Insights
OUR BLOG
Our latest thinking, lessons learned, and stories from the field on teaching, learning, and leadership in the education sector.
Why Are the First Several Years of Teaching So Difficult? How Schools Can Stop Failing Novice Teachers
“Fraternity hazing” is how one article in the Atlantic characterized the experiences of first year teachers....
Teacher Growing Pains
Student accuses teacher of lying. Student is right. Nothing is done. Sounds like an event of a distant past? Nope....
Driving Instruction with Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: CRP and the Competency-based Learning Cycle
In an October blog post, Everything I’ve Ever Needed to Know About Teaching, I Learned From Black Women: A...
Which Summative Assessment Formats are Critical to Competency-based or Mastery-based Learning?
What types of summative assessments should be a part of our Competency-based or Mastery-based assessment model? Do...
Design It Like It’s Hot: Creating a High-Quality Inquiry Frame for a Unit of Study
Though strong in theory, Essential Questions often wander off into drab and uninspiring standards-land when writing...
Creatively Communicating Metacognition and Meaning Making: The Art of Visual Journaling for Learning
Back in July, Jon Altbergs wrote a post: 6 Ways to Use Drawing to Make Meaning. In it, he wrote about some simple...
A Friendly Introduction to the Competency-based Learning Cycle
Can you imagine walking into a library, in search of a particular book, to find the library has no classification...
Organizing for a Learning-Centered Culture
Does your school, network or district recognize that Learning is Learning is Learning? When I first began working with...
Everything I Needed to Know About Teaching, I Learned from Black Women: Recommended Reading List
Early Influencers So, the title of this blog is not completely true. Still, the majority of this piece details why it...
Mastery Week 2018: Two Best Practices for Crafting Mastery Assessments
No matter what kind of system you teach in – assessment – knowing what your students know and are able to do – is...
6 Ways to Use Drawing to Make Meaning
Reflections on pedagogy that works for marginalized students. More than 15 years ago, Mike Schmoker’s “The ‘Crayola...
I’m Not Sure How to Talk About Social Justice in My Classroom: How to Provide Opportunities for Students to Do the Talking!
As race-related events, gender politics, and mass shootings permeate the news cycle over the last few months, you may...
Multiple Pathways to Success: NYC’s Transfer School Institute
By Laurie Gagnon, Educational Designer at reDesign, in collaboration with reDesign team members Dixie Bacallao, Tracy...
Meet Angela, Our Equity-Driven, Empowering, and Transformative Educational Designer
Angela Stepancic has joined our team at reDesign after what has already been an impressive, revolutionary, and...
What a Middle School Pen Pal Program Taught Me About Difficult Conversations
Our guest contributor, Catherine Epstein, highlights the power of a community that supports initiative, flexibility,...
Mastery Communications Week
We are delighted to participate in Mastery Communications Week along with our friends at Great Schools Partnership,...
The Story of Chugach: An Interview with Superintendent Dr. Bob Crumley
Meet Dr. Crumley. Over twenty years ago, he was at the cutting edge of a transformational change effort in Chugach,...
Who’s Leading the Way?
A Promising Competency-based Model for Historically Marginalized Students Competency-based education models are...
Leveling the Playing Field
Asynchronous Learning in High-Poverty, Competency-based Urban High Schools At the U School we are big...
Our Five New reDesigners!
We are happy to announce the addition of five phenomenal women to the reDesign team. We are humbled by the ways these...
Can Literature Make Our Nation Less Insular?
I grew up in a “flyover” state that is most notable for its spotlight in a 1930’s film where a young lady tries to...
What IS the difference between competencies and standards?
reDesign’s analysis of the difference between competencies and academic standards.
#College Ready? Designing Projects for Historically Underserved Students
My first competency-based project began in 1993, as part of the founding design team of a small, alternative public...
Let every voice be heard: 6 activities to spark better class discussion
Reflections on pedagogy that works for marginalized students I have a confession: I hate class discussions. I hate...
Who asks the questions around here?
The day I stopped handing out packets of questions for students to answer at the end of each chapter of the novels I...
North Queens Community High School: Blooming the Outcomes
This is the sixth post of my Mastering Mastery-Based Learning in NYC tour. Start with the first post on NYC Big...
5 Key Lessons for Mastery Learning Startup
This blog originally appeared on The Launch Pad, January 5, 2016. As I see it, the biggest challenge we face in...
Join the community!
Sign up to receive our newsletter, access best-of educational resources, and stay in the know on upcoming events and learning opportunities. We hope to see you soon!