Personalized learning empowers students to take ownership of their learning – including how, what, when and where they learn and makes connections to community and real-world experiences.

Together, learners, teachers, volunteers, paraprofessionals, parents, school leaders, community members and other education constituents co-design authentic learning experiences. Learning experiences are designed to prepare students for future success, accelerate their learning through evidence-based practices such as competency-based education and help students overcome obstacles to their learning. These constituents also work together in a broader school community to build a culture of personalized learning that will make this work sustainable and scalable in the long term.

Ohio schools have an opportunity to explore innovative approaches that help students improve literacy achievement, accelerate their learning, provide safe and supportive environments and prepare them for future success. Strategies to help schools explore innovative approaches to learning include:

• Instructional strategies that encourage creativity and strategic problem-solving
• STEM- and STEAM-oriented approaches to teaching and learning
• Project-, problem- and work-based learning
• Purposeful use of technology

What’s inside

The purpose of the Ohio Innovation Guide: Ensuring that every K-12 learner is equipped for future success is to help Ohio learning communities better understand ways they can create personalized environments and build a culture that supports their long-term sustainability. The information and examples included in this publication were collected through a combination of focus groups with Ohio constituents and direct engagement with schools and districts.

The innovation guide is a starting place for school or district teams as they consider how they might personalize learning for their students. It provides:

• Concrete approaches, which the guide refers to as “action areas,” where teams can begin reimagining what is possible for their learners and provide increased personalization of instruction
• Clarity around select aspects of state policy that schools or districts might perceive as barriers to adapting learner-centered approaches.
• Examples of how Ohio schools are undertaking these approaches within existing state policy structures.