Making the Shift to Learning Science

It’s a challenge familiar to districts across the country: Educators working tirelessly to raise student achievement, yet not seeing the growth they hope for—particularly in traditionally underrepresented populations. In Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland, that frustration prompted a fundamental question: How much do we really understand about how learning happens? And how can we deepen that understanding, and translate it into our teaching? For the 48,000-student district, the answer meant embracing the science of learning—not as a program, but as a systemwide shift. 

“We are an evidence-informed school system, and we’re equity driven,” says Dr. Keith Harris, chief of academics and organizational development. Learning science, he explains, is now “in the fabric of every single thing we do.” 

The district focused on practices and strategies that align with how the brain works, emphasizing retrieval practice, prior knowledge, effortful thinking, and cognitive load. After first building understanding of their own, the central office introduced these concepts to school leaders, then to small but influential groups of teachers at individual schools, and then finally to everyone through more broad professional development opportunities, garnering support and buy-in along the way.

And while the shift was to research-backed approaches, the district never lost sight of what professional teachers bring into the classroom. “The science is always important because, in any profession, we want to be based and grounded in our evidence,” says Meg Lee, Frederick’s director of organizational development at the time. “But we're also very careful to consider the experience, expertise, and professional judgment of the teachers. Because research can give us some clues and suggestions‚ but it can't tell us how to teach.”

Change doesn’t happen fast, and a lot happened over the course of the ten years it took Frederick to implement the shift to learning science—a pandemic, ever-changing state assessments, and significant population increases in the district, for a start. While the work is still underway, their efforts have yielded impressive results, both for overall student growth and toward closing achievement gaps for underrepresented populations.  

Their implementation of evidence- and cognitive science-informed practices has attracted attention from international education researchers and practitioners, who have laudedthe district as a notable case study for systematic integration of learning science. And they’ve since partnered with institutions like The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, Deans for Impact, and Hood College to embed learning science into teacher prep and ongoing adult learning.

For Frederick County, the transformation hasn’t been about adding initiatives—it’s been about refining daily practice. Over the past decade, leaders and teachers have grounded their professional judgment in research—ensuring that effective, equitable learning experiences aren’t left to chance.

To see videos showing some of the many teaching strategies based on the science of learning in action, search “How Learning Happens” on Edutopia.