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The field of education is constantly innovating as schools across the country search for the best ways to improve learning for each student. On the TLA Blog, The Learning Accelerator team and guest experts investigate and help you navigate the latest research, commentary, and useful tools to push the field forward.
Using Design Thinking to Solve System Challenges
by Lacey Gonzales and Ryan Mick on May 5 2023
How do you unite a diverse set of organizations that believe in the same cause but haven’t worked collectively yet? And how do you ensure meaningful change and impact results from bringing the leaders of these organizations together? This is exactly...
Step 4: Championing Sustainable Change - Creating systems for leaders, teams, and their initiatives
by Nicole Assisi & Shelli Kurth on August 3 2022
The never-ending cycle of growth and change in schools often elicits mixed reactions. Some see these new trends as much-needed progress, while others “see déjà vu all over again.” Evolving science and research, alongside increased complexity that...
Step 3: Powering Up - Developing a Team Focused on Collective Action
by Nicole Assisi & Shelli Kurth on June 30 2022
“In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.” – Margaret Wheatley.
In any industry, the...
Flexibility in the Face of Volatility: Three Shifts for Managing Enrollment Fluctuations in District-based Virtual Schools
by Rashida Kimbrue Major & Nate Kellogg on June 28 2022
In response to pandemic-induced school closures, virtual schools across the country saw enrollment rates skyrocket. At Highline Public Schools’ Highline Virtual Academy in Washington state, for example, enrollment increased from 200 students in...
Step 2: Learning to Sprint - Leveraging Small Wins Along the Road Toward Large-Scale Change
by Nicole Assisi & Shelli Kurth on June 16 2022
Referring to all aspects of life as a marathon has become something of a cliche. While the metaphor may feel harmless in many ways, this perspective is problematic for a few reasons. For starters, Pheidippides – the soldier who ran about 25 miles to...
Step 1: Designing Collective Futures - Bridging Community Voices & Organizational History to Support Change
by Nicole Assisi & Shelli Kurth on June 2 2022
Sustainable change in education begins with sharing your needs and vision for what is possible. Although this might seem obvious at first, there are ways we’ve seen leaders supercharge their approach to the task, integrating history with a...
Sustainable Change, One Step at a Time
by Nicole Assisi & Shelli Kurth on June 1 2022
We are living in a tumultuous time for education. If you’re feeling more exhausted and frustrated than ever before, you are not alone. The COVID pandemic has created a marathon of emergencies and urgent initiatives, leaving educators and ed leaders...
Solving Problems in Uncertain Times
by Nate Kellogg on November 30 2021
School and system leaders continue to face numerous trials and tribulations. While vaccines are finally available to most school-age kids, the 2021-22 school year continues to present uncertainty. Between navigating challenges with teacher burnout,...
Big Ideas from Hop, Skip, Leapfrog: Leveraging Collaborative Leadership When Making Long- and Short-Term Financial Decisions
by Scott Milam on October 12 2021
Scott Milam is the co-founder and managing director of Afton Partners LLC, a professional services firm focused on forging an alignment between financial strategies and educational priorities. With over 25 years of experience providing management...
Ensuring a Successful Return to In-Person Learning
by Juliana Finegan on September 21 2021
This post was originally published on the ASCD Blog on August 15, 2021.
As educators and students prepare to reenter school buildings, there will be inevitable challenges—not only around shifting back to yet another setting (even a previously...