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4 reasons data is crucial for personalized learning

personalized learning

Data provides a fuller picture of students’ performance with information such as participation, assessments, and growth on skills over time. Having this greater understanding of students’ strengths and where they need to grow equips students to have more ownership over their learning.

Data also enables students to work on a skill or content until they have mastered it, broadening their learning beyond time spent in the classroom.

As more and more schools across the nation adopt visions for personalized learning, the nonprofit Data Quality Campaign has produced new graphical resources [1] that illustrate that data makes personalized learning possible, no matter the strategy.

With useful, timely, and safeguarded data, students, parents, and teachers can tailor students’ learning experiences to their unique needs, skills, and interests.

The infographic and animated video were designed for teachers, education leaders, policymakers, and the general public to highlight how data empowers people to better deliver customized supports, resources, and opportunities along every student’s path to college and career success.

(Next page: 4 ways data use supports personalized learning)

“Data is at the heart of ensuring that every student has a learning experience that recognizes their individual needs,” said Paige Kowalski, executive vice president of the Data Quality Campaign. “Data empowers educators to understand where a student is and how to target supports to get them to where they need to be. As policymakers and educators develop a variety of strategies to personalize learning, they must also consider that robust data and privacy policies are needed to be successful.”

To successfully personalize learning, students, parents, and teachers must have access to the data that they need—when they need it, and associated policies and practices must protect student data privacy. Teachers also need to have the time, tools, and training to collect, analyze, and use student data in an ethical way to make instructional decisions.

Here are 4 key points about data and personalized learning:

1. With data, learning is individualized: Teachers, parents, and students know where students are, and which instructional strategies and supports will best serve their unique needs, skills, and interests to get them
where they need to go.

2. With data, learning continues outside of the classroom: Teachers, parents, and students understand how students can benefit from learning opportunities beyond the classroom.

3. With data, students are partners in their own learning: Students understand their performance and their progress towards learning goals over time. They use this information to ask questions, make decisions, and have more ownership of their learning.

4. With data, learning is about mastery, not the time spent in class: Teachers can support each student’s path to success with a detailed understanding of where they are and what skills and concepts they still need to master.