Personalizing Learning for Educators:

Measuring What Works

Lindsay Unified School District (LUSD) in central California is on a mission to ensure every student, or Lindsay learner, has a performance-based learning experience that allows them to succeed academically and personally. To achieve this vision, every learner must have the very best educator to support them on their journey.

In October 2017, LUSD received a federal Teacher and School Leader grant to design and implement professional learning strategies to improve educator recruitment, capacity, and retention. LUSD is seeking to cultivate the same mindset in educators that it spent the past decade fostering in its learners — that we are all learners — and therefore professional growth for teachers, whom LUSD calls learning facilitators, should be personalized and data-driven.

In 2018, LUSD partnered with The Learning Accelerator to use research science to understand the relationships between these innovative professional learning offerings and learner outcomes. Current research results are below and new results will be posted through 2020, as we discover which strategies lead to long-term change in learning facilitator and learner experiences.

Understanding the Effects of Personalized Professional Learning

LUSD conducted a three-year study (2017-2020) of the effects of personalized professional learning on learner growth as part of its three-year, federal Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Grant.

Effects of Personalized Professional Learning Opportunities on Learner Growth: Final Report
Initial Analysis of Grant Years 1 and 2
- Initial Analysis Executive Summary; Initial Analysis Accessible Version

Learner Behaviors and Actions During Personalized, Remote Learning

In this standalone study, LUSD captured educator perceptions of their learners’ experience during COVID school closure in the Spring of 2020. The findings from this report informed planning for the district’s fall return to remote learning.

Perceptions of Learner Behaviors and Actions During Personalized, Remote Learning: An Analysis of the Instructional Look Fors in LUSD
- Remote Learning Analysis Executive Summary; Remote Learning Analysis Accessible Version

Initial Explorations into the Effects of Personalized Professional Learning

Throughout the first two years of the TSL Grant, LUSD conducted small studies to examine the efficacy of specific professional learning programs on learner growth as well as to begin the validation process for their Instructional Look Fors.

First Look at Instructional Look Fors

LUSD conducted initial research into its Instructional Look Fors, a series of learner behaviors, organized into six principles, each aligned with several educator actions that facilitate or demonstrate the Look Fors. This early research was completed to help the district understand whether the Instructional Look Fors demonstrated a sound way of understanding the relationship between professional learning and learner achievement.

A First Look at Instructional Look Fors at LUSD: Reliability and Validity of Instructional Look For Educator Actions
- Look Fors Executive Summary; Look Fors Accessible Version
- Video: Instructional Look Fors In-Depth; Video: Instructional Look Fors Overview