
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 grades 6-12 to over 600 in just two weeks during September 2021 – a substantial three-fold increase. As brick-and-mortar schools have reopened, […]

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 collective vision for change to lay the foundation for strong change that sticks. In this post in […]

As The Learning Accelerator closed out 2021 and welcomed a new year, we also got to celebrate the addition of several new teammates to the organization. These team members – with decades of experience, notable accomplishments, and demonstrated passion for education among them – have joined us to lead and support multiple facets of TLA’s […]

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 and advisory services for clients in the commercial and public sectors, Scott supports school districts, charter networks, state education agencies, […]

Malika Ali is a Managing Partner at the Highlander Institute and is responsible for the Institute’s evolving and iterative pedagogical approach to change, as well as program implementation across all classrooms, schools and districts. She is passionate about working to develop educators to be change agents of instructional and systemic equity and to nurture students’ […]

From the onset and through the ongoing duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the United States had to quickly pivot and adjust to rapidly changing conditions. Dealing with circumstances never before experienced, educators, school leaders, families, and students were tasked with making the most of a school year in the midst of a global […]

Inside the word “emergency” is “emerge;” from an emergency new things come forth. The old certainties are crumbling fast, but danger and possibility are sisters. – Rebecca Solnit “Unprecedented” has become the oft-used term to describe this pandemic school year. It’s no surprise that the year’s end would warrant the use of the term, as […]

In response to the ways COVID-19 highlighted inequities in their schools, a small team of district leaders at Austin Independent School District embarked on a process to redesign elements of their teaching and learning to make school work better for more kids as part of the Always Ready for Learning Strategy Lab. Despite the daily […]

A core component of whole-child education is supporting student identity development while building an inclusive, caring community. At The Learning Accelerator, we believe that personalizing learning for students includes creating a safe, caring culture and fostering supportive relationships so that all students, regardless of their identities, feel welcomed and loved. As we close out Pride […]

One school’s experience using instructional materials to advance personalized, mastery-based learning By: Kristi Ransick In the midst of the uncertainty and change that has unfolded in school systems in 2020, one topic that isn’t getting enough attention is the role that high-quality curriculum materials could play in mitigating the widening achievement gap due to the […]