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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.
Investigating Creativity in the Classroom: Research Tools for Teachers and Leaders
by Beth Holland on April 12 2023
Creativity is the competence to leverage self-interests, motivation, imagination, and prior knowledge in flexible ways1 to generate, evaluate, or improve ideas; imagine new ways of solving problems;2 forge new connections — across content and...
Help Your School Leaders Succeed (And Retain Them for the Long Haul)
by Ashley Fellows on August 15 2022
For the last three years, I led my school’s pandemic response — from drafting and rolling out COVID protocols to implementing building health and safety measures — all while leading a community of 600 students and educators through a full return to...
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: Opportunities to Shift from a “Teaching” Profession to a “Learning” Profession
by Kristi Ransick on October 20 2021
Kristi Ransick is an education consultant with over 25 years experience working in school and curricular innovation. In the wake of initial pandemic-related school closures, Kristi supported work with the Chief Council of State School Officers to...