School Redesign: Partnerships that Fit
Increasingly, educators are embracing an expanded definition of student success and looking for ways to realize this vision for their students. Too often, educators feel alone in this journey, unaware that innovative, equity-focused solutions already exist that could meet their needs. The first challenge is for these parties to find each other. The second is […]
The BARR Center
3DE
What are model providers, and how do they fit into NewSchools’ Innovative Public Schools portfolio?
Our model provider portfolio was born of our Innovative Schools portfolio, specifically a subset focused on transforming existing schools. Often, these initiatives become tremendously labor-intensive. Schools started to create the schools they dreamed of by selecting curricula, materials, assessments, professional development, technology, and all other components independently. Often, those components didn’t fit together cohesively, and filling in the gaps largely fell on teachers’ shoulders. Instead, we saw a budding trends that we and schools we worked with found promising: model providers. This 2018 paper outlines our concerns, articulates our hopes, and announces our brand new model provider portfolio.
4X4: There are four pathways to becoming a model provider and four major stages of development
Since our portfolio’s inception, we’ve committed to and appreciated learning alongside our venture organizations. Thanks to 28 of organizations we’ve worked with, we now know more about trends we tend to see in both their origins and journeys and the challenges and advantages of each. While of course no model provider is the same, we do see four primary pathways to becoming a model provider and four major stages each passes through on their road to developing a sustainable, high-impact model that works with schools at significant scale.
Learn why some academic initiatives adopted by a school district might fizzle and others sizzle
Our team is headed by Scott Benson, formerly of DC Public Schools, where he evaluated numerous new academic initiatives being implemented (or so he thought) across the city’s schools. Some schools did indeed take a mandate from the district, run with it, and transform the way their students learned, just as he had hoped. Yet others left their new materials untouched. After scouring countless classrooms to understand why two differentiators surfaced; forming the eventual philosophy guiding our model provider strategy today. (5 min read)
There are many paths to becoming a model provider; the path for Appletree was nontraditional.
In this post we reflect on the sometimes windy paths organization must take in an effort to scale sustainably.
KIPP Houston Public Schools
KIPP Houston is a network of 28 high-performing schools in Houston, serving approximately 14,500 students climbing the mountain to and through college. This organization participated in the first cohort of our ‘Transcend+NewSchools Collaborative’ – a multi-faceted nine-month program that guided districts and charter network leaders through a process to reimagine their schools.
KIPP NYC
KIPP NYC is a network of free public charter schools serving grades K-12 in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem, and Washington Heights. This organization participated in the second cohort of our ‘Transcend+NewSchools Collaborative’ – a multi-faceted nine-month program that guided districts and charter network leaders through a process to reimagine their schools.
OurSchools
OurSchools is a Massachusetts-based non-profit focused on founding new middle and high school programs that adopt its three-prong approach of Pathways, Multi-Tiered System of Supports and Personalized Learning. This organization participated in the second cohort of our ‘Transcend+NewSchools Collaborative’ – a multi-faceted nine-month program that guided districts and charter network leaders through a process to reimagine their schools.