Four Ways the 2025 Student Power Summit Inspired Me
Students and teachers have been a ray of sunshine for me this week. I attended Learning InspirED's 2025 Student Power Summit and seeing educators and students championing student agency - not in some theoretical future, but in their classrooms today - was just awesome. Four favorite takeaways:
1️⃣ Listen to Students: They’re asking us for more - more lived experiences, more practical application, more opportunity to explore their passions and interests, and more preparation for a future that many of us struggle to imagine. We have to deliver.
2️⃣ Rethink Everything: True student agency requires a fundamental shift in how we think about everything in education - assessments, grades, planning and content. We need to create policies that support educators working through these mental shifts.
3️⃣ Agency + Rigor: Student empowerment and academic rigor are not opposing forces. Engagement fuels deeper learning.
4️⃣ Teachers Benefit Too: When students lead, teachers become powerful mentors and collaborators and they, too, have new opportunities to bring their passions and interests into their work in new ways.
Fun side-note: In something of a “take your kids to work” experiment, my elementary-aged kids joined me on Day 2 of the Summit – a story for another time!
Looking forward to learning more by digging into the extensive reading list I know have, including:
