Publications

Through our publications, we address gaps across all levels of the student and educator experience by creating and disseminating insights to the field at large.
The Culturally Responsive & Sustaining (CRSP) Framework is grounded in research, neuroscience, and the rationale of Geneva Gay, Zaretta Hammond, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Sami Alim, Django Paris, and others. The framework highlights the importance of sociocultural awareness, relationships, developing student ownership, and cultivating higher-order thinking skills within an anti-racist approach that builds the capacity of teachers and students to disrupt inequitable systems and create more relevant and self-directed learning environments.
Click the image on the left to view and/or download the pre-supposition, theory of change, framework overview, & key practices.
During the 2019-2020 school year, a team from Highlander Institute, the Rhode Island Department of Education, Instruction Partners, and WestEd convened to launch the Link Learning Fellowship with the goal of exploring and identifying areas of alignment between rigorous curricula and personalized practices. In the report Link Learning Fellowship: Exploring the Intersection of High-Quality Curriculum Materials and Personalization Strategies we detail how these two approaches can be mutually reinforcing and accelerate student learning, as well as recommendations for further research.
Click the image on the left to view and/or download the full report.
Our Pathway to Personalization Framework acts as a guide for scaling best practices across a school or district. During the two years of the Fuse RI Fellowship, Fuse Fellows use this tool to guide partner districts in the pursuit of their visions. Our theory of action involves supporting small pilots of early adopter teachers and frequently reflecting and iterating throughout to build internal capacity and buy-in.
Click the image on the left to view and/or download.
Pathways to Personalization: A Framework for School Change (Harvard Education Press, 2018) offers an innovative five-step framework to help school leaders and teacher teams design and implement blended and personalized learning initiatives based on local needs and interests. The book draws on principles of improvement science and change management, as well as work in nearly five hundred classrooms, to help educators define their own rationale for personalized learning. It guides them as they establish small pilot initiatives, determine criteria for success, evaluate their efforts, and create paths for replication and scale. Filled with activities and templates for organizing information and student feedback, the book also includes many examples of how district leaders, school principals, and teachers have successfully navigated the change process to create more student-centered classrooms.