning looks like in practice in schools across the country. The site houses a collection of hundreds of stories, profiles, and lessons learned. This research enables insights into how schools and districts across the country think about personalized learning, from visualizing change to opening pathways to… Read More ›

Waukesha STEM Academy Series

This four-part series featuring Waukesha STEM Academy (WSA) is part of a series on personalized, proficiency-based education in Wisconsin. This blog post gives an introduction to what’s happening state-wide. WSA is a competency-based school with personalized learning for all 300 students it serves. It spans grades 6-8, but students move at their own pace and… Read More ›

Golden Ticket

This dynamic case study combines narrative, video, data visuals, and photos to tell the story of a vital component of school reform efforts in the Lawrence, MA  Public Schools. The case study provides details on the creation and implementation of Acceleration Academies, week-long opportunities for personalized learning in small class settings  held over February and… Read More ›

Learning Accelerator’s Practices at Work: Blended & Personalized Learning

The Blended and Personalized Learning Practices at Work site, managed by The Learning Accelerator, is a collection of free, practical strategies and resources to help schools implement blended and personalized learning. The Learning Accelerator is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing blended learning. The organization works to  bring together communities of learners and document and share strategies to… Read More ›

From Maverick to Mainstream: Takeaways from the 2017 Blended and Personalized Learning Conference

This report synthesizes data gathered from education leaders who attended the 2017 Blended and Personalized Learning Conference. It details 9 lessons learned from educators and leaders in the midst of implementing personalized learning, master-based learning, and other student-centered approaches. They are divided into suggestions for innovation and ways to scale up.  Suggestions include: moving slowly… Read More ›

Why Relationships Matter for Urban Students’ Engagement

This post is a follow-up to “Do I Have a Voice? Student Ownership Drives Engagement Among Urban Youth.” We all want to feel connected to and accepted by others. Research shows that positive relationships with adults in school have motivational and academic benefits for students. Nevertheless, researchers and practitioners both tend to emphasize academic and… Read More ›

The Massachusetts Personalized Learning Edtech Consortium (MAPLE)

The Massachusetts Personalized Learning Edtech Consortium (MAPLE) is an initiative of the LearnLaunch Institute and the Massachusetts Department of of Elementary & Secondary Education. This public-private partnership was launched to encourage exchange between peers and increase implementation of student-centered learning tactics and tools in schools across the state. The program has brought together 15 “catalyst… Read More ›

Education Elements Personalized Learning Resources for School Leaders

Education Elements is an organization that works with schools to support adoption of personalized learning and competency-based education. The following white papers can help school leaders tackle implementation, with a focus on digital integration. The Core Four of Personalized Learning: The Elements You Need to Succeed describes each of these elements of successful personalized learning: integrated digital content,… Read More ›

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 ›

Learner-Centered Culture Includes Educators, Too

Ask an adult who is not an educator to describe a classroom, and you might still hear something like this: “A teacher is standing in front and lecturing to students seated neatly in rows. Everyone is on the same page of the textbook and doing the same exercises because there’s a quiz tomorrow and everyone… Read More ›

The 2017 Lawrence W. O’Toole Teacher Leadership Awards Winners

As high schoolers around New England return to class for another exciting year, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation is proud to honor the innovative educators who are rethinking how, when and where learning happens to put students at the center of their education. In celebration of their outstanding work to renovate and reinvent learning across… Read More ›