Getting Started with High School Redesign
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Thinking about high school redesign? We assembled a great reading list to get you started.
Formulating a strategy:
- Transforming High Schools: 8 Strategies for EdLeaders
- Organizing Your School As A List Of Courses Doesn’t Work For Learners
- We Inherited a Factory but We Need a Design Studio (and 9 Other Problems)
- School Change: Go Fast and Go Slow
Plan a visit:
- 100+ Middle & High Schools Worth Visiting
- 15 School Districts Worth Visiting
- 101 Top School and Charter Networks
- Professional Learning: The Power of School Visits
Consider becoming a design-focused school:
- What’s up with all the design focused schools (podcast)
- Student-Centered Designed Focused Learning at One Stone (Boise, ID) and Student-Led One Stone is Transforming Boise And The Five Secrets to One Stone’s Success
- Building Transferable Skills: Design Tech High at Oracle Campus (Redwood City, CA)
- Design Focused High School Builds Tech Talent in Indianapolis
- Leader Spotlight: Riley Johnson on New Tech High School 2.0 (Napa, CA)
- Design Thinking, City as Classroom, Museum as Homebase (Grand Rapids MI)
Four SoCal STEM schools with great design principles:
- Odyssey STEM: First to Combine Big Picture Learning and altSchool (and Reimagining High School in Paramount USD)
- STEM Projects in Active Learning Spaces at Samueli Academy
- Da Vinci Schools Expand Opportunities in Los Angeles
- Del Lago Academy: Rethinking High School: Badging, Competency-Based and Real-World Work
Big schools with a coherent academic program:
- Union High: How a Big School Makes Learning Personal (Tulsa OK)
- Huntley Blend Provides Support & Flexibility (Chicago IL)
- South Fayette Schools: A Computational Carnival for Kids (Pittsburgh)
- Montour Schools: Home of the Evolving Educators (also Pittsburgh, and check out the middle school AI program)
- Santa Ana USD Provides Next-Gen CTE Pathways (Orange County, CA). Also listen to David Haglund on Lessons Learned in Santa Ana
- Case study on Singapore American School
A Virginia district that led with a great set of design principles:
- Listening to Kids and Designing from Scratch for Timeless Learning (book review)
- Find a Way to Yes: 9 Leadership Lessons from Pam Moran
- HQPBL Case Study: Albemarle County Public Schools
Consider using new school development to spur district-wide redesign:
- El Paso and New Tech Network: District Transformation in High Gear
- Transforming Border Learning Experiences: New Tech Network in El Paso (podcast)
- New Tech Network Powers A Common Learning Model & Unique Missions
On project-based and place-based learning:
- Why High School Students Deserve Extended Challenges
- New School Formula: Harder Problems and Fewer Answers
- HQPBL Case Study: The MET School (Providence, RI)
- Learner-Centered Iowa BIG Propels Jemar Lee (Cedar Rapids, IA)
- Giving the Gift of Place (podcast) and Why Place-Based Education? (Jackson, WY)
- The Progressive Schools of Philadelphia
- HQPBL Case Study: Energy Institute High School (Houston, TX)
- Students Ask Big Questions At Science Leadership Academy (Philadelphia)
- Making the City the Text at High Tech High (San Diego)
On the shift to competency:
- The Case For Competency-Based Education
- Organizing Your School As A List Of Courses Doesn’t Work for learners
- Scaling Competency-Based Education: Equity-Focused Strategies for Policy and Practice
- How Career and Technical Education Can Inform Competency-Based Learning
- Show What You Know: A Landscape Analysis of Competency-Based Education
Become an early college high school:
- A Successful Quest For An Early College Solution (Houston, TX)
- IBM Prep: Chicago’s Goode STEM Partners for Associate degrees and IT Careers
On career-focused high schools:
- All About STEM High Schools
- Career Ready High Schools
- HQPBL Case Study: ACE Leadership High School (construction trades)
- Community Defined Projects at Health Leadership High (Albuquerque, NM)
- No-Collar Jobs Offer Schools Chance to Create Mashups of Academics and Vocations
- Smart List: 22 Coding and Computer Science Resources
On advisory and guidance:
- The Best Academic Schools in Tennessee Feature the Best Character Program in the Country
- The Role of Advisory in Personalizing the Secondary Experience
- How Did You Fail Advisory?
For more, see:
- What 100 School Visits Taught Us This Year
- Diploma Networks: A New Way to Help Schools Adopt Broader Outcomes and Next-Gen Learning Models
This post includes mentions of a Getting Smart partner. For a full list of partners, affiliate organizations and all other disclosures please see our Partner page.
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Getting Smart Staff
The Getting Smart Staff believes in learning out loud and always being an advocate for things that we are excited about. As a result, we write a lot. Do you have a story we should cover? Email [email protected]
Connie Hamilton
Hi, My name is Connie Hamilton and I am the founding principal of the Kingsborough Early College Secondary School in NYC. CUNY has been opening and supporting these amazing progressive schools for over 20 years in NYC. I am wondering why there is no mention of our schools. In my school, our students graduate with an Associates Degree in high school and move on to 4 year colleges and achieve their Masters Degrees. There is so much to tell and share, I hope you look into our programs. We have 6-12, 9-14 and CTE schools that are achieving amazing results. Thank you for your time, connie
Replies
Mason Pashia
Hey there Connie, our new high school pathways campaign will highlight ECHS and P-TECH models including those in NYC. We'd love a blog on the continued success of Kingsborough ECSS if you're interested? If so, feel free to send your post to [email protected]!