Leadership To Transform America’s Education System
Learning 2025: Student-Centered, Equity-Focused Education is an AASA initiative that calls for holistic redesign of the public school system by 2025. The initiative is grounded in the foundational work of the AASA Learning 2025 National Commission, comprised of thought leaders in education, business, community and philanthropy.
The time for action is now. Schools must operate as the heartbeat of the country we want and believe in—a country where freedom, justice, and opportunity are extended to everyone, without question, qualification or exception. The recent pandemic has given us an opportunity to finally reshape schools to meet ALL Whole Learner needs for maximized achievement. We’re calling on educators to seize this opportunity to realize the vision of holistic school redesign.
This is an ongoing initiative and a living website that will continue to be updated.
Apply to be a Demonstration System
Benefits, Services, and Supports to Demonstration Systems
Everyone associated with a school system—from superintendents to principals to teachers to school boards to parents to community leaders—must take bold steps to work together as systems on behalf of the well-being, self-sufficiency and success of our students.
— Daniel A. Domenech, AASA Executive Director
An American Imperative: A New Vision of Public Schools
A Report from the Learning 2025: National Commission on Student-Centered, Equity-Focused Education
The full commission report articulates in detail AASA’s vision, which is intended to function as guardrails for specific change while also empowering districts and schools to tailor plans to the needs of their learners, educators, and communities. What makes this report stand out is its call to action comprised of recommendations coupled with specific action steps.
The commission has identified core components and corresponding essential areas of systemic school redesign. As leaders, teachers, and students work to realize this vision, all must play an active role in redesigning systems, reengineering instruction, and co-authoring the learning journey.
Read the Full Report
AASA’s Vision of Systemic Redesign:
Culture
Systemic redesign must happen within an intentional, relationships-based culture that is:
- Whole Learner Focused: The entire system must attend to the social, emotional, cognitive, mental health and trauma-based needs of ALL learners.
- No Learner Marginalized: ALL children, families and staff must be embraced, valued equally and served with equity—regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic circumstance or disability.
- Future Driven: Schools must routinely anticipate forthcoming changes in the career landscape to inform all decisions today.
Social, Emotional, Cognitive Growth Model
Learning must entirely reorient around the learner.
- In order to meet ALL learners’ social, emotional and cognitive needs, instruction and learning must happen on a growth model continuum, where data analytics, planning, learning and evidence of learning operate in a feedback loop to personalize learning.
Resources
Panels of school, association, state and federal leaders must convene to determine how to unlock resources to meet ALL children’s Whole Learner needs in the following categories:
- Learning Accelerators: Broadband must be deemed a public utility so that ALL learners have access to the technologies necessary to access and accelerate learning.
- Aligned Community Resources: To meet Whole Learner needs, educators, learners and learners’ families must have access to a robust, multi-tiered system of supports.
- High-Quality Early Learning for ALL Children: ALL children must engage in high-impact early learning to prepare them to function as co-authors of learning in their K-12 journey.
- Diverse Educator Pipeline: Educators and staff must represent the learners, families and communities they serve so that true culturally-responsive learning is possible.
We have an opportunity to finally bring our schools into the future and transform them into nimble systems. Our recommendations can lead to personalized and customized instruction and restore dignity and honor to teachers and the joys of learning.
— Bill Daggett, Learning 2025 National Commission Co-Chair and Founder of the International Center on Leadership for Education
Next Steps & Opportunities to Engage
We must come together as educators to help move the needle and make real, holistic systemic change. Those in official leadership roles must rise to the occasion and spearhead, enable, inform and shape the fulfillment of this vision.
The commissioners of Learning 2025 commit to leading, promoting and supporting the development and implementation of plans to operationalize the vision of holistic school redesign. Over the next few years, AASA, with the support of the commission, will provide resources, ongoing research, host discussions and events, and engage education leaders and school districts to help operationalize and realize this vision by 2025.
AASA, The School Superintendents Association, urges a vision of public schools as future-driven, rigorous, energetic and culturally-vibrant learning ecosystems—where leaders, administrators, teachers, learners, families and communities work together to redesign the school system, reengineer instruction and co-author personalized learning for ALL learners.
Be Part of the Movement:
AASA seeks to identify educational systems that exemplify the Learning 2025 National Commission’s recommendations as demonstration sites, understanding that seeing practices that advance student learning helps drive policy. AASA invites school systems to apply to engage in a three-year process of advancing toward Student-Centered, Equity-Driven Education.
Systems will take a self-assessment to determine what phase of development or implementation they fall into—Lighthouse, Aspiring and Emerging.
Each demonstration site will be the subject of a case study designed to guide schools, districts and regions in realizing the vision articulated in the commission’s recommendations. Policy support from local, state and national leaders will be integral to the overall effectiveness and success set forth by the report’s vision.
Benefits, Services, and Supports to Demonstration Systems
Once accepted, Demonstration System participation begins with an interview with the leadership of AASA and SPN to gather pertinent information about the system that the superintendent and senior staff can share.
Support and Services:
- Senior Consultant
- Concierge On-call Service
- Monitoring progress
- District Dashboard
- Professional Learning: Transformative and Innovative Research-based Practices
- National Conferences
- and more ...
AASA will host events and programs that help support the work and further the mission of Learning 2025. Check back frequently for updates.
Upcoming Events & Programs:
- AASA Leading for Equity Webinar Series: ongoing
- AASA Social & Emotional Learning Cohort: July 2021-June 2022
- Virtual SEL Summit: July 20-21, 2021
- National Conference on Education 2022: Leading for Student-Centered, Equity-Focused Education
Recordings & Archives:
- Accelerating Learning: Strategies for Whole Child Summer Learning and Beyond (Part 1)
Join discussions and collaborate with peers around the Learning 2025 initiative.
Learning 2025 Online Community:
Share successes, discuss problems of practice, and connect with colleagues from across the country who are working to affect change in public education. Through the online community you can create and engage in meaningful discussions, send personal messages and upload/share resources.
Not sure how to get started? Watch the online community tutorial video.
Engage on Social Media:
Get the latest updates and see what colleagues are doing across the country. Follow and use #Learning2025. Don't forget to tag @AASAHQ.
Request a Speaker:
Looking for someone to talk with your district or community about Learning 2025? Contact Debbie Magee, AASA Program Director for more information.
The ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach must no longer be tolerated. Now is the time to raise the voices of our superintendents on behalf of the students they serve.
— Kristi Wilson, AASA President and Learning 2025 Commissioner
About the Learning 2025 Commission
The Learning 2025: National Commission on Student-Centered, Equity-Focused Education is comprised of thought leaders in education, business, community and philanthropy. The commission’s chief objective is to safely and equitably prepare all students for a workplace and society of the future.
The Commissioners
Chairpersons: Dan Domenech, AASA, and Bill Daggett, Successful Practices Network
Facilitators: Ray McNulty, SPN, and Mort Sherman, AASA
Team Support: Todd Daggett, SPN; Valerie Truesdale and Debbie Magee, AASA
Gustavo Balderas
Superintendent
Edmonds School District
Gregg Behr
Executive Director
The Grable Foundation
Luvelle Brown
Superintendent
Ithaca City School District
Pamela Cantor
Founder
Turnaround for Children
Brenda Cassellius
Superintendent
Boston Public Schools
Michael Conner
Superintendent
Middletown Public Schools
Sharon Contreras
Superintendent
Guilford County Schools
Gladys Cruz
Superintendent
Questar III BOCES
Deborah Delisle
CEO/President
Alliance for Excellent Education
MaryEllen Elia
Former State Commissioner
New York Department of Education
Karen Garza
CEO
Battelle for Kids
Benjamin Heuston
Executive Director
Waterford.org
Kathy Hoffman
State Commissioner
Arizona Department of Education
Sam Houston
President/CEO
North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center
Ann Levett
Superintendent
Savannah-Chatham County Public School System
Khalid Mumin
Superintendent
Reading School District
Bart Rocco
Grable Fellow
The Grable Foundation
Bille Rondinelli
Grable Fellow
The Grable Foundation
David Schuler
Superintendent
Township High School District 214
Malbert Smith
CEO
MetaMetrics
Aaron Spence
Superintendent
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
Stuart Udell
CEO
Achieve3000
Tom Vander Ark
CEO
Getting Smart
Steven Webb
Former Superintendent
Vancouver Public Schools
Kristi Wilson, AASA President
Superintendent
Buckeye Elementary School District
Jessie Woolley-Wilson
CEO
DreamBox Learning
Kelly Young
President
Education Reimagined
In Partnership With
