Last month, Siegel Family Endowment and the Walton Family Foundation announced the 40 Phase 1 winners of the Learning Landscapes Challenge.
Since then, the Phase 2 teams have been participating in a 14-week virtual accelerator that includes access to mentorship and technical support.
The challenge cast an intentionally wide net for ideas, with the goal of supporting more nascent, innovative, and cutting-edge approaches to K-12 infrastructure. The Phase 2 accelerator was designed to provide the teams behind those approaches with crucial support as they validate their assumptions, refine their proposals, and formalize new and existing partnerships. It will also fuel a community of practice for collaboration and cross-pollination.
While the Phase 2 teams bring an array of expertise and perspectives — from education and workforce development to urban planning and infrastructure — they also share a common desire for focused support across several key areas. Those areas, which align with the accelerator’s modules, include design research, outcomes and in-system measures, partnership development, and scaling and sustainability.
Inside the accelerator modules
The accelerator is divided into six two-week modules, each consisting of a webinar and optional office hours with mentors. The six modules are:
Partnerships and community engagement
In module 1, teams honed their ability to identify and map local stakeholders, assets, and needs; identify and establish equitable partnerships based on shared goals; formalize partnerships and establish structures and systems to ensure effective collaboration.
Experience design and prototyping
In module 2, teams learned to conduct design research responsibly and gather learner, family, and educator feedback in a K-12 education context; develop prototyping plans to test the assumptions and risks in their models; identify the potential impact of future societal trends and plan for resilience.
Defining and measuring outcomes
In module 3, teams are working to reference the evidence base from learning science to bolster and strengthen their program models; identify externally validated program outcome measures; develop rigorous and feasible measurement plans.
Leveraging data and emerging technologies
During module 4, teams will learn to identify potential data sources and consider principles for interoperability; abide by best practices in privacy and ethics in data collection and use; weigh the capabilities and risks of different emerging technologies and identify potential use cases.
Developing pathways to scale
In module 5, teams will receive support as they define different visions of scale (for example, scaling up, scaling out, or scaling deep); develop scaling strategies to achieve their planned visions of scale; identify the operational needs to carry out their scaling strategies.
Planning for sustainable funding
In module 6, teams will work to identify different funding streams and understand the differences and complexities of each; develop funding plans to achieve sustainable implementation; position programs for their identified funding streams.
Expert mentors
None of these modules would be possible without the involvement of ecosystem experts. As we conclude the first half of the accelerator, the challenge team thanks the accelerator mentors of modules 1-3 for sharing their time and expertise:
- Alin Bennett, Vice President of Practice and Field Advancement at Education Reimagined
- Georgia Heyward, Founder of Fig Education
- Emily Liebtag, Chief Innovation Officer at Education Reimagined
- Bobbi Macdonald, Senior Partner Ecosystems Growth and Advancement at Education Reimagined
- Greg Machperson, Chief Big Thought Institute Officer at Big Thought
- Ariel Raz, Head of Learning Collaborations at the Stanford d.school
- Ricky Singh, Executive Director at My Brother’s Keeper Charlotte-Mecklenburg
- Sivan Tuchman, Founder and Consultant at Datability Education Consulting
The challenge team will share more about mentors for modules 4-6 soon.
Partnering with a Phase 1 winner
As the Phase 2 teams progress through the virtual accelerator, the Learning Landscapes Challenge is encouraging the formation of partnerships to integrate the physical, digital, and social infrastructure required to meet K-12 students’ learning needs now and in the future. If you are interested in partnering with a Phase 1 winner, you can join the partnership community to explore potential opportunities.
If you are interested in collaborating with any of the Phase 1 winners on their solutions, subscribe to the challenge newsletter to be notified when we launch the partnership community.