Giving Compass' Take:

• The Hechinger Report reports on how some teachers make the effort to tap into students' cultures in class, but are overshadowed by other personalized learning methods, according to a recent study.

• What can we do to incorporate cultural relevance more seamlessly in a personalized learning environment? Could nonprofits provide more resources in this effort?

• Here's more on what certain personalized learning tools are missing.

In the Colonial School District in New Castle, Delaware, educators are moving away from traditional textbooks and using open educational resources to bring more diverse perspectives into the curriculum. In Henrico County Public Schools, near Richmond, Virginia, the district is building new libraries and stocking them with books whose characters reflect the demographics of the student body ...

Tapping into students’ cultures in the curriculum fits, logically, into efforts to personalize learning. But a recent study by Social Policy Research Associates for the Bush Foundation, a philanthropic organization founded by 3M executive Archibald Bush and his wife, Edyth, found that when teachers think about personalized learning, very few think about the idea of cultural relevance. According to Sengsouvanh Leshnick, director of the Social Policy Research Associates’ education division, it is much more common for teachers to think about personalizing the learning experience based on students’ learning preferences or career interests than their cultural backgrounds.

The organization is working on a framework to help schools make their work with students more culturally relevant. While many schools don’t consider this a primary responsibility, at the center of the framework is supporting student identity formation and affirmation. Also, the framework includes responsive teaching styles, family engagement, student-teacher relationships and, at the foundation, a focus on and commitment to academic equity.

Read the full article about culture and the quest to improve personalized learning by Tara García Mathewson at The Hechinger Report.