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Aurora Institute

Advancing the field by leading research efforts to illuminate the path forward and serve as a knowledge-building hub for practitioners.

Our Approach to Research

Informed by extensive fieldwork, the Action Research Center identifies challenging issues in the field and publishes resources to inform, inspire, encourage, and support practitioners. It serves as a field-building intermediary to work with stakeholders on critical open questions to provide research, issue briefs, and promising practices to guide future directions in education innovation.

Our Technical Advisory Groups

We regularly invite practitioners and other experts in the field to contribute to advancing key issues through our Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) to inform and refine the development of research and reporting.

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National Research Convening: Building the Evidence Base for K‐12 Personalized Learning

October 20, 2020

More than 100 education research professionals gathered as part of a pre-Symposium convening to explore themes surrounding the evidence on personalized learning. Generously sponsored by The Leon Lowenstein Foundation, convening sessions covered personalized learning implementation and outcomes, measurement, the learning sciences, culturally responsive education, researcher positionality, educational equity, state examples, and communications. Below are recordings of each session.

Welcome & Opening

Susan Patrick, President & CEO, Aurora Institute

Opening Remarks

Stewart Hudson, Executive Director, Leon Lowenstein Foundation

Keynote – The “H” in Research

Jilliam Joe, Director of Research Design, LEAP Innovations

How Do We Measure Personalized Learning? Insights from Social, Emotional and Academic Development and the Learning Sciences

Robert Balfanz, Research Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Education

Mastery‐Based Education with a Culturally Responsive Imagination: Remarks on Early Research

Lindsey Foster, Pamela D’Andrea Martinez, Leah Peoples
NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools

Joy Nolan, Meg Stentz
Mastery Collaborative, New York City Department of Education

Researcher Positionality and Personalized Learning

Eric Toshalis, Senior Director, KnowledgeWorks
Rebecca E. Wolfe, Vice President, KnowledgeWorks

Expanding the Evidence Base for Personalized Learning through a Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) Program

Eva Dundas, Chief Learning Officer, Branching Minds

Measuring Personalized Professional Learning: A Three-Year Study of What Works Best, For Whom, Under What Conditions, and Why

Beth Holland, Ling Zhang, The Learning Accelerator

Amalia Lopez, Lindsay Unified School District

Work‐Study Practices in New Hampshire: Validation Dialogues between Practice and Research
Expertise

Anthony Doucet, Teacher, Souhegan High School, New Hampshire
Paul Leather, Director of State and Local Partnerships, National Center for Innovation in Education
Felicia Sullivan, Associate Research Director, Jobs for the Future
Jonathan Vander Els, Director of Innovative Projects, New Hampshire Learning Initiative
Kathy White, Director of Innovative Projects, New Hampshire Learning Initiative
Nicole Woulfe, Teacher, Sanborn Middle School, New Hampshire

Improving Communication and Utilization of the Personalized Learning Evidence Base – School and District Leaders

Cederick Ellis, Superintendent, McComb School District, Mississippi
Ruth Hellams, Principal, Del Lago Academy Campus of Applied Sciences, California
Jeff Heyck‐Williams, Director, Two Rivers Learning Institute

Improving Communication and Utilization of the Personalized Learning Evidence Base – Communications Professionals

Emily Bader, Senior Director, Marketing Communications, LEAP Innovations
Kira Keane, Managing Partner, External Relations, The Learning Accelerator
Kate Westrich, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, KnowledgeWorks

Closing – Group Discussion