In an effort to not have added view of education’s version
of “what’s old is new again,” I decided to have a new look at personalized
learning. A recent study conducted by
the RAND Corporation included a review of several school industries around the
country that have adopted personalized learning. The RAND study concluded that
students who participated in the program had better academic gains in reading
and math than their peers.
In the Personalized Learning classroom, the traditional “ halk and talk” format of knowledge delivery is jettisoned in favor of having a
learning plan for each student that they can proceed at their own pace. The
advent of computer-assisted learning has made it easier to develop programs
that students can use at their own learning pace. It utilizes alternative
difficulty levels and tries to identify what students are interested in to
allow them to stay on track.
The RAND study followed progress in 62 schools (mostly from
low –income areas). These identified schools-public charter schools- had
received grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The students
in the participating schools had been underperforming on standardized tests
prior to involvement in the Personalized-learning program. “ The most
successful schools in the (RAND) study were flexible in how they used
classroom space and time, allowing students more freedom to work in groups or
on individual projects.”
For more information about this program, please check out
the full report at the RAND website (www.rands.org/t/RR1365.
C.2016 J. Margolis
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