In the age of AI, the most valuable capability in organizations is judgment.

As AI accelerates decision-making, increases cognitive load, and creates the illusion of clarity, leaders are being asked to decide faster, align more people, and execute under tighter constraints. Most organizations are adding tools faster than they’re strengthening the human systems required to use them well.

My work sits at the intersection of leadership development, learning systems, and AI-enabled decision-making. I help organizations build the human judgment, shared clarity, and execution discipline required to lead effectively in complex, high-stakes environments.

I bring more than two decades of experience leading leadership development inside highly regulated, accountability-driven systems, where weak alignment, poor decisions, or failed change efforts have real consequences. That background shaped a deeply practical approach: people need to see both the destination and the path before meaningful change can occur.

I design leadership and learning systems that make the roadmap visible—clarifying priorities, sequencing decisions, and creating structured opportunities for feedback and course correction. This balance of clarity and shared ownership turns strategic intent into sustained follow-through.

My AI work is explicitly non-technical and human-centered. I don’t just train people on tools. Rather help leaders:

Strengthen human-in-the-loop decision-making

Apply product thinking to leadership and learning systems

Reduce AI-driven overwhelm, noise, and false confidence

Use AI to support better judgment rather than replace it

Whether I’m coaching executives, facilitating leadership teams, or designing learning architectures, the goal is the same: make the work usable for real people, inside real organizations, under real constraints.

If your organization is busy but not moving, or if AI has increased activity without improving decisions, we’re likely working on the same problem.

📩 Message me here on LinkedIn
💻 Book a quick call: www.pulsehive.com
📨 cheryl@pulsehive.com

Imagine a report card that showed what your child actually learned.

Washington State is pushing toward mastery-based learning and it's one of the most promising shifts happening in K-12 education right now.

Here's the idea: Instead of your middle schooler's report card showing an 84% that only their teacher fully understands, it would show exactly which content and skills they've mastered in that subject.

It provides real clarity for you as a parent, for your student, and for their next teacher.

But it's a change from everything we know. 

And that’s often where the initiative gets stuck.

We're all familiar with 89% landing as a B+ instead of an A-. We know the sting of a 65% and the threat of retaking a class.

Here's my challenge: Can you explain what each of your child's current grades actually means in terms of learning?

Usually it's some combination of: → How many questions they got right on a few major tests → Whether they submitted weekly work on time → How this year's teacher weighs grammar vs. page count

None of that tells you whether your child can apply what they've learned.

Washington State has piloted mastery-based learning in 47 schools through the Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative. Schools like Innovation Heights Academy (Highline Public Schools), Avanti High School (OLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT), and Edgemont Junior High (Puyallup School District) are serving as "Living Lab Schools" for culturally responsive, mastery-based approaches and these schools are making their learning available for others to follow.

The results? Increased student engagement. Stronger teacher-student relationships. Greater student ownership of their own learning.
Education is ready for redesign. Initiatives like this bring the focus back to what actually matters: learning.

Are you in a district rethinking how schools operate? I'd love to hear what's working.

Cheryl Agrawal

Leadership Revolutionary Disguised as a Rule Follower I Redesigning Schools with Leaders I Human-Centered AI & The Future of Learning | 20+years in Change Management Leadership I

I help you know better —​> do better - education evolving | Learning, leadership, and human cognition I Education Systems and Learning and Development

Administrator, Teacher, Parent, Colleague - Read this slide deck from Diana Fannon, Ed.D.

These pop up DAILY and we just need to unlearn and learn better. They still haunt kids and colleagues you have daily and you can unlearn in an instant. Ask me, Diana, or others in your network to explain further as we'd love to help build the understanding and eliminate the barriers.

Ideas about Neurodivergent Students that Cause Harm

Dedicated Educational Leader | Advocate for Equity and Inclusion

When we misunderstand why neurodivergent children struggle in the moment, systems respond incorrectly.

Assumptions about effort, choice, and motivation show up in eligibility determinations, service decisions, placement discussions, and discipline responses. Over time, these assumptions become barriers.

These ideas shape how behavior and performance are interpreted and how support decisions are made.

#Neurodiversity
#InclusiveEducation
#DisabilityInclusion
#EducationLeadership

Getting the story right is not about lowering expectations. It is about making accurate decisions.

📣 "When I say TEACH, you say __________"
📣 TEACH → ? 
📣 TEACH → ?

Drop your answer below. I guarantee we're not all saying the same thing.

That's because the systems, conditions, and focus across schools vary wildly. But when you start imagining what's possible—schools built around career growth, systems-thinking, creativity, genuine learning—it gets really interesting.

This article from The 74 Media isn't about my generation, but it captures exactly why I entered public education and why I've stayed:

"Research shows Gen Z deeply values equity and social change in a career. When they decide to pursue teaching, they are intentionally choosing service. But that sense of purpose won't sustain them if policies and practices don't match their values. If schools want to attract and retain Gen Z teachers, they must create conditions that align with their values: connection, community, mentorship, growth, flexibility and well-being."

This isn't just about Gen Z. It's about anyone who believes educators deserve systems designed to actually support them.

What does your school system get right? What's still missing? Let's move the conversation forward 👇

Link to article in comments

What if we started from scratch?

Forget bell schedules, rows of desks, teacher in front and “how it’s always been done.”


If you were designing schools today—truly designing them for deep learning, not just compliance—what would you build?

I’m talking about environments where:
→ Safety and support aren’t add-ons, they’re the foundation
→ Active learning replaces passive sitting
→ Reflection and application get equal weight as content delivery
→ Students (and staff) have space to think, not just perform

We’ve inherited structures built for a different era.

And while many educators are doing brilliant work within those constraints, I keep wondering: 
What becomes possible when we question the constraints themselves?


I know these schools exist. Sometimes is a small district, a handful of classrooms, in brave school models pushing boundaries.

Let’s amplify what could be.

Where are you seeing this? 

A single classroom doing something remarkable? 

A whole school redesigned around these principles? 

A practice you’ve heard about that made you stop and think?
————-
👋 I’m Cheryl—20+ years, 300+ schools, one belief: when we know better, we do better. I work with leaders ready to evolve education through strategic coaching, team facilitation, and AI-integrated leadership. Let’s talk if you’re designing something new.

"What is School Really For?" is the question posed by Jason Blair.

When you look at the big pillars he shares:
Understanding the World
Understanding Ourselves and Others
Shaping the Future

 . . . you get an invitation to think boldly. To redesign and to innovate. 

This is the time of year when school districts, school leadership teams and the community start to weigh in on what next school year will look like. 

What do we need to reinvent?
What do we need to lose forever?
What do we need to calibrate?

What do you want to see in 2026-2027 school year for yourself (educators), for your child (parents) or for your community (everyone else!)?

"Will generative AI “help us create an education system that is more creative, more connected, and more caring” or one that leaves more people behind? "

This is the challenge before us. 

We must make the time to dig into this topic with discussion, reflection and layers upon layers of conversation and input. 

School leaders who want to make impact in 2026-2027 are planting the seeds for innovation now and creating the space to really grapple with "What Is" and "What Could Be". 

A great read and a great discussion comes out of the Stanford Social Innovation Review below. What space are you making to think?

If you believe an AI-infused future is inevitable, then you may want to update your view of how to best shape human intelligence in the classroom. 

In SSIR’s latest issue, Isabelle Hau, executive director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, and Daniel Schwartz, dean of Stanford University Graduate School of Education, argue that AI presents a chance to improve the education system, but only if we change our approach to learning. Skills, recitation, and superficial comprehension are on the way out. Appreciation, understanding, and adaptability are on the way in. They write: 

“Looking forward, we believe the AI-infused future will place a premium on learners’ ability to create—not just to consume. Creativity is a deep form of adaptability: It means trying new approaches, generating ideas, seeking feedback, and attending to constraints on reasonable solutions. Generative AI has already ushered in this shift. People delight in composing poems, remixing code, and designing digital art with AI’s help. We may be moving from the information age to the age of creation.”

Will generative AI “help us create an education system that is more creative, more connected, and more caring” or one that leaves more people behind? 

Share your thoughts in the comments and read the article now: https://lnkd.in/eimaBktc

This is one of the most exciting additions to my feed that I have come across in a long time. 

James Browder, M.Ed. shares the way his classes are really putting the "active learning" in action in middle school. Tapping into curiosity, relevance, variety, choice, community and rigor.

If you're not already following him and you'd like a vision of what middle school could be, add him to your feed.

Inspiring from the parent perspective, the educator perspective and the business perspective. 

Makes me want to go back to middle school!

Developer of Human Potential, Founder of the Experiential Learner Mastermind and Media From The Middle, Gifted Intervention Specialist, and Host of the Thriving In The Middle Podcast.

My Experiential Learner Mastermind class had the opportunity to pitch to Eclectiques this morning. Alongside their own personal projects, we also always consult for a local business as a group entry into talking about the design thinking framework as a means to approach solving problems. 

Eclectiques of Granville was this semester’s business collab/consulting partner. They were gracious enough to offer the ELM students a real world problem from inside their business. After a tour of their store and an in person interview, the students began workshopping their problem at Denison’s Red Frame Lab with Steve Krak  and his awesome team. They continued workshopping those ideas this semester and pitched those ideas and possible solutions to the owners in our conference room this morning.

Authenticity and the opportunity to do real work in the world is powerful. They were able to have authentic conversations about buying, pricing, and storing inventory. A huge thank you to them for their time and this opportunity. 

#authentic #collaboration #autonomy #agency #problemsolving #consulting #denison #redframelab #eclectiques #experientiallearning #experientiallearnermastermind #studentdirectedlearning #realworld

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