More Comments on Personalization Continuum (Tom Hatch)
Tom Hatch is an Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. I met Tom at Stanford University when his wife, Karen Hammerness, was a graduate student and took one of my classes. Hatch had worked closely with Ted Sizer, Howard Gardner, and James Comer–leaders of whole-school reform movement in the 1980s and 1990s. He subsequently wrote thoughtfully about theories of action. I used an article he wrote in my seminars for many years (“The Difference in Theory That Matters in the Practice of School Improvement,” 1998 in American Educational Research Journal).
He posted this letter to me April 7, 2017. In it, he offers comments on the Personalization Continuum that I had drafted, weaving together readers’ comments with his own research and experiences.
Dear Larry
Your recent post describing the many versions of “personalization” you’ve seen in your visits to schools seems particularly relevant these days for a number of reasons:
- Growing interest in personalization along with continuing questions about how to define it
- What’s described as promising but limited research so far
- Support for personalized learning in federal (Race to the Top) and recent state led efforts in Rhode Island and Tennessee
Ironically, it’s probably worth noting that this surge in interest in personalization coincides with the closing of the national organization of the Coalition of Essential Schools – founded by Ted Sizer who put personalization on the map in the 1980’s and 90’s.
Your post prompted me to reflect on some of these developments and what I have been seeing in my own research on improvement efforts and “innovation” in several developing and developed countries. In particular, I think your draft of More Comments on Personalization Continuum (Tom Hatch) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:
