Book excerpt: A tremendous amount of money is being steered toward personalized learning (PL) initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels, and it is important to understand the return on the investment in students’ futures. It is only through rigorous discussions that educators and policymakers will be able to determine if PL is a passing fad or if it possesses the staying power necessary to show a positive impact on student achievement. Evaluation of Principles and Best Practices in Personalized Learning is a critical scholarly publication that explores the modern push for schools to implement PL environments and the continuing research to understand the best strategies and implementation methods for personalizing education. It seeks to begin creating a standardized language and standardized approach to the PL initiative and to investigate the implications it has on the educational system. Additionally, this book adds to the professional discussion of PL by looking at both the advantages and disadvantages of PL, the teacher’s role in PL, creating a PL program to scale, the role of technology and PL, the special education population and PL, emerging research on PL, and case studies involving PL. Featuring research on a wide range of topics such as blended learning, preservice teachers, and special education, this book is ideal for teachers, administrators, academicians, policymakers, researchers, and students.