Study of personalized learning shows promising evidence - or does it?

Study of personalized learning shows promising evidence - or does it?

The National Education Policy Center's  Think Twice Think Tank Review Project recently reviewed a RAND study on personalized learning.  The RAND study examined the effects of three schoolwide personalized learning initiatives on student achievement to try to find evidence linking specific learning strategies to achievement outcomes.

RAND defined "personalized learning" (PL) as incorporating five specific characteristics including data-supported student goals accessible to teachers and students, and personalized learning of each student's choice with in-school support and learning outside of school.
 
The RAND study compared the MAP reading and math scores of 11,000 students in 62 schools who had been using a personalized learning approach for two years to the scores of students matched at baseline to serve as a comparison. Researchers found higher achievement scores for the PL group, especially in the elementary grades. In addition, the study showed that personalized learners' scores increased at a greater rate than the nation's scores. Overall, researchers deemed personalized learning a promising practice.
 
Yet the Think Twice Think Tank Review Project disagrees. In a review of the study, Think Tankers felt that the study's limitations prevented it from demonstrating true evidence of promising practice. First, reviewers noted that only student involvement in analyzing their own data and goal setting was associated with consistent gains. They pointed out that two of the attributes ascribed to the success of personalized learning-flexible learning environments and student grouping-were also used in schools not using personalized learning. They noted that the largest departure from regular classroom practice-competency-based progression-was not used in the majority of the experimental schools, casting doubt on its pertinence. In addition, reviewers were dubious about the generalizability of the findings because 90% of the study schools were charter schools.
 
Think Tank reviewers concluded that the study suggests there may indeed be personalized practices associated with test score gains, but that the practices in the three experimental models weren't drastically different than practices in untreated schools. The study's limitations cast doubt on the models' generalization. 

Johns Hopkins University 

Research in Brief

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