Spotlight: Chris Lehman & Diana Laufenberg

Students from Science Leadership Academy Campus

There is a growing desire to reexamine education and learning. Educators use the phrase "school 2.0" to think about what schools will look like in the future. Moving beyond a basic examination of using technology for classroom instruction, there is a larger discussion of how education, learning, and our physical school spaces can—and should—change because of the changing nature of our lives brought on by these technologies.

Well known for their work in creating Science Leadership Academy (SLA), a technology-rich, collaborative, learner-centric school in Philadelphia, founding principal Chris Lehmann and  Diana Laufenberg, SLA executive director are uniquely positioned to speak about changing how we educate. The best strategies, featured in their talk, Creating the Schools We Need at the upcoming EDspaces conference in Tampa Florida, address enabling networked learning that allows research, creativity, communication, and collaboration to help prepare students to be functional citizens within a modern society.

Their talk includes discussions of the following key concepts:

• Technology must be ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible
• Classrooms must be learner-centric and use backwards design principles
• Good technology can be better than new technology
• Teachers must serve as mentors and bring real-world experiences to students

Their talk will help educators and administrators to examine specific practices in their schools, and to then take their conclusions from theory to practice. Collectively, the theses represent a new vision of school, built off of the best of what has come before us, but with an eye toward a future we cannot fully imagine.

About Chris and Diana

In 2013, Chris co-founded the non-profit Inquiry Schools with Diana Laufenberg to help more schools create more empowering, modern learning experiences for students, and he serves as Superintendent and Chair of the Board. In partnership with Inquiry Schools, Chris opened Science Leadership Academy (SLA) @ Beeber campus, the second campus in the SLA model, and in 2016, Chris co-founded Science Leadership Academy Middle School. SLA is a non-profit working to create and support student-centered learning environments that are inquiry driven, project based and utilizing modern technology. He is a respected educator and author,  Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need.


Diana currently serves as the Executive Director for Inquiry Schools and lives in West-Central Wisconsin. Diana was featured on TED.com for her “How to Learn? From Mistakes” and recognized for earning National Board Certification. Her publications include a featured piece on the New York Times Learning blog, co-authoring a chapter in an educational leadership book, and an article in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.