Education Week - October 22, 2014 - S1

EDUCATION WEEK OCTOBER 22, 2014
n
Taking Stock of Personalized Learning > www.edweek.org/go/personalized
| S1
ABOUT THIS REPORT
"Taking Stock of Personalized
Learning" is part of a series of
special reports by Education
Week that identifies highpriority
topics in the K-12
world and examines them in
significant depth.
This report tackles the
issue of personalized learning,
arguably one of the hottest
topics in education this year,
and an educational concept
that raises all kinds of
questions and concerns about
how students should learn in
the digital age.
Chief among those concerns
is the rising tension between
personalized learning
advocates and people who
are worried about protecting
student-data privacy. Advocates
for personalized learning argue
that the use of data to identify
students' individual strengths
and weaknesses is at the
heart of efforts to customize
learning. But privacy advocates
counter that too much sensitive
information is ending up in the
hands of third-party vendors-
especially educational
technology companies-and
they could use it for commercial
purposes that have nothing
to do with improving schools.
Experts say the two sides need
to find some common ground
or the promise of personalized
learning might never be
realized.
What complicates this tension
is the fact that the concept of
personalized learning is also
largely undefined. Educators
and policymakers often have
very different views of what
personalized learning should
look like in schools.
This report examines
attempts to clarify the
definition of personalized
learning, looks at where
this educational movement
is heading, and provides
evaluations of how personalized
learning efforts are currently
playing out in schools. l
-Kevin C. Bushweller
Executive Project Editor
CLICK ON THE DIGITAL EDITION
www.edweek.org/go/personalized-download
INSIDE
S2 'Personalized Learning' Eludes
Easy Definitions
S6 Push for 'Learner Profiles'
Stymied by Barriers
S8 School Districts Wrestle
With 'Learner Profile' Idea
S8 Balancing Privacy
and Innovation
S13 District's Ambitious Effort Fuels
Personalized Learning
S16 PROGRESS REPORT:
Race to the Top & Personalized Ed.
S20 Formative-Assessment Tools
Shape Personalized Lessons
S24 Adaptive Testing Guiding
Teachers' Instruction
Coverage of personalized learning and systems leadership in Education Week
and its special reports is supported in part by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.
Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.
ON THE COVER:
PRESIDENT &
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Virginia B. Edwards
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Gregory Chronister
EXECUTIVE PROJECT EDITOR
Kevin C. Bushweller
ASSISTANT PROJECT EDITOR
Sean Cavanagh
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Karen Diegmueller
STAFF WRITERS
Benjamin Herold
Michele Molnar
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Sam Atkeson
Michelle R. Davis
Robin L. Flanigan
Madeline Will
ADVERTISING: For information about print and online advertising in future
special reports, please contact Associate Publisher Sean Herdman at
sherdman@epe.org or (301) 280-3126.
Copyright © 2014 by Editorial Projects in Education Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means,
electronic or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright holder. Readers may
make up to five print copies of this publication at no cost for personal, noncommercial use,
provided that each includes a full citation of the source.
Visit www.edweek.org/go/copies for information about additional print photocopies.
DESIGN LEAD
Vanessa Solis
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Charles Borst
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Swikar Patel
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION
Jo Arnone
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
COORDINATOR
Kevin Kemp
ASSOCIATE ADVERTISING
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
Dana Gittings
Patrick Michel, Ed.D. '04
Superintendent, Salem City school district
Salem, N.J.
DISCOVER
AN INNOVATIVE
ED.D. PROGRAM
THAT PUTS YOU
ON THE PATH
TO SUCCESS.
Seton Hall University graduates
enjoy successful careers as Superintendents,
Central Office and Building Leaders in
30 states and 7 countries.
Our Executive Ed.D. degree offers a Proven Value, plus:
* Extensive networking and professional development
opportunities for aspiring, new and established superintendents
* Intensive 2-year program; weekends and summer sessions
* Engaging full-time faculty who mentor as well as teach
* National Reputation
* Cohort community supporting advancement during and after
the program
* Dissertation research that forwards leadership vision
and practice
400 South Orange Avenue
South Orange, NJ 07079
To learn more, visit us at www.shu.edu/go/execedd
or call 1-800-313-9833.
Kayla-Meeks Cook, a 6th grader, gets help
from teacher John Williams at Whittemore
Park Middle School in Conway, S.C. The
students were using their iPads to pick out
recipes and calculate ingredients as part of
a skills task.
PHOTO: James Jason Lee for Education Week

http://www.edweek.org/go/personalized http://www.edweek.org/go/personalized-download http://www.shu.edu/go/execedd http://www.shu.edu/go/execedd http://www.edweek.org/go/copies

Education Week - October 22, 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - October 22, 2014