In a recent robotics shop class the teacher was hard to spot among a sea of students working in small teams designing, coding and tinkering with their mechanical creations. Every student had a role, from shop foreman to time manager to cleanup crew. Allyson Ordonez, an 11th-grader, was a class ambassador, welcoming guests and showing them around the classroom.

“Your normal classes — English, math, science — you learn fundamentals, but this class takes those subjects and combines them,” Ordonez said. “Math and science make up robotics and we use everything we learn from these normal academic classes and apply them to what we learn here.” 

Ordonez sounded more like a seasoned engineer than a high school student as she showed off a small drone she was building and described the equipment. 

Edison attracts teens from all over the city thanks to its 13 career tracks — the most of any New York City public school. Students can earn college credits through a partnership with the City University of New York, take part in internships and work-based learning with companies like Apple and Google, and receive industry certifications. If students pass those industry-recognized exams, they can start working in technical jobs right out of high school — while also pursuing associate’s and bachelor’s degrees.  

In some ways, Edison’s offerings are similar to other innovative CTE models across the country that are applying the excitement and engagement of career classes to rigorous academics. But Edison is taking that a step further by giving students tremendous power in its redesign. 

Shifting to Career- and College-Readiness

Edison opened in the 1950s as an all-boys trade school. Today, it serves a diverse population of nearly 2,335 students. Principal Moses Ojeda is about as close to an Edison lifer as it gets: he graduated in 1993, later returning as a teacher before becoming an assistant principal and then principal in 2012. He transformed the school from the days of typewriter and copier repair programs to state-of-the-art offerings including robotics, automotive technology, graphic arts and cybersecurity. 

All of this stemmed from Ojeda’s early days as principal when a student asked him a question that would change the trajectory of Edison’s teaching.  

“We know we’re here for CTE,” Ojeda remembered the student saying. “But why do we need the academics?”

Ojeda asked the student, who was in the automotive track, if he had learned about Pascal’s law in his physics class. “And the kid was like, ‘Yeah, I remember that.’ I said, ‘OK, well, that’s your brake system.’ And I went across the room and made a connection to each academic area.”  

Ojeda then turned to social studies teachers Phil Baker and Danielle Ragavanis to help students see the relevance of academic classes to their careers. 

“For them, CTE felt useful while academics too often left them wondering, ‘Why are we learning this?’” Baker said.

Ojeda supported Baker and Ragavannis in creating a Research and Development department to engage students in design thinking, including articulating what makes learning meaningful for them. The R&D department has grown to include teachers from every department working with students to figure out how to integrate essential skills into core academic classes. In this way, they’re applying one of the ’s crucial for innovative high schools: .

“In order to take on a project, teachers have to partner with one of the kids,” Ragavanis said. “Students are fully at the table, and they have to be our equals, and in some cases, our bosses.”

Edison was later selected for Imagine NYC — a dynamic partnership between New York City Public Schools and XQto design innovative, high-quality schools with equity and excellence at their core. Faculty members said brought additional support and resources to scale their ideas for making the academic courses feel as relevant to students as the CTE classes.

Mastering Essential Skills 

Driven by employer demand for “soft skills,” Baker and Ragavanis worked with student designers and teachers in the R&D department to establish “five essential skills”: communication, collaboration, giving and receiving feedback, design thinking and professionalism. These skills reflect XQ’s and now guide the learning objectives in many of Edison’s academic classes. Research shows these outcomes, or goals, can help students succeed in college, career and life. 

English Language Arts teacher Jason Fischedick, for example, created a student-run community theater, which he called “the most ambitious thing I’ve ever tried to do in the classroom.” Apart from selecting the four student directors, Fischedick ceded almost complete control of the process. Students were responsible for hiring a crew, casting actors and organizing and running rehearsals.  

“We’re on a time crunch and we need to figure out how to manage that time effectively to ultimately get a good product to show off,” said 12th grader Colin Zaug, one of the student directors.“It’s all about teaching independence and preparing students for the real world. I don’t know how many of these kids will ultimately be actors, but it teaches time management and how to stay on task.” 

Baker said this is how the R&D department is modernizing Edison. 

“We’re trying to make a link between academic classes and CTE classes, and bridge the gap that existed between the two, and make sure that academic classes have a career-centered application to them,” he said.

Baker said ninth graders in the R&D department designed the essential skills rubric for their grade so that regardless of what content classes students take, they all get the same immersion into critical career skills. Student voice is now so integrated into Edison’s core that teachers work with student designers to plan their units. And he said teachers are becoming comfortable with the language of career-centered learning and essential skills while students appreciate the engagement and develop a new level of confidence. 

Yordani Rodriguez, a 12th-grader, employed the essential skills in a number of leadership positions, from his work on Model UN to serving as editor-in-chief of the school’s literary magazine. And those are abilities that will serve him long after he leaves Edison. 

“When you lead somebody and they look to you, you have to be sharp,” Rodriguez said, noting these skills are always in the back of his mind now. “I have to communicate, I have to take feedback and most importantly, I have to be professional.”  

Rodriguez will be a first-generation college student when he enters Columbia University in the fall. Baker emphasized, however, that the essential skills will serve students wherever they go next. 

“This is the kind of thing that all of our students should be able to use no matter what they do in college or in a career,” he said. 

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Making Time for Innovation

The R&D Department’s work touches students in every grade. Nearly 40% of 9th graders are involved in classes taught by R&D members, with plans to expand. In addition to essential skills, students also participated in using a . Thanks to word of mouth, as well as student showcases to exhibit their work, Baker and Ragavanis have grown their R&D department to include 18 faculty in ELA, math, and science, including new recruit  Fischedick.

“They’ve been letting me innovate every year and that’s why I joined this team because I’m someone who likes to try new things,” he said. If something doesn’t work, he added, “That’s OK. I’ve become more open with my classroom and what I can do in the classroom because I feel supported to do so.” 

Edison’s lessons are now influencing broader change in New York City high schools. It is an anchor school among the 100-plus city high schools participating in , a bold new vision for career-connected learning. 

Edison students are also applying their essential skills off campus. Once a week, a group of them visit PS 175 in Queens. They lead 10-week cycles for students in kindergarten through 5th grade in more than 25 different courses, from cooking to robotics and Model UN. 

As with the other opportunities at Edison, Baker said students are getting a much deeper understanding of learning and careers by applying the essential skills outside of the classroom.  

“It’s been an incredible experience for our students,” Baker said of the teaching opportunity. “They gain so much in terms of professionalism, confidence, and the ability to explain complicated processes to people, which is a really difficult skill.”

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That kind of itinerary would be nearly impossible for Gestel at any traditional high school, which is why she chose to attend A School Without Walls, a first-of-its-kind hybrid program in New York City that blends in-person and remote learning. 

“I do a lot of other stuff, so I thought it was easier than going to another school and being extremely exhausted and late with work,” Gestel said. 

While hybrid learning might still hold negative connotations for many students and families after years of COVID-19-disrupted schooling, leaders at SWoW say their model reimagines the hybrid structure for a truly student-centered program — allowing students like Gestel to follow their passions while still mastering rigorous academics. It’s the first public school to win approval from New York State for a hybrid learning model.

“The hybrid schedule is really not meant for students who just don’t want to be in a building every day,” SWoW principal Veronica Coleman said. “The goal of the hybrid schedule is for students to have flexibility so that they do real-world learning.” 

Learning Inside and Outside the Classroom 

SWoW launched in 2022 in partnership with , a nonprofit that supports a network of public schools that incorporate an expeditionary learning model through project-based curricula. It’s also part of Imagine NYC Schools, a dynamic partnership between New York City Public Schools and the to design innovative, high-quality schools with equity and excellence at their core.   

Through support and funding from New York City Public Schools, XQ and the , SWoW designed its program to emphasize — one of six research-based XQ . 

Students were deeply involved in shaping the school from the start. SWoW recruited 50 students from other schools across the city during its pilot year to serve as interns and test program ideas, provide feedback on what worked and what didn’t and help think through the school’s grading policy (an approach that’s been gaining momentum nationally, and which is also ). 

In place of traditional letter grades, teachers use narrative reports to guide students in developing seven competencies: collaboration, investigation, interdisciplinary connection, analysis, design, communication and reflection. Students receive quarterly progress reports and reflect on their learning through student-led conferences that occur twice yearly.   

“We’ve really tried to amplify student voice and choice,” Coleman said. “That’s the piece for us that feels like the focus and all of the other pieces fit into that being the center of what we’re really trying to do.” 

Students learn in person at the Lower Manhattan campus two to three days a week. The rest of the time is a mix of synchronous and asynchronous online learning and real-world learning, including internships, fieldwork and early college coursework through the City University of New York. 

Every Friday, students and staff also meet in an auditorium to discuss what’s going well and share their wants and needs, from designing new clubs to giving input on school-wide policies and procedures. 

“What I like about this school is that you can really communicate with them,” Gestel said. “If I’m feeling really stressed or overworked, they help me balance it out and help me organize.” 

SWoW borrowed many of its principles from NYC Outward Bound Schools and expanded them within its model. These include “Crew,” an advisory and community-building time with teams made up of a dozen or so students and an adult. At SWoW, however, Crew is more than an advisory period. It’s also where students earn their humanities credits by working on their passion projects — student-led and student-designed research projects that are the core of the SWoW curriculum.  

Passion-Driven Projects 

Students select a passion project based on a topic that is meaningful to them and their communities. is another . Working with their advisor, each pupil creates an individualized learning plan, setting project goals that align with New York State curriculum standards.  

In 9th grade, students research a service learning project that can address a broad range of issues, from youth homelessness to the environmental impact of illegal fireworks in New York City. In 10th grade, each student starts a passion project in earnest, formulating a research question through reading materials and interviews with experts in the field, culminating with an internship in the spring to put their learning to the test in the real world. All students will take on full-fledged independent projects by 12th grade and find an internship. 

“The goal is to build that agency and independence while the students are exploring something they are passionate about,” Coleman explained.

For her passion project, 10th grader Gestel is exploring the lack of representation of different body types and skin tones in ballet and how to create a more inclusive dance community. Another 10th grader, Lily Paraponiaris, is researching film restoration and preservation. 

SWoW uses a case study framework to model for students what good research looks like. For example, in January they explored a unit on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the country’s history of cobalt mining. In addition to earning their humanities credits, students also figure out the ingredients of high-quality research to apply to their own passion projects. 

Some students will devote much of their time at SWoW to their passion projects, diving deeply into a topic while exploring it from different angles and applying that knowledge through real-world learning in an internship. But some teens may take longer to land on a subject that is truly meaningful for them, and Coleman said SWoW makes sure that flexibility is built into the curriculum. 

 “The idea is that you go through that cycle of making and doing and reflecting, and that reflection can lead you to say, ‘I’m done with this topic,’ which is totally normal for a teenager,” she explained. “Or you can continue, but you continue in a way that requires a new avenue of research.” 

Throughout their projects, students get regular opportunities to present their work to an audience, including an end-of-year presentation of learning, a resource fair where students have the chance to network with potential internship mentors and summer employers, and a mid-year presentation called roundtables where students share their passion projects with outside guests, sharpening not only their research questions but also their public speaking skills. At a roundtable in early 2024, one student gave a presentation exploring the rising cost of public transit fares while another investigated the fashion industry’s environmental impact. 

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Hybrid Learning Post-Pandemic

SWoW’s launch hasn’t been without bumps along the way — in part because another completely virtual program opened at the same time, causing confusion for students and parents. That program has since been renamed, but figuring out whether hybrid or fully virtual is best for individual students is still a question for families.   

Ava Smith, who is in her first year at SWoW, said she likes learning online, but ultimately, the school is not for her. 

“I just think I like traditional school more,” she said. “I like the schedule. I feel like here it’s very mishmashed, and here every day is different.” 

The school has its own saying: SWoW is for anyone but not for everyone. 

“I think it’s been a struggle for us to find the right matches,” Coleman said. “And I think it’s going to take a few more years for that to really settle, for people to really know what they are getting when they come to A School Without Walls and a sense that this is right for me and for my child.” 

While some students like Smith might end up missing the traditional school environment, overall, SW0W students seem happy with the experience. Out of the 60 original 9th graders who started in 2022, 50 returned for year two, with 35 new students joining in 10th grade. 

Coleman said those numbers, and what she hears from the students, prove this new kind of high school is needed — not only because of its small community, flexibility and the safe space it offers. 

“Their families are saying their student was at a big high school and experiencing anxiety,” she noted. “And they like this model because of the individualization.” 

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

Yet, 41 years after “” caused widespread panic about our public schools, fewer than half of American students are graduating high school ready for college or career. U.S. teens than students in many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea and Estonia. 

When young people are discouraged from pursuing a STEM-related career, they get locked out of , all of which come with salaries. And that means we all lose out — because the jobs needed to keep our country running go unfilled, and the inventions, treatments and technologies for our rapidly changing society go undiscovered. 

Our two organizations, and , are deeply committed to ensuring all students have access to joyful and rigorous schools where they know they belong and can succeed. Research shows those three qualities — joy, rigor, and a sense of belonging — will prepare them for the future, whether that’s STEM or any other pursuit. 

XQ partners with schools and districts to rethink the high school experience by making learning more meaningful and engaging through tools such as our Design Principles and Learner Outcomes. Beyond100K unites leading STEM organizations to co-develop and implement solutions to end the STEM teacher shortage by 2043, especially for those most excluded from STEM opportunities.

Sparking Joy in STEM

Guided by and insight from young people across the country, Beyond100K heard that to help spark the brilliance of millions more young minds, schools need to prioritize a focus on equity, representation, and especially belonging in STEM education. But that’s an increasingly difficult job.

Based on a recent conducted by Beyond100K, it’s clear that schools and educators are facing dueling pressures. They’re tasked with reshaping classrooms to foster inclusivity and joy while developing career- and culturally-relevant curricula. Simultaneously, they’re under heightened scrutiny due to residual pandemic learning loss, ongoing declines , and and teen mental health. 

Beyond100K interviewed educators who expressed concerns about the fear of repercussions for teaching about bias and inequity and the difficulty of creating classrooms of belonging amid pressure to focus solely on raising test scores. Identities of teachers were kept anonymous. 

One teacher noted that they are“scared to talk about the right thing, doing their own self-work to be able to talk about culture relative to their work….Regulations in states prevent teachers from having these conversations.”

Yet a positive correlation between a sense of belonging in STEM classrooms and academic performance, retention, and persistence — particularly for Black, Latino, and Native American students. Similarly, students engaged in SEL programs improve and social well-being. 

Given that nearly 60% of girls and young women who were interested in STEM careers when they entered high school by the time they entered college, there is no question that developing a sense of belonging in the STEM fields is an essential element in nurturing learning environments that lead to STEM persistence. The rigidity of high school STEM education is preventing too many students from pursuing their dreams. 

We see an emerging trend: many teachers and other education leaders view joy, belonging and relevance not in conflict with academic rigor, but as the pathway by which academic success can be achieved. Evidence supports the idea that , particularly for students of color. 

The Beyond100K Foundational Math CoLaboratory, composed of partners from across the STEM learning ecosystem, has developed a of joyful mathematical resources and activities for educators and families to use in making math joyful for their students.

One Beyond100Kpartner, employs a student-belonging-centered science teaching approach in their Bay Area Scientists Inspiring Students program, where scientist and engineer role models bring real-world connections, diversity, and inquiry-based learning into school environments. Teachers observed that students who engaged with these career scientists demonstrated skills above their typical classroom level.

Eliminating Systemic Barriers in High School

Creating a greater sense of belonging is one way to encourage teens to enter STEM. But our young people — and our creativity — are also trapped by a structural problem. The American education system, as we know it today, was built around the Carnegie Unit, or “credit hour,” a concept developed in 1906 that defines the amount of time a student needs to devote to learning a subject and earning a degree. 

The Carnegie Unit made sense in its day, bringing order and even a degree of equity to a disconnected system. But that day has passed. There’s no need to limit math, science, English and other required subjects to 50-minute classes with no relationship to one another or to how learning relates to the world beyond the classroom. The Carnegie Unit as we know it today kills student curiosity, inhibits exploration and keeps educators from looking beyond the walls of their school to their communities and our world. Not to mention that clinging to a system that prioritizes time in the classroom over mastery of a subject is actually contributing to the inequity it was designed to prevent.

We are long overdue for It is time to redefine and re-credentialize what it means to be a high school graduate. It’s time to develop new ways to teach, learn, measure and recognize student achievement, knowledge and growth. We can and must offer young people more immersive, relevant, hands-on experiences that prepare them for a rapidly changing world. 

That’s our mission at XQ. When we launched in 2015 with an open call to design a transformational high school, 50,000 people signed up. Today, we’re working in about 60 schools. We have teamed up with school districts in , and the state of to transform high schools at the system level. Partnership is the common ingredient for these high schools and others like them. They’re forging ahead with new designs based on feedback from their local communities. They take the best ideas and visions — from educators, students, parents and other stakeholders — and turn them into life-changing progress for young people. 

Consider the , which is partnering with the computer engineering firm to offer students in the engineering and multimedia pathways an opportunity to take on industry-based projects and earn stipends for their work. Or the Purdue Polytechnic High Schools in Indiana, which resulted from a partnership between Purdue University, business leaders, the state and Indianapolis city leaders to increase the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds attending Purdue and going into STEM careers. PPHS students work on projects that combine math, science and other topics to solve local problems. PPHS has sent more than twice as many students to Purdue University as the entire Indianapolis Public Schools district, most of whom are students of color.  

These examples are only a small sampling of the national movement to transform high schools. XQ and Beyond100K are just two of many organizations engaged in this essential work. Let’s do everything in our power to give our high school students the tools, resources and inspiration to make that possible. Ensuring that STEM education in high school is inclusive, relevant, engaging and rigorous will help every learner achieve their dreams — and ours — in a changing world that will depend on their ideas.

Want to learn more about how to create innovative high school experiences in STEM and subjects? Check out The XQ Xtra, a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. Sign up .

Interested in how you can commit to ending the STEM teacher shortage? Learn more .

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

But they can’t succeed if they aren’t treated like part of a greater community. This is why believes high schools deserve more attention and support to fully prepare every student for college, career or whatever comes next. Since 2017, we’ve been working with dozens of schools and systems around the country to help high schools and their communities design learning experiences more suited to the 21st century — for example, by encouraging partnerships with local organizations so young people can see how their academics show up in real life. 

That’s how classes work at , the subject of a new documentary. “,” directed by Lee Hirsch (of “Bully”), follows students from ninth grade to graduation at this innovative Memphis public high school as they figure out how to sustain life on Mars and interview refugees for an interdisciplinary project combining history and English. 

Community partnerships are among six research-backed XQ developed for high schools to create engaging and rigorous learning opportunities. Like the , which we also introduced, these design principles were originally created for educators and communities involved in building or redesigning a school. But they are also very useful for parents and students who want to better understand whether their local high school is serving students as well as it can. Below are some questions to ask when visiting a school.

Educators interested in a detailed approach to the Design Principles can download c, a tool designed to gather and assess evidence about where they are on their journey to becoming the best high school they can be.

1. Are there high expectations and equal opportunities for all students, regardless of income level, race, ethnic group and special needs? Do the AP and honors classes resemble a cross-section of the community? 

These are signs of a , a set of unifying values and principles that give a school a sense of common purpose and a fundamental belief in the potential of every student to achieve great things. in Tennessee, for example, is committed to making students feel invested in their community. That investment shone through when one sociology class solved a murder, now the subject of a podcast series. When visiting a high school, it’s also worth checking whether there are opportunities for dual enrollment in postsecondary courses, which can benefit all students.

2. Does the school use an interdisciplinary curriculum — do teachers combine subjects like math, science, English and electives? Can students and teachers dive deep into topics with project-based learning?

These are examples of Research tells us that young people learn through the combination of what they encounter as learners, through curriculum, relationships, challenges and supports; what they do as learners, through their active commitment in producing and persevering; and how they make meaning of those experiences. Our schools can offer much more powerful ways of learning. For example, students built a hydroponic system through a science project at Purdue Polytechnic High School in Indiana. They conducted extensive research as they designed and constructed a method for growing produce sustainably and cost-effectively. 

3. Does the school ensure all students have at least one adult who knows them well enough to provide academic and social support? Is there a system in place that helps students connect and check in with the adults so they feel safe, valued and seen?

Those are hallmarks of . The science of adolescent learning shows that learning is a social process, particularly during the high school years, and this aspect — when intentionally addressed — can result in a transformative high school experience. Schools that emphasize getting to know students, inside and beyond the school walls, set a foundation for trust that carries over into academic work. At in Oakland, California, co-founder Christian Martinez takes pride in building a place where the goal is to never let a teen slip through the cracks like he did at their age. During the college process, for example, staff guide and support students at every step, from having highly personal conversations about their choices to ensuring that they submit their applications on time. 

Want to learn how to create innovative high school experiences like those at Crosstown High? Check out The XQ Xtra, a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

4. Does the high school support students to build their sense of agency and autonomy, and explore postsecondary goals?

Schools need to provide A student-centered school gives students a say in their learning. They can choose projects and topics and decide whether to present their knowledge as a research paper, slide show or even a documentary or podcast. Staff members should foster this environment, not feel threatened. The D.C. Public Schools recently published a booklet . It argues that student engagement is crucial when communities come together to redesign local high schools, as in thepartnership, because students have higher attendance and learning outcomes when they’re treated as partners in their own education.

5. Is the school partnering with local entities such as cultural institutions, businesses, nonprofit organizations, colleges and universities and health and service providers? 

These can take many forms. But at their heart, these powerful relationships create opportunities for learners to explore and envision their future and set goals toward making it real. At Florida’s in Seminole County Public Schools, students have numerous opportunities to work with outside organizations and leave the campus. Some of that activity slowed down during the pandemic — especially for those who are now seniors. 

Members of the class of 2024 wanted more outside experiences before graduating. They devised a plan: a trip later this spring to New Smyrna Beach, more than an hour away. But it’s not just a day at the beach, said one of the organizers, Daniella Muñoz. The students researched local nonprofits and got excited about . They’re planning a visit that includes a talk with an expert because it’s important “to hear from someone who isn’t a teacher” about “a real-world problem,” Muñoz said. They also plan to clean the beach, using gloves and other supplies provided by the environmental group.

6. Does the school review, reflect on and make decisions based on data that ensure inclusion and access to advanced courses? Does it use data to eliminate disproportionate remediation, disciplinary practices and other inequities?

Data is just one aspect of a high school that makes . Another example is breaking away from the traditional schedule of six or seven single-subject periods, each about 50 minutes long. 

The has an agreement with its district so students and teachers can easily visit local nonprofit groups and businesses and take classes at other schools and colleges. Junior Kate Ruel says she’s getting science credit this year for taking culinary courses at Kent Career and Tech Center. She also enjoyed visiting Dwelling Place, which provides support services and affordable housing, during a ninth-grade project on English, history, social studies, and science. 

“I found it really interesting and cool,” she said. “I was able to go out and talk to people.” 

Surveys show students at GRPMS feel connected to their learning, and they’re doing better than their counterparts in the state and city on many measures.

This flexibility is why we argue high schools need a new “architecture” for learning without the Carnegie Unit, a century-old system that equates time with learning. When students and teachers are freed from earning credits based on seat time in single-subject classes, they can see how academic content is connected to the world around them and gain a fuller appreciation of what they’re learning. These experiences are important for teens in so many ways beyond school. Today’s high school students are the leaders, workers, doctors, inventors and teachers of tomorrow.

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

Rachel isn’t the only one challenged by this and other projects at Crosstown High. In the film, we see a teacher stumped by a student’s idea for making a hologram as well as candid conversations about the relevance of an interdisciplinary math and science project exploring how to sustain life on Mars.

This student-led, creative approach to teaching and learning is the goal at Crosstown High — a public high school built by parents, educators, teens and community members in Memphis as part of the Super School Challenge in 2015. This challenge spurred communities to create innovative high schools, by building new ones and redesigning existing models, that depart from the rigid, century-old model that’s no longer suited to today’s learners. 

As part of the challenge, dozens of community members came together and gathered input from more than 200 students to design and open Crosstown High. They wanted to create a school that would engage students in real-world, motivating projects that would make a difference and reflect the diversity of their historically-segregated city with equitable learning opportunities for all.

Years in the making, “The First Class” follows the founding cohort of students and educators from ninth grade to the triumph of their graduation — and all the challenges in between. Directed by award-winning documentary maker Lee Hirsch (of “Bully”), we see learning in a way that’s rarely captured on film. No single principal or teacher is the sole superhero who “saves” the students. Instead, we see learning as it really happens: through ideas, collaboration, committed educators who genuinely care about students and “aha” moments.

As we watch the students and teachers at Crosstown High work through the school’s growing pains in the film, we see them taking obvious delight in their progress and personal growth.  “The First Class” shows what’s possible when we put our heads together to create a new type of high school. Crosstown High’s journey will inspire educators and communities everywhere to look at the challenges facing students in their own high schools and start the conversation about how they, too, can rethink learning for teachers and students. 

XQ Institute is proud of Crosstown High’s story, and the incredible progress this community made since responding to our challenge almost a decade ago. We’re thrilled to provide this exciting documentary and related materials free of charge for educators, families, students, policymakers and other community members. Find everything you need to be among the first to , , and get inspired to rethink high school at .  

Want to learn how to create innovative high school experiences like those at Crosstown High? Check out The XQ Xtra, a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

High schools are essential to preparing young people for these challenges, regardless of whether their future includes college, career or a combination of postsecondary plans. But how can families and students understand how any individual high school approaches learning?

While districts and states provide a variety of data points, many agree these metrics don’t paint a complete picture and don’t necessarily mean students are well-prepared for postsecondary life. Helping all students reach their full potential requires passionate and inspired teaching and meaningful learning experiences that encourage them to think critically. Schools should also empower teachers as professionals. 

When those ingredients are combined, the sky’s the limit. As just one example, Alex Campbell’s sociology students at in Tennessee solved a cold case with (and became the subject of the true-crime podcast series “”). All high school teachers can tap into students’ natural curiosities in exciting ways that connect with the world around them — and prepare them for their lives beyond graduation. 

identified research-backed or goals, that recognize the full range of knowledge, skills, habits and mindsets students need to be successful in life. The framework guides educators to transform teaching and learning. They’re also helpful for families looking for ways to determine if a particular high school fully prepares all students for the future. 

Here are five things parents should look for in their kids’ classrooms to ensure they’re ready for the world.

1. Are students learning to be literate in the fullest sense? Do they know how to read information, understand it and apply meaning to it — with language, numbers, digital content and other subjects?

This is where the XQ goal, “” comes in. In addition to required subjects, such as English and math, students should learn how to interpret and use data, which is increasingly essential in many fields beyond the sciences. For example, at , one student ​​made a documentary about “food deserts” — neighborhoods where residents have limited access to nutritious foods.

2. Can students think in ways that apply art, literacy, science, history, economics, math and STEM — and connect these disciplines?

This relates to “.” The goal is to foster curious young people who are knowledgeable about the world: its history, culture, sciences and underlying mathematics, biology and cultural currency. They’re engaged participants vital to creating a more just and functional democracy.

3. Are students given opportunities to think creatively about subjects they’re passionate about? Can they also explore their interests in the “real world” through internships or partnerships with local businesses and community organizations, so they can think about future professions? 

Students must be taught to be “” In our information age, students must learn to become sense-makers who can deal with conflicting knowledge and abundant data points. How do they know if something was generated by artificial intelligence? They also need to adapt to changing situations. For example, with XQ’s help, are redesigning existing schools with new approaches, like having students build their own businesses and applying the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. 

4. Does the school foster collaborators who value the expertise of others? Are there group projects where students learn to be co-creators in what they bring and how they show up?

Successful high schools cultivate “,” self-aware team members who bring their strengths to support others. At , students responded to a devastating storm that hit the Cedar Rapids region and destroyed up to 70% of the local tree canopy. Students contracted with local chainsaw artists to turn fallen wood into sculptures and used the funds to “re-leaf” the damaged tree canopy. 

5. Do students understand their own strengths and areas for growth? Is there an opportunity for them to reflect on their learning?

We want to ensure that schools are nurturing “.” Any high school’s role is to foster a love for learning and the ability to keep learning. Students must become self-driven, self-directed, curious learners — about themselves and the world. Many great high schools have capstone projects where students present what they’ve learned and then celebrate their growth and achievements. At student presentations showcase the projects and issues they’re passionate about, including climate change, immigration and gun violence.

Preparing students for the future is no easy feat when so many industries, from STEM to manufacturing and media, are in a constant state of flux. But with a nimble approach to learning and foundational knowledge, high schools can help their students feel equipped to succeed on whatever paths they choose. Next month, we’ll give more tips for looking at what a high school’s design says about how students learn.

Want to learn more about innovative ways of reaching high school students? Subscribe to the a newsletter that comes out twice a month for high school teachers.

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

Just before the start of the new school year for D.C. Public Schools, dozens of people gathered under a bright August sun in the northeast neighborhood of Deanwood. They were there to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a local institution: H.D. Woodson High School. A prominent new street sign, reading “Woodson Way,” was unveiled directly in front of the campus, forever enshrining a legacy. 

But this joyful event did more than just reflect on the high school’s storied history: it also set the stage for a bold new vision that’s reshaping the whole learning experience for both students and faculty.

The energy was infectious. A teacher’s choir performed and five decades of alumni, each displaying their graduation year on T-shirts, chanted school slogans. Speakers included a city council member, a founding teacher and a current Woodson student. 

“What is the Woodson Way? We need to recommit to it,” said alumni council member John Cotten, Woodson High School Class of 1981.

This past summer, Woodson was among four DCPS high schools selected for a multiyear partnership between DCPS and the that aims to make high school more meaningful and engaging for all learners so they’re better prepared for college and career. Woodson’s community united around a new theme for the school: cultivating and activating students’ passions so every graduate earns a career certification or an associate degree aligned with their interests. 

Launching a redesign effort in a school with generations of tradition like Woodson is not simple. Neighborhood high schools carry memories for residents and alumni, who recall athletic teams and veteran teachers. The tangible camaraderie at Woodson’s anniversary event reflects a commitment to meeting a changing world with new educational experiences while still holding on to the fabric that makes a school what it is. Woodson’s journey also carries four major lessons for other high schools and their communities.

A new video series from XQ follows the journey of the DC+XQ schools and features the stories of the educators and leaders rethinking high school across D.C. Learn about the goals of the partnership and follow along as new videos are released each month. 

1. Ground Your Goals in the Data

The DC+XQ partnership started in 2022. Participating schools create design teams and receive financial and professional support as they rethink learning from the ground up — hand-in-hand with their students and communities. Along the way, school teams meet with experts and visit other already deep in the transformation process.

The DC+XQ partnership also included a chance for schools to complete XQ’s , a tool that examines student transcripts to shine a spotlight on long-standing inequities. The EOA helps design teams figure out which students in their high school are more prepared than others for college and career, often due to inequitable practices, to avoid replicating the same patterns. A previous audit in Rhode Island led the state to enact higher graduation standards. 

In D.C., the EOA found that even schools with high graduation rates were not preparing all students for postsecondary success. To overcome these inequities, DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee encouraged the city’s high schools to think big, without restraints. 

“My responsibility is [to ensure] that the schools know they can go as bold as they need to give students the schools and learning experiences they deserve,” he explained. This could include changing traditional schedules and course offerings. 

2. Build a Coalition

Woodson was founded by Howard Dilworth Woodson, one of the first Black licensed architectural engineers in D.C. and a powerful advocate for extending city services to this far, northeast corner of the city. Before the school opened in 1971, high schoolers in the Deanwood neighborhood had to travel three to five miles to the nearest campus. Woodson formed a broad coalition that pushed the city to pave and widen roads, build a new seven-story building and launch a public school lovingly nicknamed the “Tower of Power.” 

But the Tower of Power suffered neglect and eventual demolition (a new Woodson building opened in 2011). The neighborhood also experienced gentrification and displacement. Meanwhile, the world was changing. Today’s students need different things from high school than they did 50 years ago.

Current Woodson Principal William Massey knew all this when he raised his hand in March of 2022 to join the DC+XQ design journey. He assembled a core team of a dozen diverse stakeholders, including students, teachers and community members, to respond to data from the EOA about student satisfaction and success and to define a new shared vision. But Massey acknowledged he was “very protective of the process.” He was concerned about how people in his school and neighborhood would respond to the phrase “high school redesign” after DCPS had undergone previous waves of reform.

“People often think it means something wrong is happening,” he said. “So someone is going to come in and shake things up via a mandate.”

Amber Owens, a longtime teacher now in her fifth year at Woodson, was initially skeptical. “Great opportunities often come to the schools, and they die or fizzle out, and we’re left holding the bag to keep it going,” she said. 

Though Massey convened the core design team and began engaging others through school visits and focus groups, Woodson was not selected for the first cohort of DC+XQ last fall. (That initial cohort consists of and .) Nonetheless, Woodson was among three other schools — Columbia Heights Education Campus, Coolidge High School and Ron Brown College Preparatory Academy — given a “cultivation year” to continue developing their proposals and visions. 

In Woodson’s case, the review panel encouraged Massey to reach beyond his original redesign team and seek broader community engagement. Massey took that feedback to heart. With funding and support from DC+XQ, the school was able to hire Rachel Curry-Neal, a former educator, counselor and youth organizer, as a full-time in-house redesign director. Students, teachers, school counselors and union representatives all served on the hiring and interviewing panel that selected Curry-Neal.

3. Stick to Mission and Vision

Curry-Neal was able to focus 100% of her time on the school’s redesign effort, leading to increased participation in the process: the design team went from just one active student to two from each grade level. Curry-Neal also reached more adults. “People came to sit with her and talk with her,” Massey explained. “She was able to have more prolonged conversations and walk different school community members through the full journey.”

Meanwhile, Woodson’s Parent Teacher Organization, which had been inactive since 2016, started meeting again in 2022 with 45 participating families. Curry-Neal attended their meetings to update families about the school’s redesign efforts and get input. The school continued collecting feedback through surveys, weekly meetings of the student government association and conversations with families and alums.

It paid off. In June of this year, Woodson was , along with the three other schools that had been given more cultivation time. Woodson’s new model is inspired directly by feedback from students, who shared that high school didn’t always feel relevant to their interests and hopes for life after graduation. 

The redesign centers on activating students’ passions and ensuring each student has a head start on their interests, which is why all graduates will earn career certifications or associate degrees. Students will also chart individualized paths early in their high school career, enabling them to take advantage of relevant internships, travel opportunities and apprenticeships. is one of XQ’s six research-backed for successful high schools where learning is more . 

The Woodson team’s experience showed the importance of another XQ design principle: . Having a clear shared mission gave diverse team members and stakeholders something to unite around. After joining the design team in 2022, Owens found the common purpose helpful when balancing competing ideas. “As long as we understand the mission, getting input from others is not a scary thing,” she said.

Ferebee said he saw a similar pattern in the other school teams that applied for DC+XQ. 

“Once we opened the door to the conversation around a community-driven process, I think people really welcomed that idea and understood that this wasn’t like previous efforts around high school that felt top-down,” he said. “Redesign is about each school’s unique design and context and history.”

We have more ideas for how to rethink high school. Check out The XQ Xtra, a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

4. Get Creative with Class Time

One of the most tangible new offerings at Woodson is the new Legacy, Leadership and Learning (or “L3”) class. The Woodson design team developed this course, which is currently being piloted with all ninth graders. The school received approval from the district for it to count as an elective toward graduation. In the first week, students studied the poem “Where I’m From” by Reneé Watson and used it as a prompt to write about their own communities of origin.

The goal is to introduce all new students to the history of Woodson, D.C. at large and the Deanwood neighborhood. They’ll leave the building to meet community members who already work in their area of interest. The design team believes this class will help students explore their interests and future ambitions, whether college, career, military or otherwise. 

At a symposium for the end of the course, ninth graders will present a passion project to an audience comprising members of the Woodson school community and beyond. Students will select from one of Woodson’s three career academies — IT, engineering, and finance — that will shape the rest of their time in high school. 

“[L3 is] a very innovative idea of bringing together students who are currently on campus with alumni to get pride and purpose while also pursuing career passions,” Ferebee said.

Owens, who was hired as the inaugural L3 teacher, plans for alums to come in and help first-year students learn Woodson traditions. “These people will actually make this course so much better,” she said. “Many hands make light work … I make sure I let the village come in and help raise these kids.”

In an example of youth voice and choice at work, Wynnter Price, an 11th grader at Woodson, helped design the class and hopes to join as a guest speaker. Even though she’s too far along in school to take the class, she is proud to have built something to help future Woodson students succeed. 

“My ninth grade year, I wish I had a class that navigated the ways of high school,” Price explained. 

As Woodson celebrates half a century of tradition, its faculty and students are collaborating with community members past and present to better serve the young leaders of today. Cotten, who came up with the idea of renaming the street “Woodson Way,” addressed the crowd at the August anniversary event. 

“We always have to evolve and reinvent ourselves but stick with traditions that got us through the first 50 years,” he said. The high school’s redesign journey is a meaningful start to the next 50.

We have more ideas for how to rethink high school. Check out The XQ Xtra, a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

You can follow Woodson’s journey on and or learn more about . 

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

In 1906, the Carnegie Unit, or credit hour, was introduced to standardize U.S. public education. It defined the precise number of minutes students needed to learn a particular subject and the number of “credit hours” required to earn a high school or college degree. To be sure, at the dawn of the 20^th century, this served an important purpose — standardizing an entirely unstandardized education system. 

Today, the Carnegie Unit has infiltrated almost every aspect of American schooling. It defines how many minutes one must sit at a desk in a classroom or in front of a digital platform to learn. It shapes how schools and teaching are organized. It determines what is and is not assessed. It defines graduation requirements and dictates how schools are accredited. And it prescribes what goes on a transcript and influences who receives financial aid. In essence, the Carnegie Unit isn’t just hard-wired into the system; it is the system. And .

For students, this model of schooling exacts a heavy toll. Young people consistently report feeling they are in an intellectual straitjacket: given schedules, told what classes to take, stuck in rows of desks, handed textbooks that lack relevance to study subjects that are disconnected from the skills they need to succeed. For many students, school isn’t engaging or inspiring — it is something to endure.

Students Deserve Better

The overwhelming majority of American high schools are organized in lock step around the Carnegie Unit. Yet are ready for college or a career. Thus most young people start their adult lives behind and will have to spend some, if not all, of their time trying to catch up. 

The consequences of this reality — precipitous decline of economic mobility — are unambiguous. For Americans born in 1980, just 50% earned more than their parents, compared to 90% for those born in 1940, . The “American Dream” .

Compounding these challenges is the unprecedented, painful disruption of COVID. The most recent report from the — the long-term trend analysis for 13-year-olds — gave us a window into just how much our students fell behind: Reading scores dropped below pre-pandemic levels, and math scores plummeted to where they were three decades ago.

This cohort of students is now entering high school. If there was ever a moment to press for meaningful, lasting transformation, it is now.

High School Is the Fulcrum for Change

When high school learning improves, K-8 is pressed to raise standards to prepare students for more engaging, relevant, rigorous curricula. And post-secondary completion improves as well. Over time, these benefits compound, leading to better learning outcomes for students K-16, stronger communities, increased economic productivity and greater civic engagement.

That’s why the and the have embarked on a partnership to catalyze high schools that develop the rich tapestry of skills students need to succeed in school and life and enable learning to happen anywhere. Put differently, we are intent on building a new educational architecture that shifts the sector to a truly competency-based system and away from time-bound conceptions of what knowledge is and how it is acquired.

A growing number of states and local communities are embarking on this work — establishing competency-based education models, offering flexibility for what counts as “credit” and reimagining how credit is awarded. New Hampshire’s “” law empowers students to earn credit wherever the learning occurs. Texas, Missouri and several other states allow schools and systems to request waivers from seat-time mandates. And states like Rhode Island and school systems like Phoenix, Washington, D.C. and Tulsa are designing more rigorous, engaging and relevant models for high school learning.

Learn more about what educators nationwide are doing to rethink high school by subscribing to The XQ Xtra, a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

A New Architecture for High Schools and Communities

What will it take for all students to receive the high school education they need? We are convinced it requires a new set of building blocks, which together form the foundation of a new educational architecture: 

• Clear and persuasive learner outcomes; 
• Well-articulated and specific competencies to guide teaching and learning; 
• Powerful learning experiences inside and outside of the classroom aligned with those outcomes and competencies; 
• Much richer models of assessment — rooted around a competency-based student performance framework — that students, parents and educators can use to accelerate learning; 
• New kinds of transcripts that codify and make legible (to post-secondary schools and employers) what young people know and can do; 
• Support for aspiring and incumbent teachers to help them enact new roles; and 
• Designs for schools that are not tethered to minutes spent at a desk but focus on developing the knowledge and skills young people need for success in the 21^st century. 

State leaders, in particular, have essential roles to play. Here are three major ways they can reshape the high school landscape:

1. States should incentivize communities to redesign their high schools and invite key stakeholders to be directly engaged. 

In Memphis, a parent named Ginger Spickler saw an XQ billboard inviting communities to enter a high school redesign competition. She called a meeting with dozens of parents, educators, business owners and civic leaders. Together with hundreds of students, they created a blueprint for the school that their community needed. 

The result was , which opened in 2018 and takes a project-based learning approach in all of its classes. The result? More than 95% of its inaugural cohort graduated on time, compared to 80% in the surrounding school system. And its class of 2022 outperformed their peers across Tennessee and the nation in meeting college readiness benchmarks on the ACT in English, reading, math and science. 

To be clear, high school redesign cannot be limited to doing this work one school at a time — nor require creating schools from the ground up. That’s why XQ is to redesign 64 schools and is working with to expand the high school transformation work system-wide. And it is why Carnegie launched the to engage school systems across the nation.

2. States must catalyze high school learning that is engaging, rigorous, relevant and experiential. 

Young people need learning experiences that are multi-dimensional, project-based, high-interest and relevant to their lives and aspirations. Learning experiences need to be authentic, not made-up school tasks. They should build students’ academic content knowledge as well as other essential skills and competencies, like critical thinking and collaboration, at the same time. And they need to be rigorous, challenging every student both inside and outside the classroom and the traditional school day. 

One method to catalyze these kinds of learning experiences is for states to create innovation grants (what we call “challenges”) for teachers, schools and community organizations. This enables them to plan together and deliver transformative learning experiences that build explicit competencies necessary for success in post-secondary school and the workforce. To provide guidance, XQ and Carnegie are creating a toolkit for educators and curriculum makers that articulates what these should look like. Our goal is to spur both the supply of new curriculum products and demand from students, teachers and families for high school learning that is different and better.

3. States must help change how we assess and credential student learning. 

Traditional math classes today, such as Algebra 1 and geometry, are often taught in monolithic ways. Students who fail a course typically have to repeat it entirely, even if they only struggled on a few topics. That’s a tremendous burden on teachers — and heartbreaking and discouraging for students. 

With badging, courses are broken down into smaller components and designed to align with each student’s personal learning journey. Students have more agency over how their learning is organized and the path they take through content toward mastery. That makes math much more manageable, helps young people grow confidence, and will lead to greater achievement in the long run. 

XQ is with and a network of math pedagogy, assessment, policy and instruction experts. Three states are piloting this effort: Idaho, Illinois and Kentucky, and they’re each doing it differently. 

In Kentucky, badges will align with a traditional Algebra 1 curriculum, allowing students to demonstrate mastery of these concepts at an individualized pace.

In Idaho, badging will help provide an alternative to Algebra 2, giving students the option to take badge courses associated with different programs of study, allowing them to graduate with the particular math skills most important for their college or career of choice.

We are also tackling the urgent need for better, more useful forms of educational assessment. In March, to design, pilot and introduce new tools that reliably measure the essential affective, behavioral and cognitive skills necessary for success in school and the 21st century economy. In essence, the initiative aims to replace many of the assessments that have been in use for decades with a much better and different set of tools. 

With leaders across the nation, we aim to build a blueprint for what it will take to shift away from the Carnegie Unit, engage key stakeholders in school redesign, focus high school learning on essential learner outcomes, prioritize rigorous, project-based learning experiences, and assess performance with smarter, better tools. 

We have more ideas for how to rethink high school. Check out The XQ Xtra, a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

This article is adapted from “ State Education Standard (May 2023), published by the .

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

This is not an imaginary scenario — these lessons and activities are happening at real schools around the world. And the lessons their students are learning, both formal and informal, as they follow their own curiosity, are invaluable as they grow as stewards of our future. We can see it in how two schools, in particular, approach climate change.

set out to build the most sustainable school on the planet. Indonesia is an archipelago with 180 million people living in coastal regions. It faces the imminent threat of rising sea levels and is no stranger to weather-related disasters. Green School Bali is a much-needed inspiration for environmental education far beyond its borders. Students at this international school actively learn about sustainable agriculture, renewable energy systems and ecological conservation, applying fundamental literacies such as critical thinking and writing. They demonstrate what it means to be .

A continent away in Hungary, addresses similar concerns in a different way by focusing on alternatives to dangerous, unsustainable agricultural practices. The school opened a vegan cafeteria that supplies delicious, locally-sourced food for school lunches and the public. Students have a voice in the menus, are involved in the food planning and learn valuable lessons about supply, demand and food sources. By providing families and community members with tasty vegan food, the school encourages the community to lower its meat intake, thus decreasing the need for unsustainable farming practices. 

I saw this all first hand last year, during a 12-month transformational journey exploring innovative educational practices in 34 countries on six continents. I approached this exploration as a life-long educator and co-founder of , a diverse-by-design high school in the heart of Memphis, Tennessee. Here, students use in all of their classes to make education more meaningful, often in collaboration with nonprofits and researchers.

For my tour, I wanted to see what commonalities exist among innovative schools worldwide. I also wanted to see how world events like political shifts, war, youth movements, human migration and climate change affect teaching and learning.

As an educator committed to preparing students for an uncertain future in a swiftly evolving world, my main focus was learning how schools across the globe approach similar goals: namely, how they’re helping students become generous collaborators and original thinkers — all while mastering foundational knowledge and fundamental literacies. These guide teaching and learning at Crosstown High and in other innovative, student-centered . 

For more ideas on rethinking the high school experience, read The XQ Xtra — a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Student-Led Innovation Creates Sustainable Schools 

Around the world, schools embody the same learner outcomes we use at Crosstown and other XQ schools to prepare students for these immense challenges. 

“Change starts with an idea, an intention or a problem to be solved,” said Green School Bali Principal Sal Gordon. School educators tasked their students with researching the greatest environmental impacts on their local school community. Through an extensive study of numerous factors, students identified automobile traffic on campus as a leading contributor. With the help of engineers, chemists and automotive experts, students developed a process to convert school buses from diesel to cooking oil for fuel, which they collected from local restaurants. 

Each week, students in the “Grease Police” procure the oil from a 15-mile radius of the school for refinement and use as fuel, providing a greener alternative to school transportation. Through this kind of project-based learning and hands-on experiences, they gain a profound understanding of the interconnectedness between their actions and the environment. 

The school’s entire facility encourages this type of learning. Each open-air classroom is constructed of bamboo and thatch, with tables and chairs made locally from sustainable products. Students also manage their own lush gardens at each grade level that provide food for school lunches. They eat fish grown in the student-managed aquaponic system and eggs harvested from the fifth-grade chicken coop. 

In Hungary, REAL School Budapest Founder Barna Barath intentionally designed the vegan cafeteria to serve as a living example of the school’s purpose. In a traditional school system, a common purpose is to prepare students for postsecondary opportunities that provide individual prosperity. At REAL, the purpose is to live a purposeful and fulfilling life for collective prosperity. Students and parents invest in that vision for the betterment of the community. REAL’s educators are creating a community space and showing what it means to be learners for life and generous collaborators.

Connect Student-Directed Learning to Academic Standards

Educators at schools anywhere can prepare students for an uncertain future, specifically where that uncertainty relates to environmental change. A key takeaway from the two schools in Indonesia and Hungary is letting students take the lead in their learning. In each case, students investigated problems and found solutions, resulting in deep learning. There are many examples of schools doing similar work in the U.S. At Crosstown High, science teacher Nikki Wallace lets students take the lead by connecting them with local researchers through powerful community partnerships. 

We need to think big. Assigning simple projects around collecting plastic bottles or bags isn’t enough to move the needle on the environment and won’t truly engage kids. Even though Indonesia has specific concerns about rising sea levels, schools anywhere can — and should — engage students in learning about and studying the effects of droughts, heatwaves, floods and storms that result in crop failure and food scarcity. Here are a few steps to get started:

• Get students to think audaciously about solving local problems. What’s the big issue facing their neighborhood, town, county or state? How can they learn about it? Who can help them uncover solutions? For example: What is the condition of the local water source? What in the community is impacting local water? Who in the community can share expertise around this issue? 
• As they problem-solve, consider all connections to academic standards. How do research and problem-solving by students connect to the learning standards in your state? This is the crucial jumping-off point for connecting “academic” knowledge to “real world” solutions. At Crosstown High, we’ve done an in-depth study of human migration involving people who immigrated to Memphis. This project closely relates to the standards covered in our history, geography, sociology and psychology courses. 
• Get outside the box. Keep asking, “Why?” and push your students to think bigger and broader before zeroing in on the small tasks. At Crosstown, our students conducted an in-depth project on how life could exist on Mars. This encompassed everything from food sources, water, breathable air, transportation and architecture. They used persuasive writing and research — touching practically every subject area.

Unlock Students’ Passion and Curiosity

Helping students find the urgency and passion in learning, and the joy of finding a solution, are key components to solving increasingly urgent local and global issues. But they’re also the ingredients we need to make learning, in general, more engaging and relevant to high school students. Our high schools can and should do a better job cultivating students’ natural passions and curiosities, helping them discover how their unique gifts, talents and interests help them meet the challenges of an uncertain future. Understanding their place in that future builds the confidence needed to be a change-maker.

Luckily, students are naturally forward-focused. They constantly think about what life will be like when they grow up. We can improve the high school experience by activating their natural curiosity and augmenting it with essential skills such as critical thinking, creative problem solving, information gathering and collaboration.

All of these skills are necessary for college, career and the real world. By combining passion, urgency, curiosity and essential knowledge and skills, our students can grow into the superheroes our planet needs to lead urgent and necessary change on the local, national and global stages. Schools around the world are setting examples, and we can, too. 

Want more ideas for making your high school more student-centered? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

Imagine a high school class where students use 3D modeling software to create blueprints, gather around a mixing board to produce a song or turn their custom artwork into streetwear. These experiences are far from what we see in many traditional high school classes. 

Innovative educators are using to make their classes more engaging and relevant. More than an academic buzzword, PBL involves students in their learning by embracing real-world issues with hands-on solutions. It also gives them a taste of life beyond classroom walls, especially when a school works with community partners in business, academia or the nonprofit sector. 

Educators at XQ high schools engage students in meaningful PBL year-round. They’re among schools nationwide where educators enrich and strengthen their approaches to PBL by embracing , one of the six research-based for successful high schools. Learning becomes more when students take what they’re studying at school into the real world, seeing how academic concepts apply to places and people they know. 

Here are 10 examples of projects to inspire educators and community groups for the upcoming school year. 

1. Nurture Entrepreneurs

in Oakland, California offers students the opportunity to do long-term internships, particularly during their junior and senior years. Students can spend a month working with tech companies, local businesses, the courts and nonprofits in the Bay Area. When the pandemic posed challenges in arranging internships, Dean of Students Christian Martinez organized a two-hour class on Mondays and Tuesdays for seniors to gain financial literacy. He focused the class on the stock market, and encouraged students to develop brands and messages that resonated with their identities, cultures and histories. He ensured the course aligned with the state’s content standards, emphasizing research and evidence-based learning. Martinez said he came up with his idea for the class after seeing how the seniors didn’t seem excited about school when they came back in person during the pandemic. 

His students learned graphic design with software programs. They also had to pitch their ideas to community members, incorporate feedback and articulate the story behind their brand through presentations of learning. 

Martinez said he leveraged a grant from Nike to give each of his 16 students $500-$1,000 to have their hoodies, T-shirts and tote bags printed nearby. They then sold the clothes at Latitude’s big celebration of learning in the spring of 2022. Their brand names included “Cruzando Fronteras” (crossing borders), “Truth and Lies,” and “Humble Beginnings.” 

By the end of the spring semester, Martinez said, “I saw the spark that I needed to see from them for them to end the year in a place where they feel successful — regardless of whether they go to college or work.” 

2. Make Music

The Memphis Artists United Project served as a powerful platform for collaboration in the fall of 2022 between eight talented musicians from Memphis, Tennessee and the students of music production class, led by teacher Ty Boyland. Together, they embarked on a musical journey to create “,” a song addressing gun violence with a bilingual verse by a talented 12th grader, shedding light on the impact of guns within the Latino community. The song got attention from local media and at youth conferences, leading to conversations about how young people experience violence and what solutions they can propose. Also at Crosstown High: science teacher Nikki Wallacemakes some powerful community partnerships by working with local researchers.

Want more ideas for rethinking your high school? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

3. Start a Small Farm

At in Endicott, NY, students designed a greenhouse in their math class, building scale models. The winning model is now flourishing in a garden with multiple raised beds, small fruit trees, native berry bushes, a fence and an underground water reservoir that redirects runoff from nearby tennis courts. Principal Annette Varcoe said the students collaborate with a local farmer who encourages their understanding of agriculture, farming and the marketplace. 

In July of 2023, students added a trellis arch for climbing beans. They also harvested zucchini, cucumbers and rhubarb. Some cooked rhubarb pies in their café. Five 12th graders received internships and mentoring from Kathy, Dave and Eric’s Flavored Coffee Company. Students conducted surveys to determine which baked items to make and sell in the café. They are now working on an online ordering system and backend software to track sales and inventory for the 2023-24 school year.

4. Collaborate with Artists

Members of ’s class of 2022 responded to a devastating storm that hit the Cedar Rapids region in August 2020 and destroyed up to 70 percent of the local tree canopy. Students contracted with local chainsaw artists to turn fallen wood into sculptures. They auctioned the work for Trees Forever, a public-private partnership dedicated to “re-leafing” the damaged tree canopy. Over the three-month project, students had to engage and organize artists for the carving effort, obtain permits from the city government, generate publicity through the local media, and execute the sculpture auction. By the end, their “Splinters” project raised $25,000, nearly four times the students’ original goal of $6,000. A majority of the funds went to , with the rest paying the local artists for their time and skill. Student-led projects with community partners are the defining feature of Iowa BIG’s design.

5. Let Students Choose Science Projects

Student voice plays a significant role in projects at in Tennessee. For one project, students selected genetic diseases and conditions to study, then interviewed researchers, teachers, health professionals and those affected by these conditions. They created infographics to share their research, which were printed and displayed in the science wing to inform staff and students about genetic conditions.

6. Build a Community Garden

In partnership with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, in Houston, Texas created community gardens in the adjacent 900-acre Herman Brown Park and later on the high school’s campus. The gardens now house more than 100 fruit trees throughout the school grounds on more than two and a half acres, providing many spaces for students to learn about the natural environment and contribute to the community. The school’s Career and Technical Education program has an educator in charge of coordinating community partnerships in agriculture, food and natural resources.

7. Build a Hydroponic System

At in Indiana, students built a hydroponic system through a science project. They conducted extensive research as they designed and constructed a method for growing produce sustainably and cost-effectively. The students then identified how to use those vegetables to address real-world community needs, such as providing healthy lunches to community members in food deserts. Students at this network of high schools work on projects with community partners throughout the year.

8. Make a Micro Museum

At in Sanford, Florida, students constructed a series of mobile micro museums to take around their community, educating residents, tourists and younger students about the history of the city of Sanford and Seminole County. Students met with historians and exhibit curators from the Sanford Museum to learn how to conduct primary research, preserve artifacts and build interactive designs. The year-long project started with design thinking for students to find out what elements of their community residents wanted to learn more about. Then, they built their traveling exhibits on topics such as natural history, agriculture, sports and media, and industry and technology. 

“In an age where history is more controlled than ever, it was amazing to see the students really become energized knowing their local history and how it connected with their own studies,” said Sanford Museum Curator Brigitte Stephenson. “It showed not only the power museums have, but also how important it is to have various ages give their input on how history is presented.” Currently showcased at the Sanford Museum in commemoration of its 65th anniversary, these micro museums will travel to elementary and middle schools, downtown businesses, Seminole State College and the Seminole County Administration Center.

9. �鶹Ӱ�� Local History with Artists

The partnered with , a local arts nonprofit for young people, allowing 10th graders to take a nine-week course led by Diatribe artists, focusing on the history of housing inequality in Grand Rapids. They learned about red-lining — the practice of excluding certain groups, such as Black people, from particular neighborhoods — and its long-term negative impacts. Students toured various neighborhoods, explored the city’s gorgeous, dynamic and learned how discriminatory housing practices have shaped their city’s look and feel. 

But, typical of the school’s approach, the course was more than just lessons and field trips. Students discussed what they learned and grappled with their reactions by creating poetry, story-telling and spoken word pieces. Teachers wanted students to understand how historical events like the Civil Rights Movement were experienced nationally and within the Grand Rapids community.The partnership with The Diatribe fit closely with GRPMS courses, which aimed to blend history with social justice and English language arts in a way that makes the past feel relevant to students’ lives. 

10. Make Green Alleyways Possible

Students at in Santa Ana, California, partnered with the local architectural firm to think about a new green alleyway project for the city, working alongside professional architects to model and learn the ins and outs of drafting tools. ��í�����ܱ��Dz� became so adept with project-based learning that its school board and the approved four PBL courses that will count towards California’s “A-G” subject requirement credit. The four courses are now available as an elective to all high schools across the Santa Ana Unified School District, the sixth largest district in California — showing how community partnerships and projects in one place can inspire more schools to try them.

Share examples of how your high school uses project-based learning with community partnerships with #rethinkhighschool on social.

Community partnerships are just one way to rethink high school. For more, check out The XQ Xtra, a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

I never heard the shot, but the impact of the bullet that struck my leg just below the knee has reverberated throughout my life. As I laid on the ground of my East Oakland neighborhood, next to the bike I had been riding to high school, the first thing I heard was the sound of my screams. I was 16, victim to a random drive-by shooting. When I returned to school six weeks later, there were no words of encouragement or comfort, just the silence of a school system that chose not to care or value undocumented teens like me. 

I came to the United States from Uruapan, Michoacán, Mexico in 1999. I dropped out of high school three different times, and in 2009 I finished high school at an adult program in San Leandro. I know firsthand how, whenever the school system loudly slams a door, it drowns out the hopeful inner voice that all young people have. In my case, that voice was muted for a long time until, two years later, I saw an opening at an East Oakland elementary school for an attendance clerk. People around me at the time were either janitors, construction workers, or making illegal sales on the streets. I wanted to change the narrative. I walked in, applied, and got the job.

I went back to a school building — the type of place that had failed me — for a few reasons. First and foremost, I’d always wanted to be an educator. But those dreams were quashed when I found out that I was undocumented, and access to higher education was difficult and expensive for someone like me. It was also in part an act of resistance to challenge the status quo and disrupt a system that didn’t work for me. And, I wanted to make my mom proud. 

At the elementary school, the energetic buzz and laughter of students who looked like me sparked a determination to become the adult I never had at school. I worked as an office manager, yard supervisor, parent liaison, translator, after-school coordinator, and paraeducator. Eventually, in 2017, I co-founded in Oakland and became dean of students. Every day, I choose to hear my students’ voices and ensure that the world does, too. 

Many of the friends I grew up with felt tensions between school and “the real world.” Some of us needed to earn money for our families, many were bored, and most of us couldn’t see how what we did every day in high school would help us when we got out. There is a misconception that students growing up in poverty don’t think about their future. The opposite is true. Unlike young people with more advantages, we can’t just trust that there’s a backup plan to guarantee that everything works out.

Latitude High School is about 14 blocks from the street where I was shot as a child. We are a four-minute bike ride from Fruitvale Station, by the police. Students of color make up 94% of our school, and the majority are growing up in poverty. We’re only a 30-minute drive from the global headquarters of some of the world’s largest tech companies, but for most students in Oakland, those opportunities will remain distant and out of reach unless their schools build intentional pathways.

Read more about how to build trusting relationships with students at your school in The XQ Xtra — a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

That pathway to student success begins with a sense of belonging. Caring and trusting relationships aren’t, contrary to popular belief, the icing on the cake of academic rigor. They are the main ingredients, which is why Latitude partners with the XQ Institute. is one of six research-backed for successful schools. Our students thrive when they have adults who know them, believe and trust in their ability to learn and create the safety where students can discover their identity. This type of environment results from intentional choices in our school’s structures and curriculum — like our focus on integrating community issues and culture into coursework.

When I was shot, my school offered no support because of decisions adults made long before that moment. They may not have predicted that specific trauma, but I was a young person growing up in a neighborhood wracked by violence, living with my brother and without either of my parents. A school that saw me and cared about my future would have been ready to support me instead of letting me drop out. As students build their paths, we are responsible for looking around the corner, anticipating where the road will get rough for them.

As educators, we can help students overcome challenges by intentionally using our space and time. For example, we know the college application process is tough for many students and families. In response, we at Latitude dedicated the time and people to guide and support students at every step of the way, from having highly personal conversations about their choices to ensuring that they submit their applications on time. 

Our country asks schools to do a lot these days, but the load can be lighter by planning for what our students need and want, not just what the system requires us to do. At Latitude, these conversations and choices led to every one of 2022-2023’s 12th graders being accepted into at least one two-year or four-year college.

At Latitude, we emphasize place-based learning by tapping into the assets of the Bay Area, including our local Oakland community. This approach to learning has a dual impact. Our students recognize the unique value of their cultures and communities while immersed in meaningful learning that will prepare them for their lives after high school. In 2021, I taught a senior course on entrepreneurship. Each student applied core academic skills to develop a concept for a clothing brand they later marketed and sold at a community pop-up event. Experiences like this have taught us that learning must take place in the real world for students to remain motivated to succeed.

Ensuring workplace experiences and internships are student-centered by matching them to students’ passions and aspirations is essential. It is just as crucial that student workplace experiences work hand in hand with what students learn in the classroom. The real magic happens when each lesson, project, and workplace activity builds on each other to develop skills and a sense of self-worth. Our students must constantly evaluate what they can afford to give their time and attention to. That’s why 100% of Latitude’s class of 2023 completed at least one internship. 

Our students can choose between multiple internship opportunities, from university research to aeronautics. We also have partners in construction and the building trades. Sometimes schools, with the best intentions, get so caught up in encouraging students to dream about a good career that it creates too narrow a definition of success. As a result, some students can’t see themselves fitting into that type of success. In every industry, there are good jobs and jobs that trap people in cycles of poverty. Our are vital in providing students with the options and agency to choose their path. We are responsible for building partnerships that provide enough range of experiences so all of our students’ paths bend toward success. 

I went through high school feeling isolated and abandoned. It wasn’t just at a single school. The entire education system made decisions that failed me. Now, I’m on my way to earning my bachelor’s degree, and hope to pursue a Ph.D. in education. Looking back at when I first applied for that role as an attendance clerk, it was the beginning of me redefining “success.” 

I am fortunate every day to be part of a team of adults who make decisions that provide students with a sense of belonging and the learning experiences that will prepare them for success. I know that millions of students throughout the country feel the way I did at their age. I also know that millions of adults in communities across the country want better for their young people. If we can change high school, we can change the entire education system and give our students a path to the lives they deserve. 

Do you want to learn more about how to rethink high school? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

This article has been produced in partnership between The 74 and .

Eleventh grader Genesis Villafane has two words to describe her Michigan high school: “harmonious pandemonium.”

At the in the Grand Rapids Public Schools district, Genesis and her peers experience a constant juxtaposition of creativity and commotion because of their school’s non-traditional approach of embedding students — literally — in the community, and injecting the community into learning. 

“In one corner, you had Mr. [Nate] Langel doing a science lesson, and across the room, the choir group was practicing next to seniors working on their community project,” she explained. “Every day it’s like this.”

Community projects are a defining feature of how students learn at GRPMS, an approach facilitated by the school’s physical space. The high school opened downtown in 2018 in the museum’s current archives building, and former location, after being selected as an . Students have access to 250,000 archives they can use as primary sources.

As just one example of the school’s community-based lessons, Genesis’s English class partnered with a local nonprofit restorative arts group, , on the south side of the city. 

“They helped us write pieces of art related to issues that matter to us and our community,” she said, noting how this collaboration helped her learn about issues like gentrification and redlining. Genesis said the project also made her feel more connected to revitalization efforts across Grand Rapids — efforts similar to those that helped bring her innovative high school to life.

Many schools may visit a local institution or use projects for part of the year in a few classes. But GRPMS uses this dual approach in all of its classes, year-round, because of its commitment to , which include . Research shows that when educators incorporate real-world, experiences into their practice, students develop and apply deep content knowledge and complex skills.

Read more about how to design engaging projects at your school in The XQ Xtra — a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

The graduation rate for the Michigan high school’s first cohort in 2022 was above 86%, five percentage points higher than that of the surrounding district and state. More than two-thirds of GRPMS class of 2022 graduates (67%) met the SAT’s college-ready benchmark for evidence-based reading and writing in 2021, far outpacing both the state and district rates (57% percent and 40%, respectively). 

The small district high school of about 300 students is still new. But with even before the pandemic, GRMPS is already yielding lessons for other schools trying to bring a that’s also preparing them better for collaboration and critical thinking skills students need today in college and careers. 

Collaborate with a District

The Museum High School, as it’s known by the community, was developed through an ongoing, multiyear collaboration between the Grand Rapids public school district, the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Valley State University, Kendall College of Art and Design and the City of Grand Rapids. A middle school opened in 2015 in the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s current location and its founders wanted to build on its success by developing a high school.

“For our model, we wanted to use the whole city as our classroom,” said Christopher Hanks, founding and current principal for both the middle and high school. Hanks saw the high school as a model for teaching and learning centered on both place-based and project-based learning. 

But getting different players in a school district to come together requires relationship building. A former professor of education at Grand Valley State, Hanks iterated on the school’s design with colleagues from higher education, the museum and the district. Many of the founders who helped design the school serve on its advisory board and remain committed to its mission and culture. The school also offers dual enrollment at local colleges, and more than half of its 2022 graduates earned college credits, higher than the national average and something it holds in common with other XQ high schools.

Take Learning Outside the Classroom

The logistics of even one field trip — transportation, staffing and emergency planning — can burden many schools and districts. To avoid these obstacles altogether, Hanks worked with the Grand Rapids district to make field trips part of the high school’s design.

“We landed on a two-mile contingency radius,” he said. That agreement ensured the school had immediate access to dozens of potential partners students could connect with in downtown Grand Rapids, including the YMCA and the library, so leaving the campus isn’t a hassle.

Given that the high school is located in the museum’s former building, it lacks hallways and traditional classrooms. But Hanks and the teachers embraced another XQ design principle — . A wide-open hall on the ground floor, the Commons, is a flexible space where student learning is curated and put on display.

“There’s a lot of convergence that happens in this space,” Hanks explained. “Students and teachers will gather here to learn, connect on projects, as well as bring in the community for student-focused events.” 

The school installed a design lab and maker space next to the Commons, where students use equipment like 3D printers and laser cutters for projects. On the upper level, students split across two large flex spaces. Teachers will often co-teach units together, integrating standards from three core classes — English, social studies and science.

Empower Teachers and Provide Support 

With the school’s location and its extensive network of community partners, teachers at GRPMS say they feel empowered to create innovative and authentic learning experiences that are meaningful to students.

Project-based learning drives core classes. With this innovative curriculum, social studies teacher Lindsay Lane said she has the ability to teach history in a more expansive way. 

“We blend the humanities with the sciences, but we also show students how events like the Industrial Revolution occurred around the world,” she explained. “How the science and technology impacted the U.S., and how that shaped the story of Grand Rapids.”

Science teacher Langel described how in one project he designed, teachers connected numerous standards between science and history by having students partner with a local organization that addresses homelessness. 

“It was about what goes together,” he said. “Students learning how to make soap for the unhoused were able to connect biochemistry standards with the concepts of human rights.”

The school also discovered it needed more planning time as it developed competency-based education, a system that relies on more than just letter grades to show what students are learning. CBE is often viewed as simply an assessment system instead of a deeper shift in learning. Hanks said the school had to completely “blow-up the grading system,” rethinking what pacing, evaluation and student learning demonstrations look like. Teachers now get professional development over the summer to support and enhance consistency.

Troubleshoot with Leadership Support

While these projects in the core classes have been successful, teachers struggled to fit math into their multi-disciplinary design. That difficulty was reflected in the school’s math scores, which weren’t nearly as strong as they were in other subjects.

Ben Garlets, a former GRPMS math teacher, said many high schools across the country experience a similar challenge when trying to include math in project-based learning. He said GRPMS faced two specific challenges: scheduling the math that needs to be taught over the course of a year into projects, and keeping students at the same grade level together when they’re at different levels of mathematical proficiency. 

Garlets devised a solution: making math more like the other nontraditional classes, not less. 

“It didn’t make sense to do traditional mathematics if we were rethinking everything else,” he explained. That meant letting students see math’s relevance without forcing it into projects or tying it to other core subjects.

Garlets determined that an would be a strong fit. He presented it to Hanks as a departure from the traditional “,” in which the different mathematical concepts are isolated from one another, and .

Hanks helped him figure out how to get this curriculum approved by district leaders and connected him to the principal of the museum’s middle school, who had experience with the approach. When it comes to innovation, Hanks said “no” is never the first answer. Instead, he said he works with the district to understand what its policies and limitations are so they can find a middle ground.

Garlets, who is now working for the Grand Rapids district, said that type of leadership style is essential for an innovative school, which needs a , another XQ design principle, to make lasting and meaningful changes. 

“We were really empowered by Hanks to rethink what we’re doing in our classrooms.”

Keep Evolving

Five years into its journey, the high school is still learning what works best. As Hanks explained, a school’s vision must be earned and re-earned, learned and re-learned every year. GRPMS keeps that same lesson in mind when it comes to the greater community.

 “We’ve learned how to test the institutional relationships with our partners as we’ve evolved to ensure people remain committed,” Hanks said.

Consistency helps, too. Science teacher Langel is among many staff who have been with GRPMS from the start. 

“Just as a museum becomes a place for the community to learn about itself, the school really brings it out for students, and they connect with that,” he said.

According to the Grand Rapids school district’s strategic plan, theme schools like GRPMS are highly valued by residents because they offer choice, innovative curricula and greater access to community partnerships. But GRPMS stands out because its enrollment is more diverse and representative of the city overall. The district sees that as a source of inspiration. GRPMS and its partners expect more participants in this year’s summer institute for educators who want to learn from and replicate the school’s successful approaches.

Do you want to learn more about how to rethink high school? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

High school senior Lydia Nichols never expected to fall in love with auto racing. 

It certainly wouldn’t have happened sitting in one of the classrooms at her traditional comprehensive high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. But Nichols only spends half her day at that campus. 

The rest of her learning happens half an hour away at , a credit-bearing program for public school students in downtown Cedar Rapids where teens learn through community-based projects. This year, Nichols devised a plan to revitalize Hawkeye Downs Speedway, which to attract visitors. It’s “a huge part of our city’s history, and we don’t want to lose something like that,” she said.

Nichols and the other students on her team decided to host a race this summer where teens are the drivers. By April, they had already raised $30,000 for the event. They purchased cars, commissioned local businesses as sponsors, and launched a marketing campaign to attract drivers and spectators, hoping to fill the Speedway’s stands with nearly 5,000 fans. 

Besides having fun working with the racing community, Nichols said she’s developed marketing, fundraising and event-planning skills. “I really wanted to be involved in the community and help people, and BIG helped me discover the career I want to go into,” she said, adding she’ll study project management in the fall at the University of Iowa. 

For fresh ideas on how to design innovative community projects at your school, sign up for The XQ Xtra — a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

BIG launched in 2013 in collaboration with the Cedar Rapids School District and the nearby College Community School District. Since then, it has inspired students to follow their curiosity and discover their passions. BIG later gained support from the in 2016. Today, over 100 students come to BIG from four different high schools, spending half their day at their “mothership” schools and the other half at BIG, working on real-life projects and earning credits in English, social studies and business. 

Iowa BIG features many of the research-based that demonstrate the impact of what happens when education doesn’t just look like real life but is real life. Students at BIG feel more because they are given autonomy in designing projects connected to . 

Because BIG’s students remain officially enrolled in their home schools, Iowa doesn’t report on their outcomes separately. However, the school shared data with XQ showing BIG’s 2022 graduates from Cedar Rapids High School boasted a higher average ACT score than graduates both statewide and nationwide. BIG’s innovative environment provides lessons for other high schools on how to help students feel more connected to their learning — something they’ll need to succeed in college, careers and in life.

Collaboration by Districts Leads to a Hub for Innovation

Housed in a shared entrepreneurial space without classrooms in New Bohemia, Cedar Rapids’ thriving arts and cultural district, BIG students work alongside local startups. In this way, BIG makes — another one of the XQ Design Principles researchers say can lead to more equitable outcomes for all pupils. 

BIG shows how schools can collaborate to provide student-centric, place-based education they wouldn’t have the capacity to do on their own. The two district partners support BIG financially, covering part of the rent, the director’s salary and equipment expenses. Each district supplies two full-time, certified teachers.

“They’ve got a level of infrastructure and program-building that allows it to scale but also to operate as a hub that’s close to the bone,” said Angela Lyle, a research fellow in the School of Education at the University of Michigan and author of a recent . “They are looking deeply at instruction, learning from it and accelerating learning across the network as a whole.”

It can be financially and programmatically challenging for districts to partner with BIG; a third district pulled out of the collaboration. And for students, shuffling between two distinct learning environments can be a struggle at times. “When you’re doing traditional school, it kind of just feels uninspiring,” said Nichols.

But she also acknowledged advantages. “Since I go to Washington High School, I’m able to be open to all the traditional high school stuff I’d be missing out on while still going to such an amazing program,” Nichols explained, listing extracurriculars, sports and school dances as just some of the perks of still attending her mothership school.

Giving Students Autonomy Requires Help with Time Management 

Iowa BIG gives students an unusual amount of autonomy. But for some, the sheer amount of choice can be overwhelming. 

“The biggest thing kids struggle with is coming for the first time and not knowing how to have any agency,” said BIG’s Community Development Specialist Megan Swanson, who experienced it firsthand when she, herself, was a student at BIG. “In the traditional system, you’re told what to do, and it’s hard to break away and make decisions for yourself.”

BIG’s teachers help students learn to manage their time by utilizing a set of principles called “Modern Agile,” more often seen in organizations like Google than in high schools. With this tool, English teacher Nate Pruett said students spend time reflecting on their work with their team and project, “and that’s where kids often begin to identify their weaknesses in using their freedom.” 

Developing these mindsets of self-awareness and the skills to be generous team members are crucial for student success — and central tenets of . Research finds collaboration, critical thinking and mastering fundamental literacies are the best ways to develop students who are deeply engaged in their own learning and fully prepared for college and career. 

Innovation and Rigor Come Together 

BIG is still beholden to traditional academic standards. “Students have free reign over projects, and if it matches the class or the standards, that’s great,” Swanson said. “If not, we figure out how to make the standards connect.”

For example, one typical English standard is writing for an audience. After students designed a youth outreach campaign for a local auto shop, they were invited to share their experiences on a local radio station. They prepared by researching listenership demographics and practicing how to answer potential questions. Afterward, Pruett determined whether they had met the English standard by reviewing reflections they wrote on the strategies they used to appeal to their audience.

Students can revise their work until they master a standard, which is then translated into a traditional grade for the student’s mothership school transcript. When a project doesn’t meet all the required subject standards, BIG offers teacher-led seminars once a week to fill in the gaps. Nichols said the structure is conversational and more immersive than a typical lecture. “What we’ve discovered is that a lecture in and of itself isn’t bad,” Pruett said. “It’s bad when that’s all you do.”

Learning Happens Even When a Project Falls Flat

In many schools that use project-based learning, teachers develop the projects. But at BIG, they’re driven by the interests of the students and the community, and Swanson is tasked with building those partnerships. She’s also employed by the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance and meets regularly with business leaders to harvest ideas. 

Swanson said the best projects begin with a problem a partner is trying to solve, like , which came to her looking for help in rethinking an occupational therapy toy for children with delayed fine motor skills. For another project, a local farm asked students to help rethink how to get clean water to livestock. 

BIG will reject a community project if it lacks rigor, but when it comes to projects designed by students, BIG hardly ever says “no,” which means sometimes a project fails — just like in life. “We want projects to be real-world, messy, and have kids experience failure and figure out how to make something work,” said co-founder Trace Pickering, tapping into one of XQ’s other research-based design principles, amplifying .

Students also have the option to leave a project at any time. “Kids can get into the project and realize this isn’t what they wanted to do,” Pickering explained. “Why punish them with some arbitrary timeline that says you have to stick with it?”

Preparing Students for the Future with Real-World Skills

Based on what he hears from alumni, Pickering said BIG is succeeding in its mission. 

“Overwhelmingly, what they tell us, especially kids going to college, is that they recognized that their roommate or their friend down the hall had no idea how to manage their time, how to advocate for themselves, how to build a network,” he said. “Because they had been in an environment — a high school — where every minute had been scripted.”

On an XQ survey of seniors in 2022, 97% of BIG’s 12th graders said they felt prepared for their future, and credited BIG for helping them develop collaboration skills as well as the ability to demonstrate and communicate knowledge and learning, creativity and problem-solving and curiosity — all competencies based on the XQ Learner Outcomes.

This fall, BIG is relocating to the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance building and taking over a floor shared with its next venture: , a standalone magnet high school. City View is launching with 200 ninth and 10th graders, funded by the XQ Institute, New Schools Venture Fund, and grants from the U.S. Department of Education.

As BIG’s principal Dan DeVore put it, “What we really want is for students to have a BIG type experience as well as discover courses where they aren’t beholden to semester-long, hour-a-day block schedule.” 

Do you want to learn more about how to rethink high school? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Andrew Bauld is a freelance writer specializing in issues in K-12 and higher education. His pieces have been published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, U.S. News and World Report, School Library Journal and the XQ Institute.

In February, 16-year-old junior Elijah Lopez got an unusual invitation from his Washington, D.C., high school, . Members of its executive leadership team were planning their spring retreat in March. They contacted Elijah about inviting students to participate for the first time.

“They wanted student perspective,” he explained. “Ask questions of the students, get some feedback, and then make their decision based on our answers.”

Elijah was already a student representative, meaning he attends weekly meetings with WLA’s executive director, principal and other senior leaders to discuss future plans. At his suggestion, two more juniors active in student government were invited to the retreat virtually. 

The students made concrete suggestions. They persuaded WLA leadership to train more students in peer mediation and helped everyone agree that shutting the doors for entry after a certain hour to reduce tardiness would do more harm than good. They said attendance could improve (after dropping during the pandemic) if more students feel a sense of belonging. Student Autumn Brown explained how some students don’t like being called on by teachers.

“They don’t feel comfortable being called out and speaking in front of big crowds,” the 16-year-old said. “So I feel like when a teacher can just come to the student one-on-one and not, like, put the student on the spot, then it makes the student more comfortable.”

WLA has been emphasizing — one of six research-based XQ — since opening in 2016 as an XQ Super School. The public charter school of about 390 students included students and teachers when it to create an ELA curriculum in 2018 that’s now used in high schools around the country. 

“What we want is to not just have the sense of students co-leading with us, but actually leading adults,” Principal Eric Collazo said. He added that educators are often hesitant to include students, even though there are many benefits. “What we’ve found is in instances where you do release that responsibility to the students, you actually see them start to put into practice or apply the skills that we want to see — not only in high school but beyond in their college or career pathways.” 

Student voice is one of many ways to rethink the high school experience. Learn more with the XQ Xtra, a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month.

This is how student voice leads to , another XQ design principle. Students who are engaged in school are 2.5 times more likely to get excellent grades and to do well in school overall, compared with their most disengaged peers, according to . 

Ensuring students feel heard is core to all XQ schools and partnerships, including those with the , , , and XQ’s sponsorship of the podcast . Unfortunately, too many students seemed dissatisfied with school even before the pandemic. In 2017, finding only one out of three middle and high school students rated their school culture positively. There are many ways, as laid out here, schools can improve their culture by creating more room for student voice — so long as they’re committed to listening.

Surveys and Focus Groups Can Produce ‘a Really Important Starting Point’

Many schools use surveys, but there are to this approach. When surveys superficially ask, “What do you think of schools?” The responses are often just about school lunches and bathroom quality, said Adam Fletcher, director of , which provides training tools and technical assistance to K-12 schools. That’s why, he said, surveys or focus groups must go deeper. 

At WLA, students said their school uses anonymous surveys with pointed questions like, “Who is the staff member you feel most connected to?” or “How can we help support you to be a better student?” 

Zachary Clifton, a member of the , said it’s also important to hear from a wide variety of students. He’s heavily involved in extracurricular activities at Corbin High School and has no issue talking to adults at his school. “I feel like that has given me more credibility to where my voice is heard more often than others,” he said. “But as you know, that’s not how democracy works.”

Surveys and focus groups can “produce information about students’ perceptions of their schools that are a really important starting point,” said Anne Mackinnon, a senior advisor at XQ who’s written toolkits for schools to include student voice. She said educators should look for whether there’s mutual trust between students and adults. Then, they need to authentically bring students into school decision-making to create , another XQ design principle. Feedback from students at Elizabethton High School in Tennessee, for example, led the district’s only high school to hire more counselors. 

The Institution of Student Journalism Empowers Students

High school journalism programs give teens a sense of agency by enabling them to explore their interests and share what they find with the larger community. The recent revealed how . The challenge was conducted by PBS NewsHour in partnership with WETA Well Beings campaign and XQ. You can see the winners . won two awards, including one for the below video report investigating why the district school has no windows and the impact that has on learning. 

Students at the Frederick V. Pankow Center in Clinton Township, Michigan, won with a video report on why career and technical education feels engaging.

Harness Student Government’s Power Potential

Student governments should tackle much more than proms and homecomings. These bodies can . The XQ school in New Orleans, which opened in 2018, didn’t have a chance to form a student government because its founding class spent so much time in remote learning. Last year, students proposed a student union with representatives from every grade level. Emery Kaczmarek Johnson, now a senior, said he and the other reps drafted a Bill of Rights and worked together, “writing and discussing with staff on exactly where the line was drawn for things like student confidentiality and privacy, late assignment policies, cell phone usage and bathroom break lengths.”

The small charter school’s founding leader, Sunny Dawn Summers, said these conversations led to a serious discussion about which rules had been poorly enforced, which rules had not yet been put in writing and which ones were more about professional practices. The student handbook and internal policies were updated. “We refined our professional development training for staff and we ultimately created a trauma-informed culture guide that is the basis for how we talk to and work with kids as a school,” she said. 

The student union didn’t happen as planned but Summers said a student government is now in formation. But just the existence of the organization isn’t enough, she said, as school leadership support is critical: “It doesn’t survive if just one adult is interested.” 

Engage Students in the Staff Hiring Process

New Harmony High has never hired a staff member without student input. “It’s one of the most beautiful free things you can do that provides a lot of student buy-in for new staff members and gives staff members an accurate representation of who they’re going to teach,” Summers said. 

Interviews are conducted by three of New Harmony High’s 16 student ambassadors. Summers said they typically ask questions about special education and classroom management, as well as what the applicant does for fun plus one secret question.

But not all district schools or charters are allowed, based on local human resources policies, to involve students in prospective staff interviews.

Give Students a Voting Seat on School Boards

Students can serve in a variety of roles on local and state school boards. Fletcher, of SoundOut, where they have voting power and where their roles are much more limited. He said Boston is particularly progressive because members of its decide on education policy. Maryland allows students to . Philadelphia allowed high school students to serve on its school board in 2018. 

Ilana Drake, a Vanderbilt University student who served on the New York City Department of Education Chancellor’s Student Advisory Council and the Manhattan Borough Student Advisory Council, said being on these boards made a difference. “Students were able to share their varying experiences with regard to education during COVID-19. My peers and I were able to think about restructuring education and how policies could impact outcomes.”

Clifton said the Kentucky Student Voice Team is lobbying the state legislature to “mandate student membership on school boards” in all Kentucky districts. Students can inform education policy in other ways. Rhode Island in meetings that led to new graduation requirements through its work with XQ.

Student Voice and Academics

Today’s high school students are growing up in challenging times. They’ve been trained since childhood on how to respond to active shooters, and they spent critical developmental years going to school during a pandemic. They also have more access to information than any other generation. Fletcher said that’s changed how this generation thinks about education.

“They want better learning and teaching and leadership in schools,” he said. “Students know that now. And they’re using language around mental health, and they’re using language around pedagogy. Students, themselves, being able to say, ‘I want interactive learning.’”

that students perform better academically, forge stronger relationships with their peers, and feel safer and more prepared for life when they’re in schools that prioritize the integration of social, emotional and academic development.

The students who attended WLA’s executive leadership retreat this year believe opportunities like this make a difference. “I did slack a little bit when I wasn’t involved in school,” Elijah said, adding that his academic performance went up since becoming a student representative and taking school more seriously. His principal agrees there’s a connection. 

“If students feel a sense of belonging, then all other things fall into place,” Collazo said. “You’ll feel more connected with the teacher and you’ll also feel more connected to doing the things that need to get done in order to excel for yourself and for others.”

Do you want to learn more about how to rethink high school with student voice? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Beth Fertig is senior education editor at the XQ Institute, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving U.S. high schools. She was previously an award-winning veteran journalist at the New York City public radio station WNYC, and was a regular contributor to NPR’s news programs.

My life as a teacher is dramatically different now than it was five years ago. In my current Memphis high school biology classroom, students are caught in a whirlwind of activity, exchanging ideas and vigorously documenting observations. They’re immersed in an experiment analyzing pollution in local soil and its correlation to cancer rates, an all-too-real issue in our community. These are the moments that affirm my decision to become a teacher. They are also the moments that make me grateful to still be in the profession and grateful for the path that brought me here.

Sadly, I know this experience is not typical; not every school generates the conditions that inspire and support educators to design transformative learning experiences for their students. But if we’re going to protect the teaching profession, we need every school to understand what teachers value — and meet those needs — because that’s also the best way to serve students.

Before joining in 2018, I felt frustrated after eight years teaching. I had taught at several different schools in Memphis and did my best to make science as engaging as possible. But my previous schools were part of a rigid system that didn’t allow for the flexibility to meet students’ needs or the freedom and resources to make learning relevant to the real world. I saw many of my students struggle to stay engaged, and I knew that even when they graduated with good grades, they weren’t leaving high school prepared for college and careers.

Even worse, it seemed like having high expectations for my students and providing learning experiences that allowed them to dream big wasn’t enough to overcome a system that was quick to stamp out those dreams. In one school, I had a brilliant student in my Advanced Placement biology class who understood protein folding — a particularly difficult topic — and we were on a roll. But one day I looked up and she was no longer in class. I found out she got expelled for smoking weed. She never even graduated from high school. We were harming children with this rigid system. Educators wanted more for our students, but we did not have room to grow, to try new things, or access outside resources. 

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When I learned about Crosstown High, I sensed that this might be a place where I could rediscover my passion for teaching. It promised personalized courses of study and hands-on work within the community. The school’s founders also created it to be diverse by design, unlike most Memphis high schools, which remain highly segregated by race. I took the leap and joined as a high school biology teacher when it opened in the fall of 2018. 

I can’t pretend that moving to Crosstown from a school that did things the way they’ve always been done was easy — for me or for my students. Crosstown’s approach to education is very different from what any of us were used to. Students learn through doing; they can spend a whole semester working on a project that combines math and science, or English and humanities. They still have to meet state standards but learning feels more relevant. Through the school’s partnership with , everything is focused on a set of that are designed to ensure students thrive in their lives beyond high school. These include mastering fundamental literacies — a solid academic core — and being an original thinker for an uncertain world. 

With these outcomes in mind, I planned a project that I was convinced would excite and engage my students, an exploration of “Life on Mars“ to teach core biology concepts. They experimented with plants to determine which ones could produce oxygen on the planet. Students also explored the types of protections needed to preserve life on Mars and for travel through space. They made new connections to — the process in which plants replace or succeed each other over time — and saw how these trends on Earth could inform a process for creating a “Green Mars.”  

But it did not go as planned. No matter how engaging the activities were, my students didn’t get the point of spending their time this way. Some didn’t feel like they were learning and wanted what they called “regular work.” Accustomed to memorization and regurgitation, it can be jarring for students to jump into cross-curricular projects that require peer collaboration and real-world applications of concepts. I was frustrated, too, and almost gave up on this new way of reaching my students.

But, I decided to prove to my students and to myself that this method could be both relevant and rigorous. Ten weeks into the school year, I gave the most skeptical group of students a version of the state’s standardized end-of-year science test. I selected about 40 of the questions relevant to the topics covered in the Mars project, and these students scored an average of 90%. They were surprised and overjoyed. They saw how at the same time they were collaborating with each other on projects that demanded their use of critical thinking skills, they were also mastering the core competencies they would need for success in college. After this moment, there was no going back to the old way of doing things. But my challenge didn’t end there. 

Every educator knows what it feels like to try to make magic happen on your own. We do our best to modify curriculum, design engaging learning experiences and gather the resources our students need. But it’s incredibly difficult work. And when you’re designing project-based learning experiences like what we do at Crosstown, I found myself needing extra support after that challenging first year. Here’s what I learned:

Look for help — find community partners. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. I was encouraged to partner with experts outside of my classroom and to bring resources back to my students. The summer after my first year at the school, a group of researchers from local universities and research centers approached Crosstown for help in designing a 9-12 curriculum called “Cancer Learning In My Backyard.” As I worked with their doctors, I felt my expertise as an educator was truly valued. I knew the curriculum we were designing together would have an impact on my students and make a difference in the world far beyond my classroom. 

Representation and community matter. Having the time and support to work with these local researchers allowed me to continue to design projects while transforming my perspective on teaching. Many of these researchers were women of color in fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which also opened students’ eyes to aspirations for their futures. Since then, I’ve continued to bring researchers to my science classes and I’m now teaching a different version of “Life on Mars,” which evolved with the community partners. 

Innovation and the support to “fail forward” are key to student success. We become educators to see our students succeed, to help our communities thrive and to make a positive impact in the world. Crosstown’s collaborative approach affirmed my belief that teachers don’t need to be burned out, and students don’t need to be bored. to engage students and create meaningful connections to their community. This can also help schools retain Black teachers like myself by making us feel valued as professionals.

Core academics and real-world relevance are vital for success. The schools where students buzz with interest and where educators are fulfilled by their work are also the schools where students thrive academically. In 2022, 95% of Crosstown’s first cohort graduated on time, a higher rate than that of the surrounding district and the state of Tennessee. Our students got better results on several standardized tests — such as the ACT’s college-ready benchmark in English — than their local, statewide and national counterparts. We also had stronger results across the board with students from low-income families and students of color, which is important for a school that aimed to be “diverse by design.”

I’ve learned through Crosstown that high school transformation is possible when educators are part of a larger community of experts, and when the school commits to designing learning experiences that are both relevant and rigorous. It’s not always easy. Teachers often feel like they have to have every minute of the day planned out. But real learning requires us to let go. I don’t have all the answers and that’s OK. Students should know we’re always learning, always researching, always asking questions. Because that’s the best model for a successful life.

Do you want to learn more about how to rethink high school? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. Sign up .

The main office at Elizabethton High School in rural northeast Tennessee wasn’t always a place students enjoyed visiting. As a new ninth grader in the fall of 2019, Jayci Bowers recalled an imposing room with a long desk, a secretary and fluorescent lights that reminded her of a doctor’s office. Even though the two counselors for students had their own small offices within the space, Jayci said, “it just felt really closed off to students.” 

Today, that front office has been completely transformed into the Cyclone Student Center, named for the school’s mascot. Its old wooden door was replaced with a glass one students can see through. Inside, they’re greeted by warm lighting, a wall covered with college pennants and Cyclone memorabilia. There are small desks and high-top tables where they can work on college applications and a zen garden for relaxation.

 “I feel like I’m walking into a place where I can hang out and chill,” Bowers said. 

The school also doubled the number of counselors in the center — at the students’ request — by adding two who focus on college and career exploration and advising.

Staff and students say these changes illustrate how listening to students can take a high school in a new, more vibrant direction. Students have been playing a bigger role at in 2017. They encouraged the school to add two classes for community improvements and entrepreneurship. Elizabethton then expanded the number of classes with project-based learning, including one on teaching as a profession that was suggested by students. 

The high school of about 850 students is now a thriving community hub, with a , a coffee shop designed and run by students and a community partnership advisory group that meets monthly — so local businesses and higher education institutions stay connected to students exploring their future.

“Our community believes in progress,” assistant principal Sheri Nelson said. Elizabethton is a small city of about 14,000 people with just one public high school in a region that was . Nelson said people believe the students “need to bring the progress to the community. They don’t want our students to go somewhere else.”

Elizabethton and its educators are using to improve their high school and community at large. This is one of XQ’s research-based for rethinking the high school experience. The goal is to create more that looks beyond the school’s walls. By listening to students, Elizabethton’s educators learned they also wanted something else: connections with .

For fresh ideas on bringing more student voice to your school, sign up for The XQ Xtra — a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Why Students Wanted More Counselors

Since becoming an XQ partner, Elizabethton High School has solicited feedback from students on a regular basis in different settings. Bowers recalled joining one of two groups that toured another XQ school, in early 2020. The difference was striking. “It was a lot of inviting spaces, lots of windows and natural lighting,” she said. The Memphis school is inside a renovated, multi-use development. By contrast, Elizabethton High School is a squat, brick 1970s building with no windows.

Bowers and her classmates asked for a more open, cheerful space like what they saw at Crosstown. Around that same time, Nelson was reviewing annual social-emotional surveys. 

“Students did not know their counselor,” she said. “I mean, obviously, when you have a 430-to-1 ratio, how can they know and serve those students effectively?”

That ratio was close to the national average, even though the recommends 250-to-1. It points to studies showing students with more access to college counselors and lower student-to-counselor ratios are more likely to graduate and less likely to have behavioral problems. But too many schools can’t afford to hire enough counselors.

Only 21.5% of Elizabethton’s adults have a bachelor’s degree, according to the U.S. Census. The high school had already created . But some students needed additional support and guidance, said Dusty Duncan, one of the school’s two college and career advisors. He previously worked in the admissions office at East Tennessee State University.

“In the upper East Tennessee area as a whole, generational poverty is a prevalent issue that affects so many students and families,” he explained, adding that the high school’s staff are committed to ensuring all students, regardless of background, get the resources they need to succeed.

Giving Students More Options

Elizabethton’s college and career advisors work with students across all grade levels, but the emphasis is on helping juniors and seniors prepare for life after high school. In September, about 150 students — mostly seniors — attended a college fair in the local area. Group visits were then scheduled to all different types of colleges, universities and technical schools. 

Throughout the fall and winter, seniors get regular updates about scholarship opportunities and are notified about special weeks when state school applications are free. The Cyclone Student Center sends out a monthly newsletter to families and coordinates daily in-school visits from college, military and career professionals.

Gracie Fields, a senior who plans to study Fishery and Wildlife Science, found the scholarship newsletter useful. 

“There are a couple that I’ve actually gotten that have been extremely helpful that I wouldn’t have known about if they hadn’t made those announcements,” she said, adding that she won a full ride to attend her first choice school, Tennessee Tech University. She said she and her older brother are the first members of their family to go to college. 

As the school’s Fields also encourages her peers to visit the student center, where counselors help them fill out college and financial aid applications. Bowers said she applied to more schools than planned after learning about scholarships.

“Families are so busy right now, that the need for dedicated professionals during the school day is more important than ever,” said Judy Fletcher, another of the college and career advisors. 

Even if they have their eyes set on four-year colleges, most Elizabethton students also apply to two-year colleges because the state’s allows them to attend tuition-free. A survey by XQ found more than 80% of Elizabethton’s 2022 graduates planned to enroll in college (there’s no state data yet on how many actually did); and 56 percent of those who said they were going to two-year colleges also planned to transfer to four-year schools. 

Among Elizabethton’s graduating seniors in 2022, more than half already earned dual enrollment credits at local colleges and universities. Dual enrollment programs have and Elizabethton now partners with six local post-secondary institutions, including East Tennessee State University.

By actively including all students in post-high school planning, Elizabethton offers a more holistic definition of school success, said XQ Head of Schools Mary Ryerse. 

“As a country, we have a shallow definition of a ‘successful high school’ based on Advanced Placement enrollment or graduation rates,” she explained. “But we don’t look often enough at whether schools are helping students advance their concrete post-secondary plans by taking dual enrollment courses, applying for scholarships and seeking additional sources of financial aid.”

Elizabethton’s counselors also encourage students to pursue industry training. Last year, 12% of its graduates got into the , an increase from five percent in 2018. Nelson said that’s a plus because some of those students might not otherwise have had a post-graduation plan. Duncan, who also serves as the school’s community partnership director and coordinates various outreach events, said local businesses like a tool company and the chamber of commerce are stepping up to offer more workplace learning.

Deirdra Hawkes, director of programs and advocacy for the American School Counselor Association, said it’s important for high schools to recognize that college and career support is a specialized part of counseling. 

“It’s easy to go into a classroom and deliver classroom instruction on college planning,” she explained. “It’s another thing to follow up with individual students to find out what they need individual help with and support.” And high schoolers need help exploring their options long before their senior year.

It’s too soon to say what impact Elizabethton High School’s new student center is making on college-going, especially at a time when . But in 2022, Elizabethton High School’s leaders said 94% of its 185 seniors filled out applications with the state’s Tennessee Promise program. And 89% filled out their forms. The school’s 93% on-time graduation rate for 2022 exceeded the state’s and even rose despite the pandemic. 

Staff and students say they can tell more teens are using the student center to talk about their future. Sam Bowers, a senior (no relation to Jayci), said Duncan spent “days at a time” helping him complete the University of Tennessee application and others. Now, he’s bringing fellow students into the center as a student ambassador — a gig that used to mean showing ninth graders around the building and its with Elizabethton’s history and values. But Bowers now takes new students into the Cyclone Student Center, so they won’t think it’s only for juniors and seniors preparing for college. He wants them to see that a counselor isn’t “some scary adult that sits behind closed doors and doesn’t interact.” 

Nelson said listening to students is key to improving a school and its greater community. She hopes Elizabethton High School can keep its two college and career advisors after their funding runs out this year because getting a college degree helps students “take care of their own” — their families and their city. 

“No longer do we look at school as ending at the 12th grade,” Nelson said. “We think that we have to look at our students’ success beyond high school.”

Do you want to learn more about how to rethink high school? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of The 74.

I’d been leading the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) for less than a year in the fall of 2019 when I first witnessed high school students crying because they’d been shortchanged an education and teachers actually sobbing because they felt responsible. These emotional moments occurred during school planning sessions, where educators, students and administrators were examining how students experience high school in Rhode Island.

What was wrong? Many of Rhode Island’s seniors were applying to colleges, only to find that they hadn’t taken the necessary coursework recommended for admission. Many felt they had been shuttled through high school without anyone ensuring they were on track to pursue higher education or careers. Without exaggeration, the system was failing many of our students. 

The core problem was the state’s graduation standards. To receive their high school diplomas, Rhode Island’s students didn’t have to take the math, lab science and world language courses required by the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College. Even worse, high school graduates told us they felt unprepared for life because they didn’t have real-world skills like financial literacy.

Rhode Island wasn’t the only state with this problem. A few years ago, the required students to complete a truly well-rounded education in order to graduate high school. It’s no wonder the U.S. has been in the international math and reading tests given to teenagers.

As the person leading Rhode Island’s state education system, I was devastated to hear students and teachers describing a system that frankly wasn’t preparing kids for success in college or careers. We needed to figure out whether this was happening at a few high schools or whether it was a more widespread problem. RIDE was already partnering with the , a nonprofit that works with communities around the country to rethink and redesign high school so that it’s more rigorous, equitable and inspiring. Together with XQ, RIDE conducted an in-depth analysis – known as an – of how effectively and consistently our high schools were educating kids from disparate backgrounds throughout the state.

The data from that audit painted a painful picture of a system not just failing to prepare its students, but also perpetuating racial and class inequities. We learned, for example, that only six out of 10 students in Rhode Island were taking the courses they needed to be eligible for college. Boys were less likely to complete the college preparatory course sequence than girls, while Black and Latino students were less likely than white and Asian students, and low-income students and English learners were less likely than their peers. Students with disabilities had the lowest rate of all. Further, only about a third of students were taking the full complement of career and technical education courses needed to be considered career-ready. 

As grievous as the situation was, the good news was that it pointed us toward some concrete solutions. We had to clearly define what a Rhode Island diploma meant – for every student, no matter their district or school. And we had to ensure these criteria aligned with the admissions recommendations of state colleges and universities. If we did these two things, we could ensure that every single one of our graduates, regardless of race, income or ZIP code, would be ready for college and beyond.

But previous efforts to address these problems faltered due to a lack of consensus within Rhode Island’s education community. To break that cycle, we knew we’d need to deeply engage the full spectrum of stakeholders in our state’s public school system. Centering community voice, RIDE began developing a proposal to update the state’s graduation requirements. During a robust, 18-month community engagement process, we reached out to teachers, parents, students, labor unions, business and nonprofit leaders – everyone who’s invested in and impacted by the quality of our schools. Their insightful feedback led us to: 

• Add a financial literacy course as a requirement for graduation because students told us making informed financial decisions was important. Additionally, we put the onus on schools to support students in filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and state aid forms to ensure all students get help in maximizing financial assistance.
  
• To address the fact that more than one in three students in Rhode Island takes care of a family member for part or most of the day, we agreed to require every high school in the state to develop flexibility and supports for those caregiving students. We’re now designing those policies. For example, the state is exploring awarding students community service hours for their caregiving work, and designing flexible class schedules, skills-building groups and support groups.
  
• Eliminating all requirements surrounding instructional minutes or seat time. Research shows the amount of minutes a student sits in a seat does not correlate to the amount of learning that occurs in a classroom. By letting schools move away from single-subject classes of about 50 minutes a day, students can take longer classes that combine science and math, or that involve community partnerships — so long as they demonstrate competency and meet state standards. This also gives our teachers more flexibility to adapt their instruction to the way our kids learn best. 

After considerable community engagement that began in the summer of 2021, we released our first proposal for public comment this past February. Over the next few months, it became the most commented-on K-12 policy proposal in the history of Rhode Island. In November, after conducting even more engagement than required by the state, we presented the Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education an even more refined plan for new, equitable graduation standards. The council passed it unanimously. 

What policymakers often forget is that when a major change is proposed, people get nervous. There were many moments along the way when, if we’d failed to engage our school system’s diverse stakeholders, we would have lost crucial support. But RIDE committed to shepherding our communities through this process, remaining flexible, addressing their concerns and devising solutions, and we kept that commitment. That’s the main reason this effort succeeded: We did not want to be right, we wanted to get it right with the community by our side. 

We also took important public feedback into account by phasing in these changes over the next six years. In the short term, students who arrive in high school as first-year students will be automatically enrolled in the courses they need to be eligible not only to graduate from high school but to apply to our state colleges and universities. And in the long term, these new standards will improve how our entire K-12 system prepares students for college and careers. Students will take a more rigorous math sequence, lab science and at least two years of world languages, but complete the same number of credits to graduate.

Throughout the country, state colleges and universities say they’re . By listening to students, their families and teachers, we are changing that trajectory in Rhode Island, making the kind of system-wide impact that often feels impossible. We hope it serves as a model for other states. 

Our students deserve a world-class education – and we’re taking strides to ensure it.

Do you want to learn more about how to rethink high school? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. Sign up .

Disclosure:  is a financial supporter of The 74.

This article has been produced in partnership between The 74 and .

Indianapolis, IN — Raina’s ninth grade schedule at looked nothing like that of a typical high school student. Unlike most teens, she never attended single-subject, 50-minute periods like math, English and social studies. No bells rang when class was over. Instead, projects and personalized learning are key at this in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

This structure allowed Raina to choose a different schedule every six weeks, in six cycles over the year. During one cycle, she participated in a mock trial that required her to research previous cases, analyze evidence and build written cases. Six weeks later, she signed up for the next level and focused on presenting cases in front of a judge and jury in collaboration with local attorneys. She also took a journalism course that involved not just writing and researching articles, but learning the ethics of the craft. And in each cycle, Raina also took some online classes, such as Spanish, Latin and math.

It sounds overwhelming — more like college than high school. But Raina, who’s part of PPHS’s Class of 2025, said the workload is very well paced. “They don’t give you a whole semester load of work to do in six weeks,” she explained.

PPHS is breaking the mold of traditional high school learning for a reason. of all U.S. high school graduates are ready for college or career, and a full 40 percent of 12^th graders were below basic in math on the most recent . The achievement gaps are especially pronounced among students from low-income families and those who are Black and brown, because students from underserved communities have been historically and systematically neglected.

Former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels saw those disturbing patterns when he became president of Purdue University in 2013. The university teamed up with business leaders, the city of Indianapolis and the state to raise the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds attending Purdue University and going into STEM careers. They designed PPHS and it was among the winners of XQ’s to rethink the U.S. high school experience. It with a nontraditional schedule emphasizing more personalized learning and engaging, real-world projects aligned to state standards and Indiana’s workforce development goals. 

“The idea that learning needs to be time-bound, or that every student learns in the same way in increments and goes from class to class is antiquated, and doesn’t really serve students well,” said Keeanna Warren, the school’s associate executive director. 

Since graduating its first class in 2021, PPHS has sent more than twice as many students to Purdue as the entire Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) district, most of whom are students of color. The school now has three campuses (in Indianapolis and South Bend) and it reported cohort graduation rates of 83, 86, and 100 percent in 2022. By comparison, the typical graduation rate in IPS hovers around 72 percent. 

In addition to , PPHS students have personal learning time between classes to work with teachers — called coaches. This allows for differentiated instruction and targeted academic assistance. Throwing out the high school playbook may seem easier for a new charter school partnered with a top-notch university than for an existing school with an established culture. But many other U.S. high schools have hacked the traditional schedule to make learning more personalized and flexible. These include all of the charters, district lab schools like in Pennsylvania and . 

Most importantly, experts say other schools can replicate these models. 

There are Fewer Obstacles Than You Think

When switching up the traditional school day, “sometimes people think there are more barriers or requirements than there actually are,” according to Laurie Gagnon, director of the Aurora Institute’s program.

School leaders often feel constrained by the , the century-old system that’s still the organizing principle for most U.S. high schools, with learning measured by seat time. However, there’s an increasing recognition that this system doesn’t serve all students, which is why to spend the next few years developing a replacement for time-based learning. 

In the meantime, Gagnon said interdisciplinary projects that combine material from different subject classes can easily meet state requirements. At PPHS, one industry project involved having students meet with public transportation officials to develop solutions that could serve the community better, using what they learned about population density and how it changed over history due to factors like interstate construction and redlining. To meet state standards, the school also schedules students into interdisciplinary classes. One called “the candy corn catapult,” for example, combines math and physics. 

Various states and districts encourage schools to create innovative schedules. In , schools can request waivers from state mandates. New Hampshire and Oregon are among states moving to give credit based on factors other than seat time, according to the . Some districts have created innovation zones through agreements with their unions. In Boston, have flexibility around hiring, budget, bell schedule and curriculum. In New York City, the union contract allows if most teachers agree to a different schedule.

In-House Tech Expertise Helps, But Isn’t a Requirement

The traditional high school “master schedule” exists for a reason: functionality. Regardless of whether the school has 100 or 1,000 students, it can program the appropriate classes for every pupil while also ensuring courses align with student needs, the curriculum, and legal requirements.

But PPHS had no template when it did away with the master schedule in favor of more personalized learning. Staffers were scrambling in 2017 to give 150 first-year students different choices each week, in six-week cycles. The solution came from Andrew Zeller, a Purdue University graduate student in math who was on the PPHS team at the time. Zeller found Setmore, a software program typically used by hair salons and yoga studios. Signing up for an electric car project using Setmore was as easy as scheduling a trim and highlights. But he still had to program each student’s selections manually so they’d know their next week’s schedule by Friday. “I don’t think I slept on Thursday nights for two years because I was building the master schedule on Thursday night,” Zeller recalled.

Setmore worked well until the school’s staff and population doubled a year later with a new class of ninth-graders, causing everything to slow down. Thankfully, the next solution came from someone else in-house, engineering and science teacher Drew Goodin. He wasn’t a software programmer but he was able to get Google sheets to work with an automation app. He named the new system Drewber — his first name plus Uber. 

Of course, most schools don’t have someone on staff with these talents. But Goodin acknowledged there is an old school alternative: “Issuing paper tickets to classes could be a solution to this problem too,” he said, adding that changing the schedule wasn’t as important as maximizing student learning through the optimization of coaches, students and space. Schools can do all of those things within the master schedule. They can also make smart use of time, space, and technology — one of the six researchers say can lead to more equitable outcomes for all pupils. 

A Shared Vision Matters, and So Does a Collaborative Culture

At a school devoted to personalized learning, it’s important to create a culture that allows constant iteration, PPHS leaders said. In its second year, for example, PPHS tried building its own curriculum through an online tool. But that was a huge lift for the staff. Making too many changes “just about destroyed the school,” said executive director Scott Bess. Teachers grew frustrated. Some quit. Founding principal Shatoya Ward, who now serves as chief of school operations, recalled the staff demanding an intervention. But instead of a mutiny, they worked together. She recalled them asking, “What are we going to do about this?”

Gagnon, of Aurora, said that it’s critical to carve out space for teachers to learn, have opportunities for professional development, and be a part of the design process. PPHS leaders said they’ve absorbed this lesson. They began offering fewer courses to make the schedule more manageable. The school also switched from six-week to eight-week cycles in the fall of 2022, and it’s become less enamored with online learning. But constant iteration relies on a shared vision, Bess said.

“I’d say the biggest thing is, remember your why,” he explained. “In our case, we want to get more underrepresented minority students and low-income students able to access a place like Purdue.” 

Listen to Feedback from Your School Community

PPHS’s vision for more personalized, project-based learning wasn’t just a challenge for its faculty. It also presented a hurdle for students and parents used to traditional grading systems and test prep. Each project is tied to specific , such as problem-solving, analyzing sources and using a growth mindset, that colleges and employers identified as lacking among too many high school graduates. That’s why Warren said communication was critical. 

“We had open forums and town halls to receive feedback from parents and share the ‘why’ and ‘how,’” she said. “Some parents remained skeptical through graduation, and that feedback was helpful for our team’s growth.” Over time, Warren said PPHS saw more teachers, parents and students buy in once they realized the school was working. 

Victor, who graduated from PPHS in 2022 and now attends Purdue University—where he’s studying integrated business and engineering—said he enjoyed his high school’s variety and flexibility. At other schools, he said, “you’re put in a box,” with a routine that becomes redundant and tiring. Like many PPHS students, Victor took advantage of a summer program allowing him to attend Purdue University. He also took dual credit courses at another local college, giving him a leg up as a college freshman. 

Since the onset of COVID-19, there’s been more interest in flexible approaches to learning. “I think the pandemic has opened up some questions about where does learning happen, and how do we document it,” Gagnon said. And PPHS could provide schools across the country with valuable answers to those questions.

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Disclosure:  is a financial supporter of The 74.

Williams and — a national organization that redesigns high schools so all students are successful — are giving each senior one free pass to the festival, which will be held June 17-19 in Washington D.C. to coincide with Juneteenth weekend.

“Congrats to this year’s D.C. high school graduates. You’ve truly inspired all of us through your resiliency and through your ability to learn through a pandemic,” said Pharrell in his . “You deserve to be celebrated.”

SITW, an annual festival founded by Williams that features culture and art, will this year include a lineup of , including Jusitn Timberlake, SZA, Lil Baby, and Gracie Abrahms. There will also be the DC+XQ Community Market, featuring D.C. vendors and entrepreneurs, right outside of the festival.

“We believe the work of transformation is community centered, and at the center of that community are our biggest assets: students,” said XQ chief program officer Ursulina Ramirez. “Partnering with Pharrell and SITW is our way of saying thank you, congratulations, and honoring the class of 2022 for persevering through their HS journey. We wish them all the best as they continue their journeys.” 

XQ began its partnership with DC Public Schools in February 2022 to redesign the district’s high schools, Ramirez said. “We are in the midst of working with DCPS to design and implement innovative models ensuring all students — including those furthest from opportunity — are prepared to succeed in college, career, and in life.”