learning design
Smart Lists
Getting Started with High School Redesign
Thinking about high school redesign? We've assembled a great reading list to get you started.
Project-Based Learning
Microsoft Flagship Schools: Transforming Education From The Ground Up
This fall 17 schools throughout the world will embark on a collaborative journey to “transform education from the ground up.” Learn more here.
Network Effect
101 Top School and Charter Networks
School networks are one of the most important innovations in the modern era of U.S. K-12 education. This list recognizes 101 great school networks that have achieved scaled impact to improve education for millions of children.
Project-Based Learning
Instruction-Driven Scheduling: Using Time as a Powerful Resource
By: Horace Williams and Melanie Pondant. Re-envisioning the resources available to our district opened up insightful opportunities to improve teaching and learning in our district without becoming bogged down in budget constraints. Learn more here.
Leadership
Calibrating District-Level Innovation
By: David Adler. Research shows that professional development that builds cultures of practice must place a heavy emphasis on teachers collaborating and talking about their practices, beliefs, and attitudes. Here, we look at some good ways to do just that.
Schools Worth Visiting
Because Being a “Good School” Isn’t Good Enough
By: Andrew Rubin. We instinctively tend to think that schools with big problems require major turnarounds, and that schools that operate smoothly and successfully - the typical “good school” - only need minor course corrections each year. The first part may be true. The second part isn’t.
Future of Learning
School Design that Combats Nature Deficit Disorder
By: Ashley Flores & Lida Lewis. There can be a healthy balance struck between media intake and real-world engagement. This balance is much more likely to happen through intentional design. The good news is that there’s a simple design prescription for what ails: nature. “Biophilic design” focuses on bringing elements of nature—from literal plant and water features to more analogous and referential approaches—into our built environments.
Leadership
School Networks: Getting Beyond the Technical
As soon as our network makes a partnership official with a new affiliate, the first question is typically: “When can we get a copy of your curriculum?” While this is flattering, it completely misses the larger point for why our network exists.
Project-Based Learning
4 Ways to Build a Better Schedule
By: Erin Werra. Dr. Ashanti Bryant Foster once said, “A master schedule must be built with the same level of care and attention as a new home where a family will spend the next 20 years growing together.” No pressure, right?
Equity & Access
Why True Equity in Learning Depends on Proactive, not Reactive, Design
By: Julia Freeland Fisher and Ace Parsi. Innovation is a process, and how we approach that process will inevitably influence our outcomes. If innovation efforts are not anchored in equity and inclusion at the forefront of their work, personalized models will replicate the results of the traditional system.