Transcend fuels R&D so visionary educators can develop and spread breakthrough “school” models
Transcend fuels R&D so visionary educators can develop and spread breakthrough “school” models
We provide and develop world-class R&D capacity that supports visionary education leaders to build and replicate breakthrough learning environments. There is no standard recipe to our projects. We approach each partnership flexibly, meeting our partners where they are and working together to accelerate breakthroughs. In some cases, we work directly with individual school operators; other times, we work with groups or networks.
We consider multiple partnership opportunities across the public, private, and charter school sectors.
With school operators who are ready to embark on a new journey of blue sky-innovation and want to go from concept to creation…
We partner to conceive, build, launch, iterate, and ultimately codify breakthrough new models.
With school operators who have already started down the path of school model innovation…
We partner to help them undertake cycles of learning and iteration, build key elements of the model, and overcome barriers to breakthroughs.
With school operators who have successfully developed highly promising models…
We partner to codify: 1) all key elements of the model needed for replication and 2) the conditions, culture, and processes that have enabled the development and ongoing iteration of the model.
With school operators who want to be early adopters of already developed, highly promising models…
We partner to customize and help them adapt these models to their communities, thereby reaping the benefits from prior R&D investments.
Current and Past Partnerships
Current and Past Partnerships
We are in year four of this partnership, to design and pilot Greenfield, an elementary and middle school model in New Haven, CT. Check out this overview, this case study from year two, this recent NBC News special, or this EdWeek article.
This Nashville, TN, charter network is developing, codifying, and sharing their comprehensive human development model, called Compass, with other schools. Over the next three years, Valor aims to impact over 300 schools and 120,000 students. To learn more, check out our resource-sharing site, this video case study from Edutopia, or this EdWeek article highlighting how Compass is taking shape in another school.
EdLoC is a member of the second Collaborative. Their design team includes EdLoC leadership, as well as two of their members from schools in Philadelphia, PA, and Piney Woods, MS. All parts of the team are working to redesign their models in order to better support students and leaders of color.
Lindsay Unified School District and Summit Public Schools, with the partnership of Transcend, are working to codify learner-level, adult-level, and site-level competencies needed to ensure high quality personalized learning for all.
The Brooklyn S.T.E.A.M. Center team is a member of the second Collaborative. They are developing is a STEAM-focused career and technical education (CTE) hub that will prepare a socioeconomically diverse group of students for the jobs and career pathways of the future. Inspired by the unique facilities of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and drawing upon its ecosystem of over 400 companies across manufacturing, media, food, technology, and other fields, the S.T.E.A.M. Center model represents a bold, innovative approach to STEM education.
We partner with this Los Angeles, CA based network of intentionally diverse schools, to redesign a middle school experience that deeply engages the critical thinking and cognitive skills of all students, in order to create a powerful globally-oriented learning community.
In partnership with NewSchools Venture Fund, we work with a diverse group of district, charter, and private school operators on a 10-month journey—The Collaborative—to accelerate their trajectories towards next generation school models. Read more about The Collaborative here.
The Bard High School Early College team is a member of the second Collaborative. They are developing both an evolution of their successful early college secondary model, with the goal of shifting the model's design elements to serve a more diverse student population, and a new “Bard sequence” program offering for partners beyond their network.
The Manhattan Archdiocese team is a member of the second Collaborative. They are working to design better, richer, more personalized learning experiences within their existing courses and disciplines at multiple campuses, with the hopes that this work serves as a model for their region and the broader Archdiocese.
Whittle School & Studios is building a global system of schools—launching Fall 2019 in Washington DC, USA, and Shenzhen, China, and expanding to other countries in subsequent years—that will incorporate learning by doing, creating and making, student choice and voice, collaboration and teamwork, and global connections with local roots.
Edgecombe County Public Schools is a member of the second Collaborative. They are designing the future of school hand-in-hand with community and business leaders. Their efforts are concentrated at North Edgecombe High School and Phillips Middle School with an eye toward building district and city-wide capacity for innovation.
Part of the first Collaborative, KIPP Houston is forging ahead to crystallize a refreshed vision for their first middle school, including interdisciplinary academics and personalized math. Check out their journey in their podcast here.
SMISD is a member of the second Collaborative. They are building a vision of a powerful, holistic, personalized learning community at Bowie Elementary School and exploring how they can best nurture innovation across the district.
Strive Prep is is a member of the second Collaborative. They are concentrating efforts at RISE High School in northeast Denver. A cross functional team at RISE has developed innovative approaches to building students’ positive self-concept and their critical consciousness. Next year and beyond the team plans to incorporate learning from that pilot into their model more broadly.
Part of the first Collaborative, Tulsa Public Schools developed holistic and bold visions for two elementary schools—Anderson and Hamilton—and are continuing to build toward them. Meanwhile, the district is growing a robust design lab, which will support the entire district in building a culture of innovation.
Part of the first Collaborative, Excel has focused on building students’ self-awareness and social emotional skills through a partnership with Valor Collegiate and their innovative social-emotional curriculum, Compass.
The Academy Group (AG) is a unique, new enterprise founded to realize the long-term potential of young people from underserved communities across the United States. Designed to tap into the deep wells of often overlooked talent that exists nationwide, the Academy Group—launched first in Chicago—empowers youth to thrive in school, work, and life.
CICS is is a member of the second Collaborative. They are thinking boldly about the future of two schools—Loomis Primary and Longwood. They are exploring the role of social-emotional wellness, identity affirmation, and executive functioning in service of preparing students to solve complex problems and make positive change in their communities.
Part of the first Collaborative, Van Ness Elementary School in the DC Public Schools is reimagining the elementary learning experience. They have developed an innovative approach to social-emotional development that begins first thing in the morning with a suite of practices and rituals, and is reinforced throughout the day. Further, they are exploring makers’ centered learning as a way to build students’ creative problem solving skills and compassion.
Based in New York City, NY, nXu is a new, out-of-school model for high-school-aged youth, centered around an intentionally diverse community of learners working in non-traditional (immersive, experiential, self-directed) ways to develop self-awareness, broader perspective, and a sense of Purpose.
Summit Public Schools and Lindsay Unified School District, with the partnership of Transcend, are working to codify learner-level, adult-level, and site-level competencies needed to ensure high quality personalized learning for all.
Part of the first Collaborative, Spring Branch Independent School District in Texas is launching multiple pilots to test more relevant and personalized approaches to middle school and also has created an innovation incubator within their district to help many more schools forge bold visions for learning in the 21st century.
MFA in Austin, TX, is working to deepen and codify their innovative model, which fuses Montessori with other high performing school practices, to ensure success with an intentionally diverse learner community.
Intrinsic is working to further develop their innovative school model that is rooted in personalized learning and aims to best prepare students for postsecondary success and world-changing endeavors. Intrinsic is also working to provide the Chicago public education community with a roadmap to sustainable implementation of their model.
Ednovate is a member of the second Collaborative. They are building on their personalized college preparatory program to think big about what’s possible for their next high school and how they might integrate and apply those ideas across all their schools to promote positive, multigenerational change.
Part of the first Collaborative, this Memphis, TN, network is re-imagining its school model toward a more personalized, community-embedded, and responsive student experience with integrated technology and rigorous curriculum standards.
Teton is convening a network of schools situated primarily in rural locales across the United States, all of whom are deeply committed to place-based education as well as a transformative educational model that can accelerate student engagement, learning outcomes, and community impact faster than any one member school.
The Forest School is launching a micro-school in south metro Atlanta (elementary, middle, and high) that incorporates learner-driven technology, Socratic discussions, hands-on projects, and real-world apprenticeships in an intentionally diverse, character-forging community.
Hebrew Public is a growing network of intentionally diverse elementary and middle schools in New York that is reimagining their learning environments by focusing on graduating global citizens, engaging with middle eastern language and civilization, and integrating strong practices from places like Ramapo and International Baccalaureate.
Through extensive study in the areas of next generation learning, social and emotional learning, wellness, urban planning, Hip-Hop culture, Chicago history, the opportunity gaps that exist among marginalized students, economic mobility, arts education, and the at-risk communities on Chicago’s South Side, Art in Motion has a solid research foundation upon which to build an innovative middle and high school that has the potential to change the narrative for many Southside youth.
Collegiate Academies is a member of the second Collaborative. They are is concentrating design efforts at Livingston High School and Rosenwald High School this year with the hope that eventually every Collegiate High School is one that puts learning in the hands of students and prepares them to lead lives of unlimited opportunity.
Part of the first Collaborative, this Minneapolis, MN, network of schools is designing and developing a reimagined middle school model that is student-centered and focused on developing agency in students through individualized enrichment projects. HCP-N will be the first middle school to open with this innovation in Fall of 2018.
Part of the first Collaborative, YES Prep reflected on their progress and where they wanted to push their model in fostering student agency, creativity, and leadership and are in the process of piloting various new strategies.
Part of the first Collaborative, Camino Nuevo laid the groundwork of a new vision and strategy for their organization that supports innovation, and they have built out new concepts for piloting, including K-12 ethnic studies.