Big Picture Learning

Year Founded: 1995

Big Picture Learning’s school transformation work empowers and reenergizes students, teachers, and school leaders by prioritizing autonomy, care, and joy. They mobilize students, educators, school leaders, nonprofit and community leaders, and families to change structures and mindsets about our current approach to education. At the core of their work, they partner with a growing network of almost 150 schools and districts across the U.S., equipping educators to implement their learner-centered design through site coaching, student and family engagement tools, and community-based internship systems. 

To further support schools to shift their practices, Big Picture Learning provides technical tools to schools, including internship management and mentorship platforms and the International Big Picture Learning Credential, which offers a personalized project-driven, competency-based assessment as an alternative to standardized testing to assess college readiness. They also offer fellowships for school, nonprofit, and systems-level leaders to build peer community and empower leaders to change policy and practice where they live and work. To shape public conversation at the national level, they hold two annual conferences to convene educators, leaders, and students from across the country.

Big Picture Learning is seeing long-term impact for the schools they partner with and the students they reach. 

• Each year, Big Picture Learning directly supports about 300,000 young people across 27 states through the schools in their network. 
• A longitudinal study published in 2020 found that 97% of Big Picture Learning students were admitted into two-year or four-year colleges and 74% of alumni who were working and not enrolled in post-high school education reported securing a job through a contact made through one of their high school internships. 96% of alumni reported they were in touch with their high school advisors two years after graduation. The same study found that Big Picture Learning graduates were equally likely to enroll in college, regardless of their race, gender, or parents’ level of education. 
• In New York, the organization played a significant role in passing policy supporting individualized and holistic “Portrait of a Graduate” assessments for students and moving away from standardized testing to assess competency for graduation.