Transforming Education Through Digital And Blended Learning

Executive Summary

January 2015 — The growth of innovative new personalized learning models is fast becoming the most compelling story in American elementary and secondary education. These instructional models are underway in most parts of the country, utilizing and refining new pedagogical approaches to produce powerful outcomes for an ever-increasing range of settings and challenges.

But while technology and interactive digital content are essential to supporting personalized learning, educational choices, and not procurement decisions, will be most impactful in determining their ultimate success.

This paper analyzes several factors which may prove pivotal in providing this support broadly, including measuring program effectiveness and prioritizing professional development needs. Examples drawn from personalized learning’s early exemplars include South Carolina’s Horry County Schools and the Pennsylvania Hybrid Learning Institute.

Also discussed are two prominent Virginia Department of Education initiatives to dramatically expand students’ access to digital instructional content through statewide partnerships to offer new, interactive digital content aligned with state standards, and to upgrade schools’ broadband internet connections.

While charter school early adopters of personalized learning have been producing powerful results for several years, impressive results are beginning to accrue for students in blended learning classrooms in traditional school districts. Education Elements, a leading designer of these models, tracked progress of 5,000 students in nine partner school districts, and found their growth to be 54 and 25 percent above national norms in reading and math, respectively.

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