Engaging communities across the US to redesign their schools

Problem

In the US, academic achievement has been stagnant for decades. Despite a 150% increase in inflation-adjusted spending per pupil, average math and reading scores are the same as they were 50 years ago. Meanwhile, disparities are widening along racial and socioeconomic lines, as well as for students with disabilities, and across nearly every metric, the bottom quartile of students are further behind their peers than they were in the 1970s. While the world has become increasingly complex, the design of American schools has stayed essentially the same, with students taught via a one-size-fits-all curriculum. Students everywhere report feeling bored, unmotivated and disconnected in school. They simply aren’t equipped with the critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills they need to succeed in a 21st century workplace.

Big Idea

Transcend tackles this problem by taking schools on “design journeys” — a community-driven innovation process which helps them rethink every aspect of learning, from curriculum and culture to scheduling, facilities and assessments. They help schools tap into a growing library of evidence-based models — like project-based learning, high-dosage tutoring, and personalized and self-paced curricula — which are common in private schools and wealthy districts, but have only been implemented in public and charter schools in a piecemeal way. The results are learning environments that leave students more intellectually engaged, emotionally connected and personally empowered. Today, Transcend can only work with half the schools that want to go on design journeys. With Audacious support, they’ll scale up additional pathways — training others to facilitate the process and enabling schools to lead their own. Their ambitious five-year goal is to reach 675,000 more students by supporting design journeys in over 1,000 new schools.

Plan

The design journey process begins by helping schools assess their biggest challenges, through interviews, surveys and recent education research. Next, Transcend brings together diverse stakeholders from the school community — including administrators, educators, family members and students — and shares the evidence-based learning models that have worked in schools with similar dynamics. From there, Transcend helps the community envision its ideal school design, design pilots of its chosen models, create assessments to measure their outcomes and, from there, build a roadmap for transformation. The process ends with transition coaching, to prepare the school community to continue this work after Transcend’s partnership concludes.

Why will it Succeed?

Since 2015, Transcend has partnered with 350 schools, guiding them through the design journey process, with 200,000 students benefiting as a result. They’ve reached an additional 1,650 schools and 800,000 students with lighter-touch work. Of the schools they partnered with last year, 84% of students were people of color, 73% were economically disadvantaged, 11% had disabilities and 21% were English language learners. Transcend partner schools see improved student experiences, including higher test scores, graduation rates and post-graduate outcomes, as well as improved attendance and reduced disciplinary incidents. More than 85% of these schools plan to continue innovation work beyond Transcend’s involvement. By partnering with communities to implement new approaches and adapt them to their needs, Transcend lays the groundwork for lasting transformation, with all students receiving a better, more equitable educational experience.