• What is personalized learning?
• Why is Ohio focused on personalized learning?
• What is the Ohio Personalized Learning Framework?
• What’s the difference between teacher-centered and learner-driven classrooms?
• What role does a teacher play in personalized learning?
• What role does technology play in personalized learning?
• How does personalized learning support equity?
• What is the difference between differentiation, personalization, and individualization?
• How can I see examples of personalized learning happening in Ohio schools?

• How does standards-based grading and mastery align with personalized learning?
• How are Ohio Academic Standards aligned with student learning in a personalized learning environment?
• How does High-Quality Student Data (HQSD) connect to personalized learning?
• How does personalized learning align to other Ohio frameworks?

Personalized Learning is a learner-driven approach to teaching and learning that supports learners in achieving their goals in the ways that work best for them. To ensure that each learner is able to overcome obstacles to learning and be prepared for future success, it calls on educators to:

1. Really know and empower their learners;
2. Facilitate and codesign learning experiences with their learners;
3. Align supports to accelerate learning and meet individual learners’ distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations or cultural backgrounds; and
4. Provide ways for learners to demonstrate what they know and know how to do.

To learn more about what personalized learning is, why districts and schools are focusing on personalized learning and how to get started in your role, sign up for the Ohio Personalized Learning Network’s EXPLORE on-demand professional learning modules.

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Over the last decade, Ohio has focused on accelerating and expanding personalized learning across the state— from the 2014-18 Competency-Based Education Pilot to the 2018 Ohio strategic plan for education, to a 2019 state-level policy scan and community action planning. This led to the development of an Ohio State Opportunity Analysis.  

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed unique systemic challenges and barriers for students, families and educators, accelerating urgency and readiness for systems transformation. 

Today, Future Forward Ohio encompasses the state’s strategic priorities for using federal funds from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER)  to help students recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future Forward Ohio has three coordinating strategies to facilitate student success:

• Accelerating Learning: Providing more, and more effective, opportunities to learn through programs like after-school and summer programming, tutoring and supporting districts in using high-quality instructional materials.
• Overcoming Obstacles to Learning: Addressing barriers that prevent students from engaging in learning, such as attendance, health, mental health and high-speed internet access.
• Preparing Students for Future Success: Helping students rediscover their “why” for learning and transition more smoothly to their next stages through career and college connections.

A flexible and human-centered approach to personalized learning can help educators address instructional and learning disruptions posed by the pandemic while putting in place equitable, resilient systems that can ensure the future success of every child.

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In 2021, a coalition of Ohio educators came together to draft a framework to help schools and districts consider the high-impact teaching and learning elements that must work together to enable a system of personalized learning. Developed based on national research and local context, the Ohio Personalized Learning Framework centers on the following five key components:

• Learner-driven
• Flexible learning environments
• Authentic learning
• Evidence of learning and feedback
• Optimal path and pace

The Ohio Personalized Learning Framework can be used as a reflection and planning tool to consider school and district strengths and areas of opportunity in personalized learning.

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In a traditional, teacher-centered classroom, teachers ask questions and learners answer. Teachers choose what learners will be working on and when, and deliver direct instruction to the whole class at once. Conversely, in a personalized classroom the teacher works with learners to set the pace and area of study. For example, a teacher may work with a small group of learners whose assessments show they need additional support in a particular skill area, while other learners work through learning stations with tasks designed to strengthen their learning. Learners benefit from individually paced, targeted learning tasks that start from where the learner is, formatively assess existing skills and knowledge and address the learner’s needs and interests.

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Teachers are critical in a personalized learning environment where relationship-building and trust form the foundation for everything that happens in the classroom. In this environment, teachers are learning facilitators, moving between groups of learners, facilitating discussions and helping learners explore and set goals. They may also be engaged in more direct instruction with a few learners at a time. Their classrooms may offer flexible seating and students participate in decisions about how and where they learn.

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Personalized learning can occur in classrooms with or without technology. Technology can be leveraged as an avenue to support learner-driven learning, but it is not a key component of personalized learning.

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Personalized learning is equity-driven by supporting each learner’s individual needs. Whether it’s a unique family situation, a different culture than their own, poverty or trauma, teachers have the flexibility to meet their learner’s needs in creative and appropriate ways.

The draft Ohio Personalized Learning Framework was established through an equity lens and serves as the foundation on which the culture and practices of classrooms, schools and districts are built. The Framework focuses on five components:

1. Learner driven
2. Flexible learning environment
3. Evidence of learning and feedback
4. Optimal path and pace
5. Authentic learning

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Personalization is learner-driven while individualization and differentiation are teacher-driven. 

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Visit Personalized Learning in Action to access presentations, videos and stories on personalized learning work in action in Ohio schools such as Mason City Schools and Perry Local Schools.

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Learners progress based on mastery of knowledge, skills and dispositions and these learning outcomes are aligned to Ohio Academic Standards.

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Rigorous academic standards are embedded within the Optimal Path and Pace component of Ohio’s draft Personalized Learning Framework. Learners are guaranteed a viable progression of knowledge, skills and dispositions on a learning pathway that is aligned to Ohio’s state standards. Each learner is provided appropriate tiers of instructional support, access to high-quality instructional materials and a pace that helps them progress at according to their learning needs. Common expectations for learning outcomes are explicit, transparent, measurable and transferable.

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HQSD encourages teachers to use data generated from the high-quality student data instrument. The Ohio Personalized Learning Framework supports HQSD by emphasizing the use of meaningful assessments where learners are given substantive, timely feedback that can be used to determine the next steps in the learning process.

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The Ohio Personalized Learning Framework connects with many existing Ohio Department Education frameworks. Crosswalks are currently being constructed for OTES, whole child, STEM, CTE, high school redesign, and more. Personalized learning is inherent within all of Ohio’s frameworks.

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