Dear Pioneers,

We are proud to announce the successful launch of a new national community of practice that occurred last week in Denver. We call this community of practice—by and for learner-centered pioneers—Pioneer Lab. Pioneer Lab is a multi-year inquiry into the learnings necessary to make learner-centered education available to every child in the U.S.

The seed for the idea of a national community of practice was planted in the first phase of this project. When the original 28 people came together to create the vision, they wisely realized that they were not the people to answer the questions of what the new systems would look like. Rather, they realized that the future was already out there in pieces, just not evenly distributed, and that the many answers to what this will look like will be diverse and need to be created by real people in real communities who are bringing the vision to life. With or without Education Reimagined, we know that the work of creating learner-centered ecosystems is happening and will continue to happen. And, we hope to be an accelerant of its progress.

The unique role of Pioneer Lab is to connect people who would not otherwise come together from diverse perspectives and models to accelerate learning, sharing, and co-creation. The two days in Denver were the first of many trainings to come designed to prepare people with common lenses and a “second language” to be able to talk, share, and create together across models.

We are grateful for the leadership of the inaugural group: A+ Houston (TX), Big Thought (TX), Boston Day & Evening Academy (MA), Center for Teaching Quality, Colorado Department of Education, Design39Campus (CA), Lindsay USD (CA), Poudre School District (CO), ReSchool Colorado (CO), and Transcend.

We look forward to the next Pioneer Lab training next month!

Warm wishes,

Kelly Young