Real-Time Redesign

Interested in a soft or hard copy of this toolkit? Download the complete process as a PDF and make a copy of an editable workbook to complement the activities in the toolkit by clicking the buttons below.

Go deeper by exploring resources from our work with real school systems across the country.

Case Studies

Explore how school systems used the Real-Time Redesign process to move towards more equitable and resilient teaching and learning in the wake of COVID-19. For additional problems of practice and solutions from more districts, see our post on where this toolkit originated.

Getting Started Guides

Explore topics and concrete resources that school systems used in their own journeys to design more equitable and resilient teaching and learning environments. Find definitions of these terms and others used in the toolkit on our definitions and key terms page.

Strategy Lab

This toolkit was developed as we supported seven districts in our networked learning community called the Strategy Lab. Learn more about how we built the toolkit and what we learned along the way:

Reflections

Learn from our experience leading districts through the Real-Time Redesign process.

The Learning Accelerator is grateful for the many organizations and individuals whose contributions made this project possible.

School System Leaders

We owe immense gratitude to the leaders of seven school systems who invited us in to learn alongside them in the most challenging school year of their lives. We are witnesses to the resolve you showed through the pandemic, and it has been humbling to learn alongside you. Thank you to:

• Suzanne Newell, Erin Bown-Anderson, David Reihert, and Ty Davidson at Austin Independent School District;

• John Rice, Sean Neilly, Nicole Kooiker, and Adam Zimmerman at Cedar Rapids Community School District;

• Dr. Warren Morgan, Jessica Dunn, Jennifer O’Shea, Cortnei Flucas, Emily Sholtis, Kassi Hall, Amanda Koth, Denise Wilson, and Abbie Mccafferty at Indianapolis Public Schools;

• Kevin Zimmer, Jessica Varevice, Jonas Crenshaw, and Sara Vasquez at Mastery Charter Schools;

• PK Diffenbaugh, Cresta McIntosh, Manny Nunez, and Denise Munoz at Monterey Peninsula Unified School District;

• Dixie Bacallao and Valerie Taubes at Phoenix Charter Academy; and

• Ellen Dorr, Bob Ettinger, Damien Pattenaude, Vickie Damon, Jon Stadler, and Shannon Harvey at Renton School District.

Partner Organizations

This project would not have been possible without the incredible work of Bellwether Education Partners, TLA’s partner throughout the Strategy Lab and design of this toolkit. Thank you to Lauren Schwartze, Gwen Baker, Mike Boone, and Stephanie Spangler, especially!

We were fortunate to partner with many additional organizations over the course of this project. Many thanks to Epoch Education's Deraan Washington and Kelly Cole for their thoughtful guidance and support in helping us strive for equity and inclusivity in our work. Thank you also to Jessica Schlusser and Mason Pashia at Getting Smart for telling the stories of the school systems involved in the Strategy Lab.

Thank you to school and system leaders who shared their experience with our cohort: Nyree White at Achievement First; Kristen Watkins at Dallas Independent School District; Amalia Lopez at Lindsay Unified School District; and Colleen Meaney at Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School.

Thank you to the many professional services organizations and individuals who coached and shared their expertise with our school systems as they responded to the pandemic: independent consultants Kristi Ransick and Rebecca Kockler; Asaf Bitton of Ariadne Labs; Ben Rayer and Kelly Ocasio of 2Revolutions; Christina Pate of WestEd; Cindi Williams, Erica Gray, and Cornelia Calliste of Learning Heroes; Molly Depasquale and Lindsey Hoy of Achievement Network; Sujata Bhatt of Transcend; Malika Ali of Highlander Institute; Jason Green, Cassondra Corbin-Thaddies, and Dee Lanier of LINC; Virgel Hammonds, Lauren McCauley, and Abbie Everett of KnowledgeWorks; and Sarah Johnson of Teaching Lab.

Trailblazers

While this toolkit is unique in its application and real examples, the essential concepts presented are not original. Many before us have blazed a path for design thinking processes that center equity and liberatory design. We owe a great deal of gratitude to the following organizations and the people behind them, and we encourage you to explore their work, as well:

• equityXdesign: Michelle Molitor, Caroline Hill, Christine Ortiz; check out their organizations, 228 Accelerator, The Equity Lab, and Equity Meets Design, as well as their writing, Racism and inequity are products of design. They can be redesigned.

• IDEO: Codesigning Schools Toolkit, Design Kit, Design Thinking for Educators toolkit

• Stanford d.School: K-12 Lab, Liberatory Design

For questions about the Real-Time Redesign toolkit, please contact info@learningaccelerator.org.