Blog
Unraveling Mixed Messages: The Impact of Misaligned Systems in Education
Coherence across state, district, school, and classroom levels is critical for delivering clear and consistent messages to our learners. However, systemic misalignments often lead to mixed messages that can undermine our educational objectives and the experiences of our students. The Complexity of Educational Systems In simple terms, a system consists of two or more…
Tools
Enabling Conditions & Culture Self-Study
The Enabling Conditions & Culture Self-Study tool is a comprehensive resource designed to help educational systems assess and improve their foundational elements for success. This self-paced assessment covers six crucial areas: Coherence, Communication, Aligned Systems, Growth & Development, Partnerships, and Culture. By reflecting on specific indicators within each area, you’ll gain valuable insights into…
Tools
Facilitate Empathy Interviews and Focus Groups Tool
  Our Empathy Interview and Focus Group Tool provides a comprehensive guide for conducting both one-on-one interviews and focus groups. It includes tips for building rapport, asking effective questions, and ensuring equity of voice. By using this resource, you’ll be able to uncover bright spots, key challenges, and surprising insights that can inform your…
Blog
4 Practical Tips for Creating Coherence Within Your District
In any educational setting, clarity of vision, a well-understood mission, and a core set of operational values can fundamentally transform how initiatives are executed and objectives are met. I have come to understand this deeply through my experiences as an educational leader. The privilege of working with school and district leaders from a diversity…
Blog
Why Your Framework for the Future Needs These 4 Essential Elements
Why You Need a Framework for the Future A Framework for the Future serves as an ongoing reference for all to understand the why, how, and what of the system’s vision. It provides clarity to help navigate ambiguity, allows for creativity and flexibility with constraints, and supports coherence and distributed decision-making.  As César Morales…
Blog
Indiana’s Bold Step: Empowering Students with Employability Skills
Co-authored by: Brittany Griffin, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Learner-Centered Collaborative Lauren Cole, Vice President of Strategy and Operations, America Succeeds Eric Lerum, Senior Advisor, America Succeeds In the summer of 2022, the Indiana Department of Education (INDoE) embarked on an ambitious journey with the launch of its Employability Skills Innovation and Implementation (ESII) Grant.…
Blog
Transforming High School: A Collaborative Journey with Alexandria City Public Schools
In an era where education is evolving to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world, school districts like Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) are reimagining the high school experience. With a commitment to innovation and equity, ACPS embarked on a transformative journey to shape the future of education for their diverse student population.…
Blog
Elevating Learner Voices: Deer Lakes Students Share Their Vision in Video
At Learner-Centered Collaborative, we know centering student voice is key for meaningful change in education. We recently witnessed the power of learner voice in an impressive video produced by high school students at our partner district, Deer Lakes School District. To showcase Deer Lakes’ work with Learner-Centered Collaborative to redesign learning, high school students…
BlogWebinars
Leadership Forum: Igniting Limitless Potential for All Learners with Encinitas Union School District
Our Learner-Centered Leadership Forum series is an opportunity to gain timely, first-hand insights, examples, ideas, and lessons learned from learner-centered district leaders doing the work in the field with their teams, community, and learners. In this second event in the series in December 2023, Encinitas Superintendent Andrée Grey and Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services…
Blog
5 Tips for Implementing Learner Profiles
As school leaders, one of our most critical tasks is to balance coherence and flexibility in our educational institutions. Coherence refers to a unified vision and shared understanding among stakeholders, while flexibility allows for adaptability and responsiveness to individual student needs. A valuable tool for achieving this balance is the implementation of a learner…
Blog
How to Get Started Developing a Learner Profile
Learning communities across the country are asking an important question right now: what does success look like for our learners? Educational leaders are recognizing that clarity of desired outcomes is an important element in promoting coherence and connectedness. As a result, there is an increasing interest in the development of learner profiles that define…
Mesa Union School District
Impact
Getting from District Mission and Vision to Implementation with Learners
Mesa Union is a small, tight-knit school district steeped in tradition dating back to its inception in 1939. As the community emerged from Covid-19 remote learning there was a growing awareness and consensus that they needed to rethink practices across the district so they could evolve and find new and better ways to support…
Blog
What Is a Framework for the Future and Why Do You Need One?
Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages   Learner-Centered School and District Leadership At the core of learner-centered leadership is the ambition to empower all learners to know who they are, thrive in community, and actively engage in the world as their best selves. To this end, very much like learner-centered learning success…
Blog
2022 Reflections and 2023 Inspiration
  This week our Learner-Centered Collaborative team paused to reflect on our goals, our impact, and our next steps individually and collectively. We believe deeply in the power of reflection, and as Margaret Wheatley reminds us, “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”…
Framework for the Future recording
BlogWebinars
Webinar Recording: Framework for the Future, Don’t Try Leading Without One
The secret behind many schools and districts making progress toward clear, shared, and aligned learner-centered outcomes is a Framework for the Future that actively guides a learning community’s decisions, experiences, and resources. In this webinar, school and district leaders will discover: Why a Graduate Profile isn’t enough What exactly is a Framework for the…