Community Asset Map Tool

Community PartnershipsReal-World Learning

The Community Asset Map is a tool that helps educators identify and leverage local resources, skills, and networks to enhance their teaching practice. By mapping out community assets – from businesses to cultural organizations – educators can create more meaningful learning experiences that connect classroom content with the real-world.

Through a step-by-step process, this tool helps you determine your mapping goals, identify key community connections, and create action plans. Want to explore more? Visit our Learner-Centered Ecosystem page to dive deeper.

Deepen your understanding of community partnerships through our blogs on Community Connections and Prioritizing Community & Relationships.

Blog

What an 8th-Grade Defense Taught Me About Competency-Based Learning

Written by Maysa Dadmun Have you ever watched a student light up when they get to learn about something they truly love? That spark is what shaped my entire 8th-grade defense project, and now, as a freshman in high school, it’s shaping the way I approach learning every day. I attended Sussex School, a…

Blog

5 Tips for Launching Internships and Apprenticeships in Your District

Every year, thousands of students graduate high school without stepping foot into a professional work setting. In today’s rapidly changing world, this lack of exposure is not providing students with the experiences and skills they need to thrive beyond graduation. So, what if school was not separate from the “real world,” but an active…

Publications

School Redesign Playbook

For more than a century, schools have been shaped by an industrial-era model built for efficiency, standardization, and compliance. While that design achieved many of its original aims, it has not met the needs of all learners, and it no longer prepares young people for a rapidly changing world. In addition to content knowledge,…

Blog

Big Moves at West Pk-8: The Power of Distributed Leadership in the School Redesign Process

Colorado Springs is changing fast. Like many communities across the country, it is being shaped by new demographics, emerging opportunities, and the need for creativity and critical thinking like never before. District 11 knew that West PK–8 Campus, one of its oldest schools, couldn’t simply layer new programs on top of old structures to…

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Blog

What an 8th-Grade Defense Taught Me About Competency-Based Learning

Blog

If No One Was Telling Us What To Do, What Would We Build?

For decades, K-12 educational leaders have worked within a system and structure of someone else’s design. We’ve generally been operating with an “outside-in” policy model where Federal rules, funding, accountability systems, and compliance requirements have shaped what we do and how we think about what is possible. State Departments and local education agencies have…

Blog

Looking Back to Move Forward: Our Year of Redesign, Renewal, and Relentless Hope

As 2025 comes to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on a season marked by uncertainty, rapid change, and a growing chorus of voices calling for something better for our kids, educators, and communities. From the fluctuating role of the federal government to the dizzying acceleration of AI, the context around education has shifted…