Assembly
Let’s build high-quality, equitable, and individualized learning experiences for all young people.
Assembly seeks to create equitable systems of education in which students can access a diversity of learning experiences, services, and supports that encourage their well-being, ensure mastery of knowledge and skills, and enable them to pursue their interests, talents, and goals.
Families with means already have disproportionate access to these opportunities through supplemental and out-of-system learning, creating a “shadow inequity” in how, where, and when students learn.
Assembly can break down barriers between school, family, and community to support every aspect of a child’s growth and development.
Publications
Assembly Across Sectors
An Assembly of Talent: Empowering and Expanding Human Capital in Education
Some Assembly Required
A History of Public Education and the Assembly of Services
Webinar: How to Help Families Navigate Learning Options
Assembling Education: Infrastructure Needs
Five Roles for Public Policy in Assembly
Not an Assembly Line
What’s Assembly?
Assembly puts families and students at the center of flexible services, supports, and learning experiences and allows them to customize experiences and build community. Equitable Assembly requires policies and practices that ensure access isn’t constrained by socioeconomic status or structural barriers such as transportation.
Needs
Each young person has fundamental needs as well as unique interests, talents, and goals. They require a variety of supports to grow into adults ready to contribute to their community, the economy, and the body politic.
- English as a second language
- English language arts
- Foreign language
- Individual passions
- Math
- Mental health, therapy, and related supports
- Nutrition
- Physical health and wellness screenings
- Science
- Sense of community
- Social services
- Social studies
- Special education
- Work experience
Resources
A flexible learning ecosystem includes the diversity of options available within and outside of school. To access these options, students and their families need funding, information, and agency.
Families need adequate, portable funding to ensure their children’s needs are met.
Families need information to find learning options, assess how they align to students’ needs, and navigate the system.
Families need a sense of what’s possible, what engagement in their children’s education can look like, and guidance and support to take advantage of available opportunities.
Providers
Students could learn and receive support from many potential providers, each of which can contribute components of what students need for lifelong success.
- Families
- District schools
- Charter schools
- Private schools
- Nonprofit organizations
- Public agencies
- Businesses
Enabling Conditions
For a flexible learning ecosystem to function, an array of enabling conditions must develop.
Infrastructure
- Broadband internet and devices
- Buildings and locations to gather
- Learning materials
- Navigation support
- Platforms and marketplaces
- Student records
- Transportation
Policy
- Accountability and transparency
- Option-enabling policies
- Funding mechanisms
- Governance arrangements
- Student data and privacy
- Other supportive policies
Human Capital
- Advocates
- Community members
- Educators
- Entrepreneurs
- Pipelines
- Policymakers
What’s broken?
A one-size-fits-all education solution puts an undue burden on schools to provide everything to young people. It leaves too many communities without diverse, high-quality educational experiences that meet the needs of all students — let alone experiences that cultivate students’ interests and passions. Those with resources routinely supplement or replace learning in school with tutoring, extracurriculars, and more, creating a “shadow inequity” that’s too often overlooked within the education sector.
What does Assembly mean for students?
K-12 students can access more learning, including academic courses, internships, dual enrollment opportunities, athletics, art, music, and more. Through an Assembly model, students can discover and explore their passions, cultivate their talents, discover their academic passions and career goals, and design a fuller, better education.
What are the challenges?
To make Assembly a reality, the field must understand infrastructure, human capital, and policy needs, including funding and costs; how Assembly can be accessible to all students across different and diverse communities; and how to navigate quality, equity, cost, accountability, data, and political roadblocks.
What’s next?
Beta by Bellwether, Advisory Group members, and field leaders will share research and analysis on how Assembly exists today, how localities are already doing Assembly, and how to better understand and overcome key challenges that face Assembly.
Advisory Group
Lori Armistead
Walton Family Foundation
Derrell Bradford
50CAN
Maya Martin Cadogan
Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE)
Joseph Connor
Odyssey
Mike Flanagan
Mastery Transcript Consortium
Selamawit Gebre
RESCHOOL
Michael Horn
Author, From Reopen to Reinvent
Ashley Jochim
Center on Reinventing Public Education
Natasha Kamrani
Organizer Zero
Christian Lehr
Tyton Partners
Michael McShane
EdChoice
Adam Peshek
Stand Together Trust
Aaliyah Samuel
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
Don Soifer
Nevada Action for School Options
Curtis Valentine
Progressive Policy Institute
Kelly Young
Education Reimagined
Note: Bellwether intentionally recruits an Advisory Group with diverse viewpoints. Participation in the Assembly Advisory Group does not constitute an endorsement of any of the ideas or perspectives shared here.
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