Leading EDge Learning’s approach focuses on understanding and meeting clients’ specific needs and designing customized supports to fit those needs. Each project is designed to culminate in deliverables that increase understanding, operationalize knowledge and share analyses and recommendations with the field.
What We Do
As a team we…
- Analyze and address client specific needs based by a deep understanding of education research and effective practices
- Develop custom plans, recommendations, and resources tailored to client goals
- Listen and work collaboratively with clients as trusted partners
- Garner stakeholder input
- Synthesize existing research
- Partner with schools and districts to understand what works in schools as well as implementation challenges and constraints
- Design and execute professional learning for leaders/teachers/coaches
Professional Learning
We design and deliver customized professional learning experiences that address the specific needs of a school, district, or state. Our professional learning focuses on bringing research and educational best practices into an engaging experience for participants.
Planning and Implementation Support
We partner with schools, districts, and state agencies who are seeking to plan for and implement change. We work alongside leaders to help them strategically manage the complex change process, engage stakeholders, and deliver customized supports that help them meet their strategic goals.
Topic Expertise
- Integrating systems thinking into organizational structures and systems
- Creating and disseminating actionable resources (toolkits, roadmaps, lesson plans, facilitation guides, etc.)
- Sharing lessons learned through reports, policy briefs, case studies, webinars, training sessions, conferences, and other written work and presentations)
- Developing policy recommendations and delivering presentations to education leaders and policymakers
Core Projects
- Rural LIFE Grant (Northeast Tennessee) – Regional Literacy Supports
- Southeastern Education Alliance (North Carolina) – Multi-district Coaching Cohort
- Appalachian State University- Developing Micro-Credentials to Support Teacher Directed Learning
- Juntos – Developing Sustainability Supports for Statewide Programming
- Utah Education Network – Custom Learning For Varying Leadership Roles in Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning
- Rural Teacher Leader Network (RTLN) – Cohort of Teacher Leaders from Across North Carolina
Through a partnership with the Utah Education Network, Leading EDge has provided a multi-tier approach to supporting school and EdTech leaders with three programs. These programs include:
- Leading Schools – a 3 day summit for principals using a design thinking approach to help leaders solve unique problems of practice.
- EdTech Endorsement- series of online modules working towards the UT Edtech endorsement for school leaders.
- UT Tech Leaders Network – a community of practice for technology coaches and digital learning leaders from across the state.
This video provides an overview of the Rural LIFE grant professional learning supports provided to educators. Rural LIFE is a network of schools across Northeast Tennessee committed to improving literacy instruction through personalized learning. This work began while Nancy and Theresa were at The Friday Institute of Educational Innovation. Now as Leading EDge learning, Nancy and Theresa continue the partnership with the Niswonger Foundation to provide support for schools and coaches in the program and with AnLar to provide research and evaluation of the grant.