learning design
Leadership
Impact Report Shows NTN Better Prepares Students for College and Life
Schools that are part of networks have shown boosted achievement and graduation rates, and networks allow for quality options to scale in communities that need them most. New Tech Network is a great example.
Leadership
School Change: Go Fast and Go Slow
By: Mary Ryerse and Emily Liebtag. School change--be it a new initiative, a push for a shift in culture, or the adoption of a different teaching approach--requires both tortoises and hares.
Smart Work
Building the Future: Designing With Purpose
Change is hard, and change is personal. If you and your team have determined that change is needed to design learning experiences that prepare students for the future, what steps do you take? Here's our process.
Smart Lists
Smart List: 100 Middle & High Schools Worth Visiting
School visits are a great way to learn. After a lot of visits of our own, and a number of community recommendations, we’re excited to share this list of 100 secondary schools that can give educators a refreshing outlook on what schools can do.
Project-Based Learning
Scheduling for Learning, Not Convenience
By: Emily Liebtag and Mary Ryerse. When it comes to secondary school scheduling, there are many options. Which schedule is best? It depends what you’re trying to accomplish. Here, we look at a number of approaches and examples.
Leadership
How Schools Improve
A colleague recently emailed me about the lack of widely used improvement frameworks in schools, so here is a quick outline of responses around approaches to improvement and innovation.
Leadership
Are You an Improver or an Innovator? Differentiating EdLeader Roles
Schools go through seasons—some periods demand an innovation sprint, while other periods require a sustained focus on improvement. The question is, does every EdLeader need to be a master of both?
Project-Based Learning
The 5 Pillars of Whole School Transformation
By: David Ross. Having concluded our recent study of 75 "Exemplar Schools" succeeding at providing 21st-century learning, we believe these are the foundational features necessary to transform into a 21st-century school.
Leadership
4 Systemic Supports for High Quality PBL
By: David Ross. Here are four support systems that enable teachers to practice high-quality project-based learning and achieve desired educational outcomes for 21st-century students.
Leadership
Pennsylvania Charter Emphasizes Liberal Arts for Success
We recently had the opportunity to visit Renaissance Academy, a K-12 public charter school in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, that focuses on liberal arts to prepare students for college.