Experiences to Unfold Students’ Potential.
School districts around the nation (and globe) are crafting “Portraits of a Graduate” and are defining what skills their students need for an uncertain future. But lists of skills are abstract. Educators need tools to design and deliver learning experiences that reliably ensure their students can develop these competencies and grow into their civic selves.
That takes understanding how teens learn and grow.
See the Paper on Teen Centered Civics
The 18×18
Ask any adult about what shaped who they are, and they will remember experiences. What kind of experiences they remember is remarkably consistent across cultures and contexts. We distilled them into the 18×18 framework.
18×18 is a set of eighteen learning journeys that have proven to support young people in unfolding their sense of self, curiosity, belonging, mattering, aspiration and agency. If all teens had these experiences by the time they are adults, they would have a vastly better chance at succeeding and thriving.
Educators build them into units they already teach. Out-of-school time providers can use them to provide an assessment framework and evidence base for experiences they already offer.
As learning systems look for ways to shift pedagogy and assessment models to increase engagement and civic readiness of their students, the 18×18 provide a common language and approach for delivering what teens need to grow as learners, connecting them to the community in which they're growing up.
A design toolkit for civic formation
“I learned more about history doing this project than I did in all of the rest of school.”
Eighth grade teen who created a Podcast | Pittsburgh
Grounded in learning science
Great educators have been offering these kinds of experiences for centuries. The problem is that educator training has been primarily focused on helping to convey content, and not on designing learning so that it can engage and activate all teens as learners.
We are a team with deep expertise in designing learning so that it works for the teen brain, and are building tools based on that expertise to help adults design and deliver teen-centered, community-connected learning.
The 18×18 draw on historical and indigenous models of preparing adolescents for adulthood, but specifically they are designed to reflect and realize
The specific features of the magnificent adolescent brain
The ecology of belonging
The "aha" moments of civic identity formation
The power of aspiration
The centrality of relationships
Also see Doug Yacek’s book
The Transformational Classroom, 2022
New Learning Tools • Beta
Community Connected Projects Card Deck
We designed a set of tools to support educators in schools and community institutions in co-creating transformative 18×18 experiences, including a card deck to support playful, creative, teen-centered design.
Community Connected Projects
Aspirational Identities
Optimize for Teens
Teens are asking for this
In a national youth study in the US of 2025, teens described not just the adult they want to become, but the portrait of the adult they wish they had in their lives.
Every 18×18 journey puts a teacher in the role of both nurturing an aspirational self in their student, and in being someone who shows up and engages with the same qualities.
Introducing the Anatomy of an Adult
An oral history calls for Ears and Heart. A deliberative body calls for Spine and Hands. A curated exhibition calls for Eyes and Mind. 18×18 doesn't just build toward the Portrait of a Graduate — it equips teachers to become the aspirational adult teens said they need, in the same move.
Source • The Change Equation/Dr. Shereen El Mallah, Youth Civic Thriving Report
“These cards are amazing!”
“They are the best tool to help me think of possibilities I had never considered before, and helped me see how to intentionally design for teens!”
Tara | Teacher
Talk to us about how you can incorporate the 18×18 Learning Experiences into your school and community to support civic thriving.
We would love to hear from you.
