Giving Compass' Take:

• To adequately prioritize equity in a personalized learning curriculum, the design planning has to be proactively seeking opportunities for diversity and inclusion at different stages. 

• Why will both students and teachers benefit from equity practices in learning systems?  

• Read about why educators should approach equity issues with a growth mindset. 

Innovation isn’t an outcome; it’s a process. How we approach that process will inevitably influence our outcomes.

Bearing this in mind, one of the primary challenges facing a number of efforts around education innovation—including a number of personalized learning initiatives—is that they are built upon simplified models and assumptions.

The risk of oversimplifying personalized learning on the front end is that we may fail to successfully leverage what works, for which students, in specific circumstances; especially in light of messy human relationships, political dynamics, and histories of discrimination. If innovators don’t consider the needs of traditionally disadvantaged populations at the outset, they will be left to retrofit these needs on the back end. This often makes efforts tedious, costly, and frustrating for both the disadvantaged students and those working to serve them.

Failing to address complexities upfront may be the undoing of a number of well-intentioned education innovations, including personalized learning.

Answers to a few questions can help anchor the design process in equity:

  • Vision. Is the vision guiding an initiative inclusive and does it incorporate all students? How could an outsider or a new team member ascertain these characteristics?
  • Engagement. Who are the stakeholders who have been invited into the conversations, or as Hamilton might say, the room where it happens? Do those stakeholders reflect the
    diversity of the community being served?
  • Difficult Conversations. How have you been explicit about the mindsets of different actors in the system? Have you set up a space to talk about addressing underlying biases related to race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status?
  • Action-Reaction. How have you set up a system to act on what you’ve learned? What are the protocols your team and program use to modify their practice?

Read the full article about equity in learning by Julia Freeland Fisher and Ace Parsi at Christensen Institute.