I’m spending a couple days with the most thoughtful folks in leadership development. We’ll spend part of the time looking at new school models and asking
what it means for preparing the next generation of school leaders. Following are 10 school models we’ll be discussing:
1. The Education Achievement Authority (EAA) is Michigan’s school improvement district (like the LA RSD and TN ASD). It operates 12 schools in Detroit that share a
student-centered competency-based school model and platform, Buzz. For more see:
What’s All the Buzz About Detroit?
K-8 NGLC implementation grant and an NGLC planning grant for high school
Watch for an update on results on Wednesday
2. Cornerstone Charter Academy, Detroit: 3 blends under one roof with a strong character development
program. For more see:
Cornerstone Anchors Detroit’s Blended Future
Detroit: Pulling Out of the Death Spiral
3. Summit Public Schools: innovative blend, co-developed platform, sophisticated talent development. For more see:
Summit Denali: 12 Components of an NGLC Winning Design
Summit Denali: Engaging Student-Centered High School
Diane Tavenner on the Summit Prep Teacher Development System
4. Houston Apollo 20: best practices of top networks infused with blended strategies. For more see:
Smart Cities: Houston, We’ve Got An Opportunity Here
Smart Cities: Houston’s Low Tech Lift Off
Houston High School Students Get Laptops Next Year
5. Rocketship Education: top performing elementary network combines engaging and adaptive components with great
teaching. For more see:
Rocketship’s Preston Smith on Investing in the Art of Teaching
What’s Keeping Me Up At Night
, Preston Smith
An Inside View of Blended Integration at Rocketship Education
Rocketship Education Expands Successful ST Math
6. Bracken STEAM, Las Vegas: dynamic component blend (i.e., lots of apps on Edmodo) leveraging grade span
teacher leadership. For more see:
7. DSST Public Schools: best high poverty STEM featuring big question, deeper learning, and strong character
development. For more see:
Developing Character, Courage & College Readiness
Deeper Project Based Learning
On the Blended Learning Road with DSST’s Jake Firman
8. Flex networks including Nexus, AdvancePath, & iPrep: combining online curriculum
with onsite support and application. For more see:
What’s Next? A Flex Plus School Model by Connections
iPrep: The Miami Flex
10 Reasons Every District Should Open a Flex School
Flex Schools Personalize, Enhance and Accelerate Learning
9. Career Path High School at Davis Applied Technology Center: Early college flex plus model featuring job
training. For more see: Career Path High: Career & College Ready Flex.
10. Reynoldsburg High School, eSTEM Academy: innovative big blogs combine team projects and individual
supports. For more see:
Reynoldsburg Schools Attracting Rave Reviews
Four Strategies in Four Years that Will Transform a Community Forever
Smart Cities: Columbus
A deep dive into these new school models suggests 10 element--most common to all of the models:
Student-centered environments
Personalized learning
Competency-based progressions
Adaptive & engaging components
Deeper learning & character development
Rapid & flexible deployments
Dynamic models evolving with new tools
Platform-centric scaling
Leveraging teacher Leadership
Best Practices & Innovation
Last week, I explored the Leadership Implications of the Brave New Blended World and
suggested that, in addition to personal effectiveness, school leaders need to be strong process managers (e.g., Doug Lemov) and design thinkers
and disruptors (e.g., Clay Christensen). That’s a tall order so I made five suggestions that may make the job more doable:
State policies that allow reciprocal performance-based certification;
Preparation partnerships
that aggregate demand and insist on focused and applied learning opportunities;
Specialization
that recognize that some folks are better instructional leaders while others are great in design and startup mode; some folks appreciate the structure
of KIPP while others thrive on the flexibility of Big Picture;
Rich and ongoing on-the-job learning opportunities, field trips and broadening experiences; and
Distributed and coordinated R&D that shares the load across a district or network and phases it over time.
The shift to digital holds great promise for students and teachers but it will be challenging and confusing for leaders. As the toolset improves, it will
become somewhat easier to create high performing platform-centric districts and networks. In the meantime, EdLeaders have a lot of conversations to lead.