We’re cooperative.

Roughly two years ago, Denise and I started to develop the ideas that center The Workshop Independent School. We believed deeply that families and children deserve a middle school that uniquely matches their developmental interests and abilities, but we’ve been consistently inspired by the positive and passionate response we’ve received.

We set out across the country to meet with interesting and innovative school founders. We had a sense of how large this project might be, but we didn’t yet know exactly how many amazing educators are working to design and build truly innovative schools. Along the way, we’ve discovered more and more incredible small schools, and we’ve learned amazing new insights from every school visit.

Every conversation set in motion a new set of ideas and strategies, but we started to realize that each conversation was small in its own way. The movement felt much larger! And during the last 6 months, we’ve worked to organize and establish The Innovative Schools Cooperative, a national network of 10 innovative and transformative independent schools. The Cooperative includes renowned schools like Brightworks in San Francisco, NuVu Studio in Boston, and Portfolio School in NYC.

Last weekend, the Founders and Heads of School from our network schools met together for two days in New York City. We discussed our strategic goals for the Cooperative, and we received targeted feedback for new ideas and challenges facing our school. Most importantly, we confirmed our commitment to help and support each other. And the movement.

Because we believe in the transformative power of education. We believe that every child and every family deserves a high quality education. And we believe that our small network of innovative schools can help transform how local communities think about learning and schooling.

Over the last 18 months, we’ve worked hard to develop and advance our work. Early on, our ideas seemed so far away! Now, our work feels closer than ever. Below, Andrew reports on some of our progress.

Seven or eight years ago, I started to wonder what a truly amazing school might look like. I started to randomly ask students and teachers what their perfect school was. Over time, I collected a wide range of wonderful ideas, from unlimited free ice cream to immersive, hands-on learning.

And during the last 18 months, I’ve traveled across the United States to visit accomplished schools and speak with innovative school leaders. So much of what I’ve learned has helped us shape our work, and I’m happy to share our progress.

• I’m proud to announce that The Workshop Independent School has helped found a collaborative support network that connects innovative independent schools. The Innovative Schools Cooperative includes 10 amazing schools from across the United States, including Brightworks (San Francisco), NuVu (Boston), and Revolution School (Philadelphia). We will host our first annual conference this Spring at Teachers College, Columbia University in connection with the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership.
• I’m humbled to announce that we recently closed a major gift to sponsor our indexed tuition program. The charitable foundation has a long history of generous donations in education, and they are deeply interested in our innovative school model. In fact, they are especially inspired by our core commitment to diversity, equity, and integration.
• I’m honored to announce that we are officially in our early admission process. Last week, we hosted our first families for interviews for admission to our inaugural class of 6th grade students. A quick note that our early admission deadline is December 15th. If you are interested, we encourage you to attend our final Early Admission Open House this Sunday at the YWCA.
• Finally, I’m thrilled to announce that we are in contract for our school location in Prospect Heights. The building was entirely renovated over the last year, and it includes completely upgraded mechanicals, HVAC, and windows. Our space includes roughly 7500 wide-open sq. feet — and the best part? Founding students will have the opportunity to help architect and engineer our dream space.

As Founder and Head of School, I am proud, humbled, honored, and thrilled by our progress. We know how important middle school is to your family, and we are so thankful that you’re here. Happy holidays to you and yours!

Each week, our Founder details core beliefs and principles that guide our work. This week, Andrew explains our commitment to maker learning. Maker education is a hands-on, project-based approach to learning that helps student learn advanced academic skills and principal character traits.

During the fall of 1878, Thomas Edison announced that he “solved the problem of the subdivision of the electric light.” That winter, Edison hired a large team of engineers, mathematicians, and scientists for a new research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey: The Invention Factory. During the first year, the research team developed more than 1200 experimental light bulb designs and tested more than 6000 alternative metals, threads, and woods.

Still, Edison continued to revise and sharpen the design. He tightened the vacuum seal to limit air exchange, and he developed a durable glass casing to protect the internal elements. He designed a new parallel circuit to stabilize electric current, and he built stronger safety fuses to suppress electrical surges. Over the next year, innovations extended performance to 100, 200, 600, and eventually 1500 usable light hours. And in 1882, the Edison Electric Light Company introduced the New Type Edison Lamp, the first incandescent electric light bulb designed for commercial sale.

The commercial electric light was the result of thousands of designs and experiments resulting in more than 200 formal United States patents. One day, the story goes, an assistant explained to Edison that a particular experiment had failed. They had tried several alternative approaches, but all of the designs failed. “They’re not failures,” Edison reportedly said. “They all taught me something that I didn’t already know. They taught me what direction to move in next.”

The electric light is a story of continuous innovation. Of persistent failure and dogged determination. It is a story of collective collaboration. And it’s also a perfect capsule of the challenge, engagement, and passion of maker learning.

So, what is maker education?

Maker education is a hands-on, project-based approach to learning that helps students learn advanced academic content and professional technical skills. Students design and engineer complex objects using applied technology, including digital, mechanical, and industrial machines and tools. Because an essential part of maker education is the opportunity for students to construct, craft, and engineer physical objects.

Why?

Because maker learning is a natural match for adolescent development. Hands-on activities and instruction helps students engage and focus on target concepts and skills — which, in turn, helps students acquire and retain applied learning. Because project-based learning actually improves student achievement. Research explains that project-based learning significantly increases “student content knowledge and the development of skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving.”

At every stage, makers implement tools and technologies that make life more effective and more efficient. But here’s the thing: maker education is about much more than straightforward technical competency. At its core, maker education emphasizes principles and values that promote creativity, curiosity, and collaboration. That support agency, initiative, and innovation.

Technology may change. The specific skills needed to craft or engineer ideas and objects will change, too. But what will not change is our commitment to shared principles and values that drive us to learn and grow. Because a maker mindset helps students learn they have the power to strengthen ourselves and shape our world.

Agency By Design, a research initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, explains:

“The big idea behind the concept of maker empowerment is to describe a kind of disposition — a way of being in the world — that is characterized by seeing the designed world as malleable, and understanding oneself as a person of resourcefulness who can muster the wherewithal to change things through making.”

It’s the best time in history to learn anything! There are more resources and more supports than ever before. Of course, learning can be complicated. This week, Andrew explains the core principles of project-based learning. At The Workshop, projects are, well, just about everything.

In Beginning to Read, Marilyn Jager Adams compares cognitive reading processes to the mechanical system in an automobile. Individual parts in a machine, she explains, have specific tasks. For example, the spark plug ignites a car engine, and the steering column directs the wheels of a car to turn. In the same way, specific systems in the brain direct specific reading processes. “Within this analogy,” Adams writes, “print is like gas. The engine and the mechanics of the car are the perceptual and conceptual machinery that make the [reading] system go.”

Of course, the analogy is not only limited to reading. Learning anything is a complex and intensive process. Inside our brain, divergent systems help us identify, describe, and understand new ideas and information. And, generally speaking, the machine works really well! We’re able to learn complex concepts or skill with facility.

When teachers present information with clarity and focus, students can effectively memorize target content and skills. But education is most effective when we’re driving our car with purpose. When we learn information in isolation, we’re operating only a single information system. The pistons are firing, but there’s no engine at work. No radiator. No ignition. The car isn’t going anywhere. To really learn something, we need something to connect systems and structures together.

At The Workshop, hands-on, collaborative projects are the gas that makes our learning go!

Project-based learning helps students place learning in context of their own ideas, interests, and understandings. Because really significant learning is called ‘learning transfer’: the ability to apply learned content and skills to new and different contexts. In other words, learning the Pythagorean theorem is an isolated system. However, the application of geometric math to the construction of a sailboat hull? Well, that’s what’s it’s all about.

The Buck Institute explains that many schools may repackage traditional education as project-based learning. However, the “gold-standard” project-based learning includes certain fundamental principles that drive advanced learning.

At The Workshop, our learning is driven by gold-standard, immersive learning projects. This means that students learn advanced academic concepts and skills in the context of really large challenges. Key elements of truly successful project-based learning include:

• Learning is organized by a larger project or challenge. For example, when students work on a Science Fair exhibit, they are working on a larger project that helps them learn underlying scientific principles along the way.
• Students work on a specific project for extended period of time. Brain research helps explain that students need time to develop mastery. Best practice helps students acquire and advance target learning over several weeks.
• Units of study investigate complex ideas and questions. Project-based learning should inspire deeper learning: complex content, advanced skills, and growth habits that support a meaningful and sustainable commitment to learning.
• Units of study promote authentic, practical projects that leverage content or skills domain specialists use in real-world practice. Because learning is best applied in authentic contexts and situations.
• The most effective projects emphasize formative, process learning. Students develop more advanced understandings in steps and stages. A supported learning process should include sustained inquiry, research, experimentation, and exhibition. In other words, it allows for creativity, curiosity, and, you know, mistakes.
• Students produce or publish their project for a public audience. Because true accountability helps drive students to do their very best work. And the goal of effective project-based learning is truly outstanding student learning.

The history of middle level schools is . . . complicated. The first junior high schools were established with support from early psychologists, urban labor unions, and university presidents. It was a great idea, but let’s say that everyone wasn’t on the same page. In today’s post, Andrew explains exactly why middle level schools are so very important.

The first middle level school, Indianola Junior High School, was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1909. At the time, only 7% of local students graduated from the 12th grade. Children largely left school after 5th grade in order to begin work at local factories or farms. The Ohio State Journal explained, “The new junior high… was organized to give those pupils who are unable to receive a four years’ high school course a more practical education in the earlier grades.”

But the history of Junior High School isn’t a straightforward success story. Over the next 75 years, communities reorganized middle level schools multiple times — from Junior High School to Intermediate School to Middle School. A series of influential commissions and analytical reports addressed fundamental challenges in middle grade schools. And today, critics complain that “the middle school concept” leads to increased negative behaviors and low academic achievement.

It isn’t completely untrue. Data collected from National Council of Education Statistics show that students in 8th grade score roughly 10% below their parallel scores in 5th grade. And roughly 70% of middle school students in New York State score below proficiency in reading and mathematics. Peter Meyer writes, “By all accounts, the middle grades are the weak link in the chain of American education.”

But here’s the thing: middle school is actually incredibly important.

Research explains that student achievement in middle school has a more significant impact on forward academic achievement that “anything that happens academically in high school or college”. In fact, middle school reform may “offer the greatest potential” to increase college completion and promote professional success. Turning Points, a national research report published by the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development (1989) explains: “Middle grade schools are potentially society’s most powerful force.”

Why? Because during adolescence, students develop more advanced interests and skills. When students feel interested and engaged, they are more and more likely to connect complicated ideas and understandings. And what’s important is that successful students only develop and deepen their abilities over time because identity exploration and positive social development helps students develop creativity, discipline, leadership, and motivation. (Smith, 1999) (Lord, 2001)

Wow.

What if middle school were amazing?

In popular imagination, adolescence is awkward and tragic. When we think about middle school, we often think of our most difficult memories. But maybe we’re doing it wrong? Over the next several weeks, Andrew will explain more about each of our key design elements. Below, he writes about the power of adolescence . . . because middle school should be amazing!

Over the last year, I’ve asked parents to remember their middle school experience. I often ask them to think of a word or phrase that describes their middle school selves. And I’ve learned that when we think about middle school, we often think about our most difficult memories. We remember friends that turned out to be liars. We remember big bullies and mean teachers and saying precisely the wrong thing at the exactly wrong time.

Middle school was awkward. (I mean, have you seen pictures of me in junior high?)

We’re terrified by the memory of our middle school experience, but that’s also important proof of just how powerful middle school years can be. In our shared narrative, we survived middle school. We closed our eyes, gritted our teeth, and, well, just kept walking. Because it’s only after we survived middle school that we blossomed and found our closest friends. You know, in high school or college.

And it’s true: adolescence is confusing and complicated. Adolescent bodies and brains are exploding with new ideas, new experiences, and new feelings. Cognitive research explains the extraordinary development in early adolescence brains is only rivaled by the rapid maturation during infancy. We know firsthand: preteens can be impulsive, inconsistent, and unpredictable.

But what if middle school were different? What if middle school helped children find their interests and passions? What if middle school helped adolescents navigate the scariest moments of childhood with grace, love, and strength?

You see, adolescence is amazing!

Adolescents are creative, independent, and passionate. The same traits that make adolescents challenging are the same seeds that grow interesting and unique individuals. The same habits that make adolescents frustrating are the same qualities that develop into strong and independent leaders. The same qualities that look like rebellion in a traditional classroom can help create transformative change in society.

When middle school students challenge adult ideas and routines, they also challenge us to be our very best selves. I believe we should listen! So, what do you say?

Let’s do middle school right.

“The Workshop is a middle | micro | maker school for diverse students and families in Brooklyn, New York.” We say that a lot, but what does it mean, exactly? Below, Andrew describes the four key design elements of The Workshop. What are they? And why do they matter?

I’ll admit: I’m a bit of a nerd. My favorite thing in the world to do is to read a really good book. Or having a really deep conversation with a friend. Honestly, if I’m watching YouTube, I’m likely learning how to build or code or fix something. Oh — and I love research. Like, I think a lot about research in education.

Too often, educators ignore best practice research when they develop guidelines for school culture or classroom instruction. We generally privilege things that we’ve seen because, well, we’ve seen them before. Sir Ken Robinson explains, “Schools are organized the way they are because they always have been, not because they must be.”

That’s a problem! At The Workshop, we believe it’s important to learn from the most current, the most reliable, and the most significant research in our field. Because the very best research often helps give us the very best ideas. And, believe it or not, there’s really great research that supports really innovative ideas.

I’ve been told that research might not resonate with parents, but I want to be honest: every aspect of our school is rooted in research, practice, and theory in education and early adolescent development. Each of our core elements is specifically designed to target students’ natural abilities and challenges.

Why middle?

There’s a significant drop in student achievement in middle school. On average, students in 8th grades score roughly 10% below their scores in 5th grade.

And middle school matters. Research explains that student performance in middle school has a more significant impact on forward academic achievement than “anything that happens academically in high school.”

Why micro?

Early adolescents struggle to understand and process new beliefs, new experiences, and new feelings. A small, intimate community can help support (and challenge) our children to be more curious, more confident, and more resilient.

Because small schools dramatically increase strengths and supports for students. In fact, research explains that the impact of small schools is “particularly important in the middle grades” when students struggle to understand more challenging academic content and navigate more complicated social relationships.

Why maker?

Entering 9th grade, more than 60% of students hold highly negative feelings towards school. Students describe school instruction as “boring”, “monotonous”, and “repetitive”, and they complain that academic learning does not advance “real-life” abilities or skills.

Active, engaged students are significantly more likely to learn challenging content and skills. Malcolm Gladwell explains: “Much of what we are told we simply don’t remember.” Maker learning is an active, hands-on approach to education that helps students acquire (and retain) advanced academic skills.

Why magnet?

New York City schools are heavily segregated by race and socioeconomic class. In fact, a recent study found that New York City has the “highest concentration in intensely segregated schools” in the United States.

However, an integrated school isn’t just the right thing to do. Research demonstrates that diverse social groups are more accurate, more creative, and more productive.

Education jargon can be very confusing. There’s differentiation, authentic assessment, and any number of teacher terms. You’ve probably heard about progressive education before, but what does it really mean? Below, Andrew explains several core principles of progressive education and details why those values are central to The Workshop.

Parents often feel frustrated in conventional schools. Too often, education prioritizes narrow academic instruction and uniform content standards. But our children don’t learn (or grow) in standardized sequence!

Even traditional benchmarks explain that more than 70% of students score below proficiency in reading and mathematics. And a recent survey explains that more than 60% of students entering 9th grade hold highly negative feelings towards school. They describe school instruction as “monotonous”, “boring”, and “repetitive”.

When I speak with parents, they’re disappointed in traditional schools because they believe that school (and their child) can be so much more!

We agree.

Progressive education is an alternative approach to learning that emphasizes whole child education and development. This means that progressive schools support and advance the academic and social competencies of each student. Think about it: when you speak with your children, you ask about more than just classroom grades. You wonder how they’re feeling inside. You make sure they’re kind and respectful to others. You challenge them to learn amazing things. And you hope they find room to understand and express their true selves.

Because real education helps us develop principles of true character, including commitment, honesty, and resilience. And because a truly successful child is the consequence of more than successful academic classroom instruction.

Of course, it’s also important to know that progressive education believes deeply in academic excellence. In fact, our expectations are so high because we expect students to reach their full potential. And deeper learning isn’t easy! Like any hard work, real learning should challenge us to more and better than we’ve eve been before.

It’s the hardest work you’ll ever enjoy!

Yes, there will always be some difference in how progressive educators approach learning and instruction. However, there are several core principles that help ground our approach.

• Learning and instruction is rooted in authentic practice. This means that students learn skills and strategies that real people do in the real world.
• Education should promote active, engaged learning. Because engagement leads to commitment and focus that promotes learning transfer.
• Teachers curate pathways that help structure and support advanced learning. Responsive instruction is matched to students’ abilities, interests, and needs.
• Students research, design, and engineer real things! Project-based learning helps students learn and apply target ideas and skills in context. This helps students acquire and retain learning in different contexts.

I like to say: you are where you learn.

Because the choices that educators and parents make really matter. And the research is in: effective progressive education dramatically improves student learning and promotes “habits of mind” that improve student character, confidence, and collaboration. (Palmer, 1987) (Capon and Kuhn, 2004) (Hmelo Silver, et al., 2007) (Zabit, 2010) (Connect, 1995) (Ray, 2006) (Harste, 2001)

Over the last 125 years, we have witnessed incredible social change. From the second industrial revolution and through both World Wars, including the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights era, and even a third (!) industrial revolution. Unfortunately, traditional school classrooms largely mirror instruction from early American public schools. That’s a problem.

In 1907, Henry Ford announced a dramatic plan to build a motorized car “for the great multitude.” The Ford assembly line used a series of conveyor belts to move connected machine parts through specific work stations. Standardized production meant that each laborer focused on one repeatable assignment. “The man who puts in a bolt,” Ford explained, “does not put on the nut. The man who puts on the nut does not tighten it.”

The second industrial revolution transformed American industry . . . and American public schools, too. The new American school professionalized academic instruction and standardized student learning. Education in secondary schools increasingly emphasized modern professional traits, including “punctuality, concentration, and obedience.” An educator at the time explained: “The back door of the school leads to the front door of the factory.”

Unfortunately, traditional classroom instruction remains rooted in the factory model of education. The floor supervisor stands at the head of the classroom. Line employees sit in straight rows to the back of the room. Workers learn fixed tasks at specific stations and complete repeatable worksheets for homework. In the end, administrative managers direct standardized assessments to ensure quality control.

We’ve witnessed amazing social change during our lifetimes, but think about it: common school education has stayed roughly the same for almost 125 years. Today, children have more access to more content and information that at any period in human history, but students are still expected to learn the way we did when riding horses or trains was the most common way to travel.

During the last 30 years, we have spent billions of dollars on education. However, student achievement in reading and mathematics remains largely flat. Peter Sims (2011) explains, “Students are taught the knowledge is static and complete and they become experts at consuming knowledge rather than producing knowledge.”

Traditional schools simply do not prepare our students to develop interesting, individual, or independent ideas. They do not challenge our children to create or imagine new ideas, new knowledge, or new patterns. Schools limit student expression and discourage individuality. Sir Ken Robinson explains that schools “dislocate” students from their primary “natural resource”: creativity, imagination, and innovation.

Ooof.

Now, what if school were different?

In today’s post, Andrew explains that there’s a rising tide of educators around the country leading innovative new schools. The Workshop connects and collaborates with these schools towards best practice programs that advance common, shared values.

There are amazing people in our public schools. Educators who wake up every morning determined to improve the world. And we’re public school educators, too! Our team has more than 50 years of successful service in diverse NYC public schools. We believe in the mission and purpose of public school education to better the lives of every child in every community.

But we’re also increasingly concerned that public schools actually limit student learning. An alarming emphasis on high-stakes standardized exams considerably narrows classroom instruction and effectively lowers expectations for student achievement. Sir Ken Robinson explains, “The dominant forms of education actively stifle the conditions that are essential to creative development.”

We started to wonder: what if middle school were different?

During the past year, I’ve traveled around the country to meet and speak with dynamic school founders and school leaders. There’s a rising tide of innovation in education, and I’ve learned from some of the most amazing minds, including Jason Pittman, founding principal at Khan Lab School; Rhonda Perry, award-winning school principal at Salk Middle School; Vinny Dotoli, Founder and Director at Harlem Academy; and Larry Rosenstock and the incredible team at High Tech High. And we’ve developed our school model with direct feedback from pioneers in maker education, including Gever Tulley and Mackenzie Price, founders at Brightworks in San Francisco; Brian Cohen, founder and Director at Beam Center in Brooklyn; and Nancy Otero, Director of Curriculum at Portfolio School in Lower Manhattan.

The Workshop is part of a growing collective working to transform how we think about school. Innovations include microschools, or very small schools, that personalize learning to match students interests and needs. And makerschools, hands-on project-based learning schools where students research, design, and build thrillingly large projects in the real world. And progressive community schools meaningfully committed to diversity, equity, and social justice — because our schools can move society.

The Workshop is rooted in high-value education research, practice, and theory . . . but we get it. Yes, The Workshop is, well, a little bit different. We’re hoping maybe you are, too?