New Designs for School
What Does Student-Centered Learning Look Like in Practice?
We’ve all had the experience of truly purposeful, authentic learning and know how valuable it is. Educators are taking the best of what we know about learning, student support, effective instruction, and interpersonal skill-building to completely reimagine schools so that students experience that kind of purposeful learning all day, every day.
What are the New Designs for School that lead to better learning outcomes and have the potential to scale? Innovative educators are taking on this challenge with the ultimate goal of reversing stagnant academic progress and an unacceptable achievement gap among K-12 students. Solving this challenge requires taking the best of what we know about learning, student support, equity and cultural relevance, and effective pedagogy to fundamentally, not incrementally, change the learning experience in schools.
The LEAP Learning Framework™ provides the foundation to design learning in schools. Revised in 2024, the LEAP Learning Framework incorporates the latest research and best pratices, providing educators with the actionable strategies they need to create learner-centered school environments where every student can thrive.
The LEAP Learning Framework™ provides the foundation to design learning in schools. Revised in 2024, the LEAP Learning Framework incorporates the latest research and best pratices, providing educators with the actionable strategies they need to create learner-centered school environments where every student can thrive.
Often, learning models grounded in the LEAP Learning Framework may include a variety of pedagogical approaches: personalized learning, mastery-based and competency-based learning, When educators focus on research-based practices in the framework and emphasize a broader, deeper, more integrated definition of student success in their redesign, the schools they create are game-changers. These models can break the inertia that has prevented educational reform from making the dramatic improvements needed for our nation’s youth. Solving this challenge would lead to breakthroughs in student learning, high school graduation, and college completion—particularly for low-income students and students of color.
In its history, LEAP Innovations, through the formerly known Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), engaged educators in developing solutions to this challenge through grant investments. The first grant opportunity launched in October 2011. We spurred innovation in school design with a regional approach as well. The Regional Funds for Breakthrough Schools included seven sites around the nation and 88 schools designing and launching student-centered learning. From 2017 through 2021, we supported new school design and whole school redesign in Massachusetts with Mass IDEAS.
Since our founding, we’ve supported a robust content strategy and a learning community open to all educators, making a concerted effort to broadly share successes, lessons learned, and advice to support the growth of better school designs across the nation. We are motivated by the urgent need to provide more of today’s youth with a K-12 education that empowers them to lead a successful life. Read our blog.
Partner with LEAP to Redesign Learning in Your Schools
We invite schools, districts, regional networks, and passionate community members who are interested in New Designs for School to tap into the expertise of LEAP Innovations for support and assistance.