The Fund for Chicago Public Education
By L+D Partner Tara Curry-Jahn
In April 2021, The Fund for Chicago Public Education, a non-profit partner to Chicago Public Schools, reignited the Summer Design Program, a legacy initiative focused on design thinking training during the summer months. The new version sought to offer virtual programming to support schools deeply impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Leadership+Design (L+D) responded to the request for proposals and began its partnership which continues today.
Since then, L+D has delivered 20+ workshops to leaders and teams from an estimated 150 schools ranging from 60–90 minute skill-build sessions to two-day design bootcamps. Together, we’ve also run four years of a design challenge, distributing over $200K in prize money from The Fund to schools implementing design-inspired innovations. Now entering its fifth year, the partnership continues to evolve, shaping both public school educators and L+D with new themes and insights.
Responsive Partnership
Leadership+Design is human-centered at its core. People and collaboration are values woven into all our work. From the start, we’ve listened closely to the needs of our partner and the communities they serve, adapting programming without sacrificing quality.
When the district prioritized pandemic recovery then faced the influx of new migrant students and most recently a major budget deficit, we reshaped our training to align with those urgent needs. When The Fund wanted to expand design training into longer-term programs, we created a coaching and implementation model. When The Fund moved to support teams designing and testing innovations over time and to receive prizes to implement, we built the design challenge. And finally this year, we’ve expanded beyond design thinking into leadership development and school improvement. These pivots have kept the partnership viable and meaningful, and the trust built over years makes this kind of responsiveness possible.
Educators felt that responsiveness in their schools. One team reflected that the process “really helped us get to root issues rather than looking at the surface symptoms. We feel more unified.” Another leader shared how much it mattered simply to know they weren’t alone: “Support was given by showing us our struggle is real and others have the same issues.”
Invitations to Transform
Design thinking is about inviting people into the process, beginning with identifying problems, co-designing solutions, and testing for impact. Too often professional learning is delivered to educators with the expectation of action afterward. In contrast, our approach honors the expertise already present while sparking new action and encouraging teams to “go get their learning” , a norm we hold and invite participants to embody. While guided by district priorities and The Fund’s strategy, we’ve always created space for school teams to pursue the work that matters most to their communities and to collaborate with other schools in meaningful ways.
That invitation translated into immediate action. One participant said, “We walked away with a solid plan to improve our intended student outcomes.” Another appreciated the pace and purpose of the design work, explaining, “I really appreciated that we didn’t have to sit and listen passively. We were working immediately on something meaningful.” For many, the greatest value was the sense of ownership: “It allowed us to have a space where we could freely generate ideas in a no-judgment zone.”
These reflections reveal a pattern, when given both the structure and freedom of the design process, schools take ownership and move quickly toward meaningful solutions.
Scaling Innovation
One of the strongest signals of impact is that schools don’t just come once, they come back. Teams return for additional workshops, often bringing new colleagues to learn alongside them. School leaders who began with a single design challenge have applied the tools and mindset to other priorities, spreading design thinking across departments and projects.
This kind of growth shows up in both formal and informal ways: design challenge winners returning to compete again, new staff stepping into workshops with experienced peers, and teams adapting what they’ve learned to tackle fresh challenges in their schools. As one participant shared, “It encouraged more reflection and communication between teachers, admin, and students.” Another noted, “We were able to identify a high need across our school and develop a plan to address it.”
Over time, this pattern of return and expansion has resulted in schools not only sustaining their initial projects, but also embedding human-centered practices into their broader culture. Together, L+D and The Fund have fostered an ecosystem where innovation scales naturally, carried forward by the educators themselves.
What we’ve learned from Chicago is clear: when educators are given space, structure, and trust, they rise to the challenge. They collaborate more deeply, uncover root causes, step into leadership, and center student voices in ways that transform school communities. As one participant put it, “We are ready and encouraged to implement our design.”
This is the value of Leadership+Design. We don’t deliver answers, we build conditions where schools can discover their own. And in doing so, we see not just stronger projects, but stronger leaders, stronger teams, and stronger communities, an impact that continues to ripple outward.
