Real-Time Redesign
How can school teams tackle meaningful, practical challenges of equity amidst the swirl of COVID-19? Over the last nine months, The Learning Accelerator and Bellwether Education Partners have been partnering with seven school districts to explore this question as part of TLA’s Always Ready for Learning Strategy Lab network. Today, we’re excited to share with you a new toolkit we’ve co-developed through this process to help other districts and school teams tackle the work as well. 

Real-Time Redesign is a free, open resource that provides leaders with an actionable, inclusive, and rapid process for making targeted improvement towards more equitable and resilient teaching and learning. The toolkit and related case studies draw on work conducted with these and other school systems across the country as they urgently responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, and demonstrates that even during crisis and disruption, schools can make practical and positive change.
The Learning Accelerator
Bellwether Education Partners
Our "Why" for this Work
“School and system leaders know they need to remove barriers to equity, but it can often feel difficult to find the right time to make these changes,” said Beth Rabbitt, CEO of The Learning Accelerator. “We cannot wait for the perfect time to take on the improvement and innovation we need to serve students. We believe that with the right team, tools, and processes school leaders can build durable mindsets and the muscles needed to inclusively tackle concrete, meaningful challenges in their schools, today.”

The toolkit reflects ideas from a number of design processes, but we think the Real-Time Redesign process is unique in its focus on the practical application of three key areas:
  • identifying concrete problems of equity and resiliency, 
  • making targeted improvement towards bigger change, and 
  • engaging authentically and inclusively with those most affected. 

As mentioned above, it includes a series of guided activities paired with examples from real schools that were members of the Strategy Lab.

“Schools are resilient and making changes all the time, and recent events demand that we continue to hone our perspectives and actions around equity,” said Gwen Baker, Chief Operating Officer and Partner at Bellwether Education Partners. “Too often we let perfect be the enemy of good when it comes to designing and sustaining change. The Real-Time Redesign toolkit shows us that school systems can make small and intentional changes to efforts that are already underway that can sharpen their focus on achieving more equitable outcomes.”
What School Leaders Are Saying about Real-Time Redesign
We’re most excited to share that the school systems that have gone through the Real-Time Redesign process believe it is a way to build critical skills for practical, continuous improvement towards more equitable and resilient teaching and learning: 

John Rice, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning at Cedar Rapids Community School District in Iowa: “This process is very doable and transferable to a range of problems schools face. [It] is really clear and attends to equity, and gives schools a way to define a problem from the perspective of those affected, test a solution with rapid iteration, and determine if and how to scale.”

Suzanne Newell, EdD, Director of Academics for Austin Independent School District in Texas: “One of the unique aspects of the Real-Time Redesign process was how we were able to really focus on student impact. We examined weak points in student data and interviewed students to learn more about what was/was not working for them. This has helped us to put human faces on this work and motivated us to be bold in our actions.” 
 
Kevin Zimmer, Senior Director of Academic Operations for Mastery Charter Schools: “The most exciting part of this process that we will do more of is taking a more robust approach to gathering and incorporating the feedback and perspectives of families and students at the front end and throughout the entire strategic planning process. Through the empathy interviews and design thinking that puts student experience at the center via the Real-Time Redesign process, it’s incredibly important to elevate the voices of families and students to ensure that their input is driving our network’s priorities.”
We hope you find the examples from the Strategy Lab members as inspiring as we do and this tool useful in your own work. Please help us share it with others!
New from @LearningAccel & @bellwethered: The Real-Time Redesign toolkit provides practical guided activities that can help schools tackle small and large challenges immediately and realistically. http://bit.ly/RealTimeRedesign

The Real-Time Redesign toolkit helps schools take steps toward sustainable, equitable, & resilient learning. Check it out from @LearningAccel & @bellwethered, featuring examples from schools that made meaningful improvements during COVID-19. http://bit.ly/RealTimeRedesign