Blended Learning

Report: 4 States Lead the Way With Blended, Personalized Learning Initiatives

• By Sri Ravipati
• 11/07/16

What are the opportunities for states to catalyze and accelerate blended learning? That is the main question The Learning Accelerator and Innovation Partners America asked dozens of state education agencies, state boards of education, legislators, district and school leaders, teachers, nonprofits, foundations, education advocacy organizations, higher education institutions and more for a new report on blended and personalized learning.

“State Profiles in Innovation” highlights four exemplary initiatives that accelerate blended and personalized learning in Texas, Georgia, Tennessee and Rhode Island, in an effort to “build more awareness, understanding and support for implementation activities at the state level,” according to the report.

The report focuses on the following state-led initiatives:

• Texas-based nonprofit Raise Your Hand selected 20 school districts across the state to receive “technical assistance in budgeting and financial analysis, education technology selection, implementation management, and teacher and school leader professional development” for blended learning programs;
• Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement created the Innovation Fund Foundation to “leverage resources across public entities, philanthropists, the business sectors and more” to help support blended learning innovation throughout the state;  
• Tennessee Department of Education launched a personalized learning initiative that used Canvas, National Repository of Online Courses and BetterLesson to help teachers across the state “develop their capacity to bring blended and personalized learning strategies” to thousands of students taking Algebra I or Integrated Math I. Data collected during the pilot program will be used to inform future personalized learning policy, according to the report; and
• Rhode Island created a cluster of education partners called EduvateRI that works to close opportunity gaps for students throughout the state through personalized learning.

To learn more about the initiatives, view the full report on The Learning Accelerator site.