Advancing Equity through Personalized Learning - Equity and Personalized Learning: A Research Review

image of the equity paper of personalized learning

Advancing Equity through Personalized Learning is intended to be a reference for state agencies of education interested in adopting and refining policies and practices to ensure access to personalized learning for students who have been historically underserved, such as English Learners, students with disabilities, students of color, students living in poverty, and students impacted by trauma.

CCSSO’s Innovation Lab Network worked with New Profit’s Reimagine Learning Fund and the America Forward coalition to develop these resources intended for state and local policymakers interested in advancing equity through personalized, deeper learning. These resources include:

  • A review of current literature and research in the field of personalized learning focused on equity
  • Key policy considerations for state and local policymakers
  • To-be-released case studies that highlight promising practices at the school and district levels to close opportunity and achievement gaps

CCSSO previously released Leading for Equity: Opportunities for State Chiefs, which details 10 commitments state chiefs can explore to ensure equity across the education system. The resources in Advancing Equity through Personalized Learning build on the Leading for Equity commitments to specifically support states that are committed to transforming their systems to improve student-centered approaches to learning.

This resource, Equity and Personalized Learning: A Research Review, was developed in response to an ask to produce a research document that could identify bright spots in practice and policy to support equitable access for personalized learning. Our research team set out to synthesize the existing peer reviewed research on personalized learning as it relates to the following five groups of historically underserved students: students of color, students living in poverty, students who have experienced trauma, English learners (ELs), and students with disabilities (SWDs). This literature review has a complimentary resource comprised of interviews with leading voices from the field, which, when taken together, illustrate a powerful story about how we can leverage promising work in the personalized learning field to support our historically underserved and disenfranchised students. Our hope is that this document accelerates conversations about both the promise of personalized learning, and the conditions and considerations necessary to ensure that personalized learning efforts disrupt deep inequities in education rather than promulgating existing trends. Driven by the promise of this vision and the hard work of educators, policy makers, and partners working towards this aim, we are committed to continuing and deepening the conversation.

Read our policy brief here.  


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