Catalyst Newsletter

Catalyst is a monthly newsletter from Devin Vodicka featuring learner-centered insights and resources for educators, leadership teams, and change-makers. Get the latest newsletter and subscribe to future newsletters by completing the form below.

Blog

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…

Blog

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…

Blog

Building Bridges Through Change: 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…

BlogWebinars

Webinar Recording: Learner-Centered Bright Spots: Making Learning Public and Closing the Year Strong

In this webinar, three members of the Learner-Centered Collaborative team—Katie Martin, Kate Weisberg, and Danny Scuderi—highlight practical strategies for closing the school year by celebrating learning and cultivating learner-centered mindsets. Drawing from their work in classrooms and systems nationwide, they offer tangible examples of how schools and educators can use reflection, celebration, and community-building…

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Blog

Building Brighter Futures Together: Insights from the SoCal LiNK Regional Partnership

A fresh model of collaboration is emerging in Southern California; one that unites K–12 education, higher education institutions, and local communities with a shared focus on supporting the whole learner. SoCal LiNK, Southern California Learning in Networked Knowledge, is a research-practice partnership between the Department of Education Studies at UC San Diego, Learner-Centered Collaborative…

Blog

What is the Purpose of School? A Call for Whole-Learner Outcomes.

What is the purpose of school? For the past four decades, the prevailing national answer—shaped largely by the 1983 report “A Nation at Risk” and documented by historian Patricia Graham—has been singular: Achievement. This focus helped usher in an era of standardization, compliance, and testing. It was designed to respond to global economic anxieties…

Tools

A Learner-Centered Ecosystem

It’s time for a shift from the school-centered education system—where efficiency, standardization, compliance, ranking, sorting, and task completion are top priorities—to a learner-centered paradigm, where we focus on supporting each learner to know who they are, thrive in community, and actively engaged in the world as their best selves. “A Learner-Centered Ecosystem” dives deep…