Personalizing Professional Learning For Teachers: Pursuing Equity Through Systematic Personalization

Our school system has not changed much in the last 100 years, yet our society and the job market are drastically different. In general, we are not preparing young people for life after high school in a meaningful way; the reality for minority and low-income students is even more depressing. We need to change how education works for students, we need to personalize for their individual needs, push them to collaborate, to innovate, and to own their own learning. This can only happen if we change how we develop, support, and retain teachers. This study examines models of and reflections on Personalized Professional Development (PPD) through a mixed-methods approach in order to provide recommendations for how to improve implementation of personalized professional learning systems and structures for educators. Based on learnings from the program evaluation and recommended change plan, three policies are proposed that highlight changes in how teachers and leaders are developed, how resources are aligned, and how accountability should be used to value personalization. This study proposes that system-wide personalization is one way to pursue an equity agenda and drastically change our schools to better serve ALL students