Agency is an essential ingredient for thriving in and transforming the world. However, it often isn’t a centerpiece of children’s experiences in school.
These resources seek to help schools and districts rethink and redesign learning so that all learners, including our very youngest, are able to enact their agency and recognize their power.
Agency must be a part of every learner’s school experience, no matter where they live, who they are, or what conditions they face.
Agency involves a variety of skills; young children are capable and ready to start building these skills and enacting their agency.
Agentic classrooms enable young people to act on their curiosities, an opportunity that is too often lost for children when they transition to school and can support engagement and learning.
Agency fuels lifelong learning and achievement and is vital for navigating the challenges of a complex, uncertain future.
Agency isn’t only something individuals exercise alone. When young people come together around a shared goal, exercising what’s called collective agency, they can take on the toughest challenges facing their communities.
Agency entails intentionally influencing one’s life and learning. This process relies on an individual’s capacity and motivation as well as the context they are in.
Agency is the ability to intentionally influence one's life and learning.
It entails a continuous and dynamic process of setting goals, making plans to achieve those goals, taking action, and reflecting and revising along the way.
People are more likely to exhibit agency when they are motivated, have the required capacity, and are situated in a supportive context.
There are a variety of ways to cultivate agency in young people. We have identified ten practices that align with the research on agency and K–8 development and with what forward-thinking schools are doing to support agency in their learners.
- Safe & Trusting Culture
- Shared Ownership of the Learning Environment
- Rigorous Learning
- Learning Strategies & Habits Instruction
- High-Value Learning Activities
- Exploration & Play
- Focus on Goals, Progress & Mastery
- Metacognitive Reflection, Feedback & Self-Knowledge
- Deep, Self-Directed Work
- Targeted Support
Agency is the ability to intentionally influence one's life and learning.
It entails a continuous and dynamic process of setting goals, making plans to achieve those goals, taking action, and reflecting and revising along the way.
People are more likely to exhibit agency when they are motivated, have the required capacity, and are situated in a supportive context.
There are a variety of ways to cultivate agency in young people. We have identified ten practices that align with the research on agency and K–8 development and with what forward-thinking schools are doing to support agency in their learners.
See the Early Agency Model in action at Lindsay.
This work began with supporting our youngest learners in K-2 classrooms. See the Early Agency Model articulation as a way to launch agency from the beginning of their schooling experience.
Redesigning learning to advance agency in grades K-8 will be a significant change, one that requires fundamental shifts to your school and system. Luckily, there are others to learn from and with.
Agency Resources
Igniting Agency In Early learners: Executive Summary
This primer will help you and your community understand what agency is and how to design learning environments that are supportive of it.
Igniting Agency in Early Learning: Full Primer
This primer will help you and your community understand what agency is and how to design learning environments that are supportive of it.
Igniting Agency in Early Learning Cards
These cards are intended to spark inspiration and conversation about advancing agency in early learning.
ReDesigning early Learning: How Lindsay Unified is Scaling Agency-Rich Practices Across their District
For over a decade, Lindsay Unified School District (LUSD) has been a pioneer in building a learner- centered system.
Early Agency Model
The Early Agency Model seeks to create learning experiences that cultivate agency in developmentally appropriate and meaningful ways.
