If you’ve ever watched a student light up after cracking a tough problem or finally connecting the dots, you know learning is personal. Every classroom is filled with students who bring their own strengths, quirks and questions to the table. Personalized learning is about meeting kids where they are — helping each one move forward at their own pace, in their own way.
Yet, making this vision a reality requires more than new tools or curriculum; it calls for bold leadership, a willingness to take risks and a commitment to incremental, meaningful change. For most schools, shifting from traditional teaching models to truly personalized learning means reimagining classroom roles, embracing new instructional strategies, and supporting teachers and students through an ongoing process of innovation.
Recently, EdSurge spoke with Dr. Joe Mancuso and Sean Ryan about how schools can move toward personalized learning with the help of technology. Mancuso, superintendent of Eastern York School District, leads a community of 2,300 students across five schools and brings 36 years of public education experience. Ryan, president of McGraw Hill School Group, has spent two decades in education technology and previously worked in education policy and as a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, offering a broad perspective on the future of learning.
EdSurge: What inspired Eastern York School District to reimagine its approach to teaching and learning?
Mancuso: When I became superintendent in 2018, I met with every teacher and asked one key question: Do you feel the district is being progressive? The varied responses led to deeper conversations about 21st-century learning and educational readiness. We considered what jobs might exist in the future and what skills our students would need, looking at trends in York County and Pennsylvania to determine how our schools could align.
This led to our Portrait of a Graduate and a focus on modern classrooms. It meant shifting from teacher-centered to student-centered learning through professional development, curriculum, assessment and real-world connections.
I’ll say, jokingly, that it started with visionary leadership — but not just mine! Once we had a shared vision, our teachers and leaders built it from the inside out. The hardest part was making the shift. Now, six years later, the challenge is sustaining it, bringing new teachers into a culture where student-centered learning is the norm.
What did you observe when visiting Eastern York?
Ryan: Spending time in the field and in classrooms with Dr. Mancuso is really my professional development. What stood out most was the district’s practice. They were awash in data; I saw it everywhere, even on classroom bulletin boards. The instruction was innovative — it combined whole-group, independent practice and small-group instruction led by a paraprofessional, all in the same space.
Dr. Mancuso joked that it all starts with leadership, and that’s absolutely true. I observed four key things that I think are instructive for districts everywhere: imagination to envision the future, professional courage to embrace change, organizational alignment from board to classroom and student agency in every classroom. Students understood what the district was trying to do for them. That connects directly with student centricity.
How is technology used to personalize learning at scale? What does a typical day look like in classrooms?
Mancuso: We created different pathways in our classrooms around time, path, pace and place. Teachers needed to do multiple things at once, so we found ways for them to “clone” themselves. What helped us scale was the ability to automate differentiation, reducing the burden on teachers to do everything manually. With McGraw Hill adaptive platforms in place, student data creates personalized learning pathways. Teachers get real-time feedback, can analyze class or individual progress instantly and make data-driven decisions.
Teachers assign digital content tailored to each student. All students get what they need: the platform adapts for those who are struggling, supports students at grade level and challenges advanced learners. During class, instruction includes brief whole-group time, followed by small-group or individual work based on real-time data. Not everyone is doing the same task, and teachers can differentiate on the spot.
We focus on student agency: voice and choice. Students can explain what they’re doing and why. At the end of the day, teachers review learning data, provide digital feedback and plan the next round of instruction. It’s a continuous cycle that puts students at the center.
What does it take to shift from traditional standards-based instruction to more competency-based, personalized learning?
Ryan: To fully realize personalized learning at scale, we need to relax the constraints of the clock and calendar so students can move at their own pace, mastering prerequisite skills before progressing. That requires content to be accessible across grade levels so that students can move up or down based on their needs.
But access alone isn’t enough. We can’t just digitize content; we need to instrument and integrate it so that everything a student does informs the teacher’s view. The platform should handle the heavy lifting, so teachers can focus on delivering high-quality instruction. The best teachers already personalize intuitively, but doing so across a wide range of performance levels is nearly impossible without support.
With competency-based education, we define the competencies, sequence them and ensure students don’t move on until precursors are mastered. It sounds simple, but putting it into practice goes against everything we inherited, even as students ourselves. No one designed the U.S. education system from scratch; it evolved through good intentions and shared beliefs. Working within those constraints takes creativity.
We operate within an accountability system where students are measured against fixed objectives based on one variable: their birth year. It’s not the most efficient way to organize a modern classroom, but it’s the system we have. We’re working around that somewhat antiquated paradigm.
To make this shift, we need to tell the story: measure impact, share what works and show others how to do it. That’s how change grows — from the grassroots — until it becomes systemic. We’re making progress. What’s key now is maintaining a strong feedback loop between practitioners who use the tools and the teams that build them.
What advice would you give to school leaders who are considering a similar transformation in their districts?
Mancuso: First, explore the latest research, especially about brain-based learning. We know much more now about how the brain works in reading and math, and that should inform our practices. I’m working with other superintendents to create a Central Pennsylvania Innovation Learning Hub to share ideas across districts. It’s important to ask: What’s your neighbor doing? What can you learn locally? Let’s support, not compete with, each other. Ultimately, it’s about improving the student experience.
Engage stakeholders early. I meet with teachers at the start of each year to hear what’s working and what’s not. Build a leadership team that believes in your vision, then develop their capacity to lead in a personalized environment. Have robust professional development; start small, iterate, offer coaching, analyze your data, build a culture of risk-taking and celebrate successes. Be consistent, persistent and patient.
We always ask: What’s your why? If you don’t know why you’re doing something, it’s hard to know your direction. Culture and conversation matter; they help you assess readiness for change and what’s needed to get there.
Ryan: We learn so much about the future by listening to school districts and visionary leaders. But we have to do two things simultaneously: support the current paradigm while also innovating for future shifts. That’s easier said than done.
From a business perspective, we need to give our dreamers room — time, space and resources — to imagine, empathize with educators and listen to their goals and challenges. That’s how we get both incremental improvements and big, transformative ideas.
What educators and curriculum partners are doing will never truly be finished. We’ll never reach a final form of education. Instead, we’ll keep progressing, growing and refining. There will be milestones, but what matters most is what we accomplish together along the way.
