Resources for Action: Activating the Nevada Future of Learning Network
- Joe Kennedy
- Mar 24
- 5 min read
What is a good life? What is a thriving community? And what is the role of school in helping us get there? These profound questions started a ripple of vital conversations across Nevada’s education ecosystem. The answers from educators, families, young people, and business stakeholders helped shape the Nevada Portrait of a Learner - and a Portrait is only the beginning. To move from a shared vision to a daily reality for students, educators need tools, collaborators, and a roadmap.
That is why we are thrilled to unveil the new Network Resources page.
This digital hub is filled with tools and resources designed to help our entire community turn vision into action. Whether you’re a state policymaker, a school leader, a classroom educator or a current student, there is a resource that has been designed to help you activate the Portrait from the seat you’re in.
This blog offers a "behind-the-scenes" peek into how these tools were designed with our community and where they will help us go next. If you’re ready to start exploring, stop reading and head over to the Network Resources Page, but if you want to learn more about the collaborative process that got us here, I invite you to continue.
Who: Designing with Community
"Everything about this work has been co-designed since the beginning," says Jeanine Collins, CFL Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer. Jeanine emphasizes that these resources weren't built in a vacuum - they are the result of an ongoing Research & Development process where the Network has been learning alongside educators in real-time. “We didn’t just sit down and come up with a list of resources; as we were building the work through pilots with educators and partners we were constantly learning from what we had and what we didn’t have, and that informed what we built next all along the way. Because of this process we ended up with great resources that I don't think our team would have identified if we had been working in isolation.”
The Nevada Future of Learning Network was created as a connection and collaboration space for people excited about rethinking learning environments. CFL serves as the lead facilitator of the Network, bringing together diverse stakeholders from all across our state. With these resources, we hope to establish a framework that will support more Network members in reimagining what’s possible for their context and springboard innovative action toward future-ready and learner-centered learning.
How: A Toolkit for the "Village"
As the Network has been pursuing a whole-community approach to reimagining broad, multi-layered systems, a central design consideration has always been addressing the "variability of who might be looking at these resources," says Syd Young, Director of Teaching and Learning at KnowledgeWorks. As the lead in developing these resources and a key partner in co-creating the framework to bring the Portrait to life, Syd and the KnowledgeWorks team focused on ensuring these resources could be relevant to every learner and stakeholder.
"It’s an adage, but it’s true: it takes a village," Syd says. "Any stakeholder should be able to find purpose in these resources and inspiration in how they can better prepare learners to thrive now and in the future."
While portrait models have recently been developed in other states and districts across the nation, the local and community-driven process behind Nevada’s Portrait centered the unique themes that are most important to our state.
One uniquely Nevadan approach that emerged is our Portrait’s focus on four domains - Empowering, Connecting, Impacting, and Thriving - and their guiding questions, rather than jumping straight into a checklist of skills or attributes. "This approach highlights the broader possibilities and questions for learners on a more metacognitive level that inspires a lot more rigor," Syd notes.
What: Competency and Learning Progressions
While the Portrait identifies attributes like Resilience or Collaboration, a common problem of practice often becomes: How do we actually implement these attributes in school and measure them in students?
The new Portrait-Aligned Competency and Rubric Learning Progressions were created to solve exactly that. Developed through a research-based process with educators from urban, suburban, and rural Nevada, these progressions act as a calibration tool.
"It allows for students to be able to say, 'Here’s where I’m at in my development of this skill.' It’s not just a teacher saying, 'Okay, you’re resilient, and I’ve given you an A-plus on resiliency.' It’s the person doing the learning having evidence and ownership over their experience," Jeanine Collins explains, noting these progressions allow for "look-fors" in the classroom.
The "How" vs. The "What" in Learning
Syd Young views these competencies as the bridge between academic standards and real-world success. She notes that while standards (like solving for X in Algebra) are important, the competencies are the "how" that stays with a student forever.
"Why do we have to learn algebra? You’re learning a different way of thinking and problem-solving so that you can apply that in different contexts outside of math," Syd explains. "Instead of students focusing on what the “right” answer is - it's more about the how. How did you apply your learning to get to an answer, how might you approach a situation where you don’t know the answer, and as educators how are we leveraging content standards to support students with increased agency?"
Why: Preparing for a World Without an Answer Key
The ultimate goal of these emerging resources is to prepare students for a future that is rapidly changing. In the past, the classroom was a place where the teacher held the answer key. Today’s graduates are entering a world where, as Syd puts it, "There’s no answer key."
By increasing learner choice and agency within the classroom and learning experiences, students can practice making decisions and reflect on their own growth in a low-stakes environment. They become agentic learners who don't just wait for a grade - they figure out where they want to go and what they need to know and do to get there.
As Jeanine reminds us, this approach is actually more durable and human-centered. "When we think about what we know about how the brain works and learning science, we know that things stick when we're able to apply them. The Portrait is about actually aligning the way we think about instruction with how humans actually thrive."
Take the Next Step
The Nevada Future of Learning Network is an open invitation. Whether you are a district leader looking to crosswalk your current standards with the state portrait, an educator looking for rubric models, or a learner interested in exploring new ways of learning, these tools are built for you.
