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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Big Moves: How to Create a Strategic Plan That Leads to Real Change in Your District

One of the most inspiring aspects of working with school systems across the country is seeing how deeply educators care about their learners. In every community I visit, I encounter dedicated, well-intentioned people doing everything they can to help students succeed. Yet, too often, these efforts occur in isolation—teachers working within their classrooms, principals…

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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.

BlogImpact

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…

BlogImpact

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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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…

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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…

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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…