OnSite opens the doors to education systems that are moving beyond the industrial-era model of schooling to prepare students for a rapidly changing world and an uncertain future.
Why OnSite Exists
OnSite is modeled after the visitation program at Lindsay Unified, in California's Central Valley.
After building one of the country's first fully competency-based, learner-centered systems, Lindsay spent the next decade hosting visitors from around the country. No gatekeepers, no network to join: just open doors for anyone willing to make the trip. Thousands of educators have walked through Lindsay's classrooms since, many returning home to begin their own work. It's Lindsay's approach to access, not its specific instructional model, that OnSite is built to replicate.
OnSite is replicating that access for systems doing this work today: whether that means students taking on real, sustained work experience alongside employers, advancing through mastery instead of the calendar, or grappling with problems that don't come with an answer key. In every case, the work is built with the students, families, and educators who live it every day, not designed for them from outside.
An OnSite visit gives you real time inside one of those systems, not a conference presentation, not a white paper, but firsthand experience of the work itself. Host systems share the full story: what worked, what didn't, what it cost, and what they'd do differently.
The experience
Most visits follow this arc, though the exact shape flexes to fit the host system and what's being explored.
Day One
The morning begins at the system level: panels, internal meetings, and real leadership conversations with central office. The afternoon moves into schools: structured classroom observations and direct conversations with teachers, coaches, and principals.
Day One — Evening
Visitors join the hosts over good food and drinks. The informal setting surfaces candid exchanges and is often where new relationships form across sectors and geographies.
Day Two
Working alongside leaders from around the country and across the sector, visitors make sense of what they saw. Breakout conversations, whole-group synthesis, and dedicated time to work through what it means for the work back home.
Two Ways to Visit
Public Visits
Spend time alongside other leaders from across the country and across sectors: system leaders, funders, intermediaries, and more. You'll be inside a system where students are tackling real problems together and owning the results. Dates and locations coming soon.
Stay informed →Private Visits
Bring a group from your own organization or network: a leadership team, a funder collaborative, a system partnership. If you already know the system you want to see, we'll design and facilitate a visit built around it. If you know the focus or outcome you're after but aren't sure which system fits, we can help identify strong candidates and make the introduction. Either way, we'll work with you to shape the schedule and structure around what your group needs to walk away with. Private visits require a donation to the hosting system.
Get in touch →Who Attends
Visits bring together up to 40 people from across the country and across the sector. The people in the room are as much a part of the value as the visit itself.
You're welcome to come alone, but the learning will be much richer when you come with at least one other person from your organization, initiative, or partnership. Shared observations lead to better conversations, both during the visit and after you're home.
District and State Central Office Teams
Anyone working in a district or state central office, from board members and superintendents to directors, coordinators, and instructional coaches working to improve how the system runs.
Funders, Policy Advocates & Industry Partners
Program officers, foundation leaders, policy advocates, and business or community leaders looking to ground their work in real practice, and to understand what implementation actually requires.
Intermediaries and Nonprofits
Organizations that support, coach, or partner with systems. They need to deeply understand what leading practice looks like in order to do their work well.
We encourage district and state teams to bring school-level educators along: principals, teachers, and instructional coaches.
What makes OnSite different
No gatekeepers
You don't need to be in the right network or know the right people. These visits are open to anyone serious about education and willing to engage honestly.
No sales pitch
Host systems are not trying to sell a product or grow a network. They're sharing what they've learned, including the hard parts, because that's how the field moves forward.
A cross-sector room
Each visit brings together system leaders, funders, and intermediaries in the same room. Most professional learning is siloed by role. The mixing is intentional, and part of what makes the sense-making on Day 2 genuinely useful.
Reciprocity
Visitors don't just observe. They give the host system something real in return: honest outside perspective that most system leaders rarely receive.
Host a Visit
OnSite partners with a limited number of host systems each year: districts, charter networks, and other structures with leadership that reaches beyond a single school. Systems can express interest directly; OnSite also identifies candidates through field research and outreach.
What we look for
Sustained development of a future-ready practice
The system is years into developing a practice that is genuinely uncommon: whether that's work-based learning where students take on real, sustained work experience alongside employers, learner-centered structures where students advance through mastery instead of the calendar, or project-based work that asks students to grapple with real, ambiguous problems. Together, these build what researchers often call durable skills: the human capacities that stay valuable no matter how the economy changes.
A practice visitors can actually observe
The work is consolidated enough to see directly: in classrooms, in professional learning, and in leadership meetings. If an outside observer can't see it in a classroom or a leadership conversation, it's not yet ready to be observed.
Leadership willing to tell the full story
The visits that teach the most are the ones where leaders are honest about the challenges, the false starts, and what they'd do differently. OnSite looks for leaders who can field hard questions without getting defensive, and who are comfortable saying "we haven't figured that out yet."
A culture of reciprocity
OnSite looks for systems that actually want to know what outside leaders see when they walk through and who are genuinely curious about what they might be missing.
What host systems receive
National visibility
System leaders, funders, and practitioners from across the country come to see the work up close.
Honest outside perspective
Visitors share candid observations, reactions, and questions directly with the host at the close of Day 2. It's the kind of cross-sector feedback most system leaders rarely receive.
Compensation
We're working to find a model that includes philanthropic contributions and appropriately compensates systems for their time. We'll work through the specifics directly with each host system.
New relationships
Host systems consistently develop lasting connections with the leaders who come through and who share a commitment to the same work.
Systems that believe their work might be a strong match are welcome to reach out directly.
Get in touch →The Broader Field
OnSite isn't the only way to spend time inside a system doing something worth seeing. These are structured visit programs we're aware of and think are worth knowing about. Know of one we're missing, or run a visit program yourself? Reach out and we'll talk about adding it here.
Lindsay Unified School District
Tulare County, California
One of the first systems in the country to fully embrace competency-based, learner-centered education. Lindsay has been hosting visitors for over a decade. Open visits, no gatekeepers, for any system willing to make the trip. Lindsay's model was a key influence in the development of OnSite.
lusd.us →Nashville Hub
Nashville, Tennessee
Hosts the Academies of Nashville Study Visit, sharing how Nashville has transformed its high schools into personalized learning communities built around rigor, relevance, relationships, and real readiness for students' futures.
nashvillehub.org →Opportunity Culture
Public Impact, National
One-day site visits to observe Multi-Classroom Leader® teaching teams in action in schools using Opportunity Culture® staffing design, which extends the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students, for more pay, within existing budgets. The design has been shown to produce nearly an extra half-year of learning each year, on average. Visits begin with an introductory session from district hosts.
opportunityculture.org →Next Education Workforce
Arizona State University, Phoenix Metro Area
One- and two-day site visits to schools implementing team-based staffing models, where groups of educators with distributed expertise share a roster of students instead of the traditional one-teacher-per-classroom approach. Visitors tour the learning environment and work directly with the ASU team on applying the model to their own context. $100–$400/person.
workforce.education.asu.edu →Digital Promise
League of Innovative Schools, National
Digital Promise's League of Innovative Schools is a national network of forward-thinking districts that convenes twice a year for learning that includes school visits, deep-dive sessions, and cross-district networking. Membership is by application and open to districts committed to innovation and equitable outcomes.
digitalpromise.org →Frequently Asked Questions
Quite a bit. Host systems get national visibility: their work is seen up close by system leaders, funders, and practitioners from across the country. They receive honest, outside perspective from visitors at the close of Day 2: candid observations, reactions, and questions that most system leaders rarely get. They develop new relationships that tend to outlast the visit itself. And OnSite is working to find a compensation model that includes philanthropic contributions and appropriately compensates systems for their time, worked through directly with each host.
You're welcome to come alone, but we've found the learning is richer when you attend with at least one other person from your organization. Shared observations lead to better conversations, during the visit and long after you're home. You don't need to come as a large group; even two people with a shared context will get more out of it than one.
Yes. Private visits are available for organizations or networks bringing a group: a leadership team, a funder collaborative, a system partnership. The host system, focus, and timing are tailored to your group. Private visits require a donation to the hosting system. Reach out at info@onsitevisits.org to start a conversation.
Any educator, system leader, funder, intermediary, or researcher with a genuine interest in seeing this kind of work firsthand. Visits are open. No network membership or prior relationship required.
Visits typically run a day or two on the ground, depending on the host and focus, plus a virtual pre-meeting about a week before and a virtual follow-up a few months after.
Both are welcome. Coming as a team increases the likelihood of post-visit application, but individuals are encouraged to attend.
Registration is tiered by attendee type. Pricing is still being finalized and will be shared when visits open for registration.
OnSite covers its costs (facilitation, planning, and coordination) through visit ticket revenue and/or philanthropic support, depending on how a visit is funded. Pricing is tiered by attendee type, with the most accessible rate reserved for system and state leaders. OnSite is also working to find a model that appropriately compensates host systems for their time, including philanthropic contributions, worked through directly with each host. If you're interested in supporting a visit, reach out at info@onsitevisits.org.
All sessions, facilitation, meals during the visit, and local transportation between sites. Travel to and from the visit location and accommodation are not included.
Visits are first-come, first-served and limited to 40 participants. Please register all members of your group at the same time to secure their spots.
Yes, if a visit fills, we'll add you to the waitlist and notify you if a spot opens.
Cancellations must be requested three weeks prior to the scheduled visit to be eligible for a full refund. Any cancellations made less than three weeks prior will not be eligible for a refund. If you'd like to send an alternate in your place, please contact us at least 48 hours prior to the visit with the updated registrant information.
Hotel recommendations will be provided along with visit details after registration. Room blocks are not provided.
Leave your email using the form on this page and we'll reach out when new visits open for registration.
Team
Founder
OnSite visits are designed and facilitated by Alex Seeskin, Ed.L.D., a Professor of Practice in Public Policy at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and an education system consultant.
As the Executive Director of the University of Chicago's To&Through Project, he built an organization that helped educators use data to improve high school and college success across Chicago: co-authoring research, designing tools used by practitioners, and leading professional development at scale.
He is a former National Board Certified English teacher and holds a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Harvard's Graduate School of Education and a B.S. from Northwestern University.
Senior Advisor
Tom Rooney is the former Superintendent of Lindsay Unified School District, the system that first influenced OnSite's model, and where he spent nearly 20 years building and leading the internationally recognized learner-centered Performance Based System. Under his leadership, Lindsay became one of the first districts in the country to open its doors to visitors, training students and staff to host educators from across the country and helping build the open, no-gatekeepers approach to visits that OnSite is built on.
Tom is a nationally recognized voice on leadership and learner-centered education, with deep experience in systems transformation, personalized learning, and educational innovation. Most recently, he has been closely involved with Transcend Education in designing and delivering the Superintendent Fellowship Experience.
Coming Fall 2026
Leave your email and we'll reach out when new registrations open.