We empower schools to break beyond the confines of traditional educational systems.
Headrush champions the idea that learning is as unique as each student. We're here to support educators who value the messiness of hands-on learning and want to bring the dynamism of the real world into the classroom.
How Headrush helps schools
and educators
Balance messy learning with structure
Real learning gets messy, taking unexpected turns. The Headrush LMS keeps things organized without losing the fun and authenticity of learning by choice. They make it easier for teachers to let students lead their learning while keeping everything on track.
Make assessments more meaningful
A student's progress can't be squeezed into just letters and numbers. Headrush provides richer assessment tools that track a wide range of learning indicators - from project completion to skill development. We're redefining assessment to reflect the true breadth of student learning.
Keep education flexible and sustainable
Headrush is designed for the dynamic needs of modern education. We ensure that teaching methods can evolve and adapt, supporting diverse learning styles and interdisciplinary approaches. Education becomes a flexible, sustainable journey that grows with your school.
The challenges faced by innovative schools are real and often made harder by the legacy of traditional systems.
Learner-centered is messy.
Being truly learner-centered can make learning head off into all kinds of unexpected directions. If learning is not messy, it’s likely not authentic and learner-centered. But how can we manage the mess in a way we don’t lose all accountability?Obvious, but hard— student agency.
Nobody argues that to be truly engaged, students need to be empowered, active participants in their learning. Yet a prescriptive curriculum with fixed length and content is the norm.Traditional Learning Management Systems… Not really an open Canvas.
Traditional LMSs have very limiting ideas baked in as core concepts. They assume all learning is confined to courses with a single teacher, single subject area, single credit with learners following an identical, predetermined path. Not always obvious at the start, attempting anything multidisciplinary, multimodal, agile or competency-aligned requires exhausting contortions and work arounds.Tracking “assignments” is cute, but…
Many gradebook-like systems do a good job of posting assignments tied to due dates. However, the modern effective educator is managing more than just assignments, including projects, collaborative seminars, and whole student assessment.Traditional grades don’t tell the story.
Rolling up countless hours of diverse learning experience to a single number or letter grade is simply ridiculous. We need a better way to tell the true story of a learner’s journey that includes growth, evidence of learning, and feedback.Breaking down silos requires different culture.
Good solutions and supporting culture need to go hand-in-hand. Without an enabling culture, the best learning management will not improve learning outcomes. On the other hand, a system that runs counter to the culture can be stifling to growth and agility.That great spreadsheet is cool, but has its limits.
With great intentions, talented teams in Innovative learning models often ‘spreadsheet ninja’ a solution after finding traditional systems don’t meet their needs. In the short-term, this is awesome as it clarifies their model without the friction of traditional systems, and adds some ease in reporting. However, as organizations grow, staff changes, and needs evolve, these spreadsheets become hard to maintain, limiting in their purpose and get in the way of their original goal.Course-based 50-minute periods are a trap!
Being agile means recognizing not everything needs to be 16 week chunks or else. The ability to break down content, courses, and units into smaller units opens up the possibility of those being remixed and reused for student personalization. It empowers students through better feedback loops and encourages more relevant scaffolding while increasing learner agency.From prescriptive to iterative is tricky.
Is a curriculum with prescriptive content and timing effective or based in the reality of the learners? Better if learning flows and adapts to learner interests, abilities and overall engagement but this is hard to manage (without the right tools).Competencies often become an afterthought.
There’s a rather large chasm that needs to be jumped to move from credits/GPAs to competency-based education. To combat this, we try to layer on competency-based initiatives. Credit-based inertia causes competencies to be treated as an after-thought.Embracing human jaggedness is hard.
There is no “average learner”. All learners have different starting points, interests, abilities and potential. Yet the measures of achievement in school do not encompass these vast differences. As hard as it is, we need systems that are accountable yet acknowledge and support the inherent “jaggedness” of our learners.Over 100 schools have chosen Headrush
"Personally, I appreciate the user-friendliness of the system and the relative ease in setting up the school. Making adjustments and changes has been fairly seamless as well, which has another really helpful feature of the system. "
Principal —Abraxas High School
"I like the usability and flexibility of Headrush. I love how we can show student learning through another lens other than letter grades."
Lead Teacher —Anthony Acres School
"I really like the capability that Headrush has to track standards by student and not by class. Also, I really appreciate how Headrush is so user friendly for students and on the back end with grading."
School Counseling Administrator —American Academy of Innovation
"Headrush is such a great all-in-one place where I can generate innovative projects, lesson plans, and seminars. Seriously, this is a program that turns teachers' heads when I pull it up at a conference!"
High School Teacher —Garrett High School
"It is very easy to use for both the student and teacher. I have used many different platforms from the student side and a lot of them are not very user-friendly. I also love how flexible it is and you can use it for so many different things, tailoring it to your needs. "
Social Studies Teacher & Student Success Coordinator —Paladin Career Tech
"Love the software, organization, company. I really love how responsive you are when something is needed to be changed or added. "
iLEAD Teacher —iLEAD Charter School
Real stories, real impact
Dive into the experiences of our community. Explore stories from our
schools and partners that highlight the impact of Headrush.
A Smarter Way Forward
Stafford champions a better way forward for rural students with increased opportunities and deeper learning with Headrush at the center.
Read more
JAG Partners with Headrush
Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG), a school-to-career program that supports young people of great promise, has partnered with Headrush.
Read more at Webwire
Elevating Competency-Based Learning
Latitude High School shares its innovative, competency-based approach with members of the Michigan Co-op network of schools, including how Headrush supports these efforts.
Watch video