By Kathleen McClaskey
Editor’s Note: This is part one of a three-part series
“How do we create an inclusive learning culture with equity at the center?”
Establishing a culture of learning that is inclusive and centered on equity is essential for competency-based schools, yet it remains a significant challenge for many K–12 public education systems. As districts shift from traditional models toward personalized, competency-based approaches, they must reassess long-standing practices and tools related to learners and learning, teachers and teaching. Grounding these changes in the learning sciences helps schools cultivate environments where every student feels valued and supported. One proven, research-based approach that supports this work is Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)?
Universal Design for Learning is an educational framework informed by research in cognitive neuroscience and the learning sciences. First articulated in the 1990s by David H. Rose of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), UDL guides the creation of flexible learning environments that account for learner variability.
UDL encourages educators to design curriculum and instruction from the outset so that all learners can access, engage with, and express their understanding. The framework emphasizes three core principles:
- Multiple means of representation — different ways for learners to access information and convert it into meaningful knowledge.
- Multiple means of expression — varied options for learners to demonstrate what they know and can do.
- Multiple means of engagement — strategies that tap into learners’ interests, talents, and motivations to promote sustained learning.
These UDL principles align with Lev Vygotsky’s foundational processes of learning: recognizing information, applying processing strategies, and engaging with the learning task.
Over the past decades, CAST expanded these principles into actionable UDL Guidelines to help educators develop goals, methods, materials, and assessments that reduce barriers and provide appropriate challenge and support to every learner. In December 2016, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) recognized UDL as a scientifically valid framework for guiding educational practice and personalizing learning, encouraging states and districts to embed UDL principles into assessment and technology adoption.
So where do states and districts begin when putting UDL into practice to build an inclusive learning culture?
The UDL Lens: Access, Engage, Express — Bringing Research to Practice
To translate UDL’s research foundation into daily classroom practice, schools benefit from a common language that everyone—teachers, students, and administrators—can use. In 2012, the author introduced the UDL Lens of Access, Engage, and Express to simplify conversations and planning around the three UDL principles.
Using this lens creates a consistent way to discuss learners’ needs, instructional methods, materials, and assessments. It helps the entire school community recognize and respond to learner variability in practical, collaborative ways.
What does using the UDL Lens look like?
Viewed through the UDL Lens, the Empower the Learner (ETL) Profile becomes a tool for students to tell the story of how they learn and who they are. That narrative supports identity development and lays the groundwork for goal-setting and agency. Key elements of the ETL Profile include:
- Who I Am — students share how they see themselves, their achievements, interests, and how they hope to contribute beyond school.
- How I Learn — students describe strengths, challenges, preferences, and needs related to how they Access information, Engage with content, and Express understanding.
- What I Aspire to Be — students express interests, talents, passions, and longer-term hopes and goals.
When learners articulate their identity and learning preferences, they can work with teachers to set meaningful learning goals and develop concrete plans. This process supports academic, personal, and career-focused aspirations and builds the skills needed for lifelong self-directed learning.
Beyond individual benefits, when teachers truly understand their learners, instruction becomes more effective because materials, methods, and assessments are chosen with student variability in mind. The UDL Lens fosters stronger relationships built on trust and respect and becomes a practical instrument for creating a genuinely inclusive school culture.
“Identity development is at the core of adolescent social and emotional development.” — Science of Adolescent Learning: How Identity and Empowerment Influence Student Learning (2019)
Creating an Inclusive Learning Culture with Equity at the Center
“Educational equity means that each child receives what he or she needs to develop to his or her full academic and social potential.” — The National Equity Project
A school’s culture reflects its core beliefs—what adults believe about themselves and about students, and how students view themselves and the adults around them. If equity is the first design principle, every stakeholder must adopt a shared vision and common beliefs about learning, teaching, and community. Here are practical starting points for placing equity at the heart of an inclusive learning culture:
- Build a shared vision and set of beliefs across the school community that center learners, learning, and equitable practices.
- Empower every learner—including teachers and administrators—to discover who they are and how they learn using the UDL Lens so they develop self-awareness and learner agency.
- Create regular opportunities for meaningful conversations that strengthen relationships between teachers and learners and among peers.
- Recognize everyone in the school community as a learner; continuous growth applies to students and adults alike.
- Value every learner. Equity requires valuing individual identities, experiences, and potential and responding with appropriate supports and challenges.
Equity in practice is the daily application of shared values, beliefs, and strategies by everyone in the learning community. The most important step is to begin—bringing UDL principles into planning, instruction, and relationship-building to make inclusion and equity lived realities.
In part two of this series, we will explore Empowering the Learner — building skills for agency and self-advocacy.
About the author
Kathleen McClaskey (@khmmc) is CEO and Chief Learning Officer of Empower the Learner, LLC, founder of Make Learning Personal, and co-author of Make Learning Personal and How to Personalize Learning. With over 33 years of experience as a teacher, K–12 administrator, and consultant, she specializes in learner-centered environments, Universal Design for Learning, and empowering learners to become self-directed and future-ready for college, career, and life.
* The UDL Lens of Access, Engage and Express is a trademark of Kathleen McClaskey.
This article was originally published by The Learning Counsel, a research institute and news media hub focused on context for the shift to digital curriculum in education.