Networks for Deeper Learning

Hernández, Laura E. and Linda Darling-Hammond, Deeper Learning Networks: Taking Student-Centered Learning and Equity to Scale. This week’s Footnotes focuses on Hernández and Darling-Hammond’s 2019 report on deeper learning for the Learning Policy Institute. This concise report offers research-based action plans for implementing Deeper Learning in public and charter school networks. Using the examples of three national school networks (Big Picture Learning, The Internationals Network for Public Schools, and New Tech Network), the researchers followed and documented the work of networks to design around and build student-centered practices. Tangible, and important, takeways from their research: that “school design and pedagogy are intimately linked,” that equitable implementation of new pedagogy requires new approaches to professional development, and that understanding of learning processes by all stakeholders is key in their successes. We recommend reading that all stakeholders in schools, from teachers to school leaders to voters in general, read and consider both the anecdotes and the recommendations that Hernández and Darling-Hammond offer.