Hop, Skip, Leapfrog

This online toolkit is one element of the broader Hop, Skip, Leapfrog project. Explore our current resources below. This list will be updated over time with links to a growing body of additional information, stories, and resources.

• What Has Emerged: Introducing the Hop, Skip, Leapfrog Project

• Launching Forward: Leveraging pandemic innovations to advance school systems

• TLA Stories of Learning: What Will We Take With Us? Leadership Podcast Series

• Hop, Skip, Leapfrog Expert Blogs

The Learning Accelerator is grateful for the many organizations and individuals whose contributions made this guide and project possible.

School System Leaders

We owe immense gratitude to the leaders of school systems who worked with us to share what they’ve learned through a most extraordinary school year:

• Suzanne Newell, Austin Independent School District;

• Bb Ntsakey and Eric Tucker, Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School

• John Rice, Noreen Bush, and Nicole Kooiker, Cedar Rapids Community School District;

• Savannah Bell, Chicago Public Schools

• Nicole Ottmer and Natasha North, Colorado Springs School District 11

• Kristen Watkins, Dallas Independent School District

• Stephanie Cardella and Katie O’Connor, Distinctive Schools

• Scott Muri, Ector County Independent School District

• Ann Ertl, Hopkins Public Schools

• Jeanette Westfall, Scott Heeke, Ashley Duvall, Carrie Gabriel, Amanda Primm, Tara Harvey, Tracey Kracht, Lisa Gray, Brandon Lewis, Leslie Freeman, Dawn Shannon, and Molly Henley, Liberty Public Schools

• David Quinn, Mendon-Upton Regional School District

• Mark Benigni, Barbara Haeffner, and Susan Moore, Meriden Public Schools

• Keri Randolph, Metro Nashville Public Schools

• PK Diffenbaugh, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District

• Kia McDaniel, Prince George’s County Public Schools

• Bob Ettinger, Renton School District

• Tina Owen-Moore, School District of Cudahy

• Cheryl Camacho, South Bend Empowerment Zone

In addition, we are thankful to educators at Design39, Highline Schools, Intrinsic Schools, Norwood Public Schools, and Uxbridge Public Schools for sharing remote and hybrid learning strategies featured in this Guide.

Subject Matter Experts

Additional leaders and experts who agreed to offer their perspectives, helping us enrich our understanding of opportunities and challenges our sector faces as well as shape project outputs:

• Scott Milam, Afton Partners

• John Garcia and Kristina Romero, Greater LA Education Foundation

• Malika Ali, Highlander Institute

• Kristi Ransick, Independent Consultant

• Diana Laufenberg, Inquiry Schools

• Karla Phillips-Krivickas, KnowledgeWorks

• Chong-Hao Fu, Leading Educators

• Jilliam Joe, LEAP Innovations

• Anpao Duta Flying Earth, NACA Inspired Schools Network

• Sarah Johnson, Teaching Lab

Philanthropic Support

The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation helped make this research possible.

Inspiration for how to think about system progress towards "leapfrogging" was inspired by Rebecca Winthrop, Adam Barton, and Eileen McGivney's work, Leapfrogging Inequality: Remaking Education to Help Young People Thrive. You can read the blog post that provoked our team's analysis here.

This resource is offered to the field through a CC BY Creative Commons License. Suggested citation is as follows: Rabbitt, B. and Dávila, B. (2021). Hop, Skip, Leapfrog: Exploring the concrete ways schools and systems pursued student-centered innovation during COVID-19. The Learning Accelerator. Portland, ME.

Do you have your own stories and resources to share? Have questions? Contact the team at info@learningaccelerator.org.