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Personalized, competency-based learning efforts often take place in a single classroom or school, but not systematically across districts, let alone states. To address this dynamic and increase the scale of personalized, competency-based learning, KnowledgeWorks, an independent nonprofit organization that partners with education stakeholders to advance personalized competency-based learning efforts, has engaged in state level implementation support of personalized, competency-based learning in a number of states, including Arizona, Nevada, North Dakota, and South Carolina. The purpose of this report is to serve as a resource for the states and districts already involved in personalized, competency-based learning, provide considerations for other states adopting personalized, competency-based learning, and offer lessons learned for the wider field. The research team and KnowledgeWorks established three goals for the study at the outset: (1) Document approaches and lessons learned from policy adoption and implementation of personalized, competency-based learning policies in four states; (2) Identify how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the move towards personalized, competency-based learning in each state; and (3) Identify how each state defines and operationalizes its equity commitment within the state's personalized, competency-based learning efforts.

Pennsylvania has "the highest cyber charter school enrollment in the country" with student enrollment soaring in 2020-21 due to concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. School districts paid over $1 billion in tuition for students enrolled in Pennsylvania's 14 cyber charter schools in 2020-21, a $335 million increase over the prior school year. Districts now cite charter school tuition as their top budget pressure. In a 2017 study, Research for Action found that districts are unable to realize substantial savings when students depart for charter schools, leaving the vast majority of tuition as a "stranded cost" or negative fiscal impact on district finances. Here we apply the findings of that study to estimate the fiscal impact of the expansion of cyber charter schools attributable to the pandemic. We find that year-one stranded costs ranged from $290 to $308 million dollars statewide, highlighting the need for policymakers to address the inefficient spending on cyber charter schools in current law. We also describe the broader context of cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania.