A challenge familiar to many districts: educators were disconnected from each other and from a sense of agency in their own practice. Professional development wasn’t building the conditions for real change. Teachers were showing up, but the system wasn’t giving them space to lead.

Over the course of Year 1, Matiq Labs partnered with five RUSD school sites — three middle schools and two high schools — engaging 85+ educators across three Lab convenings, 15 site visits, and 10 administrator interviews. Rather than delivering professional development, the Lab created a structured, relational space for collaborative inquiry, liberatory design practice, and system-level reflection.

By the end of the year:

• Overall educator satisfaction rose from 85% to 90% across sessions

• Likelihood to apply learning rose from 4.55 to 4.84 out of 5

• Session relevance scores rose every session, ending at 4.53 out of 5

• JMS, the standout site, posted >4.5 scores on relevance and application across all three sessions with 100% administrator participation

• Educators across all sites reported a meaningful shift — from feeling like recipients of a system to feeling like designers of it

Year 2 is already in motion. The question is no longer whether this model works. It’s how far it can go.