This study investigated personalization as an innovation that can be used to impact college mathematics achievement. In the reported study, similar tasks using personalized data and teacher-selected data were implemented in courses in both 4-year and 2-year colleges. Pre- and posttests and student work were analyzed to examine the impact of personalization on student understanding. Our findings provide insight into how the use of the technology can influence students' thinking and ability to connect with and use personally authentic data.