Dear Friends and Colleagues,
In Dracula, Bram Stoker writes, “We are strong, each in our purpose, and we are all more strong together.” So it is with education transformation. The alchemy occurs when courageous educators, partners and investors join forces to ensure that effective innovations take root, sustain and scale.
The Future of High School Network is a group of 24 forward-leaning systems, working in close partnership, to understand and bring to life the conditions that allow high school students to flourish. It is a truly remarkable group of thinkers, learners and doers. This Network includes small school systems and large, charter schools and microschools, in urban, rural and suburban communities across the nation. Taken as a whole, it is proof that high school transformation can happen anywhere.
One powerful example is unfolding in western Pennsylvania, where the California Area School District has partnered with The Grable Foundation to build a new model of personalized, community-connected learning. Supported through a Moonshot Grant for Personalized Learning, the district is reimagining high school to ensure that every student develops and demonstrates a full range of skills, talents and competencies. Together, they are building what they call the Village Transcript. Informed by the entire community—including coaches, parents, teachers, and local businesses—the Village Transcript aims to capture and make legible a robust portrait of each learner, bringing the full range of student talents, passions and abilities to the fore. It is a powerful effort to disrupt the American transcript, which, constrained both by the Carnegie Unit and tradition, has remained static for over 100 years.
I invite you to learn more by reading our recent conversation with Gregg Behr of The Grable Foundation and Dr. Laura Jacob, Superintendent of California Area School District.
It is powerful testimony to what is possible in high school when unusual forces combine.
In partnership,
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