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Design the Learning First. The Structures Will Follow
Ask most educators what the basic unit of learning is at a high school, and they’ll most likely say a course, subject, or period. Forty-five minutes with one teacher, one group of students, one set of standards to cover. We’ve organized schools around this container for so long that it no longer feels like…
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Connecting Research, Development, and Evaluation in District Systems
Some of the core structures of conventional schooling have rather surprising (and old) origins, and they act as a clarion call for research, development, and evaluation to work as one within district environments. Let’s take a quick look at just three of these historical examples to ground ourselves in the “why.” Why do…
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Building a Public Education System That Learns, Adapts, and Endures
In 1972, Kodak Research Labs began experimenting with digital photography. By 1975, they had their first battery-powered digital camera prototype. Four years later, a Kodak employee predicted digital photography would be ubiquitous by 2010. Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. What happened and what can education leaders learn from Kodak’s unexpected collapse? Kodak…
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Writing a New Chapter in Educational Leadership
With each passing day, the challenges educational leaders face have fewer and fewer straightforward solutions. The leadership handbook is being rewritten, requiring a shift in mindset, behavior, and identity. Many of the structures and systems in education were built to solve predictable problems. Originally, the aim was to develop an educated citizenry capable of…
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Public Microschools as an On-Ramp to Systemic School Redesign
The idea of microschools is generating growing interest across the education landscape. They’re showing up more frequently in philanthropic conversations, conference sessions, and learner-centered education spaces as leaders look for new ways to respond to longstanding challenges and emerging opportunities. For school and district leaders, this rising interest can feel irrelevant to their local…
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If No One Was Telling Us What To Do, What Would We Build?
For decades, K-12 educational leaders have worked within a system and structure of someone else’s design. We’ve generally been operating with an “outside-in” policy model where Federal rules, funding, accountability systems, and compliance requirements have shaped what we do and how we think about what is possible. State Departments and local education agencies have…
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This is Our Opportunity to Create A Learner-Centered Path for AI Integration in Education
In conversations across the country, I hear a growing mix of excitement and apprehension about the role of artificial intelligence in education. Many see the potential, yet most also sense a disconnect between what today’s AI tools produce and the kinds of learning experiences we want for young people. This tension is not incidental—it…
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Measuring What Matters to Enable Meaningful Learner-Centered Change in Your School or District
When we talk about measuring impact, we can look at it through multiple lenses. There’s the impact on an individual learner (young people and adults)—how they’re growing, what competencies they’re developing, and how they perceive their own progress. Then, there’s the impact on the systems (e.g. programs, schools, districts)—how they’re evolving, what conditions are…
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Big Moves: How to Create a Strategic Plan That Leads to Real Change in Your District
One of the most inspiring aspects of working with school systems across the country is seeing how deeply educators care about their learners. In every community I visit, I encounter dedicated, well-intentioned people doing everything they can to help students succeed. Yet, too often, these efforts occur in isolation—teachers working within their classrooms, principals…