Blended Learning

Nonprofit Releases Blended and Personalized Learning Strategies

• By Sri Ravipati
• 08/25/16

Educators who are implementing blended and personalized learning instruction into their classrooms can utilize new resources from The Learning Accelerator (TLA) to help with the transition. The national nonprofit organization released the Blended and Personalized Learning Practices at Work project, a collection of practical teaching and learning strategies that aim to bring personalized learning into practice.

The project provides strategies for blended learning, including integration, real-time data, personalization and mastery-based progression. In the section on real-time data, for example, users can explore 10 strategies for conducting assessments or five strategies on data analysis. The strategies come from actual blended learning programs at used at various schools and include videos, audio, screencasts and reports.  

The collection is “the culmination of more than a year’s work exploring over 100 schools and systems to identify places successfully implementing blended and personalized learning,” according to TLA. The nonprofit worked closely with six schools in particular, whose strategies are featured in the project:

• CICS West Belden (IL), a charter school that serves about 500 students in Chicago;
• Lindsay High School (CA), which serves all high school students in the Lindsay Unified School District;
• Leadership Public Schools (CA), a nonprofit network of public charter high schools in Oakland that serves 1,500 students;
• Pleasant View Elementary School (RI), a pre-K–5 school that serves 425 students in the Providence Public School District and is a partner of Summit Public Schools;
• ReNEW DTA Academy (LA), a pre-K–8 public charter school that serves 770 students in New Orleans; and
• Roots Elementary School (CO), a K–12 charter school in Denver.

“It was really important for TLA to work with a group of schools that are using blended and personalized learning as a mechanism for closing the achievement gap. All of these schools have that commitment,” said Beth Rabbitt, CEO of TLA, in a statement.

To view the blended and personalized learning strategies, visit the TLA site.