Personalized Learning in High Schools Implementing Deeper Learning Approaches

• In Event: Lessons Learned From the Design and Implementation of Personalized Learning in K–12 Schools

Abstract

Background and Methods

This paper presents findings on high schools implementing personalized learning strategies as part of a broader approach to supporting students’ deeper learning. The quasi-experimental study from which these findings derive examined whether students who attended at least moderately well-implemented approaches to promoting deeper learning experienced greater deeper learning opportunities and outcomes than they would have had they not attended these schools.1 The study included 19 high schools across 10 networks implementing different approaches to deeper learning and 12 comparison high schools matched based on location, student demographics and incoming achievement. Methods included site visits and phone interviews; student and teacher surveys; and analysis of student test results (state assessments and on the OECD PISA-based Test for Schools) graduation data, and postsecondary outcomes.

This paper will describe the ways in which the 19 DL network schools personalized learning for their students and then zero in on the three schools for which personalization was a central, addressing the following questions.
1. How did DL network schools differ from comparison sites in personalization of learning?
2. To what extent and in what ways did the three schools with a central focus on personalization differ from the other deeper learning network schools with respect to:
• instructional strategies?
• student opportunities for deeper learning?
• student outcomes?

Findings

Schools across the full sample of deeper learning network schools applied a range of instructional strategies to foster deeper learning competencies, including project-based learning, internship opportunities, group work, and long-term assessments. Some of these strategies (e.g., project-based learning and internships) were present in the sub-sample of schools focused on personalization while other strategies (group work and collaboration) were not emphasized to the same degree.

The larger study also found that students who attended deeper learning network schools had greater exposure to the following deeper learning opportunities: complex problem solving, collaboration, communication, creative thinking, interdisciplinary learning, and real world connections than did students in comparison sites. Students in deeper learning network schools also demonstrated better performance on all cognitive assessments, graduation, and enrollment in four-year college. We are in the process of analyzing the differences between the students’ opportunities for deeper learning and their outcomes in the schools with personalized learning approaches compared to the other deeper learning network schools and will present these findings as part of our presentation.

Significance

This paper examines differences in personalization among schools implementing deeper learning. The findings could suggest whether and how these differences influence instructional practice, student opportunities, and outcomes.

Authors

• Mette Huberman, American Institutes for Research

• Jennifer A. O'Day, American Institutes for Research