High School Learning Zones
High School Learning Zones (LZs) represent our commitment to work with a small group of partners dedicated to instantiating competency (not time) based learning for high school students, where learning is integrated into a broad range of community contexts.
In the fall of 2023, we launched a Research and Development (R&D) network with three school systems and community partners in Indiana, Arizona, and New Mexico. Each Learning Zone is dedicated to building high school learning designs that create substantial degrees of freedom from the Carnegie Unit, shifting how time is used, where learning takes place, and how it is measured and credited.
The aim is to work closely with this R&D network, adding additional members over time, to generate insights and ideas that can be taken up more broadly in like-minded states, school districts, and Charter Management Organizations. In essence, Learning Zones will serve as learning labs and, over time, existence proofs of the kinds of high school learning we think needs to take root at persuasive scale.
RESOURCES
We commissioned the design brief, Ecosystems for the Future of Learning, co-authored by History Co:Lab and Education Reimagined, to investigate programs that have demonstrated remarkable success in enhancing learner outcomes by providing learner-centered experiences and fostering deep relationships with community partners. The research illuminates where pieces of a new system are already at play, with fertile ground for a learner-centered ecosystem approach to take hold.
