|
You can find more information on the MBLC website or check out our Google Calendar of Events.
Impact Fellows Meeting (note that Fellows have already been selected)
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
3:30 p.m - 5:00 p.m PST
The MBLC Impact Fellows are a group of educators from across the Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative who work to achieve educational equity in schools through leading and facilitating learning in their own schools and districts, and through the facilitation of sharing and learning among MBLC schools.
MBLC Fellows will attend four Zoom meetings this year from 3:30 - 5:00 PM on September 15, October 7, February 9, and April 27.
Fall Community Gathering (in-person)
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Location: Sno Isle Tech Skills Center, 9001 Airport Road, Everett, WA 98204
On October 20, we will hold a full-day, in-person Gathering. This Fall Gathering will give MBLC team members a chance to connect with colleagues from across the state, share new developments in their implementation journeys, and build capacity around CBE implementation at the classroom and school level. We will hear from Sno-Isle leadership, our new Living Lab School, and our Impact Fellows.
Participation in the Fall Gathering will require some knowledge of CBE frameworks and practices. We ask that non-MBLC participants come with some knowledge or awareness of CBE practices.
Light morning refreshments, coffee, and lunch will be provided.
Please complete the official registration form by Friday October 2nd, 2026.
Priority registration will be reserved for MBLC school teams. Please note that each attendee must complete a unique form. Clock hours will be available for this event, provided by SBE.
MBLC Fall Virtual Meeting
Tuesday, November 17, 2026
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. PST
An important forum for our shared learning and collaboration will be our MBLC Virtual Meetings, which will occur once in the fall and once in the spring. Each online meeting will begin with a webinar presentation, which will be followed by opportunities for discussion and connection in breakout rooms with educators from across the MBLC.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Welcoming MBLC's New Living Lab School
We welcome West Valley Innovation Center as our new Cohort 1 Living Lab School, joining Avanti High School and Edgemont Junior High as they lead our MBLC community this year!
During this 2026-27 school year, the MBLC will continue the Living Lab Schools program to showcase schools that can serve as exemplars of culturally responsive CBE practices. Modeled after New York City’s Competency Collaborative, Living Lab schools will demonstrate CBE in action. They will attend MBLC professional learning and receive dedicated coaching from Great Schools Partnership. Each school will also present at our all-community gatherings, host one intervisitation and contribute tools and resources to the MBLC community. Living Lab schools are not required to be advanced implementers, but they should be ready to share their journey and invite others to learn alongside them.
FullScale Synposium
For those planning to attend the annual FullScale Symposium in Indianapolis, Indiana this October: FullScale is introducing Learning Labs and would love for you to participate!
This experience includes five hours of protected time for your team to work on the strategic goals and challenges that matter most in your district, with expert coaches and other leaders working through similar challenges by your side. Coaches include leaders from LEAP Innovations, Learner-Centered Collaborative, Building 21, Transcend, Throughline Learning, Marzano Academies, KnowledgeWorks, and Getting Smart. There’s still time to join! Come solo or bring your team: $400/person for teams of 1–4 or $2,000 for teams of 5+. Learning Labs are exclusively for registered Symposium attendees, and space is limited! For more information, contact Juliana Finegan (juliana.finegan@fullscalelearning.org).
FullScale: Share Your E-Rate Story
E-Rate is a federal program that helps eligible schools and libraries afford high-speed internet access and the internal network infrastructure needed to connect students, educators, and library patrons. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees the program, is seeking public input on E-Rate and the relationship among connectivity, technology use, and student outcomes.
FullScale is collecting local stories to inform its public comment. We want to hear from school, district, library, rural education, and technology leaders about what E-Rate-supported connectivity and network infrastructure make possible in their communities and what could be at risk if funding declined. The Share Your E-Rate Story form takes approximately 3–5 minutes, and respondents can specify whether and how their stories may be quoted or attributed. Responses are requested as soon as possible to inform comments being assembled by the end of September.
Ready-to-Use PBL Projects & Affordable Professional Learning from PBLWorks
PBLWorks (Buck Institute for Education), is a nonprofit dedicated to helping teachers and schools design, implement, and sustain high-quality Project Based Learning (PBL). For over 25 years, PBLWorks has supported educators nationwide in shifting classroom instruction toward deeper, more engaging, real-world learning.
If you are looking for high-quality PBL without the heavy lift of building it from scratch? PBLWorks' TEACH curriculum offers fully developed, classroom-ready projects designed by teachers, for teachers so you can bring rigorous, standards-aligned PBL into your classroom right away, at a low cost. Pair that with PBLWorks' affordable professional learning options, available both in person and virtual, to build your team's capacity to design, manage, and assess PBL with confidence.
Learn more at PBLWorks.org, or reach out directly to explore what might work for your schools:
📅 Schedule a conversation: https://go.oncehub.com/ChristineLilley
📧 Email: christine@pblworks.org
Here are some MBLC highlights from our coaches. Enjoy, and let us know your wish list for next time!
Grounding the School Year in Truth: Rainier Valley Leadership Academy Starts the Year with Deep Learning for Teachers
By Kate Gardoqui,
This fall, while schools across Washington were engaging in typical pre-service professional learning, Rainier Valley Leadership Academy (RVLA) started the school year with something different. RVLA, which serves a majority Black student demographic, is a public charter school in South Seattle founded on the pillars of leadership, community and decolonized curriculum.
Instead of gathering in the auditorium or meeting in classrooms, the RVLA staff traveled to the Dexter Horton building in Seattle to explore the Unspoken Truths Traveling Museum exhibition and to hear from storyteller Delbert Richardson, who guided them through the exhibit and used stories to help them engage with the artifacts along with his colleagues Noni Ervin and Dr. Donald Felder.
The museum presents American history through an Afrocentric lens. The exhibits are divided in four segments, Mother Africa, Chattel Slavery, Jim Crow, and Still We Rise, described like this on the Unspoken Truths website: “Mother Africa highlights the numerous contributions by Africans in STEM fields; American Chattel Slavery delves into the brutal treatment and psychological impacts on African Americans of the Diaspora; The Jim Crow era examines the racial caste system and the creation and enforcement of legalized segregation; and Still We Rise, focuses on the myriad contributions in the Americas by Black inventors and inventions.”
Ray Garcia Morales, the Executive Director and Principal of RVLA, decided to organize this professional learning experience for his staff because he wanted his diverse staff to deepen their understanding of the Black experience, and the complex history, both on this continent and in Africa, that is part of the heritage of Black students. 70% of the RVLA staff is Global Majority, but the school serves a majority Black student demographic. So even though the staff is diverse, they don't necessarily reflect the student population or their life experiences.
The day began with an exploration of what it means to be rooted in community. Richardson, the lead facilitator, guided staff through the museum, using the artifacts to illustrate stories. The history that was explored by the teachers ranged from African history to the history of redlining in Seattle. “Everyone in the room learned something new,” says Morales; the museum is fully interactive, and participants can touch the artifacts, which makes the learning more visceral and sensory.
Morales had decided to begin the year this way after conversations with Noni Ervin, the creator of Kinara Park Kids, who provides enrichment activities for middle school students at RVLA. Ervin suggested that this experience would be a powerful way for the educators to deepen their understanding of what it means to serve a majority Black student population. “There is a level of disconnect when teachers have different identities from kids - so we asked, how can we address this?” explains Morales. This question is essential to the work of culturally responsive-sustaining education.
Noni Ervin shared these thoughts about the effectiveness of the training: “We intentionally began the school year with The Unspoken Truths because we wanted educators to engage with history, culture, identity, and lived experience before moving into the work of teaching and learning. The experience created space for reflection, meaningful dialogue, and deeper consideration of how these histories inform our classrooms and school communities. RVLA’s team engagement reinforced what we believe is possible when professional development is experiential, culturally grounded, and connected to practice.”
The educators who participated in this experience were visibly inspired: before the day ended, they were already planning field trips, discussing how to invite families into the work, and brainstorming ways to partner with Delbert Richardson going forward.
Many teachers find themselves in the position of teaching students with different identities from their own; the challenge of culturally responsive teaching is to navigate that difference in a way that affirms every student in the room, and this requires learning and openness. The Unspoken Truths experience was powerful for RVLA staff because it helped them learn about the history and experience of Black students while simultaneously sending the message that any teacher, no matter their own identity, can be a positive force for young people if they are thoughtful about how to navigate their differences. Morales explains, “It helped our educators recognize that you can be your true, authentic self - you don’t need to be somebody that you are not in order to connect - but you need to know who you are and where you came from. You don’t need to adopt a new identity in order to connect, but you have to know how to communicate respect.”
Morales recommends that all MBLC schools consider a staff visit to the museum, but if you cannot bring your staff to Seattle, Richardson may be able to bring the traveling museum to your school. It is worth the time and cost, he affirms, and worth the effort: “I have been looking at invoices for professional development for a decade,” says Morales. “For what we got, the exposure to history, it was so powerful.”
READ THIS, WATCH THAT!
The State of Personalized, Competency-based Education
KnowledgeWorks provides us with a snapshot of the field in 2026.
9 Guardrails to Keep Learners Moving in Competency-based Learning
Read about the need for guardrails to ensure student flexibility and accountability as students progress toward graduation through competency-based education.
Tilting at Windmills: Classroom Grading Practices That Won’t Go Away
Scott Marion talks about Intuitive Test Theory and four ways to improve bad grading practices.
|
