Episode 23: Can a Comprehensive High School Be Learner-Centered? with Melissa Agudelo

By loading this video, you agree to the privacy policy of Youtube.

Episode Summary:

Melissa Agudelo, Co-Principal of Lincoln High School in San Diego, shares about her experiences and insights as an educator and leader aimed at putting learners at the center by design.

Melissa shares how she got into education through Teach for America in the 1990s and the impact of seeing disaggregated student data under No Child Left Behind, which made her question traditional approaches to teaching focused heavily on curriculum coverage versus relationships and relevance.

She discusses her transformative experience teaching at High Tech High with project-based learning, but also her realization that those approaches weren’t reaching all students, prompting her move to lead schools focused explicitly on serving learners furthest from opportunity.

Key topics covered include:

  • 🙏 Implementing restorative practices rather than zero-tolerance discipline
  • 🤝 The importance of advisory structures to build relationships
  • 🎯 Collaborative teacher development of projects and portfolio assessments
  • 🖼️ Iteratively developing a learner-centered culture and portrait of a graduate focused on broader competencies rather than content mastery
  • 👨‍🎓 Melissa’s vision for an education system that privileges authentic learning over grades and curriculum

Related Resources:

  • Hispanic Heritage: Lincoln High School principal on a mission (KPBS).
    Melissa was featured by San Diego’s PBS affiliate during Hispanic Heritage month where she shares where her core motivations as a learner-centered educator were born from.
  • Toolkit: The Foundations of Restorative Justice (Learning for Justice).
    Learn more about the foundations of restorative justice practices in schools, including relationship building, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and community involvement.
  • Melissa Agudelo Spoken Word on Leadership (Big Picture Learning).
    Recipient of the 2020 BPL Seymour Sarason School Leader of the Year Award, Melissa shares her view on leadership, the good and the bad, through spoken word. Presented at the 2020 BPL Leadership Conference.

How About Another?

It’s Your Journey

Explore More Topics

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…
Blog
4 Lessons From a Competency-Based Community of Practice
No one has completely figured it out, but everyone has something to offer. This sentiment captures the spirit of this year’s Competency-Based Community of Practice. This virtual group is made up of 45 teachers and leaders from nine schools and districts across the country who are currently implementing competency-based assessment and reporting practices. They…