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 planning for the upcoming school year.

We invite you to explore this tool and discover how it can help you create a more responsive, inclusive, and learner-centered environment.

Please complete the form below to access the resource.

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Operationalizing the Vision in Escondido Union School District

See how Escondido USD is turning ideas into actions with student forums, a guiding coalition, and a Framework for the Future.

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Building Relational Trust: Our Journey with Lamont Elementary School District

Contributions from Catina Hancock, Learner-Centered Collaborative and Dr. Lori González, Lamont Elementary School District In California’s Central Valley, Lamont Elementary School District is redefining what’s possible in education. Serving over 3,000 students, many from low-income backgrounds and a high percentage of English Language Learners, Lamont faced unique challenges. But under Superintendent Dr. Lori Gonzalez’s…

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How Hawaiian Charter Schools Are Honoring Identity

Brought together by a shared vision to create a more expansive student transcript reflecting whole child learning, charter schools in Hawaii offer a glimpse into their process—from vision to implementation.

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How a Small School System Created Big Impacts in Learner-Centered Education

Co-authored by Stacy Penson, Director of Elementary Level at The Innovative School, and Catina Hancock, Partner at Learner-Centered Collaborative The Innovative School’s journey from a Reggio-inspired preschool to a thriving two months-5th grade program exemplifies the power of small systems to drive big changes in education. Our story is one of growth, challenges, and triumphs…

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The Learning Experience Design Cycle: A Compass for Designing Deeper Learning

As an English teacher co-leading an interdisciplinary project with a science teacher, I had the privilege of working alongside high school seniors as they explored what it truly means to survive. We called it the Science of Survival. Over the course of the project, learners read stories of survival in fiction and nonfiction, interviewed…

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Reading, Writing, and Rising: Centering Literacy in Learner-Centered Education

By Stephanie Buelow and Charlotte Frambaugh Kritzer, Professors of Literacy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Literacy is the cornerstone of a learner-centered education—it unlocks the ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and engage meaningfully in a rapidly changing world. Few leaders embody this understanding as powerfully as Dr. Lori Gonzalez. A visionary…

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Debunking the Math Myth: How Learner-Centered Classrooms Deepen Understanding

In a learner-centered classroom, math is about more than numbers and formulas—it’s about curiosity, exploration, and making sense of the world. Picture this: It’s 10:00am in Ms. Kim’s 3rd grade classroom and students are gathered on the rug around a chart. Two students have just finished sharing their strategies with the whole class on…