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A New Bill in California Could Expand Career Pathways for Thousands of Students. The Bigger Opportunity Is What It Invites Us to Rethink.
Co-authored by Dr. J. CĂ©sar Morales (Partner, Learner-Centered Collaborative) and Javier Guzman (CEO, Center for Powerful Public Schools) California’s AB 542 gives continuation high schools more scheduling room for workforce learning. The deeper question it raises is what we choose to count as learning in the first place. What actually counts as learning? Not…
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Meaningful Learning Is Not a Race: Lessons From the Slow Food Movement
When fast food first arrived in Italy promising a burger in two minutes, a countermovement for “slow food” quickly grew. The movement’s founder, Carlo Petrini, believed food should be “good, clean and fair.” He believed good food takes the time it takes, and that making a meal faster doesn’t automatically make it better. The…
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Our Mission: Redesign the Future of Public Education
Five years ago, Learner-Centered Collaborative was founded on a simple but ambitious vision for all learners to know who they are, thrive in community, and actively engage in the world as their best selves. Today, that vision remains unchanged. However, to honor the moment we find ourselves in—where the world is being reshaped by…
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This Regional Network is Putting Learner-Centered Practice in Motion
This reflection emerges from a collaborative effort between Learner-Centered Collaborative and the University of California, San Diego Department of Education Studies. I am especially grateful to Dr. Dave Trautman, Dr. Mimi Lockton, and Dr. Alan J. Daly, whose incredible vision, design, and facilitation played a central role in bringing this work to life. What…
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Why School Systems Need Embedded R&D to Evolve
Across the country, we’re confronting a reality we can no longer ignore: our current education system isn’t meeting the needs of today’s learners—or the expectations of their families, communities, or future employers. Disengagement is rising. Teachers feel increasingly constrained by mandates that don’t reflect the day-to-day realities of their classrooms. And despite unprecedented effort,…
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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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Portrait of a Learner in Practice: Why Every School Needs an Exhibition of Learning
As I sat in the parking lot of Hampton Township’s High School just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, reflecting on my experience attending their Exhibition of Learning, I tearfully thought, “Oh, I hope this is the future of education!” On paper, the event sounds impressive enough: a voluntary evening showcase for students from 3rd through…
BlogWebinars
Webinar Recording: A National Student Exhibition Experience
In this one-of-a-kind webinar, learners from across the Learner-Centered Collaborative national partner network took center stage to share authentic exhibitions of learning—offering educators and leaders a rare, firsthand view of what purposeful, learner-centered education can look and feel like in practice. Rather than hearing about student exhibitions in theory, participants experienced them directly: engaging…
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Now is the Time for Systemic Coherence: Reflections on the 25-26 Academic Year
I’ve been going through this year’s Bright Spots, and I keep coming back to the same line of thought. As educators, we know what works. We know what we want our classrooms and schools to be like. We know what purposeful learning feels like. And, I am so grateful to the brave communities who…
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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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Making Learning Feel Real With Community Engagement in the Classroom
Written by Kim Landry, 3rd-Grade Teacher, Alamogordo Public Schools We’ve all been there: you’re deep into a unit, the students are engaged, but there’s a lingering sense of “so what?” You want your students to see that what they learn at their desks actually breathes and moves in the real world. One of the…
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Testing Change Helps Educators Learn Their Way Forward
There’s a paradox at the heart of meaningful change in education: educators need shared direction while maintaining individual ownership within their schools and classrooms. They need coherence across a system and professional learning that honors and grows the ability to adopt new practices for their unique learners and contexts. Testing change honors this…
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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…
BlogWebinars
Webinar Recording: How to Redesign Your School Through a Learner-Centered Lens
In this webinar, Carmen Sanders (Executive Director of Instructional Support, Alexandria City Public Schools) and Michael Anderson (Principal, West Campus, Colorado Springs School District 11) join Jesse Ross of Learner-Centered Collaborative to share how they are leading learner-centered school redesign within very different contexts—one a large, diverse comprehensive high school system and the other…
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What Learners Really Experience: Reflections from the LiftOff Design Sprint
I recently had the opportunity to participate in the LiftOff Design Sprint, where 75 leaders from education, technology, research, philanthropy, and civic sectors came together in Silicon Valley. Over three days, we worked in teams to rapidly prototype 10 innovative learning models designed to help young people build the habits, skills, and mindsets they…
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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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Rethinking SAMR in the Age of AI: Why the Model Needs a Second Axis
This article originally appeared on Getting Smart and has been republished with their permission. Written by Vriti Saraf, Nate McClennen, & Katie Martin Key Points The SAMR model needs a second axis (positive vs. negative impact) to better evaluate AI’s effect on teaching and learning. AI’s role in education is nuanced—its success depends on…