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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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Lessons From a Principal: What it Takes to Build a School Where Students Drive Their Own Learning
Creating a school where students take ownership of their learning is a transformative journey that requires vision, commitment, and a willingness to rethink traditional structures. For students to truly be the leaders of their own learning in the classroom, schools must first be led by empowered teachers. When teachers have autonomy, support, and structures…
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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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A Learner-Centered Approach to Expanding Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment for Native American Students
Written by Keisha Lanier Brown, Ph.D. Student, Georgia State University Through the inaugural Learner-Centered Assessment Fellowship, Digital Promise and Learner-Centered Collaborative brought together early-career scholars, education partners, and mentors to explore the potential of collaboration and culturally responsive approaches to educational assessment. As a final reflection and celebration of their work, each of the…
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From the Classroom to the Cosmos: Passion Projects as a Tool for Real-World Learning
“My favorite part of my passion project was when astronaut Kevin explained that Mars rocks are in the Arctic ice. It was so cool to know that we can learn a lot about Mars here on Earth instead of going to Mars,” said Owen, a space-obsessed fifth grader. My son, Owen, didn’t just complete…
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The Impact of Innovation Cohorts: A Research-Based Perspective on Educator Growth
Written by Anna Yinqi Zhang, Ph.D. Candidate at Pennsylvania State University. Through the inaugural Learner-Centered Assessment Fellowship, Digital Promise and Learner-Centered Collaborative brought together early-career scholars, education partners, and mentors to explore the potential of collaboration and culturally responsive approaches to educational assessment. As a final reflection and celebration of their work, each of…
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This is What Happens When Every Learner Can Confidently Talk About Their Learning
Shifting to learner-centered education is both an iterative process and a collective effort. Our Connections Leadership Cohort recently got an opportunity to see a learner-centered ecosystem firsthand in New York, at Mineola Public Schools, while building stronger bonds within their own teams and across schools. Beginning with 3rd and 4th grade students greeting us…
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Purpose, Participation, and Feedback: What it Takes to be a Learner-Centered Leader
Too often, leadership is viewed as a position rather than a practice—something tied to a title rather than a way of engaging with others to drive meaningful change. In today’s rapidly shifting educational landscape, that perspective is proving insufficient. With rising rates of superintendent and principal turnover, teacher burnout, and declining enrollment, it’s clear…
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Harnessing the Power of AI to Co-Create New Knowledge With Learners
I look forward to Super Bowl Sunday each year. While my family would say they enjoy watching the actual game, for me it’s all about the advertisements. They often push the boundaries of creativity and cause me to laugh, cry, and sometimes even create lessons for my students. Last year’s Despicable Me 4 Trailer…
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From Data to Storytelling: How Scorecards are Transforming School Accountability in Hawai’i
Written by Nicolas Mireles, Ph.D. Candidate at James Madison University. Through the inaugural Learner-Centered Assessment Fellowship, Digital Promise and Learner-Centered Collaborative brought together early-career scholars, education partners, and mentors to explore the potential of collaboration and culturally responsive approaches to educational assessment. As a final reflection and celebration of their work, each of the…
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From Kickflips to Critical Thinking: Designing Learning That Sticks
Learning is hard. As a middle school English teacher, I would often tell students that learning is the space between knowing and not knowing. At any age, but especially in middle school, that liminal space is a challenging place to be. Inevitably, there would come a point where we were all stuck, and no…
BlogWebinars
Webinar Recording: Leadership Matters: Effective Techniques to be a Learner-Centered Leader
In this webinar, four members of the Learner-Centered Collaborative team discuss the importance of leadership in driving effective, learner-centered transformation. With 75+ years of education experience spanning the classroom to district administration, this all-star group highlights the practices and strategies they used to lead school and district systems. They also showcase learner-centered leaders and…
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Family Partnerships: A Key Strategy for Supporting Whole-Learner Outcomes
The Mindset That Makes Family Partnerships Possible If we view school as a one-dimensional institution with a narrow purpose—primarily focused on delivering content and measuring student proficiency aligned to narrow metrics—then the idea of partnering with families may seem like an unnecessary distraction. But if we believe learning happens within a larger ecosystem, where…
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How One District is Leading a Bold School (Re)Design Effort
As Escondido Unified School District began developing a Blueprint, or a Strategic Plan, to enact the vision they set out in their Framework for the Future, they realized significant work would need to be done at each school site. Specifically, they needed to reimagine what school looks like to focus on the whole-learner outcomes…
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3 Leadership Building Blocks for Meaningful Change in Education
Schools have operated like factories for too long, with top-down control and rigid structures. Real change happens when leaders embrace relationships, shared purpose, and deep collaboration, creating schools that function as dynamic, interconnected communities. When educators work together, trust each other, and share responsibility, small actions can lead to big, lasting improvements. If we…
BlogWebinars
Webinar Recording: Reimagining Education Through Innovative School Design
In this webinar, Learner-Centered Collaborative’s Jesse Ross hosts a conversation with three educators from Escondido Union School District—Dr. Bryanna Norton, Principal of Hidden Valley Middle School, and North Broadway Elementary teachers, Gina Matthew and Katie Taylor. They share the transformative process of school redesign to foster learner-centered practices. The discussion highlights how strategic design…
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Rethinking Time in Schools: From Rigid Blocks to Meaningful Learning
I recently visited two different schools on back-to-back days, and I was struck by the stark contrast in the schedules and the impact on the learning environment. In the first school, the day was broken up into short blocks of reading, math, intervention, recess, lunch, and science. This type of schedule is often…