Amy Anderson on Reimagining Education Beyond School Walls: Learning Happens Everywhere

Quick take: 

Schools only account for 20% of a child's waking hours. Reschool co-founder Amy Anderson reveals how innovative partnerships with families and communities can transform the other 80% into powerful learning opportunities that create more equitable education for all.

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20 MINUTES TO TRANSFORM YOUR SCHOOL

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🏴‍☠️ BREAKING DOWN THE OLD RULES

In this episode, Amy challenges traditional education paradigms:

Key Insight #1: Co-Design Educational Solutions With Communities

• What's broken: Creating educational programs for communities rather than with them

• The shift: Inviting families and students to co-design learning experiences from the very beginning

• Impact: More relevant and effective solutions that address actual needs instead of assumed ones, building lasting change (like a charter school Amy helped design that's now 26 years old)

Key Insight #2: Empower Families With Resources and Agency

• What's broken: Privileged families can direct resources toward their children's learning outside of school, while others lack this opportunity

• The shift: Creating "Learning Dollars" that give under-resourced families funds to access learning opportunities that supplement school

• Impact: Over $600,000 distributed to families across Colorado, allowing them to direct resources toward tutoring, arts, sports, STEM, and other opportunities that match their children's interests and needs

Key Insight #3: Connect Schools to Community Learning Resources

• What's broken: Schools trying to be everything to all students without utilizing community resources

• The shift: Mapping community learning assets and connecting schools with these resources to expand what schools can offer

• Impact: Creating "learning ecosystems" that leverage community expertise, like DenverLearningEcosystem.org, which helps schools find and partner with local learning providers

✌️ YOUR DO SCHOOL DIFFERENT CHALLENGE

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

1. Tomorrow: Download the Design Lab resource from ReschoolColorado.org/tools to learn the basics of co-designing with your community

2. This Month: Identify 3-5 community organizations that could enhance your school's offerings and schedule initial conversations about potential partnerships

3. This Semester: Create a pilot program that gives families some agency over a portion of educational resources, perhaps starting with summer learning opportunities

✅ CONNECT AND CONTINUE

🎯 Explore Reschool's Design Lab
🔗 Learn about Denver's Learning Ecosystem
🌐 Visit RESCHOOL Colorado
📱 Follow RESCHOOL: Instagram | Facebook | X/Twitter | LinkedIn
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🤝 TODAY’S RUCKUScast IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

• IXL: Meet your students where they are and take them where they need to go. Join over 1 million teachers who trust IXL to drive data-informed excellence in their classrooms. 🔍 Learn more: IXL.com/leaders
  

• Expressability K12: Your inbox isn't a task manager. Your mind isn't for storing mundane processes. It’s time to break free. With Expressability K12 Ruckus Makers can prioritize student success by offloading time sucking tasks.
  Visit Expressability K12 to learn how. (expressability.com/ruckus)

• ODP Business Solutions: “Our STEAM program is too complicated” = Code for “We’re doing it wrong”

  Stop letting fear kill innovation. While some schools struggle with integrating STEAM, other leaders are using a 3-part framework to transform their programs. The secret? It’s not what you think.

  Get the playbook here.

Podcast created by Danny. Audio engineered by Dragan. Show notes written by Christina. Email sent by Soniya