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Key Findings

1. Schools in the study were pursuing a wide variety of practices to focus on the learning needs of each individual student in a supportive and flexible way.
2. Schools were implementing specific PL approaches to varying degrees, with none of the schools looking as radically different from traditional schools as theory might predict.
3. Students experienced positive achievement effects and closed gaps relative to national norms.
4. Implementation and effects both seemed stronger in the charter schools than in the district schools.

Personalized learning (PL) is an approach to education that seeks to allow what and how a student learns on a daily basis to be less constrained by the needs of other students or by external grade-level requirements. Instruction is driven largely by the individual student's needs, interests, and context, and is informed by ongoing conversations with the student and the adults in his or her life. While some aspects of PL have long been mainstays in U.S. K–12 education — for example, individualized education plans for students with special needs, providing support through tutors, and diverse elective course offerings — technological advances have expanded how and where student learning can be personalized. In its ideal form, PL allows for greater variety in what students are working on at any moment, while still setting ambitious goals for each student's progress.