Enabling Analytics for Improvement - Lessons from Year 2 of Fresno’s Personalized Learning Initiative - September 2018

Oct 3, 2026

A report from Fresno Unified School District on its Personalized Learning Initiative (PLI) after the second full year of implementation in 2017-18, focused on student learning outcomes and the elements that are driving progress. It explains how an analytics partnership with Microsoft Education, Digital Promise, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt uses learning analytics to identify what works in classrooms and how to improve the initiative for greater impact, with evidence spanning instructional practices and assessment results. The document also outlines PLI’s continuous improvement approach, including professional development and district-aligned goals.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

What is Fresno’s Personalized Learning Initiative?

Year 2 Impacts of PLI Implementation

Enabling Analytics for Improvement: Lessons from Year 2 of Fresno’s Personalized Learning Initiative September 2018 About [microsoft.com/education](microsoft.com/education) [fresnounified.org](fresnounified.org) [hmhco.com](hmhco.com) Date of Publication: September 2018 Contributors Collaborating authors: Vanessa Peters and Barbara Means, Digital Promise Maria Langworthy, Microsoft Education Phil Neufeld and Ryan Coe, Fresno Unified School District Kenneth Meehan and Stevin Smith, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Data scientists: Katrina Browne, Jodie Draper, Greg Weber, and Daniel Rubiolo, Microsoft Education Andy Krumm, Digital Promise Darren Melton and Malati Gopal, Fresno Unified School District Enabling Analytics for Improvement, September 2018 | 2 Introduction Fresno Unified School District embarked on a Personalized Learning Initiative (PLI) in 2016. Now having completed its second full year of implementation, we have clear evidence that the initiative is succeeding in helping teachers and students develop the skills, competencies and mindsets essential for “as yet imagined” futures. A unique aspect of Fresno’s PLI is its analytics partnership between Fresno Unified, Microsoft Education, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Digital Promise. This partnership uses learning analytics to see where and how the initiative is working, and how we can improve the initiative for greater impact. This paper describes the early success of the PLI on students’learning outcomes, evidence on what elements of the implementation are working, and the process and principles of our analytics partnership. The aim of the paper is to share with other education systems what we have learned on this journey. Enabling Analytics for Improvement, September 2018 | 3 What is Fresno’s Personalized Learning Initiative? “I think students have a lot more opportunities to have genuine learning experiences with PLI... they have authentic experiences and teamwork, cooperation, time to work things out…And different opportunities.” -Fresno PLI Teacher, 2018 PLI is based on a pedagogical model designed to foster a collaborative learning culture where teachers and students take ownership over their own learning. Pedagogical shifts toward the PLI model start with teachers participating in targeted professional development activities in which teachers are introduced to digital tools for designing new learning experiences that emphasize student voice, choice and collaboration. Teachers engage in professional learning through collaborative, practice-based learning sessions and ongoing communities of practice. They also have access to a broad range of support structures for designing lessons that leverage the digital learning tools available in Fresno’s schools. From its inception, PLI leaders wanted to ensure a focus on continuous improvement, not just among students and teachers, but among school and district leaders. This focus led to Fresno developing a partnership with Microsoft Education, Digital Promise, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to 1) leverage the data that personalized learning enables, 2) provide insights into how the PLI was being implemented in classrooms, and 3) see what impact the initiative was having on students. Year 1 PLI Report presented early analytics results, examining instructional practices, effective use of digital tools, and student learning outcomes. Data showed Year 1 PLI teachers used more collaborative learning in their classrooms, more use of technology forgiving students rapid feedback and formative assessments, and greater overall use of digital applications to design learning activities. Additionally, an addendum to the Year 1 report provided evidence of PLI’s association with enhanced learning outcomes on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) tests for English language arts and mathematics. Also described in the addendum are exploratory analyses of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

FAQs

What does the report say about Year 2 impacts?

Year 2 findings are presented as successes across multiple layers of Fresno’s education system while also identifying clear opportunities to further deepen and broaden PLI’s impact on student learning, especially for historically disadvantaged students.

Oct 3, 2026

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