League Learning Collaboratives (LLCs) are multi-session, cohort-based learning and design experiences that bring education leaders together to tackle complex challenges that cannot be solved in a single meeting or through a one-size-fits-all solution.
Many of the hardest challenges facing school systems cannot be solved by someone outside the system prescribing the answer. They require time to examine the problem, learn from others, test possible approaches, and determine what works in context.
League Learning Collaboratives (LLC) give participants the structure and time to do exactly that. With the help of a clear structure and time-bound duration, targeted expertise, and practical design and testing, participants work through real challenges and develop a clearer path forward for their own systems.
Start with the Challenges that Matter Now
The LLC curriculum is built from what districts are actually wrestling with, not from what the League or its partners assume they need. Topics emerge through surveys, focus groups, and conversations with League members prior to each cohort launch.
Driven by Peer Exchange; Strengthened through Partner Expertise
LLCs are rooted in the power of peer-to-peer learning. Participants draw on the experience in the room to challenge assumptions, pressure-test ideas, and determine feasibility. External partners contribute targeted expertise to deepen the work.
Designed for Implementation
Each LLC moves participants from a named instructional challenge through planning, early implementation, and reflection, ending with a pilot blueprint that has been tested in practice, not just designed on paper.
LLCs ask participants across role types to bring a real challenge from their district, workshop it alongside peers in five 90-minute working sessions, test a practical move in their context over 30-60 days, and return with what they learned.
From Challenge to Action
Every LLC follows a structured learning journey designed to help participants move from a complex question to a practical, tested next step.
2027
Test It in Your System
Try the approach during a 30- to 60-day field test.
Return with What You Learned
Share what happened, refine your thinking, and determine what comes next.
2026
Bring the Challenge
Identify a real problem and explore what is happening beneath the surface.
Explore Possible Approaches
Learn from peers, examples, and targeted expertise.
Design a First Move and Prepare to Launch
Create a practical response that fits your context.
What Participants Will Take Back
A Tested Path Forward: Participants leave with a practical next step informed by what they designed, tested, and learned in their own context.
A Peer-Reviewed Pilot Blueprint: A concrete plan strengthened through structured feedback, pressure-testing, and real implementation.
Insights to Share with the Field: Opportunities to contribute what participants learn to resources and stories that help other education leaders navigate similar challenges.
Better Decisions: Participants gain multiple approaches, an honest trade-off analysis, and peer pressure-testing.
Peer Relationships that Last: Participants forge connections with colleagues who have seen them think honestly about a hard problem.
The Challenges We’re Tackling Now
Each year, League members identify the questions and challenges where deeper, sustained learning could make a difference. Explore the LLCs currently bringing leaders together to move from complex challenges to practical action.
AI as a Leader’s Tool in Teacher Retention
Designed for principals and other school-based leaders at the instructional system level, this LLC explores how thoughtful AI use, aligned leadership practices, and supportive systems can strengthen teacher retention and help educators thrive. Participants will design and test a focused pilot in their own context.
Strengthening Strategic Edtech Procurement
Designed for district leaders who help shape, evaluate, approve, implement, or renew education technology contracts. Participants will identify a focused opportunity to strengthen their approach to edtech procurement and design a practical move to test in their own system.
Moving from Math HQIM Adoption to Meaningful Implementation
Designed for district curriculum and academic leaders responsible for math instruction at the instructional system level. Participants identify and test one focused move to help translate math high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) adoption into more consistent, responsive, and high-quality learning experiences for students across classrooms.
Participating Districts
Partner with Leaders Working through What Matters Now
Building strong, sustainable partnerships with school systems starts with understanding the challenges they are facing and how they are thinking about the future of systems innovation.
As an LLC partner, you will have the opportunity to learn alongside a trusted cohort of League leaders, gain deeper insight into the questions shaping their decisions, and contribute targeted expertise where it can strengthen the work.
Together with a Digital Promise learning experience designer, partners help support a multi-session learning and design experience built around challenges identified by League members. More than a one-time presentation to an audience, this is an opportunity to contribute to a sustained, practice-based learning experience.
Interested in exploring partnership options?Email Rebecca Banks to learn more.
The Challenges We’ve Tackled Together
From AI literacy and digital equity to educator retention, career readiness, and high school redesign, League members have used LLCs to work through some of the most pressing questions shaping their systems.
2025-26 Cohort
AI Literacy
Grounded in the Digital Promise AI Framework, this LLC empowered participants to understand, evaluate, and ethically apply AI tools to enhance teaching, learning, leading, and district operations while developing a tangible resource to implement in their system.
Career Readiness and Workforce Development
This LLC equipped participants with the tools and insights necessary to design robust and scalable career readiness programs that enhance student agency, foster community partnerships, and promote workforce success.
Educator Recruitment and Retention
This LLC helped participants develop actionable strategies to build and sustain a strong educator workforce through practical insights gained from guest speakers, case studies, and problem-solving sessions.
To retain high-quality teachers…we must…provide differentiated, responsive professional development aligned to their day-to-day challenges.
Asia Michael
Superintendent, Freehold Borough School District (New Jersey)
After adapting a strategy from a peer in the collaborative, we implemented dedicated paperwork days for special education teachers… We're seeing that the burden has been lifted, and it's a positive change we will carry into next year.
Deron Cameron
Assistant Superintendent of Operations, Tuscaloosa City School District (Alabama)
As a small rural district…we’ve worked hard to make technology equitable. That commitment…puts us in a strong place to explore how AI can support equity and personalize learning.
Rachael Smith
Federal Programs, Piedmont City School District (Alabama)
While my initial student survey design caused some ambiguity, collaborating with the group helped me realize the solution: to drill down deeper and gather feedback from smaller, individual classroom settings.
Ryan Vollmuth
Transition/Work Based Learning Coordinator, West Islip Union Free School District (New York)
2024-25 Cohort
Digital Transformation
This LLC helped participants explore, refine, and enhance their digital equity practices through collaborative, cross-functional discussions grounded in Digital Promise’s Digital Transformation Framework.
High School Redesign
This LLC gave participants the opportunity to discuss, learn, and take action to reimagine the high school experience to meet the demands of the future and empower scholars to embrace and develop their uniquely human qualities.
Student Voice and Engagement
This LLC built participants’ capacity to empower and engage students by developing tailored approaches to authentically and purposefully include student voices in decision-making, program development, and daily campus life.
From Collaborative Learning to Real-World Action
The real test of an LLC begins when participants take what they’ve learned back into their systems. Explore how League members have turned ideas from the cohort into practical changes, new approaches, and stronger decisions.
