Interest Area
Learning
Our Thinking
We believe that multidimensional learning ecosystems that consider the whole learner, whole school, and whole community are a crucial path towards more equitable outcomes. Every factor in a learner’s education— from broadband access to safe and affordable housing to the development of social-emotional skills— can widen inequality and impact success. How might we shift systems in ways that drive equitable outcomes and create opportunities for learners and their communities?
Our Inquiry Areas
Our work supports and shapes programs and solutions that build lifelong learning opportunities and envision an education system that works for everyone, by addressing long standing social and economic inequities. We prioritize initiatives that pilot inventions and scale transformative interventions that incorporate flexibility and rigor, and enable all learners to thrive in a rapidly evolving society. This includes research, platforms, and programs that offer everyone the skills, tools, and opportunities they need to continue learning and adapting, and that are open, accessible, and innovative.
Inquiry Area
Schools as Community Infrastructure
For schools to become the most effective and powerful versions of themselves, it’s critical to understand their place within and connection to the communities they serve, and how both systems – school and community – must be strengthened in tandem. Using a multidimensional framing for school allows us to consider the infrastructure needs of school in a holistic way that elevates the school community’s strengths and resources, and that identifies broad needs that remain unmet. By conceptualizing and conceiving of schools as bigger than the buildings in which they operate, we have an opportunity to expand what schools can do, and to make sure that they have the resources to do that critical work.
Inquiry Area
Computational Thinking
Our investments support the expansion of computer and data science education with a focus on computational thinking. We support research, platforms, and programs that offer everyone the skills, tools, and opportunities they need to continue learning and adapting, and that are open, accessible, and innovative. This includes supporting avenues that adapt enduring skills alongside technology.
Highlighted Grantees
Modern Classrooms Project
A Modern Classroom is one that is responsive to the needs and experiences of all students. This is not just a dream for educators – it’s a possibility with the Modern Classrooms Project. In a Modern Classroom, educators forego the traditional front-of-class lecture to provide shorter forms of direct instruction that students can access whenever and wherever they might be. In this way, educators duplicate themselves digitally, allowing them to more freely respond to the various needs in their classrooms.
Common Sense Media
Most technology wasn’t built with kids in mind. Common Sense is on a mission to change that. They believe in media that inspires and entertains families of all kinds, in technology that protects privacy and supports communities and in learning tools that prepare students and teachers for success in a connected world.
Arizona State University Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College works with K-12 educational systems to provide all students with deeper and personalized learning. They do so by: (1) building teams of educators with distributed expertise, (2) supporting systems in aligning educator knowledge and skills with school systems and structures to support the holistic development of all students in-line with insights from the science of learning and development and (3) empowering a diverse array of educators by developing better ways to enter the profession, specialize and advance.
Learning Insights
From Our Grantees
Measuring Impact: Building on the Knowledge and Experience of the Computer Science Education Movement
Leaders at CSforALL share their vision for new and better ways to think about “impact” – how it is defined,…
From Our Grantees | Q&A
Much More than a Coding Language
In this joint interview, Co-Executive Directors Mindee and Sarah discuss the power of Scratch in developing important skillsets, mindsets, and…
Big Ideas | Case Studies
Spring Case Study Series: How Three Grantees are Leveraging School and Community to Improve Outcomes for All
While the summer months offer an excellent window into how schools and communities come together to jointly grow and teach…