The recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) presents new opportunities and greater flexibility in efforts to personalize learning for all children. The Handbook on Personalized Learning for States, Districts, and Schools provides insight and guidance on maximizing that new flexibility. Produced by the Center on Innovations in Learning (CIL), one of seven national content centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education, this volume suggests how teachers’ can enhance personalized learning by cultivating relationships with students and their families to better understand a child’s learning and motivation. Personalized learning also encourages the development of students’ metacognitive, social, and emotional competencies, thereby fostering students’ self-direction in their own education, one aimed at mastery of knowledge and skills and readiness for career and college. Chapters address topics across the landscape of personalized learning, including co-designing instruction and learning pathways with students; variation in the time, place, and pace of learning, including flipped and blended classrooms; and using technology to manage and analyze the learning process. The Handbook’s chapters include Action Principles to guide states, districts, and schools in personalizing learning.
