Tag: FullScale Research Reports

From Urgent to Future: Redesigning the Educator Role for the AI Era

This white paper reframes the debate about artificial intelligence in education by arguing that the central challenge is not technological disruption, but the design of the educator role itself. Grounded in research, field partnerships, and system-level analysis, it outlines how policy can be used deliberately to strengthen and sustain the human expertise students need to learn, grow, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.

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June 18, 2026

Executive Summary: What We Can (and Can’t) See: A National Landscape Scan of Competency-Based Learning in High Schools

As competency-based learning (CBL) gains momentum in U.S. high schools, FullScale’s national landscape scan examines how CBL is currently showing up across the field. This executive summary highlights key findings on what aspects of CBL are publicly visible, where current outcome measures provide an incomplete view, and how policy conditions shape implementation.

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June 2, 2026

What We Can (and Can’t) See: A National Landscape Scan of Competency-Based Learning in High Schools

To better understand how competency-based learning (CBL) is showing up across high schools, FullScale conducted a national landscape scan of 106 schools engaged in CBL and related approaches. This report uses observable markers to examine which CBL practices are most visible across the field, where implementation remains harder to see, the extent to which current outcome measures capture quality, and the policy conditions shaping the work.

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June 2, 2026

Wyoming’s RIDE (Reimagining and Innovating the Delivery of Education) Initiative: Evaluation Report

The Wyoming RIDE (Reimagining and Innovating the Delivery of Education) initiative is the inaugural program of Wyoming’s Future of Learning Partnership, a state-level consortium working together to support innovative education across the state. The RIDE initiative created an opportunity for districts to update key elements of instruction and assessment to be more student-centered and aligned with the Wyoming Profile of a Graduate (Wyoming Future of Learning Partnership, 2024). Twenty-one districts (almost half of Wyoming’s 48 districts) and three community colleges have participated in the RIDE initiative since its inception in the 2023-24 school year.

We selected four deeply-implementing districts to feature in case studies, in consultation with 2Revolutions (the initiative’s lead design partner). These districts were all in their second year of RIDE involvement, but varied in geography, demographics, student-centered learning focus, and implementation approach. In exploring these districts’ RIDE experiences, we examined how they made sense of and enacted student-centered practices within their local contexts. We were especially interested in how leaders and educators defined what student-centered learning meant in their communities, what supported or hindered their implementation progress, and how early changes showed up in leadership, instruction, and student experiences.

In addition to the four case studies, we also used data from interviews conducted with professional learning providers, state, district, and school leaders, and survey data from 150 teachers and 800 students, to explore broader cross-district themes.

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November 7, 2025

Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative Evaluation Report – Cohort 2, Year 2

The Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative (MBLC) evaluation report offers insights and strategies for anyone working to shift K-12 schools, districts, and states toward more student-centered, equitable, and culturally responsive approaches.

The MBLC is a demonstration project taking place in nearly 50 schools across Washington to help decision makers understand the qualities of mastery-based (or competency-based) learning as they are enacted across diverse learning communities, how long it takes to implement, and what resources are necessary for sustained impact.

FullScale is conducting a six-year evaluation of the MBLC to identify policies, practices, and system changes that can support successful mastery-based and culturally responsive learning. The report shares findings from the first two years of the second cohort of MBLC schools, based on extensive surveys and interviews of educators, school leaders, students, state leaders, and professional learning providers.

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October 15, 2025

Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative Evaluation Report – Cohort 1, Year 4

The Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative (MBLC) evaluation report offers insights and strategies for anyone working to shift K-12 schools, districts, and states toward more student-centered, equitable, and culturally responsive approaches.

The MBLC is a demonstration project taking place in nearly 50 schools across Washington to help decision makers understand the qualities of mastery-based (or competency-based) learning as they are enacted across diverse learning communities, how long it takes to implement, and what resources are necessary for sustained impact.

In its first four years, the initiative has led to deeper Mastery-Based Learning (MBL) implementation and has shown positive impacts on early outcomes such as school climate, cultural responsiveness, student-teacher relationships, and student engagement.

FullScale is conducting a six-year evaluation of the MBLC to identify policies, practices, and system changes that can support successful mastery-based and culturally responsive learning. The report shares findings from the first four years of the first cohort of MBLC schools, based on extensive surveys and interviews of educators, school leaders, students, state leaders, and professional learning providers.

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October 15, 2025

Report: Generative Practice- Practical Insights for Unlocking the Instructional Potential of AI from the School Teams AI Collaborative

This report complies learnings from the School Teams AI Collaborative, which was a partnership between FullScale and Leading Educators that brought together ~80 educators from 19 schools who were on the leading edge of implementing AI in schools. This report shares insights and guidance about how to implement AI-enabled instructional practices and what the sector needs to do in order to cultivate transformational leaps in education.

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August 28, 2025

Deepening Student Learning in Three Kentucky Communities

The Aurora Institute toured three Kentucky sites in 2025 to elevate lessons from past work and to assess progress to date and goals for the future. Using document review, on-the-ground interviews, observation, and existing expertise in deeper learning, each case study aims to authentically tell the story of each system’s shift to deeper learning and the way the changes have shaped the student experience. The three sites include: Metcalfe County Middle School, Woodford County Public Schools, and Beechwood Independent Schools.

Together, we uncovered four key themes as key elements of success at these sites: a shared vision to unite the community, clear expectations that enable flexibility, student demonstrations that unlock authentic applications of knowledge and skills, and opportunities for teacher learning and leadership to lay the groundwork.

These themes echo the existing body of work of the Aurora Institute, the field of competency-based education, and the education research field more broadly. Understanding the implementation journeys of real schools and districts helps bridge a transformative vision into reality for our young people.

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July 8, 2025
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