Shift Your Paradigm podcast—hosted by Randy Ziegenfuss and Lynn Fuini-Hetten—highlights the journey of schools and districts moving from traditional school-centered environments to thriving learner-centered ecosystems. The podcast, which is produced in partnership with Education Reimagined, attempts to demonstrate how leadership and learning looks different when practitioners turn their focus toward ensuring that every system and practice of a school is rooted firmly in supporting every student to succeed.

Episode 52 features Springpoint‘s Executive Director, Elina Alayeva along with Suzette Dyer, Director, School Leadership. They discuss how Springpoint supports partners to develop and continuously improve learner-centered high school models. They discuss the key competencies and mindsets that leaders need in order to navigate the shift from school-centered to learner-centered and talk about some key trends they’ve seen in their many years working with schools. For example, the growing need for school leaders to focus on and strengthen a school’s instructional core before anything else and a customized approach to supporting schools in their design and continuous improvement work.

Episode 53 features an alumna from one of Springpoint’s partner schools, Urban Assembly Maker Academy. Amanda Delaney, who is currently a sophomore at Hunter College, talks about her experience as a founding student in a brand new learner-centered high school. She spoke with Lynn and Randy about how her school involved students in shaping the school model, and how adults focused on empowering and equipping students to own their own learning and succeed at high levels with a range of tactics, such as relationship-building and competency-based education (CBE). She goes into detail on how the school, with CBE systems, positioned her to succeed in college. From understanding how to iterate on her own work, to exploring her own agency in getting the support she needs—Amanda has taken all that she learned in an innovative and is using it in her college persistence journey.

Listen to these two episodes and explore earlier episodes to meet other practitioners who are defining what it means to be learner-centered. Subscribe to Shift Your Paradigm podcast to receive updates on future episodes.