The passion and enduring impact of Bernstein's vision led to the founding of the Leonard Bernstein Center in April 1992. Over the next seven years the Bernstein Center initiated extensive school-based research, resulting in the Bernstein Model. Five schools in Nashville, Tennessee, and schools in New York City, Boston, Dallas, and Miami, formed the core of the Center's research activities. In September 1999, the Center moved to The GRAMMY Foundation, under the aegis of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences^® (The Recording Academy^®).  In 2005, the Center moved to Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA.

Recognizing a way to advance the ideals of educational excellence, New American Schools (naschools.org) adopted the Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning as its first and only arts-based school reform model, in May 2000. On hand for the announcement were such education supporters and dignitaries as former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, Congressmen Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) and Darlene Hooley (D-Oregon), actress and arts advocate Connie Britton, and Alexander Bernstein, son of the late maestro and current GRAMMY Foundation Vice President.