Community Asset Map Tool

Real-World LearningCommunity Partnerships

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

Celebrating Bright Spots in Learner-Centered Education: Looking Ahead to What’s Possible

As the school year winds down, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the incredible progress made in the journey toward learner-centered education. Across classrooms, schools, and districts, we witnessed bold steps, powerful moments of growth, and inspiring examples of what’s possible when we center learners by design. Learner Agency in Action This school…

Blog

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…

Big Moves

Physical Space Design

Overview Physical spaces, when designed with intention, can enable the Learning Model to be fully embraced by a school, shaping the learning environment to align with the Portrait of a Learner. The guiding principle is that form drives function and that both influence and reflect a school’s culture. Thoughtful care for physical space demonstrates…

Big Moves

Capstone Projects

Overview A capstone project is a culminating project, usually done in a learner’s final year at a school or in a program, that allows them to apply the knowledge and skills they’ve gained throughout a course, program, or educational experience. Typically, it is comprehensive, often interdisciplinary, and requires learners to engage in critical thinking,…

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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…