Student-Centered Learning Resources and Research
Helping each student experience meaningful, personalized learning opportunities to realize their fullest potential
Students at the Center Framework
Comprehensive Resource Hub
Making the Case: Compelling Data
Advancing Student-Led Research: The YARI Project
Explore more information about our student-led research project featuring youth who have been historically marginalized by traditional school structures and policies. Learn More ›
Critical Civic Inquiry: Empowering Students to Transform Communities
Dive into a research study that investigates how educators can center student leadership and student voices in school and community reform efforts. Learn More ›
An Investigation into Culturally Responsive Mastery-Based Education
Culturally responsive and mastery-based education are two distinct student-centered practices. Read more about the research study that dove into how they can work together. Learn More ›
Advancing Student-Led Research: The YARI Project
Explore more information about our student-led research project featuring youth who have been historically marginalized by traditional school structures and policies. Learn More ›
Critical Civic Inquiry: Empowering Students to Transform Communities
Dive into a research study that investigates how educators can center student leadership and student voices in school and community reform efforts. Learn More ›
Teaching Solutions
Educator competencies for creating and thriving in personalized, learner-centered systems
Advocacy Solutions
Resources for advocating or creating policy for personalized, learner-centered systems
Research Solutions
Education and policy research for personalized, competency-based learning frameworks
Resources
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Learning Through Teaching: Building Critical Consciousness
A former high school English teacher reflects on her experiences in the classroom and the importance of stepping back.
Current Landscape of Postsecondary Competency-Based Education
Read a summary and the report on the current landscape for postsecondary competency-based education in the United State.
Educator Competencies: Video Examples of 'Growth Mindset'
Watch video examples of how teachers practice a growth mindset and see mistakes and failures as opportunities for growth.
Educator Competencies: Video Example of 'Growth Mindset'
Watch a video example of how teachers practice a growth mindset and see mistakes and failures as opportunities for growth.
Resource Round-Up: Honoring Student Voice with Authentic Products
Blogs, podcasts and resources for educators to help engage students with authentic projects and products that honor student voice.
Education in the Balance: Tensions Affecting Education's Future
Explore "Education in the Balance" and learn tensions affecting education's future: leadership, contested power and strained systems.
Resource Round-Up: Teaching the Civil Rights Movement
Explore virtual exhibits, artifacts and stories about the pivotal figures and collective actions that were part of the civil rights...
For Students, Lived Experience = Expertise
Students, informed by their lived experiences, conducted research projects about the education system with ideas on how to reform it.
Highlighting the Importance of Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Associate Principal Darius Green shares why he believes relationship building is the cornerstone of a thriving school community.
Resource Round-Up: Teaching Jim Crow South and the Lynching Era
Explore virtual museums, videos and lesson plans designed to help educators learn more about Jim Crow South and the lynching...
Maintaining an Equity Focus During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Arria Coburn and Ellen Foley sat down to reflect and discuss how they have maintained a focus on equity during...
Sustaining Student-Centered Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Principal Arria Coburn and math teacher, Ellen Foley, sat down with KnowledgeWorks to discuss student-centered learning during the pandemic.
Reflections and Resources for Educators Facilitating Youth-Led Research
Victoria Restler reflects on what educators, mentors and graduate students learned from facilitating a youth-led research project.
Promising Practices for Designing Dual Enrollment for Students
Read about the promising practices and recommendations for designing dual enrollment for students from special populations.
Promising Practices to Accelerate Learning for Students with Disabilities
Explore the report that outlines promising practices that accelerate learning for students with disabilities.
Your Struggles are Systemic and Valid: Reflections from a Youth Researcher
A youth researcher reflects on the importance of relationships, especially between teachers and students who share similar experiences.
Student researches how students can pursue meaningful careers
As part of a youth-led research project, a student examined how historically marginalized students can pursue meaningful careers after high...
Culturally Responsive Education Hub: History, Tools and Resources
Resources for teachers and leaders that capture the power of culturally responsive teaching and tools to become more culturally responsive.
How Our School Shared Student-Centered Learning with Families
Using a library system to check out STEAM kits, an elementary school shares student-centered learning with families.
Youth Examine How to Improve Education for ESL/ELL Students
As part of a youth-led research project, students examine how their district can improve educational experiences for ELL students.
Students Examine How Ethnic Backgrounds Affect Relationships
As part of a youth-led research project, students examine how racial and ethnic backgrounds affect relationships in classrooms.
Students Explore the Disadvantages Female Students of Color Face
What advantages and disadvantages do female students of color face in schools, and how does it affect their learning journeys?
Students Explore How Schools’ Impressions Impact Accomodations
As part of a youth-led research project, students examine how schools' impressions of students impact the accommodations they receive.
One School’s Commitment to Equity Using Student-Centered Learning
Learn about how one school overcame barriers to equity using student-centered practices, addressing literacy and social emotional needs.
Resource Round-Up: Talking About the Attack on the Capitol
A list of resources to help educators have conversations about the attack on the Capitol with their learners, peers and...
10 Drivers of Student Engagement You Can Use Right Now
Whether learning occurs in brick-and-mortar schools or in virtual environments, student engagement drives student outcomes.
Personalizing Math: Productive Struggle, Rich Content and Collaboration
Personalizing math for students requires intentional and productive struggle with rich content and opportunities for collaboration.
Resource Round-Up: Peer Discussions
Browse resources from other educators about engaging students in peer discussions to build community and understanding.
The Top 10 Resources You Loved in 2020
Browse the top 10 posts from Students at the Center Hub in 2020. These are the resoures and stories you...
Resource Round-Up: Project-Based Learning at a Distance
A curated list of resources to help educators implement student-centered project-based learning in virtual classrooms and beyond.
Strategies for Making Human-Centered Learning a Reality
Explore available strategies to create and sustain an education system where human-centered learning is the foundation.
Five Lessons the Pandemic Has Taught Us About Student Engagement
Working with youth researchers during the pandemic has taught us about it takes to engage and support youth during volatile...
Guidance on Culturally Responsive Remote Education
Now is the time to critically engage the systems we've set up to implement online educational opportunities in culturally-responsive ways.
Researchers of Color Make All the Difference
Students and youth researchers deserve to have mentors who can understand their lived experiences and can step back to let...
The Critical Importance of Youth-Led Research
Engaging in youth-led research not only provides a rich experience for students but it also provides adults with new, important...
Three Lessons From New Hampshire’s Effort to Expand Deeper Learning
From a research-practice partnership comes lessons learned about how to scale deeper learning practices and authentic assessments.
Resource Round Up: Competency-Based Education
This collection of resources explores the advantages of competency-based education and ways to implement it during remote learning.
Roadmap for Student Self-Direction: Building Essential Skills for the Future
Explore the collection of resources for teachers to use in the classroom for instruction and assessment that focuses on self-direction.
Resource Round-Up: Motivation and Remote Learning
Explore resources designed for educators to strengthen motivation and engagement in hybrid and remote learning environments.
What We Don't Learn in School: How a (Virtual) Road Trip Teaches Civil Rights
Explore a virtual road trip with the purpose of expanding understanding of systemic racism and biases inherent in our systems.
Brown v. Board of Education Resources for Educators and Learners
Explore resources for educators and learners around the history and consequences of the Supreme Court decision Brown V. Board.
Red Summer of 1919 and Black Wall Street Resources for Educators
Direct learners to interactive, immersive experiences to learn more about the Red Summer of 1919 and Black Wall Street.
Japanese American Relocation Camp Resources for Educators
Explore a variety of educational resources related to the events and policies that led to the internment of Japanese Americans.
Exploring the Impact of Student-Centered Learning on Mathematics
Learn what happened when teachers engaged in lesson study to test, refine and spread student-centered approaches in mathematics.
How to Choose Words That Motivate Students During Online Learning
Framing assignments in student-centric rather than teacher-centric ways can encourage engagement and persistence in learning.
Structured Collaborative Inquiry for Today’s Hybrid Learning Environments
Learn how lesson study can provide opportunities for teachers to participate in structured collaborative inquiry in hybrid learning environments.
Lesson Study: Resources for Administrators, Educators and Guardians
Learn more about how to implement lesson study and student-centered math instruction in your schools and classrooms.
A Guide to High School Planning During COVID-19
This guide covers six areas of practice, each of which has an accompanying set of recommendations and guiding questions.
White Teachers: How to Support your Black Colleagues
Supporting the needs of Black teachers and recognizing their emotional labor is crucial in the fight for racial justice.
State Guidance for Building Resilient and Equitable Education Systems
This guidebook provides education stakeholders with important considerations for this calendar year and beyond.
Black Student Voices: Reflecting on Race and Racism in Schools
This Education Week series provides an opportunity for educators to hear from students directly regarding race and racism.
Strengthening Student Voices Through Social Justice
Students needs a safe place to process and use their voices to learn to contribute positively to the national conversation...
Social Justice Mathematics and Science Resources
This list is a great starting point for math and science teachers of any grade who want to make changes...
5 Steps Toward Cultural Competence for Educators and Schools
Five ways educators can build cultural competence, including setting measurable goals and being comfortable with vulnerability.
Black Lives Matter in Schools Week of Action Resources
Resources for the Black Lives Matter Week of Action, including lessons, teaching ideas, book lists and teaching guides.
Project Implicit Explores Implicit Social Cognition to Expose Bias
Project Implicit aims to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on...
31 Days of IBPOC Features Indigenous Teachers and Teachers of Color
#31DaysIBPOC is a blog challenge that features the voices of indigenous and teachers of color as writers and scholars.
Diversity Talks Centers Students in Race and Equity Conversations
Diversity Talks, founded by two students and a teacher, trains students to lead teacher professional development around race and diversity.
Resources for Understanding and Supporting Black Lives Matter
These Black Lives Matter resources are curated by Dr. Tia C. Madkins from the College of Education at the University...
Unboxing Equity for Teachers, By Teachers, With Teacher2Teacher
Teacher2Teacher offers opportunities to share resources, learn from one another and solve big equity problems.
How Online Teaching Can Be Culturally Responsive
One fifth-grade teacher reflects on empowering students and the building blocks of culturally responsive teaching when remote.
A Reading List of Anti-Racism Resources for All Ages
This reading list, ranging from articles to children's books, offers a wide-range of resources focused on anti-racism.
19 Black Educators on Instagram to Listen to and Learn From
This site will help educators connect with each other and gain ideas to promote equity in their classrooms.
SEL Strategies to Support Teachers of Students with Learning Differences
Explore ways in which SEL strategies can help reframe and address challenges in a remote learning environment.
Examining the Role of Ed Tech for Students With Disabilities
Released by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, this report poses the essential questions when approaching ed tech investments.
A School Reopening Plan Designed for Those at the Margins
Students benefit when educators plan first and foremost for students at the margins, whether due to disabilities, poverty or homelessness.
Planning for Better Professional Development in an Uncertain Future
Advice for administrators to provide professional development during remote learning, including a focus on trauma-informed teaching practices.
High Quality Professional Development From Home
The author provides ideas for making the most of the materials available on the web as well as professional reading.
Meaningful Summer Remote Professional Development
Ideas for creating your own professional development opportunities from home, including podcasts and the Google Certified educator program.
Tools for Scaling Best Practices: Windows, Bridges and Roadmaps
Explore the Motivis Learning platform, which incorporates key functions such as content modules, grade books and assessment tools.
Eastside Students Write Books on How to Overcome a Pandemic
Middle school students in Bullitt County, KY describe their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic, with links to each student's work.
ASCD Resources for Building Racial Justice and Equity
Bringing together many of ASCD's resources on building racial equity in education in one place, ASCD has made these tools...
Two High School Students Speak Out on COVID-19
Two high school seniors describe their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on their future plans and coping with...
Non-Negotiables for Formative Assessment and Online Learning
Three teachers committed to formative assessment share thoughts on which teaching practices must be incorporated into remote teaching.
How Educators Are Showing Up for Black Students Following Protests
Ways educators are discussing the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality with students during remote learning.
Six Ways District Leaders Can Build Racial Equity in Education
Education Week staff asked six district leaders to share specific practices and processes they use in their school systems to...
Students Are Demanding Anti-Racist Curriculum and Instruction
Students across the country are demanding their districts embrace more culturally diverse and explicitly anti-racist curriculum.
Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships
The updated version of the framework highlights the role of strong and trusting relationships between families and schools.
Transitioning and Sustaining Competency-Based Education
A mastery-based approach positioned the South Bronx Community Charter High School to make a smoother transition to remote learning.
Providence Students Use Data to Participate in System Change
In student-centered math classes, students use and analyze data to help improve students' experiences in their district.
Teaching, Technology, and Teacher Education During COVID-19
Noted challenges and global success stories of innovation in preparing current and future teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Blended Learning Models that Can Help Schools Reopen
Explore two approaches to blended learning that could be used in schools, providing a mix of in-person and remote learning.
Fostering Connectedness in the Pandemic Era: Policy Recommendations
This report features policy recommendations to nurture students' connections to school to support both well-being and academic outcomes.
Supporting Students to be Independent Learners: State and District Actions
Culturally and linguistically responsive education helps students build a sense of connection to school and become independent learners.
Why There's a Push to Get Police out of Schools
This article and accompanying podcast from MindShift explores the rationale for decreasing police in schools.
The Sciences of Teaching and Learning: Neuroscience and Psychology
Neuroscience and psychology findings explore the importance of growth mindset, linking new knowledge to past knowledge, SEL and diversity.
Planning for Success in the Fall Starts with Personalization
Equity concerns exacerbated by COVID-19 school closures can only be addressed if educators commit to personalization.
Why Middle Schoolers Thrive in a Self-Paced Classroom
A veteran teacher discusses student engagement during remote learning by letting students take more responsibility for their own learning.
Veteran Teacher Attests Passion Projects Fuel Student-Driven Learning
Detailed steps and tips to guide students through creation of projects on topics of their own choosing to engage them...
How Student Agency Can Ease the Pain of Remote Learning and Teaching
The benefits to student engagement and deep level learning, social-emotional well-being and school operations.
Observations of Self-Directed Behavior in an Online Environment
Lessons learned regarding student agency during remote learning from educators and school leaders in New Hampshire.
15 Classroom Resources for Discussing Racism, Policing, and Protest
A collection of useful classroom resources to help teachers talk to students about racism, protest, policing and current events.
Schools Call Parents “Co-Teachers,” but We Have No Idea What We’re Doing
This article is a plea to educators to remember families and caregivers during remote learning school closures. The article reminds...
Learning in the Time of Corona: Fast Classes and Less Sleep
This article, written by a teacher at the Urban Assembly School for Math and Science for Young Women, an all-girls...
Educators Tackle Tough Conversations about Race and Violence – This Time Virtually
This article discusses the importance of discussing current events with students. It presents examples of the many different ways that...
Three Ways to Scale Student-Centered Reforms in Your System
Aimed at capturing a more authentic assessment of content knowledge, educators have developed performance tasks.
Racial Equity Tools for Individuals, Schools and Communities
Tools, research, tips, curricula and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and work toward justice at...
Measuring and Improving Student-Centered Learning Toolkit
Designed to help schools and other stakeholders measure, understand and reflect upon the extent of student-centered learning in high schools.
What Will Schools Do in the Fall? Here Are 4 Possible Scenarios
Explore four possible scenarios for instruction that include varying mixes of in-person and distance learning.
How to Foster a Positive School Climate in a Virtual World
Ways to improve culture including physical and emotional safety, respect for diversity and equity and supportive teaching practices.
A Plan to Safely Reopen America’s Schools and Communities
Designed to help communities chart a path to safely and responsibly reopen school buildings and other institutions.
Relationships Check Sparks Self-Reflection and Conversation
Meaningful relationships, self-reflection and conversation with caring adults are critical to children's wellbeing during this time.
Disrupting Inequity: Having Brave Conversations About Bias
This toolkit was designed to help school communities have facilitated conversations about race, inequity, bias and prejudice.
The Power of Protocols for Cultural Responsiveness and Equity
Zaretta Hammond outlines how to use structured protocols to encourage equitable participation and create more culturally responsive discussions.
Responsibilities to Family and Community for Empowering Youth
Fffers a look into students' perspectives on community service and family and personal responsibility, even during a pandemic.
Fostering a Strong Community in a Virtual Classroom
Practical tips to help students feel comfortable and safe participating in synchronous and asynchronous virtual learning.
Practical Tips for Teaching Online Small-Group Discussions
Three strategies that can be used during break out sessions for small-group discussion held through zoom or other similar platforms.
7 Strategies to Increase Student Engagement in Online Discussions
Catlin Tucker, an educator, author, and blended learning coach, suggests seven easy actions teachers can take to improve synchronous online...
Rural Community Coronavirus Resource Hub
News and resources related to the Coronavirus outbreak, informed by rural school administrators and leaders across the country for rural...
The Impact of Sharing Lived Experience in Youth Voice Work
What can improve when we allow youth to share their lived experiences in high school? What do we learn about...
Always Ready for Learning Network for K-12 Leaders
A national, philanthropically-supported initiative to ensure K-12 school systems leaders receive guidance on how to successfully shift to remote learning..
More Urgent Than Ever: 66 Years After Brown v. Board of Education
The anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education provides a moment to consider the work that's still needed for...
Coronavirus School Closures: An Educational Opportunity
Explore decades of research on self-directed learning in which young people do not attend a curriculum-based school but are homeschooled.
Creative Connections for K-12 While Social Distancing
This article for parents looks at the importance of helping kids maintain connections and relationships while social distancing due to...
How Families can Foster Civic and Social Responsibility
Draws on research supporting how families can reinforce important civic lessons and foster social responsibility during the pandemic.
Parenting Advice For Managing Anxiety in the Era Of COVID-19
Four ways in which anxiety works to "trick" the brain and ways to overcome the influence of anxiety, for parents...
7 Guiding Principles for Parents Teaching From Home
Basic teaching concepts grounded in research and science for parents taking on new roles as their children's teachers during remote...
Not a Normal Convening but What's Normal Anyway?
This is where we solve problems of practice, refine public-facing components and ask big questions about equity-driven and learner-centered approaches.
Educating All Learners Resource Database for Special Education
This database helps ensure the continuity of special education services during remote instruction and spotlights best practices for schools and...
Supporting Undocumented Students & Families During COVID-19
The importance of supporting the most vulnerable families during COVID-19 school closures, especially immigrant families without documentation.
Supporting LGBTQ+ Students During and After School Closures
Kimm Topping, an educator and consultant for the Safe Schools Program in Massachusetts, offers practical suggestions to support LGBTQ+ students...
How Educators Can Use Research to Increase Engagement
Research-based strategies to engage learners remotely, using multiple strategies to motivate students, help them focus and engage them in learning.
10 Questions for Equity Advocates to Ask About Distance Learning
This report from Digital Promise and Education Trust explores the biggest equity challenges that districts face from school closures due...
5 Strategies for Teacher Self-Care While Facing Stress
This ASCD Express article focuses on five strategies for teachers to reduce burnout and prioritize self-care so they can better...
Wide Open Schools: High-Quality Online Learning Experiences for Kids
More than 25 organizations aim to make learning from home an experience that inspires kids, supports teachers, relieves families and...
Harvard EdCast: School Leadership During Crisis and for the Future
Deborah Jewell-Sherman from the Harvard Graduate School of Education explores leadership challenges and offers advice on how to stay grounded.
Unleashing Your Innovative Genius: A Conversation with Deborah Olatunji
Deborah Olatunji, a high school student, hopes to ignite young people across the country to realize they have the power...
NHLI Voices from the Field with Jonathan Vander Els
Students, teachers, principals and others share the ways in which they have tried to provide guidance and support for their...
Tips for Formative Assessment During Distance Learning
This article discusses how to check for understanding and provide meaningful feedback to students during distance learning.
How Top Teachers Make Student Voice a High Priority
Education Week reporters interviewed winners of the Milken Educator Awards about the importance of supporting student voice.
Opportunities Gained by Helping Students of Color Resist Racism
The importance of supporting student protest actions rather than teaching about systemic inequalities and the activism needed to combat these...
10 Steps to Incorporating Student Voice into Remote Learning
The authors discuss the importance of connecting with students on a personal level, encouraging feedback and keeping learning joyful.
Practical Guidance for When Students Go Back to School
Practical advice for schools and districts to help students catch up when they return to school after closures due to...
3 Ways to Use Video Conferencing with Students Learning Remotely
Three ways to leverage video conferences to foster deeper, student-centered learning and connections with and amongst students.
Ensuring Student-Centered Opportunities for All Students
Ensuring student-centered opportunities not only increases the academic progress of students but also empowers them.
Innovative Ways to Make Coronavirus a Teachable Moment
Explore the ways teachers can incorporate discussion of COVID-19 in their current lessons, with examples from a variety of subject...
A New Reality Special Report: Getting Remote Learning Right
Topics include tips for building community, helping students cope with anxiety and supporting students with IEPs during remote learning.
Remote Learning Readiness Survey for School Districts
This free remote learning survey helps districts understand how students, teachers, principals and parents are handling the transition to remote...
Surviving and Thriving as a School Librarian During COVID-19
Ways to transform school libraries during closures due to COVID-19, with tips on how to maintain access to resources, engage...
Pandemic Preparedness Resources for School Libraries
Resources of interest to school librarians during school closure due to COVID-19, with a special focus on the role of...
New Strategies in Special Education as Kids Learn From Home
Strategies for helping families recreate school supports, such as a sense of structure or ways to participate in sensory and...
Lesson Study from the High Tech High Graduate School of Education
This blog series documents how High Tech High Graduate School of Education's network of schools became interested in lesson study.
The 3 Biggest Remote Teaching Concerns We Need to Solve Now
Examines concerns over student privacy, accessibility of ed tech materials for all students and equitable access to online learning technologies.
Confronting the Coronavirus Outbreak for Educators
This section of the Usable Knowledge website brings together advice for educators during school closures due to COVID-19.
Best Practices for Online Teaching for K-12 Educators
Simple tips for educators for connecting with students and their families and delivering content during distance learning.
Blended Learning Universe for K-12 Educators and Schools
Basics on blended learning and related instructional models, including videos and examples in action, tips and resources to take a...
From Disruption Comes Change: Nurturing Sociopolitical Action with Youth
Dr. Carlos Hipolito-Delgado with the University of Colorado Denver discusses research on sociopolitical development and transformative student voice.
What We Know about Successful Instruction in a Digital Environment
Digital learning leverages high-quality, standards-based teaching and learning, using high levels of student engagement and achievement to promote mastery.
4 Common Barriers to Accessible Content for all Students
Whenever educators are delivering new content online is is important that all students, including those with disabilities, can access the...
Bridging Digital Divides Between Schools and Communities
Explore the gap between internet connectivity at schools and within under-resourced, low-income communities, referred to as the homework divide.
How Will Schools Provide Special Education During COVID-19?
Explores the challenges districts are facing to provide special education services and equitable access to learning during school closures due...
14 Tips For Helping Students With Limited Internet Have Distance Learning
Strategies and tips to help make distance learning work for students with limited internet access during this time of school...
What Schools Can Do For the Millions of Students Without Internet Access
How schools are working to address issues of unequal access to learning during school closures due to COVID-19 by boosting...
Four Questions to Teach Every Educator How the Brain Learns
Explores the work being done in the Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland to align research on learning science with...
COVID-19 Racial Equity & Social Justice Resources
Comprehensive tools to help community leaders address the COVID-19 pandemic with a social justice and racial equity lens.
How #DisruptTexts Can Help English Teachers Be More Inclusive
The #DisruptTexts Twitter chats and website are working to help other English Language Arts teachers create equitable and inclusive curriculum.
4 Strategies to Make Grading Tolerable and Formative
A teacher offers advice to K-12 educators on how to move away from grading and share responsibility for providing formative...
How to Make Student Choice Work With Accountability
A teacher discusses how she gives her students the power to choose what they learn and how they demonstrate their...
Teacher Resources While Social Distancing During COVID-19
There’s so much available online to help educators, families and students optimize their learning, but information overload isn’t helping.
School Closure Toolkit for Teachers, From a Professional and a Parent
Step back to consider the big picture of what we want and need to get out of this potentially lengthy period of...
PeerGrade Lets Students Conduct Peer Review Online
The tool allows teachers to set an assignment and select a review rubric from an existing database or create their...
Teaching Students to Give Peer Feedback From a High School Teacher
To help teach students this important skill, one teacher defines quality feedback, provides structured routines and models how to provide...
How Research Helped One Educator Solve Her Greatest Problem
A high school English teacher shares how her approach to student feedback has changed through her teaching career and using...
The Novice to Expert Shift With Students and Science
Useful take-aways from a small scale study of students participating in a student-driven, problem-based science curriculum.
Strategies for Educators for Making SEL Culturally Competent
These strategies ensure social-emotional learning (SEL) practices are enacted in ways that are culturally responsive and equitable for youth.
Student-Centered Learning With the Del Lago Academy Series
A focus on competency-based practices, personalization and authentic interdisciplinary learning projects in the pursuit of student-centered learning.
Digital Promise Product Certifications for Districts and Schools
This tool was designed to help districts and schools select ed-tech products that are based on solid research on learning...
10 Reasons Edtech Works Sometimes, But Not All the Time
The collaborative EdTech Genome Project researches the contextual factors that impact education technology implementation.
Scaling is All the Rage, but How Do You Make It Happen?
Learn about how a number of districts, organizations and agencies came together to scale deeper learning practices across the state...
Making Powerful Educational Choices for our Children
Written by a parent, this article outlines the advantages of learner-centered education and advocating for changes in the education system.
How Hands-On Projects Can Deepen Math Learning for Teens
A public magnet school in Philadelphia committed to project-based learning shares the benefits of hands-on projects in math class.
3 Steps Educators Can Use to Help Students Rethink Failure
Explore three steps educators can use to help students rethink their negative associations with failure and see its more positive...
How Can Your Schools Recruit and Retain More Black Teachers?
An overview of a report focused on recruiting and retaining black male teachers for policy makers, district administrators and school...
Ways to Build Culturally Responsive Schools for K-12 Educators
Explore the importance of understanding students' home culture and steps to encourage equity school-wide to ensure culturally responsive schools.
The Role of School Librarians in Open Educational Resources Curation
This guidebook was created for librarians by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education after a study...
The Best Edtech for Students Is Backed by Research
Researchers draw on their experience studying technology and learning to offer advice on selecting effective ed-tech products.
Leaders to Learn From Report in School District Leadership
Meet some of the nation’s most exceptional school district leaders and their impact on the success of educators and students.
Digital Learning Day Resources for Educators and Schools
Digital Learning Day highlights great teaching practice and showcases innovative teachers, leaders and instructional technology programs.
3 Steps to Supporting the Crusade for Better Student Collaboration
Strategies for administrators and school leaders for getting all teachers on board and making student collaboration a priority school-wide.
Making Cooperative Learning Work Better, From a Veteran Teacher
Concrete suggestions to address four common problems, including unequal contributions and interpersonal conflicts between students.
Spotlight on Collaboration for Teachers and Students
Topics include assessing group projects, supporting team work and encouraging collaborative experiential learning for students and teachers.
20 Collaborative Learning Tips And Strategies For Teachers
Tips include creating roles, building trust and norms, considering diversity, focusing on problem-solving and providing scaffolding.
The Science of Talking in Class: Effective Collaboration in the Classroom
Takeaways for teachers following a recent review of the research studies on the effectiveness of collaboration in the classroom.
5 Worthwhile Augmented and Virtual Reality Tools for Teachers
Explore five free tools teachers can use to integrate AR and VR in the classroom to create engaging learning experiences.
From the Pueblo to College: The Journey of Two Rural Students
These three videos document the personal and academic stories of two rural students from the Pueblo of Jemez in New...
This District Uses Micro-Credentials to Boost Personalized Learning
The Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative provides more than 3,000 rural educators from southeastern Kentucky with personalized professional development.
7 Ways to Make Teaching a More Sustainable Profession
This article offers school leaders general advice on how to create a supportive culture to nurture teachers. The author offers...
Competency-Based Transformation in Northern Cass School District Series
The three pieces in this series, look at the transformation of Northern Cass School District, a rural district in North...
Better PD through Design Thinking
This article describes Martin County School District’s innovative professional development series, CampTEACH (Technology Empowering Academic Change), which helps teachers more...
Quality Counts 2020
Every year, Education Week releases a Quality Counts report which examines state-level efforts to improve public education and pulls together...
Involving Families: A Relationship-Centered Approach
This article describes the efforts to more fully include Latino parents at a school in Boulder Valley School District. While...
Youth Action Researchers at the Intersection - Youth Research project
The Youth Action Researchers at the Intersection (YARI) project empowers youth to investigate education related issues that matter to them...
Modernizing the Teaching Workforce for Learner-Centered, Competency-Based, Equity-Oriented Education: State Policy Recommendations
This issue brief discusses opportunities in state policy to modernize educators’ professional learning to support a mastery-based k-12 education system....
Black Girls CODE
Since 2011, Black Girls CODE has been empowering young women of color to learn the technology and computer science skills...
Black Lives Matter at School Teaching Materials
As part of the Black Lives Matter at School Action Week, this webpage lists resources which align with the Black...
Bringing a Culturally Responsive Lens to Math Class
This article describes how a 7th-grade math teacher created a 3-week unit project to connect math to a real-world issue...
Teaching Tolerance
This website is full of resources to promote diversity and inclusion, including classroom activities and lesson plans, as well as...
In Support of the Black Lives Matter at School “Week of Action,” Feb. 3-7
The Black Lives Matter at School “Week of Action” is February 3-7. Among the goals of the project are these:...
4 Questions to Ask About Multimedia Content
This short article provides advice on selecting the best multimedia resources. To ensure they will lead to deeper learning experiences,...
Tapping Students’ Interests to Develop Literary Analysis Skills
This article introduces a strategy for increasing student voice in English Language Arts (ELA) classes. A veteran teacher shares how...
How Systems of Assessments Aligned with Competency-Based Education Can Support Equity
This report from the Aurora Institute and Center for Assessment looks at ways in which state leaders can build balanced...
6 Strategies to Support the Development of Self-Directed Learners
This article explores several strategies to help students build the skills needed to be self-directed learners. The author, an experienced...
Advancing Equity by Building Development Relationships
This story looks at the importance of building developmental relationships in which adults and youth share power, especially for students...
Teaching Students to Think About Thinking
The articles in this issue of ASCDExpress explore metacognition, the ability to understand ones own mental processes and to monitor...
This Pennsylvania District Knows Transformation is a Human First Endeavor
In this article district leaders from Salisbury Township School District, a small public district in PA, detail the first 4...
Pittsburgh-Area Students Tackle Community Challenges in Learn and Earn Program
This article describes a summer learning program in the Pittsburg, PA area. Through the Learn and Earn Program, students conducted...
Hearing Youth Voices
This group is a youth-led, action research group where students learn about the different oppressions they face every day and...
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
CAST is a nonprofit research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with...
Youth and Adults Transforming Schools Together
This organization was founded in Vermont to increase student voice in decision-making and engagement in learning. Youth and adults participate...
Building Support for Student-Centered Learning: A Toolkit
This toolkit provides strategies, resources, and tools for those who would like to build public understanding and engagement around student-centered...
Youth Participatory Action Research Hub
This site features a curriculum to empower students to begin Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR). Through YPAR young people are...
Young Organizers United
This organization, Young Organizers United, is the only organized group of students focused on addressing systemic education issues in New...
Youth Action Researchers at the Intersection - A Story Begins!
We have designed and built the YARI Project to showcase student-centered approaches, integrate inclusiveness in design and advance the struggle...
Transforming Teaching: What University Presidents and Deans of Colleges of Education Need to Know about Modernizing the K-12 Educator Workforce
This issue brief outlines how university presidents and deans of colleges of education can use their influence to advance changes...
Measuring SEL
This collection of resources can help schools, districts, and states determine how to measure students’ social emotional learning (SEL). Compiled...
5 Truths for Building a Successful Data Culture
This article describes five qualities often seen in schools that use data effectively to drive improvement. At these schools, leaders...
Getting Started with Culturally Responsive Teaching
This article demystifies culturally responsive teaching. Becoming more culturally responsive begins with getting to know students well. The author lays...
The National Standards for Quality Online Learning
More and more students are taking part in some type of online learning. To guide educators, families, and students, the...
Helping Students Track Their Learning
This article explores how to help students become “assessment capable” learners, monitoring their own content understanding. Assessment capable learners can...
Assessment Resources Bundle
Articles, examples and tools to help educators implement values of student-centered learning: self-assessment, peer assessment, portfolios, and exhibitions.
How Do We Teach Kids to Assess Themselves?
This article discusses the importance of student self assessment to build student agency over learning and help both teacher and...
Developing “Assessment Capable” Learners
This article in the Measuring What Matters issue of ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine looks at the importance of including students...
Using Sketchnotes and Doodles in ELA Lessons
In this blog, a veteran ELA teacher shares ideas for incorporating art into ELA lessons to improve learning. She describes...
Bringing Student Choice to Assessment in Science Classes
An experienced science teacher describes how he uses alternative assessments in this article. He explains the system he developed to...
The State Education Agency’s Role in Supporting Equitable Student-Centered Learning
This guide was designed to help state education agencies empower local districts to create student-centered learning environments. State agencies have...
Exploring the Impact of Personalized Learning on Student Outcomes
We believe in the power of personalized, competency-based learning because we want each and every student to learn and be challenged...
National Action Civics Collaborative
The National Action Civics Collaborative (NACC) brings together a group of diverse education and youth serving organizations committed to advancing...
The Blogs You Loved from 2019
Throughout 2019, educators and researchers from across the country have shared blogs about their goals, passions, challenges and triumphs working...
Civics Education and Student-Driven Civic Action
In this article a Washington DC government teacher shares her experience using action civics in her classroom. Action civics empowers...
Amplifying Student Voice
This website was designed to introduce educators to action civics. Action civics projects empower youth to become agents of change...
Student Agency: Resource Collection
A collection of resources to support student agency, all with a student-centered teaching and learning perspective.
Dear Educators, Stop Being Jerks and Amplify Student Voice
Sometimes educators can be jerks, particularly when youth are trying to teach decision-makers (school board members, school administrators, or lawmakers)...
Distinguished Fellow’s Leadership Produces Results
Learn how Principal Arria Coburn is raising the achievement of her students from low-income families and students of color.
We’re Thankful for our Educators, Researchers and Funders
The end of November is always crunch time. Between finishing projects, producing research, educating students, fighting for social justice and planning for the...
Asking Big Questions by Rebecca Wolfe
We are committed to asking big questions about student-centered learning and how to democratize research in education.
Thank You for Your Feedback on Educator Competencies for Personalized, Learner-Centered Teaching
Please take this short survey by October 25th to help us understand the current use of the competencies in the...
Educator Professional Development Through Public Research Lesson Events
Have you been looking for an educator professional development structure that builds teacher leadership and inquiry capacity, develops robust content...
Student Voice-Transformative or Symbolic?
Francis is the student body president. She has a 4.3 GPA. She is enrolled in honors and AP classes and...
Student-Centered Approaches to Equity, Empathy and Engagement in School
How does a predominantly White, middle class, rural high school in Vermont prioritize racial justice and educational equity? Mike McRaith,...
Transforming Research by Having Students Lead the Investigations
Anyfern Gonzalez is a youth researcher who has lead her own investigation into student-centered learning. Learn more about her journey.
Critical Civic Inquiry: Students Master Academic Content through Action Research Projects
When I was starting out as a youth worker in San Francisco’s Mission District in the 1990s, I saw powerful...
Linking Equity to Practice: A User-Friendly Tool to Document How Educators Center Students
Research is a tool that can be used to deepen our understanding about getting to equity. Although researchers are often...
Awareness, Knowledge, Action: A Middle-School Journey to Empowerment
Read about one middle school's classroom journey to empowerment through a growing awareness, new knowledge and calls to action.
The Research Collaborative and Equity: Framing the Conversation
In education research, whose knowledge do we most trust? Who is at the table when we make decisions about where...
Researching the Effects of Culturally Responsive Mastery-Based Education
Every year, there are renewed calls to improve, reform and reinvent public education for all students, and particularly for marginalized...
Explore the Student-Centered Learning Continuum (SCL Continuum)
The Nellie Mae Education Foundation, in partnership with the RAND Corporation, has been working hand in hand with teachers, school leaders,...
State Policy Framework for Personalized Learning
This framework helps states define and navigate their pathway from the exploratory phase of system design to statewide transformation.
Creating diverse learning environments: What We Learned from Project Citizen
As an educator in an urban high school in Bridgeport, Connecticut, I see firsthand that race continues to be a...
Developing a Modern Teacher Workforce
This report, Developing a Modern Teacher Workforce: Federal Policy Recommendations for Professional Learning and Supporting Future-Focused, Competency-Based Education Systems, addresses...
The Digital Point of Divergence
This brief explores the differences between digitized and digital curriculum. Digitized content is barely altered from its original analog form,...
From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope - Students at the Center
This report includes recommendations for practitioners, policymakers and researchers on how to can suppor the whole learner in classrooms.
Will Design Thinking Kill the Rubric
In this article from ASCD Education Update, the authors explore ways to assess student learning when using a design thinking...
When Personalized Learning Also Boosts Special Education Students
This article looks at Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School which is successfully serving a large number of students with learning disabilities, in part...
Access Does not Equal Equity
This article looks at the schools in New York City that are using a mastery-based education model. These schools tend...
Making Connections: 53 Teenagers Suggest Creative Ways to Link School Curriculum to the World of 2019
This article in the New York Times showcases the winners of a contest asking students to connect what they are...
Shift Your Paradigm - Education Reimagined Podcast
This podcast episode includes takeaways, questions to consider and a list of resources for educators diving into learner-centered education.
What Student-Centered Schools Look Like
This Education Week special report offers practical examples of student-centered strategies to help schools better meet the personal and academic...
Guide to Schoolwide SEL
Schoolwide social and emotional learning (SEL) engages the entire school community in creating caring, motivating, and equitable learning environments that...
Chief Privacy Officers: The Unicorns of K-12 Education
This article discusses how two large school districts handle staffing related to data privacy, Denver Public Schools in Colorado and...
8 Ways Schools Can Form a Better Relationship With the Media
This article summarizes key takeaways for working with the media from a panel discussion at the TCEA 2019 conference. San Antonio....
6 Lessons Our District Learned from Our Move to Blended Learning
This article provides very practical advice for districts beginning blended learning initiatives. It pulls from the experiences of Temple Independent...
Work-Based Learning: A Systemic Approach
This video, and the accompanying article, introduce the work-based learning taking place in the East Side Union High School District...
Six Strategic Steps to Digital Learning Success
This practical article provides advice for school and district leaders looking to harness the power of digital learning. It includes...
Finding Voice, Taking Action: Sociopolitical Development for Students
Learn how one middle school educator empowered students to become leaders in their school and community reform efforts.
A Teacher-Centric Approach to PD
This article takes a close look at how the Kettle Moraine School District implements a professional development system based on...
Moving Toward Mastery: Growing, Developing and Sustaining Educators for Competency-Based Education
Building off examples of effective teaching, professional development and practice across the nation, this CompetencyWorks report explores how communities can work...
Portfolios Boost Assessment Relevancy for Truly Transformative Learning
This opinion article makes a strong case for states to adopt portfolios as part of their assessment programs. The article...
Assistive Technology Module
Originally created by the Center on Technology and Disability for college and university personnel training programs, this module can help...
Differentiating Instruction: How to Plan Your Lessons
In this video instructional expert Larry Ferlazzo and veteran teacher Katie Hull Sypnieski talk through the kinds of questions...
3 Lessons from Students about Improving School Culture
This article describes the Youth Leadership Program developed at Vestavia Hills High School in Birmingham, Alabama to improve school climate...
Being Wrong Has Made Me a Better Teacher
In this blog article from Education Week Teacher a middle school language arts teacher and curriculum coach discusses how she embraces...
7 Ways to Spark Engagement
This practical article looks at student engagement. It discusses the importance of sparking curiosity to engage students in learning. The...
Here’s What Happened When Students Solved Social Media Problems With Design Thinking
This article provides a peek into a student-centered classroom. In this elective high school course on digital literacy students used...
Perkins V: Five Strategies for Integrating Personalized Learning with Career and Technical Education
This resource looks at the implications of the the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (commonly...
Could Giving Parents Homework Help Students?
This article describes a pilot program to include families in student’s learning conducted by the nonprofit, PowerMyLearning, at South Bronx...
Making Dream Group Work an Everyday Reality - Student-Centered Math
Group work can bolster student engagement, boost achievement, and promote a whole host of positive psychosocial outcomes like belonging.
Assessments Can Support, Not Just Measure, Student Learning
This article looks at the work being done by The Assessment for Learning Project to recognize assessment as a positive...
Inquiry-Based Tasks in Social Studies
This article explores ways to foster deep learning in social studies classrooms. The author, a classroom teacher and instructional coach,...
Quality Principles for Competency-Based Education
As states, districts and schools re-design education systems to move from more traditional approaches to a system focused on success...
Student-Driven Restorative Justice
This article looks at the restorative justice circles established by students at Grand Mesa Middle School in Grand Junction, Colorado....
Moving Beyond the 4 Myths of Maker Education
This article examines the ways in which maker education is student-centered. At it’s heart, maker education supports the belief that children...
Eastern Carver County School District Learner-Centered Resources
The resources below illustrate the work being done in Eastern Carver County School District, Minnesota to promote learner-centered education: This...
NMEF Board Member Deborah Jewell-Sherman Shares Her Perspectives on the Foundation’s Equity Journey
We had the chance to sit down with Nellie Mae Board Member Deborah Jewell-Sherman, who is the Gregory R. Anrig...
Four Feet on the Ground: The Youth-Adult Partnership “Teeter-totter Effect”
The personalization of learning requires the relationship of students and teachers to shift to partnership and shared responsibility. Educational change...
Using Computer Science Resources in Student-Centered Classrooms
This e-guidebook provides a set of resources and strategies to help educators empower students to build digital literacy and computational...
Can Restorative Practices Improve School Climate and Curb Suspensions?
This report from the RAND Corporation looks at restorative practices. Many feel restorative practices can empower students by changing how...
Frequently Asked Questions about Social-Emotional Learning
This FAQ provides a quick overview of SEL. It examines the definition of SEL and answers some basic questions about...
Productive Problem Finding for Student-Centered Learning
Through problem-finding, students set objectives, define purposes, decide what is interesting and ultimately determine what to study.
Why It Matters to Have Teachers That Look Like Me
For ten years—the first decade I was in school—all my teachers were white women. As a Mexican American kid, I...
4 Things you Should Know about Digital Portfolios
This article provides a quick overview of the components of student-centered digital portfolios. It highlights four takeaways, including the importance...
Visual Teaching Ideas to Spark Creative Thinking in Math
This article looks at ways to spark creativity and deep thinking in math classes. The author, a veteran educator and...
Deeper Learning and Diffusion of Innovation and Scaled Impact of New Hampshire’s Work-Study Practices
The study explores how certain professional development opportunities impact experiences as they learn to use and assess work-study practices.
Critical Civic Inquiry: Student-Centered Learning
This study will investigate student-centered learning, especially asking the question "How students can be supported to take “ownership” of their...
Culturally Responsive Mastery-Based Education Research Project
This study examines how culturally responsive mastery-based practices influence historically marginalized students’ learning capacities and engagement.
Leveraging the Power of Improvement Networks to Spread Lesson Study
This study explores how student-centered instruction and assessment strategies impact student mathematical understanding and achievement.
How to Move From Digital Substitution to ‘Deeper Learning
This EdSurge On Air podcast features a discussion with Scott McLeod, Associate Professor of Education Leadership at the University of...
MetaRubric Game
This game was designed to help teachers and future teachers learn how to design and use rubrics to assess project-based...
Edutopia’s 2018 Research Highlights
This article summarizes and provides links to important research studies from 2018. The studies are organized into a number of...
Students Learn to Put the ‘Civil’ in Civil Discourse
This article looks at the efforts at Overland High School, near Denver, CO to help students learn to engage in civil...
Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools
This organization connects forward-thinking district leaders from across the country. Members work together on shared priorities, partnering with leading entrepreneurs, researchers,...
Teachers Want Education Research. The Feds Spend Millions on It. So Why Can’t It Get to the Classroom?
The initial results of the Institute of Education Sciences’ listening tour on teacher priorities highlight both an urgent need for new studies—in...
Promoting Productive Problem Finding
As an educator dedicated to student-centered learning principles and project-based learning, I cringe to my core when I hear a...
Developing Assessments for Learning That Lead to Equity
This blog post explores ways in which assessment can become a lever for equity by shifting its purpose from comparing and...
Navigating the Future of Learning
Navigating the Future of Learning is a ten-year forecast on the future of learning from KnowledgeWorks. This report presents the ways in which current...
Scaffolding Discussion Skills With a Socratic Circle
This video includes footage of students engaging in deep dialogue with the help of scaffolding to help support learning....
Principals Guide: Creating an Effective SEL Program that Boosts Achievement
This report can help school leaders begin implementing a SEL program, create buy-in and support staff. It discusses common challenges...
Highlights and Reflections from the Research Collaborative’s Public Convening
At the Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative, we ask a lot of questions. In fact, it’s kind of our thing. We’re...
Agriculture Students Harness Innovation
This article looks at the reworking of one district’s agricultural program to incorporate more 21st century skills. Across the country...
STEM for Social Justice
This issue of ASCDExpress pulls together many articles that look at STEM from a social justice lens. Together the articles provide...
How Teachers Designed a School Centered On Caring Relationships
This issue of the MindShift podcast and accompanying article features Social Justice Humanitas Academy, a district pilot school in Los...
Individualized Learning Plans for College and Career Readiness
This report from National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), in partnership with Hobsons, examines how states and schools are using...
Schools Out
This tool, created by five education leaders, takes the reader through a visualization exercise to explore what a totally new,...
Interview with Ellen Wang, Program Officer at the Nellie Mae Education Foundation
We had the chance to sit down with Ellen Wang, a program officer at NMEF and member of our Equity...
Supporting Youth Organizing: A Tale of Unexpected Insights
This brief, written by Algorhythm and funded by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, discusses the ways in which grantmakers can effectively support...
The Better Math Teaching Network
The Better Math Teaching Network is a group of researchers and practitioners looking to transform high school math instruction to become...
Want to Offer Internships At Your School? A Tool To Make It Easier
This article describe the online tool developed by the Big Picture Learning network to help their schools facilitate and manage...
Unchaining Digital Data: K-12 Interoperability
This special report from Education Week brings together several articles focused on interoperability of digital data. As school’s use of technology increases,...
When Equity and Student-Centered Learning Go Hand in Hand
Chris Strugis explains her biggest takeaways from the Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative convening.
Secondary Traumatic Stress for Educators: Understanding and Mitigating the Effects
This article shines a light on the impact supporting students who have gone through trauma has on educators. Teachers often...
Inside the Fishbowl: A Tool for Student Discussions
In this article, a teacher shares her experiences using relevant world events as topics for deep, student-led discussions. She has...
Center on Technology and Disability
The Center on Technology and Disability (CTD), funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is designed to increase the capacity...
Quality and Equity by Design: Charting the Course for the Next Phase of Competency-Based Education
This report seeks to advance K-12 competency education by examining key factors required to bring competency education to scale while...
From Hotspots to School Bus Wi-Fi, Districts Seek Out Solutions to ‘Homework Gap’
This article discusses possible ways to address disparities in a access to high-speed internet connections in the home. As more...
Students Analyze Rap Lyrics with Code in Digital Humanities Class
This article looks at ways in which different schools are incorporating computer science across disciplines. It discusses the policies surrounding...
The Kinetic Energy of Learn Next
At 2Revolutions, we have been at work for the past decade helping to support the development of schools and systems...
A District That Prioritizes Social-Emotional Learning Grapples With How to Measure If It Works
This video and supporting blog article looks at how Washoe County, Nevada is measuring Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to gauge growth...
Competency Works Series on Mastery Based Education in Idaho
This series of ten articles looks at how mastery-based education is being rolled out in the state of Idaho. The...
Student-Centered Learning Self-Reflection Tool
The Student-Centered Learning Self-Reflection Tool was created by Mary Bellavance, Instructional Coach at Biddeford Middle School and Students at the...
Understanding implementation of proficiency-based education in Maine
This study investigates the impact of specific student-centered practices and then translate their findings for cross-sector audiences.
Why Giving Kids a Roadmap to Their Brain Can Make Learning Easier
This article discusses the work of Imagine Scholar, a youth and educational development initiative in South Africa, to help students understand...
EdTech That Connects
This free, searchable market map features edtech tools designed to connect students—to new people, supports, and opportunities. This article by...
The Opportunity Myth
This report showcases the findings from a large study conducted by The New Teacher Project (TNTP) in an effort to answer the...
Abolishing the phrase “I’m not a math person”
Student-centered classrooms that emphasize multiple strategies for solving problems become places where more students see themselves succeed.
Exploring the Relationship Between Collaboration, Personalization and Equity
This study examined the impact of collaboration on learners in student-centered classrooms and how that impact varied by race and...
Implementation of Student-Centered Learning Approaches
Teachers participating in a Network Improvement Community reaped concrete and actionable benefits that allowed them to make changes that benefited...
Learner-Centered Professional Learning Culture - Resource
The tool presents a continuum of professional learning practices organized around four research-backed principles of student-centered learning.
‘Principal’ed Teaching and Innovative Student-Centered Practices
This was originally posted on the Center for Collaborative Education on May 4, 2017. Adrian Robbins and Elijah Wright, 10th-graders at...
Getting Real About Career Readiness: A Focus on Cross-Sector Competencies
This Paper shares learnings from the Global Learning Network 2017 Convening of World-Leading Learners, hosted by America Achieves, in partnership...
Personalized Learning Plans How-to Guide
This free guide from Edmentum, a provider of curriculum and instructional management and assessment tools, demystifies personalized learning plans (PLPs)....
What Do You Mean When You Say “Student Agency”?
This resource entry includes two articles in a series on the concept of “student agency” and the impact of the...
Valuing Our English Language Learners by Learning to Listen
When I lived overseas, I remember wishing desperately that people would understand that I was intelligent. I wanted to become...
How to Find, Curate, and Assess OER
This short article provides practical suggestions to help educators find and use open education resources (OERs) effectively to personalize learning...
Arriving at a Definition of Learning
In this thoughtful article, the author, a veteran teacher, pushes the education community to define and deliver learning in a...
5 Ways to Build Real Teacher-Student Connections for the Year Ahead
In this article, a veteran teacher shares ideas to create meaningful relationships with students. She asserts the importance of personal...
Learn Next: A Toolbox for Educators to Transform Practice
Every student deserves access to powerful learning experiences — experiences that help them develop agency, grow their skills and expand their curiosities....
Five Ways to Help Students Ask Better Questions
In this article, the author explores practical ways to help students learn to generate their own essential questions. It looks...
Owning the Classroom Together
In this article from ASCD’s Educational Leadership Magazine a professor and veteran teacher, describes her efforts create a positive classroom culture...
Reading on Competency-Based Education
This article provides a great overview of key texts to help any educator or education leader better understand competency education....
LearnNext: Culture and Environment
Culture and Environment is a course that examines the learning culture and environment needed to support the development of learner...
LearnNext: Pedagogical Approaches
This course focuses on the changing role that educators play as they implement pedagogical approaches that promote learner agency. Specifically, participants...
A National Landscape Scan of Personalized Learning in K-12 Education in the United States
This publication provides findings from a national survey of teachers and students to underscore how, and to what extent, core...
What “Mastery-Based” Can Look Like in the Classroom
This article looks at a competency-based math classroom. It describes how Molly Nealeigh at Piney Grove Elementary School in North...
Coming Soon: New Findings from the Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative
Leaders in education rarely have the bandwidth to comb through technical studies in order to apply research findings in their...
Strategies for Stronger Engagement
Recent statistics indicate that over half of students are disengaged in school, and teachers spend a lot of their time...
Six Fixes for Proficiency-Based Learning
This article offers practical advice to schools and districts implementing competency based education. Drawing on the groundbreaking work being done...
North Dakota School District Ready to Make Bold Changes
This article discusses the shift to a competency-based model underway in the Northern Cass School District in North Dakota. The...
18 Examples of State Policies that Support Competency-Based Programs
This article provides brief examples of state initiatives that support competency education. It includes initiatives identified as exemplars during the...
How Turning to My Students Made Me a Better Teacher
I was frustrated. My students weren’t completing their homework, and I’d run out of ideas for motivating them. I didn’t...
Want To Get To Know Your Students? Try Learner Profiles
Each year, I am approached by students with the same concern: They don’t feel that their teachers understand who they...
Camp C-Block Introduces Blockchain Technology to Black Girls
This article discusses the work done by Project Bitmobile. Project Bitmobile hopes to educate, inform, and inspire young black women...
Improving Teaching With Expert Feedback—From Students
This article, part of the Schools That Work series by Edutopia, describes the approach a physics teacher at Trinidad Garza...
Teacher Inquiry Labs in South Carolina Demonstrate Personalized Learning in Action
This article discusses a hands on approach to teacher professional development. In South Carolina learning labs are part of the...
Every Student Is a Mathematics Language Learner
This article discusses the benefits of explicitly teaching all students how to use mathematical language. The author, a veteran teacher,...
Let Student Voices Ring—In and Out of School
Imagine building a bonfire in a local park—legally, of course. You start throwing in file folders filled with papers, and...
Resources for Assessment in Project-Based Learning
This is a compilation of resources to support the development of high-quality, authentic assessments of any learning project. The list...
Pittsfield Tries New Approach On Education
The small district of Pittsfield adopted an approach that flips the traditional model of teaching through student-led discussion and independent...
How an LMS Can Solve Professional Learning’s Challenges
This interview transcript looks at the role of Learning Management Software (LMS) in the delivery of professional development opportunities for...
Leveraging Digital Depth for Responsive Learning Environments
This paper explores the potential for wearables, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to help create more responsive learning...
Designing for Equity: Leveraging Competency-Based Education to Ensure All Students Succeed
This Competency Works publication offers equity strategies for personalized, competency-based education to ensure a more equitable K-12 education system. Competency-based...
360 Story Lab
The Digital Promise Global’s 360° Story Lab supports young people to produce 360° media on topics that affect their communities....
A Focused Practice for Relationship Building
In this article an educator shares a simple practice to build relationships with students. The author describes the use of...
Visioning Toolkit: Laying the Groundwork for a Community-Wide Vision for Personalized Learning
This toolkit was designed to help districts include the larger learning community in the development of a vision for personalized...
Allowing Students to Design Assessment Tools
As an educator, one would think that the point of every assessment would be clear to students. But if you...
The Promises, Challenges, and Futures of Media Literacy
The Promises, Challenges, and Futures of Media Literacy addresses the “fake news” problem by evaluating the successes and failures of...
5 Steps to Guarantee Your PD for PBL is on Point
This article examines ways to ensure professional development to support project-based learning (PBL) is effective. The author provides tips to...
11 Ways Schools Can—and Should—Involve Families in SEL Programming
This resource shares ways in which schools can get families involved to make the most of Social Emotional Learning programs...
Bilingualism as a Life Experience
This article shares a general overview of the cognitive effects of speaking two languages and what that entails in the...
Separating the Facts from the Myths in the Competency-Based High School Transcript
These resources could provide a good overview for any parent or student in a school moving to a competency-based transcript.
Let Teens Lead in Makerspaces
This article shares ideas and techniques to let students take ownership of a school’s makerspace in order to develop engagement...
Creating a Student Centered Choir Classroom
It happens at every concert. I mentally recite all of the cues and gestures that I need to remember. The...
Student-Centered Planning
This article explores the importance of planning instruction tailored to students’ needs and interests. The author asserts that learners’ involvement...
Equity by Design in Learning Technologies
This report looks at equity in access to and application of new technologies that support learning and an accompanying podcast...
Student-Led Conferences
This two-page overview of student-led conferences was created by Share Your Learning, an organization dedicated to helping teachers create opportunities...
MisEducation
In this podcast, eight student interns report stories from inside New York City’s segregated high school system. From the extreme...
Cult of Pedagogy
This website, created by an ELA teacher and pre-service professor, is dedicated to creating a community of teachers to support each...
Using Cooperative Learning to Increase Engagement and Understanding in Mathematics
Do you ever feel that your students aren’t engaged enough in the content you are currently teaching? As if the...
Youth Leading Youth and Transforming Education
GripTape is an organization that lets go. We let go of the common notion that young people are only capable...
How Giving Students Feedback Through Video Instead of Text Can Foster Better Understanding
This article describes how several teachers have shifted from providing written to video feedback for students. Ongoing feedback is an...
Paper Tweets Build SEL Skills
In this article, an ELA teacher shares a strategy that can be used to build positive classroom culture and SEL...
School Counselors: An Integral Part of School Change
If students are the heart of education, then school counselors are undoubtedly the ears. Counselors listen to students and work...
How Podcasts Can Improve Literacy
This article, written by a veteran educator, describes how podcasts can be used as a strategy to boost literacy. This...
Learning Strategies as Metacognitive Factors: A Critical Review
This report provides an introduction to learning strategies. In many student-centered classrooms the use of “learning strategies” to support student...
Case Study: Lindsay High School Transforms Learning for English Language Learners with Personalized, Competency-Based Education in California
This article features Lindsay High School, which implemented a competency-based education model that focuses on advancing student mastery and student...
Youth Leading Youth and Transforming Education
This article advocates for youth agency over learning. It was written by a student from the Leadership Board of GripTape,...
The 5th (C) of 21st Century Skills? Try Computational Thinking (Not Coding)
This article was originally posted in EdSurge on February 25, 2018. For better or worse, computing is pervasive, changing how and...
Innovative Staffing to Personalize Learning: How New Teaching Roles and Blended Learning Help Students Succeed
This report explores the need for changes in staffing patterns and school organization in order to support personalized learning. The...
Envisioning the Graduate of the Future
This course was developed by MIT with support from the XQ Institute, to help school communities rethink what a high school...
Satellite Podcast - Students at the Center
Satellite examines innovative educational perspectives. Dr. Frank LaBanca hosts this six-episode series exploring student-centered learning.
Communicating Personalized Learning to Families and Stakeholders: Terminology, Tools and Tips for Success
This white paper is a guide to creating informative conversations and preventing miscommunication about personalized learning. It is based on...
Levers and Logic Models: A Framework to Guide Research and Design of High-Quality Competency-Based Education Systems
In this CompetencyWorks report, authors Chris Sturgis and Katherine Casey present logic models that are intended to help researchers and...
Lessons from Teachers of the Year
This vast list of videos showcases lessons from teachers across the country. The ‘Lessons from Teachers of the Year’ series...
Have You Ever Seen a Black Band-Aid?
As I have thought about describing my experiences with racial inequity in America, I wanted to do more than simply...
Student Goal Setting: An Evidence-Based Practice
The Midwest Comprehensive Center at American Institutes for Research, with the help of What Works Clearinghouse House reviewers, has released...
Resources for Creating a School Culture of Empathy, Inclusion, and Kindness
Explore resources available to help educators build a school culture of empathy, inclusion and kindness in their classrooms.
Exhibits: Models of Excellence
This virtual exhibit showcases student projects. It offers video, pictures, interviews, and articles to tell the story of the group...
Learner-Centered Educator and Leadership Competencies – Interview with Rebecca Wolfe
In this podcast, Rebecca Wolfe, one of the co-authors of the Educator and Leadership Competencies, talks about her work on educator...
Don’t ask which ed tech products work, ask why they work
Editor’s note: This story led off this week’s Future of Learning newsletter, which is delivered free to subscribers’ inboxes every...
The Learning Portfolio Project
This website documents a pilot program in which Dream Yard Preparatory School in NYC partnered with Parsons School for Design...
12 Educational Apps To Create Digital Portfolios
This article provides a list of apps to help students create digital portfolios. Digital portfolios can support learning by allowing...
Designing Engaging Assignments
This resource aims to help teachers design engaging assignments that can challenge students in innovative ways. Beth Pandolpho shares three...
Top Picks: Student Portfolio Apps and Websites
This list from Common Sense Education highlights 17 tools for creating digital student portfolios. Portfolios allow teachers to assess student...
5 of the Best Rubric Making Tools for Teachers
This blog article provides background on the use of rubrics as well as tips for creation. It gives a quick...
Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative 2018 Convening
Join JFF’s Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island on October 10th and 11th...
Here’s What Happens When Every Student Gets a Personalized Learning Plan
This article was originally posted in EdSurge on April 19, 2018 High school sophomore Olivia Surdam thought she wanted to have...
6 Steps to Ensuring ILPs Better Support Inclusive Personalized Learning
In this article, authors Ace Parsi and Curtis Richards highlight the importance of individualized learning plans (ILPs) to increase engagement...
From Vision to Reality: Personalized, Competency-Based Learning for All Kids
This report was written to help school districts take steps toward personalized, competency-based learning, and equip leaders with the following...
Authentic Assessments Video Playlist
The videos in this series all focus on formative assessments. They are part of Success at the Core, a free professional...
Kids Need More Personalized Learning to Keep Them in School
This article was originally posted in Youth Today on April 11, 2018 I recently reconnected with two of my best...
10 Reasons Why You Should Implement Digital Student Portfolios
In this article from the ASCD blog, Inservice, a principal outlines many reasons to use digital portfolios in support of student-centered...
Flex Time: Schools Break Out of Scheduling Ruts to Improve Learning for Students, teachers
This resource highlights the importance of tailoring time to students’ needs and using flex time as a key component of...
Blended Learning (Re)Defined
This article was originally posted in Education Week on January 30, 2018 Maggie and Daniel, seventh-grade students, participated in a...
The Workshop Model with Learning Community Charter School Middle School
This podcast episode features a conversation with LCCS middle school teachers Erin O’Neil, Domenique Rossi, Cathy Huang and Director Josh...
Performance Assessment Resource Bank
The Performance Assessment Resource Bank works to help states integrate performance assessments into their systems of assessment, develop the capacity...
Tame the Beast: Tips for Designing and Using Rubrics
This article provides advice for designing and using effective rubrics from a fellow educator. It also discusses the importance of...
Comparing Good Jobs to Good Classrooms
Recently, I read an employer profile for the Kentucky-based materials manufacturer Universal Woods, written by Steven Dawson. Universal Woods is a...
Ladder of Feedback for Classroom Observation
Making Learning Visible is a Project Zero initiative that adapted Daniel Wilson’s “Ladder of Feedback” for classroom observations. The “Ladder...