Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS)

In Overland Park, KS, learner-centered leaders view their transformational effort as a “moral imperative.” While many may shudder at the possibility of what might go wrong, the leaders at Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) lean into the possibility of what might go right. And, since their founding in 2009, a lot has gone right—including the expansion of their work to 16 states and over 50 school districts.

In Blue Valley, over 600 young learners are engaged in open-walled, socially embedded opportunities that feature professional exposure to bioscience, business technology media, engineering, human services, and medicine and healthcare. If none of those “strands” (as they’re called at CAPS) fit a young person’s interests, they can enroll in the accelerator strand that provides young learner’s the opportunity to “follow a passionate pursuit from imagination to innovation.”

For the young learners enrolled in the CAPS program, it’s almost as if they live a double life within the context of their education journey. Half their day is spent at CAPS, while the other half is spent at their conventional high schools. Although only half their day is filled with learner-centered experiences, they are able to use the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they develop and apply them within the school-centered system—showcasing achievement in both settings.

Take young learner, Ashlyn, for instance. Ashlyn was as an “average” learner within the conventional context, which led to her identity being tied to that “average” label. Never in a million years did she see herself inventing wearable technology that monitored a baby’s vitals. But, after enrolling at CAPS and exploring the world of entrepreneurship, that’s exactly what she’s been up to. This personalized, relevant, and contextualized experience—jumpstarted by her own health problems growing up—allowed Ashlyn to begin shaping an entirely new identity for herself. Rather than seeing herself as “average,” she saw herself as a business person, leader, communicator, and innovator. As a result, her achievement at CAPS led to her best two years of academic performance at her conventional school.

This isn’t an accident or a one-off anomaly. When young people are given opportunities to pursue their interests and passions, they develop a strong sense of learner agency which leads to self-confidence, self-advocacy, and self-awareness. Ashlyn’s story is unique and special to her. But, it’s not unique in terms of what CAPS leaders expect to see young people achieve within their program.

As they continue providing opportunities to engage young people in profession-based learning, self-discovery and exploration, and innovative thinking, they continue to be guided by their “moral imperative” to transform education for every learner in every community across the country. A decade in, they’re proud of what they’ve accomplished thus far. And, they know the journey has just begun.