Learning
School leaders empower their teams to create a set of instructional practices, curricula, assessments, and learning experiences that put students at the center -- that engage learners deeply and meet their individual and collective needs.
Strategies For Success
Aims
Define the knowledge, skills and mindsets you aspire to help students develop, and tailor all programs to these outcomes.
Learning Model
Choose a learning model to best serve student outcomes.
Measurement
Measure learning outcomes and empower students, teachers, and administrators to make decisions guided by data.
Alignment
Align content, tools and spaces with your learning model and desired outcomes.
Case Study
Featured Learning Resources
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Ideas & Tactics
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Create a blueprint for teaching, learning, and assessment
Whether you are leading the learning and instruction team or planning your overall transformation, the steps and tools below can help.
Assemble Your Learning Team
Learning is at the heart of everything a district does. Therefore, while there may be one person responsible for curriculum & instruction, the team that will come together to deliver change must be much broader. It should include representatives for teachers, students, principals, parents, as well as specialists in curriculum and instruction. Students are especially important as they understand the learning experience in your schools, and are who you are designing change for.
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Align Learning Outcomes with Vision
Review your overall vision for transforming your schools, and if you haven't set this vision yet, go to the planning section of the vision pillar. In planning for transforming the learning in your schools, your team should make the learning outcomes described in your vision more concrete. In addition to the knowledge you hope learners will master, pay particular attention to outlining the skills and mindsets you hope they will develop since these may benefit students most in the long run. Rather than considering specific content as the primary goal, it can be helpful to think of the content as merely a means to help learners build useful skills and productive mindsets.
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Investigate & Understand
Before diving into your plans for how you want to transform learning in your schools, members of your team should investigate and understand the current learning environments and various options for how it could be transformed. In particular, team members should do the following:
(a) Understand the current learning experience in schools. Reference your vision and desired student outcomes as you examine what is working well and what isn't.
(b) Investigate a variety of learning models and discuss among your team which model or combination of models will best achieve your desired outcomes. It can be helpful to learn about other schools using different models.
(c) Where possible, try to find relevant research to guide your decisions.
Avoid the temptation to skip over this phase and go straight to planning. Taking time to investigate your current context and examine a variety of options going forward will help you make better plans and increase your likelihood of success.
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Set Metrics & Goals
Once you have decided on which learning outcomes you are going to prioritize, determine effective ways to measure the progress of your schools toward those outcomes. Assessment is more than standardized tests, which usually provide data too infrequently, don't offer actionable feedback, and may not be aligned with the outcomes that matter most. Assessment is about measuring what you care about and supporting a culture of continual learning and improvement. In addition to measuring students’ content knowledge, look for ways to assess students’ skills and mindsets. Formative assessments should be integrated with regular classroom activities and provide ongoing feedback about what is working and what isn’t.
Once you have determined your metrics for success, set both short-term and long-term goals that are realistic and motivate your team to stretch in order to achieve them.
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Identify actions and solutions
You should now have a good understanding of where your schools are, and where you want them to be. In order to move between the two you need to do something— make decisions, take actions, and start new programs. This will include making decisions that prioritize content, tools, technology, and the design of physical spaces depending on how well they support your desired learning outcomes. The design thinking process can be a helpful way to leverage your entire team in generating fresh, effective solutions.
Transforming the learning in your schools requires a holistic approach, so you will want to have teams simultaneously make plans in each of the other pillars: Professional Development, Community Engagement, Culture, Technology, and Funding and Sustainability. Check out the planning tab on each of these pillars.
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Make a plan
Now that you have measureable goals and have identified actions to meet those goals, organize this information into a project plan to keep everyone on track. A project plan can help you visualize the entire process from beginning to end, work more effectively, and avoid unnecessary obstacles.
You can put together a project plan in six steps.
1. Write a project charter
2. Identify your project requirements
3. Break your project into key milestones
4. Brainstorm all tasks and assign deadlines
5. Assign a team member to each task
6. Assess your risks
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Launch & Iterate
Equipped with a solid project plan, your team is ready to get to work transforming the learning at your schools! Encourage each team member to frequently reference the project plan and to keep it up to date as they accomplish tasks or run into obstacles. Monitor your progress using the project plan and through effective meetings. Don't forget to stay in touch with your stakeholders along the way.
Transforming the learning in your schools is an ongoing process. Repeat this planning process periodically to make sure that your schools are continually improving. Don't forget to celebrate success along the way after key milestones!