First Ask, Then Listen: How to Get Your Students to Help You Teach Them Better, A Teachers Guide
This short guide, compiled by What Kids Can Do researchers, features advice on how teachers can listen to students to enhance their teaching. It includes tips on structuring conversations with students, as well as the question prompts and exercises (usually questionnaires), used to gather research for the popular book Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for… Read More ›
Youth Involvement in Evaluation Research in Issues and Opportunities in Out-of-School Time Evaluations
This article examines what current youth as researchers projects really look like. It describes the findings from focus groups and interviews with the youth and adults at 14 youth serving organizations working to involve youth in research and evaluation projects. It details who and how youth are involved. It also describes five key elements needed… Read More ›
Turn Up the Volume: The Students Speak Toolkit
This toolkit is designed to help any school or district conduct focus group research with students to learn their opinions about school and learning experiences. It provides detailed steps of the process to select a working team made up of adults and students, choose your research topic, plan the logistics, facilitate the focus groups, and… Read More ›
Youth Adult Partnership Rubric
This detailed rubric assesses the implementation level of several aspects of effective youth-adult partnerships. It can be used as a peer/self assessment, formative, or summative evaluation tool to assess and strengthen practice. It was designed for use in any setting that involves high school or older middle school students and adults working together towards a… Read More ›
Education Change and Youth Engagement: Strategies for Success
This clear, concise guide provides an overview of five strategies for engaging youth in education reform. It makes the case for involving youth as decision-makers and partners in problem solving, seeing youth engagement as a strategy rather than an outcome. It highlights the Youth Leadership Institute’s theory of change including, strategies, stake-holder actions, and the… Read More ›
Why Change Schools: Section One, Module B
This module was designed to promote discussion and build support for student-centered education reform. It explores topics that can help move the participants from an individualistic view of education to a mental model which treats education as a common endeavor. It strives to leave participants with several important takeaways including the common purpose of education,… Read More ›
Experiencing “Curricular Opportunities in the Digital Age”
In “Curricular Opportunities in the Digital Age,” a paper for the Students at the Center project, David Rose and I aim to describe how technology can be used to create more student-centered learning opportunities for diverse learners within a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) context. We describe how applying the principles of UDL—provide multiple means… Read More ›
Highlander Institute Awarded NMEF’s Integrated Learning Systems Grant
What is the formula for designing a statewide initiative to leverage technology for student-centered learning? Highlander Institute is testing out their plan for this over the next year and a half, thanks to the Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s (NMEF’s) Integrated Learning Systems grant. A nonprofit organization based in Providence, Rhode Island, Highlander Institute leverages… Read More ›
Making Student-Centered Learning A Reality? Nellie Mae’s Integrated Learning Systems Grant Program
How will the vision of student-centered learning become a reality? The Nellie Mae Education Foundation (NMEF) sought to address a piece of the puzzle through their recent Integrated Learning Systems request for proposals. The implementation of student-centered learning requires fundamental changes away from traditional practices. It involves complex, data-intensive tasks like differentiating instruction for… Read More ›
Implementing Competency Education in K-12 Systems: Insights from Local Leaders
This report describes effective district implementation strategies to convert traditional, one-size-fits-all models of education into more personalized, competency-based learning environments to meet students’ needs. It highlights strategies to engage, motivate, and teach all students to proficiency and mastery, depicts shifts in instruction toward deeper learning and meaningful assessments for learning, while exploring models of distributed leadership and… Read More ›
Student-Centered Learning: Functional Requirements for Integrated Systems to Optimize Learning
This paper illustrates the technical requirements and functionalities that learning management systems need to shift toward student-centered instructional models. This comprehensive framework will help districts and schools determine what systems to use as they begin their journey toward student-centered learning, as well as how systems integration aligns with their organizational vision, educational goals and strategic plans.… Read More ›
The Brainwaves Video Anthology
This video anthology is produced and filmed by Bob Greenberg. The Brainwaves series contains short videos (5-10 minutes long) on ideas and topics of education relevant to student-centered learning in the 21st century. Source Organization: Brainwaves Video Anthology Visit the Resource