learning design
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Human-Scale at Scale: Personalization, But to What End?
By: Tom Beresford. While touring learner-centered schools in the U.S., I had the opportunity to visit and witness two innovative models at Big Picture Learning and Summit Public Schools--both successful but with very different mindsets around their approach.
Teachers – Designers and Architects of Meaningful Student Learning Experiences
By Rhonda Hill. Strategies for implementing a project-based framework that allows teachers to design meaningful student learning experiences.
“Learning Engineering” Making its Way in the World
By: Bror Saxberg. Here is a list of a range of efforts popping up to assist us all with fostering learning engineering work--applying good learning science and evidence-gathering at scale.