Tools & Resources
Understand, explain, and advance redesign
Alongside the tools we’re building, here’s a growing collection of resources our networks and partners have already created and shared through Common Ground, the network’s newsletter.
Start here
Three places to begin
The case for redesign
Key messages, one-pagers, and supporting facts for explaining redesign to others.
Where is your school?
The Learning Policy Institute’s School Redesign Self-Assessment Tool: see where you stand, from emerging to excelling. Our own self-assessment is coming soon.
Playbooks and design tools
Playbooks, field guides, and design tools from across the network are coming later. Subscribe to hear first.
The library
Resource library
Explore playbooks, research, case studies, and tools you can use and adapt.
Each resource opens in a new tab. More filters (topic, audience, region, grade band) arrive as the library grows.
- Design Thinking in the Middle Grades: Redesigning Learning at Magnolia Heights Middle School (PDF, 12 pages, opens in a new tab)
Magnolia Heights Middle School shows how a school and district can organize the middle grades around challenging academics and hands-on exploration.
California Collaborative for Educational Excellence
PDF, 12 pages
- Learning in the Real World: Redesigning for Relevance at Arroyo Valley High School (PDF, 16 pages, opens in a new tab)
Arroyo Valley High School shows how a large comprehensive high school can give students meaningful learning opportunities anchored in authentic industry experiences.
California Collaborative for Educational Excellence
PDF, 16 pages
- USC CANDLE: The Neuroscience of Adolescent Development and Redesign (opens in a new tab)
Research on how adolescence is a period of remarkable neuroplasticity, and how purposeful, identity-shaping learning brings long-term gains in well-being, civic reasoning, and brain network development.
USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education (CANDLE)
- The Power of Friday Night Lights (opens in a new tab)
Argues that innovation at the fringes is not enough, and that the best of learner-centered practice belongs in the schools and communities young people already value.
Katie Martin, Learner-Centered Collaborative
- Community-Connected Redesign at Fremont High School (opens in a new tab)
Fremont High School transformed from a struggling, underenrolled campus into a thriving community school, where students are deeply supported and prepared for college and careers.
Learning Policy Institute
- What Counts as Learning? AB 542 (opens in a new tab)
Explores how policy changes can expand thinking about where and how learning occurs and how systems can recognize learning beyond traditional classrooms.
Learner-Centered Collaborative + Center for Powerful Public Schools
- School Redesign Self-Assessment Tool (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Practitioner-facing tool based on LPI’s Redesigning High School: 10 Features for Success. Teams can assess where they are from emerging to excelling and identify areas for development.
Learning Policy Institute
- Escondido Union School District: A Window Into the Work of Redesign (opens in a new tab)
Case study documenting Escondido’s multi-year redesign process, including its Framework for the Future and phased implementation.
Learner-Centered Collaborative
- Linked Learning Student Survey (opens in a new tab)
Annual survey capturing perspectives from 4,300+ pathway students across seven California districts about their learning experiences.
Linked Learning Alliance
- Competency-Based Reporting Playbook (opens in a new tab)
Practical guidance for moving from traditional grading toward competency-based reporting, including considerations around transcripts, GPAs, college admissions, and communicating with families.
Learner-Centered Collaborative
- LAUSD and Linked Learning: New Evidence on Coherent Pathways (opens in a new tab)
Research examining outcomes associated with career-connected pathways (Linked Learning) and the role of coherence across academics, CTE, work-based learning, and student supports.
SRI International / Linked Learning Alliance
- California’s Investment in Secondary School Redesign (opens in a new tab)
A concise case for California’s investment in secondary school redesign and its potential to catalyze broader transformation.
EdSource / Peter Ross, Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund
- High School Redesign as a Launch Point (opens in a new tab)
Research brief examining the evidence for secondary redesign and the gap between adolescent needs and what traditional schools provide.
Stanford / Getting Down to Facts III
- Oakland High School Redesign (opens in a new tab)
Case study showing how community schools, industry pathways, dual enrollment, and student supports can be integrated into a coherent school design.
Learning Policy Institute
- Innovative Staffing Model (opens in a new tab)
Examples of organizing teachers into small interdisciplinary teams around a shared cohort of students; includes sample schedules and classroom look-fors.
Internationals Network
- The Future of the Educator (opens in a new tab)
Cross-organizational publication exploring how the role of educators may evolve in a world increasingly shaped by AI.
Big Picture Learning + Learner-Centered Collaborative + four partner organizations