Catalyst Collection

Catalyst is a monthly newsletter from Devin Vodicka featuring learner-centered insights and resources for educators, leadership teams, and change-makers. In each edition of Catalyst, Devin shares insights, learnings, and resources about the learner-centered education movement. Browse this collection to read past editions of Catalyst and explore what you missed!

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December 2024: How to Be a Listening Leader

November 2024: Cultivating Local Partnerships to Generate Real-World Learning Opportunities

October 2024: How to Cultivate Homegrown Talent in Your District

September 2024: What Mixed Messages Show Up in Your District?

August 2024: 3 Key Elements of a Learner-Centered Culture

July 2024: Creating Coherence Within Your District

June 2024: Accelerating the Pace of Change

May 2024: Telling a New Story Through Tiers of Data

April 2024: Policies that Enable Learner-Centered Transformation

March 2024: Creating Coherence and Alignment

February 2024: The Many Benefits of Getting Outside

January 2024: Optimistic Predictions for 2024

December 2023: Centering Learners By Design

November 2023: Seeing is Believing

October 2023: How do we keep track of progress in a dynamic environment?

September 2023: The Power of Community

August 2023: When does learning happen?

July 2023: The power of a shared learning model for professional and student learning

June 2023: The importance of teams

May 2023: The promise of a Both/And approach in education

April 2023: Let’s build upon what we’ve started TOGETHER

Winter 2023: A Framework to Come back To Time and Time Again

Back to School 2022: Looking Ahead to a Learner-Centered School Year

Spring 2022: Spring into a Learner-Centered Summer

Winter 2022: Strategies for Learner-Centered Leaders Right Now

Fall 2021: We Can Do Hard Things Together

Summer 2021: Possibilities Abound in Learner-Centered Education

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Building Bridges: How Collaborative State and Regional Innovation Hubs Can Reshape Education R&D

The traditional landscape of education innovation often feels siloed. Researchers conduct studies, edtech startups build tools, investors inject capital, and educators are left at the tail end, hoping something works for their students. This incoherent marketplace, where solutions often lack substantial evidence of their effectiveness and are built without a deep understanding of the…

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Celebrating Bright Spots in Learner-Centered Education: Looking Ahead to What’s Possible

As the school year winds down, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the incredible progress made in the journey toward learner-centered education. Across classrooms, schools, and districts, we witnessed bold steps, powerful moments of growth, and inspiring examples of what’s possible when we center learners by design. Learner Agency in Action This school…

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Can Regional Innovation Hubs Create a More Promising Future for K-12 Education?

Written in collaboration with leaders from AERDF, ALI, InnovateEDU, Leanlab Education, and Learner-Centered Collaborative Throughout history, moments have invited us to rethink how learning happens, who it serves, and what it could become. And yet, many of these opportunities have come and gone without the lasting change they promised. The COVID-19 pandemic is one…

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Leading Through Transition: Leadership Lessons for Summer and Beyond

In education, the rhythm of the year is deeply cyclical. Each year forms a distinct cohort experience for learners, educators, and families alike. When the cohort concludes, there is a natural transition into the unknown. Students move to new grade levels, teachers adapt to new assignments or even new campuses, and leadership teams lay…

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Reading, Writing, and Rising: Centering Literacy in Learner Centered Education

By Stephanie Buelow and Charlotte Frambaugh Kritzer, Professors of Literacy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Literacy is the cornerstone of a learner-centered education—it unlocks the ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and engage meaningfully in a rapidly changing world. Few leaders embody this understanding as powerfully as Dr. Lori Gonzales. A visionary…

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Debunking the Math Myth: How Learner-Centered Classrooms Deepen Understanding

In a learner-centered classroom, math is about more than numbers and formulas—it’s about curiosity, exploration, and making sense of the world. Picture this: It’s 10:00am in Ms. Kim’s 3rd grade classroom and students are gathered on the rug around a chart. Two students have just finished sharing their strategies with the whole class on…

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Leading at the Edge: Navigating Uncertainty With a Local R&D Strategy

We are living at the “edge of chaos.” It’s a phrase coined by chaos theory physicist Norman Packard, and one that feels right at home for educators today. Artificial intelligence is accelerating change. Public trust in education continues to dip. And funding, data, and policy supports that once anchored decision-making have shifted or entirely…