The Inflexion Approach

We use The Inflexion Approach as an organizational framework designed to support schoolwide implementation efforts and to build learning communities that work for all students. The Inflexion Approach builds on the work of Peter Senge and Michael Fullan and was developed by Inflexion’s Executive Director, Matt Coleman, who used the framework as a high school administrator to drive decisions resulting in equitable outcomes for students.

The Inflexion Approach highlights four elements critical for making quality decisions to create learning environments that prepare students for life after high school. Our work at Inflexion supports educational leaders as they focus on these four elements. We believe that a clear, shared organizational identity informs the structures needed to support learning and empowers readiness for all students.

We use The Inflexion Approach as an organizational framework designed to support schoolwide implementation efforts and to build learning communities that work for <b><i>all</i></b> students. The Inflexion Approach builds on the work of Peter Senge and Michael Fullan and was developed by Inflexion’s Executive Director, <a href=”https://www.inflexion.org/team/matt-coleman/”>Matt Coleman</a>, who used the framework as a high school administrator to drive decisions resulting in equitable outcomes for students.

Identity

Learning communities that effectively prepare all students for life after high school have a clear sense of who they are. Shared vision, values, and beliefs are the foundation of all they do and inform the decisions they make toward readiness. <a href=”https://www.inflexion.org/what-we-do/identity/”>Learn more</a>

Structure

To implement a shared vision, schools need organized structures to support the learning environment. Schools that invest time and energy in leadership, processes, and systems ensure that checks and balances are in place to meet the needs of all students. <a href=”https://www.inflexion.org/what-we-do/structure/”>Learn more</a>

Learning

Schools that empower all students to become lifelong learners design their programs and instruction around a clear definition of student readiness. They support all students in their unique paths toward gaining these skills both in and out of school. <a href=”https://www.inflexion.org/what-we-do/learning/”>Learn more</a>

Readiness for All

At Inflexion, we employ a holistic framework for student readiness based on Dr. David Conley’s Four Keys to College and Career Readiness – Think, Know, Act, and Go. We believe this framework highlights the real skills students need to thrive in the 21st century. <a href=”https://www.inflexion.org/what-we-do/readiness-for-all/”>Learn more</a>

School Identity

Any school leader who has been tasked with correcting misinformation understands the power of perceptions in a learning community. Schools are in a constant battle of reality vs. perception and the best way to combat this is to have a clear sense of what is true about your community and to communicate it frequently and clearly.

We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves. And it’s those who start with “why” that have the ability to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them.

-Simon Sinek

Learning communities that effectively prepare all students for life after high school have this clear sense of who they are. Their shared vision, values, and beliefs are the foundation of all they do and inform the decisions they make. Developing a clear strategy for casting your vision to your stakeholders is critical to student readiness.

Coherent Systems and Structures

It’s one thing to have a clear vision for your learning community, but without structures in place, that vision cannot come to true fruition.

If more and more leaders become system thinkers, they will gravitate towards strategies that alter people’s system-related experiences; that is they will alter people’s mental awareness of the system as a whole, thereby contributing to altering the system itself.

-Michael Fullan

Many organizations are reactionary, rather than strategic, plugging in programs to fill gaps, but become frustrated when the culture of their school changes and the programs become irrelevant. Schools and districts that work for all students have coherent structures, systems, and processes that are aligned with their identity and each other (coherence) to support learning.

Instructional Practices and Learning

Students spend 85% of their school day with teachers and other support specialists engaged in learning. Ultimately our goal as an organization is to impact the instructional experiences students have every period, every day with an eye towards ensuring students furthest from opportunity receive what they need to be life ready. Our focus is on identifying, developing, and supporting instructional practices designed to ensure all students meet a holistic set of outcomes linked to life readiness.

Shared Vision of Readiness for All

A limited definition of readiness undermines every student’s opportunity for success, but especially the most vulnerable or underserved in schools. A more comprehensive definition isn’t just inclusive of all students, it gives a common language and actionable model to align support services, efforts, staffing, culture, and classrooms schoolwide.

Based on over a decade of research and his 20 years of experience in the public education system, Dr. David Conley developed the Four Keys so that students, families, and educators can identify and prioritize what skills are needed to be successful after high school.

In its simplest form, we refer to the Four Keys as Think, Know, Act, and Go. In other words, students ready to be lifelong learners have the ability to THINK deeply about what they are doing; KNOW contextually why they learn; ACT purposefully to achieve their goals; and GO successfully through life’s transitions.

Think Know Act Go

We offer a way of thinking and framework based on The Four Keys of College and Career Readiness™ that helps educators be more strategic and impactful across the board with their efforts, resources, initiatives, planning, and classroom instruction. The unique lens of the Four Keys framework helps make sense of complexity and helps identify opportunity for real and actionable improvement in systems, schools, and classrooms. Our strategic work with educators creates focus amid clutter, and empowers school communities to strengthen and sustain a culture that can support every student’s readiness and educational success.

Building off of Dr. Conley’s model, we use a series of questions that successful learners should continually ask themselves. Using these questions, we can begin to support students as they navigate pathways that are more and more complex in education, careers, and their personal lives. Utilizing the Four Keys in this way is not a linear process, but instead should be thought of as a set of skills and strategies to better understand how we learn as well as a framework for approaching new concepts and situations as we interact with the world around us.

We Use the Four Keys in Two Primary Ways

As a research-based actionable definition of the skills and knowledge a 21st century student needs to be a lifelong learner and succeed beyond high school. The model provides a common language that districts, schools, teachers, students, and families can use to organize student learning.
As a framework that schools and districts can use to develop environments in which ALL students are prepared to succeed beyond high school. Using the Four Keys as a lens allows school and district leaders to examine existing efforts, resources, initiatives, and programs in terms of how balanced their approach is to supporting and preparing all students.

IDENTITY

STRUCTURE

LEARNING

READINESS