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

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…

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,…

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Blog

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,…

Blog

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…

Blog

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…