Amber: In the Learner-Centered Ecosystem white paper, you write that most schools still operate from a school-centered paradigm. What does it mean for a high school to instead be learner-centered? What does that look like in action and practice?

Katie: School-centered models were designed for an industrial era, so they are based on standardization, ranking, and sorting people―completing assignments and just moving along. A learner-centered system is a place where young people have agency. They’re doing work that matters. It’s about personalization and helping students understand where they’re going. In high schools specifically, we want young people to understand their strengths, talents, goals, and challenges, and to be able to take courses and have experiences that help them build on that. So, it’s not just going through a six-period day, taking math and English and science. Of course it’s about those academic foundations, but we also want to see students in internships, collaborating on projects, working with community organizations, and understanding the workforce and how their strengths, interests, and talents connect to those opportunities.

One of my favorite examples is a young woman I talked to in Paramount, California. In her sophomore year, she thought she wanted to be a doctor until she had an internship opportunity to work in a hospital and realized she hated it. So instead of continuing to go to school for 8 years to be a doctor, she realized, “I need to look at some other pathways, because I don’t want to spend my life doing that.” I call that a huge win.

Amber: COVID recovery, the rise in AI technology, and other shifts in today’s world present schools with an opportunity to reimagine what it means to teach and learn. What do learners need to prepare them for an evolving future, and what can schools do to meet those needs?

Katie: In terms of what schools need to become: They need to become community hubs. They need to be central and permeable, so it is not just this isolated building where young people go for 7 hours and then leave, and it’s disconnected from the rest of their lives. We need to reimagine the day and think about how to create schools that allow students to move more flexibly among their passions, their interests, their academics, and tie them all together. These shifts would allow for them to have a full life, not just one that’s crammed at the edges.

Amber: What do you see as the potential and power of the California Secondary School Redesign Pilot to help schools make these shifts?

Katie: The California Secondary School Redesign Pilot has real potential to be a turning point for this work because it represents both a signal and a shift. The state’s endorsement matters. It validates that this isn’t fringe innovation, but necessary evolution. It also acknowledges something many educators have been feeling for a long time: we can’t keep layering new initiatives onto outdated systems and expect different results. It’s time to redesign the core structures themselves to create the kind of meaningful, engaging learning experiences our students actually deserve.

What’s especially powerful about this pilot is that it shines a light across the state to highlight what’s working alongside the real barriers that have been holding schools back. That visibility creates shared learning and a stronger case for change. At the same time, the pilot gives schools permission to try, test, and iterate in ways that traditional systems often discourage. That combination—permission plus visibility—has the potential to catalyze real momentum, moving redesign from isolated efforts to a more coherent, statewide movement.

Amber: How will this type of purpose-driven, personalized, holistic learning change how young people experience school?

Katie: I want young people to have opportunities not just to read Shakespeare and fill in tests, but also to understand their strengths and interests. This means being able to see beyond college prep courses and a 4.6 GPA to what they want to do in their lives, how they want to thrive in their community, and what opportunities and challenges might exist for them in that path. I think we get so caught up in, “Did you do your homework? Do you have an A? What college are you going to?” that we’re not helping them develop their ideas and aspirations. The more we can incorporate that into our schooling and education ecosystems, the better off students will be, and all of us will be in the long run.

Devin: I have met many young people who are motivated, interested, and curious, but who feel like they needed to check all of those things at the door to just play the game of school. This is why many amazing young people disengage or drop out: not because they don’t have incredible assets and strengths to bring into the world, but because they don’t see the value of playing that game of school. We need to change that for every young person. An important part of that is welcoming diverse cultural experiences and identities so students can bring their whole selves into school. Seeing differences as strengths and assets not only helps us do a better job of knowing young people as individuals, but also supports them being able to thrive in community and engage in the world as their best selves.

Amber: What are some schools you’ve worked with that exemplify these learner-centered features?

Katie: Bostonia Global is a high school in Cajon Valley Union School District in San Diego County exploring the competency-based model and helping young people navigate school with intentionality, develop projects, and progress in essential skills. They also prioritize mentoring, which is something we don’t make time for in a traditional model that can really help students engage with academics with more intentionality.

Devin: VIDA, or the Vista Innovation Design Academy, is a middle school in Vista Unified School District, also in San Diego County. They undertook a very ambitious school redesign project anchored in design thinking. It was really spectacular to see how incorporating human-centered design thinking throughout the school structures elevated engagement, achievement, and excitement and energy about learning. That success influenced change at the high school level: When the first group of students graduated from VIDA to Vista High, they met with the principal the first week of school to share: We know what we’re capable of. We are active learners, we can contribute a lot, and we’re not going to sit here passively for the next four years. And that influenced the redesign at the high school and the formation of a personal learning academy that ended up winning an XQ Super School Prize (awarded to innovative high school models).

Another example is Circulos High School in Santa Ana Unified School District, which has an innovative practice called Community Week. Every 6 to 8 weeks, the students nominate and vote on courses they want to take. The school then offers a week of these student-generated courses, sometimes taught by the students themselves. I saw a high school student teaching about the difference between Roth IRAs and traditional IRAs and it was awesome—it was relevant and authentic and meaningful.

Amber: As you look ahead, how do you hope the field will reclaim or reimagine the purpose of public schooling, and what will it take to bring that vision to life?

Katie: Many of these examples and models doing amazing things for young people are still on the fringes, outside of the neighborhood public high school. We need to bring these new and better approaches into our traditional public school systems so that all students can engage in learning they’re excited about. I always think about the Gallup poll that showed engagement decline significantly from 6th grade to 12th grade, with only 30% of students saying they are doing things that they do best, having fun, and doing something meaningful. We can flip that, where 90-100% of young people are doing things that matter to them. To do that, we need to get really honest about what young people need, instead of being beholden to the models adults are familiar with.

Devin: There’s not some organization or entity out there that is going to just resolve these complex challenges and immense opportunities in education. It’s really up to each of us. Margaret Wheatley says that you should keep asking two questions: “Who cares?” and “What’s possible?” When you think about who cares about education and young people, it’s a lot of people. And if you invite them into this conversation about what’s possible, then you see incredible things emerging through that dialogue and dreaming together. I have seen this happen in more and more communities over the past few years. This is a time for us to come together and keep asking that question about what’s possible.

The post Up Close: A Conversation on Learner-Centered Education with Katie Martin and Devin Vodicka appeared first on Stuart Foundation.

Roberta: What attracted you to the role and the Youth Thriving Through Learning (YTL) Fund? 

Peter: I’m excited about the opportunity to support schools to become places where students learn deeply. Too few students have access to that kind of learning right now. I’m also excited to be part of a new way of doing philanthropy. Instead of just one foundation’s effort, we are bringing together what I like to think of as a patchwork of foundations whose work and impact will be more vibrant — or in this case, more impactful — because of the collaboration. 

Roberta: How did your prior experience prepare you and lead you to this role? 

Peter: I taught in a public school in New York City that was part of a larger network of elementary and high schools that were taking a student-centered and deeper learning approach (although it wasn’t called that at the time). I saw what a profound difference it had for students and their families and how young people were able to engage enthusiastically in their learning and demonstrate what they learned in dynamic ways through presentations, projects, and exhibitions.

Those schools also had a vibrant educator culture, where teachers were excited and engaged to collaborate with one another to create these types of learning experiences for their students and families. These same conditions exist in high schools in California, but only in pockets. I’m excited to lead an effort where the goal is to make those kinds of experiences the norm for every student, every family, and every educator in California. 

Roberta: The YTL Fund is also concerned about the life of adolescents beyond high school. Can you share a bit about the opportunities and experiences you are hoping to foster/encourage through the fund? 

Peter: This work will have three components. First, many of California’s high school strategies, including the Golden State Pathways and dual enrollment initiatives, are intentionally designed to connect secondary to post-secondary and beyond. Second, we’ll be exploring how to create more equitable access to higher education, including efforts to integrate evidence of deeper learning (such as portfolios, for example) into the college admissions process.  And finally, we’ll be supporting what are known as “earn and learn” efforts that recognize meaningful work experiences and support young people whose life circumstances require them to navigate work and formal education to support themselves and sometimes their families. This can include youth in foster care or who are unhoused, as well as newcomer students. 

Roberta: Grantmaking will be a component of your work. What other types of strategies will you employ to advance the Fund’s goals? 

Peter: In addition to grantmaking, we’ll also be playing a connector role, bringing people and organizations together to explore and learn deeply with one another about what’s working, what isn’t working, to highlight bright spots, and to think together about where the gaps in our practice exist. We’ll also be investing heavily in narrative, making sure that we tell the stories of the good work that’s happening and then share those stories with policy makers, system leaders, as well as with students and their families, and the educators that work with them on a daily basis. We’d love to get to a place where everyone in California over time has a clear vision of what education can look like for adolescents.  

Roberta: It can be hard to imagine a new way of doing school if you’ve never experienced it. How did you first encounter the vibrant, student-centered schools that are the focus of the Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund?  

Peter: Initially, I experienced it as a teacher and later it was wonderfully codified through a book called Right to Learn, A Blueprint for Creating Schools that Work by Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond. The book laid out a portrait of what was possible with schooling by documenting what already existed. Dr. Darling-Hammond wrote about how engaged students, families, and educators were in these schools. It was so inspiring that the book and the schools it featured have been a touchstone for everything I’ve done in the subsequent 25 years. 

Roberta: If we were to fast-forward five years from now, what do you hope will be different because of the Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund? 

Peter: I am hoping this Fund will show students and families and everyone working in education what is possible. And, because these schools already exist, they will understand that it can exist in their school, too.  I believe that if school communities understand what’s possible, they will do whatever it takes to make that the reality for students, families, and educators in their district.  

The post Up Close: An Interview with Peter Ross, Managing Director of the Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund at the Stuart Foundation  appeared first on Stuart Foundation.