Giving Compass' Take:

• In this RAND report, the author lays out a set of principles for personalized learning that educators might be able to use to guide as a guide absent evidence-based models or an abundance of resources.

• How can we apply these strategies on a practical level in the classroom? More importantly, how can funders push for more research to develop more tried and true methods?

• Here's how culture fits into the quest to improve personalized learning.

Innovators are exploring new designs for the primary and secondary education system under umbrella of personalized learning. The overarching set of practices being explored in the space is quite broad, but there is not consensus on a precise definition of personalized learning or on which component practices are essential. Practitioners and policymakers seeking to implement personalized learning, lacking clearly defined evidence-based models to adopt, are creating custom designs for their specific contexts. Those who want to use rigorous research evidence to guide their designs will find many gaps and will be left with important unanswered questions about which practices or combinations of practices are effective. It will likely take many years of research to fill these gaps.

Despite the lack of evidence, there is considerable enthusiasm about personalized learning among practitioners and policymakers, and implementation is spreading. The purpose of this Perspective is to offer strategic guidance for designers of personalized learning programs to consider while the evidence base is catching up. This guidance draws on theory, basic principles of learning science, and the limited research that does exist on personalized learning and its component parts.

Read the full article about strategies for implementing personalized learning by John F. Pane at RAND Corporation, via EducationNext.