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What School Could Be Academy
Spring-Summer 2023

The partnership between What School Could Be and the UK Center for Next Generation Leadership is excited to offer the “Certificate in Leading Next Generation Learning” in the Spring of 2023.

The Academy experience is action focused and supports all educators and teams to identify, develop, and implement strategies to strengthen new or existing school-based deeper learning systems. The Academy has partnered with recognized experts and leading educational voices to provide content, expertise, resource curation, and guest session delivery. The Academy will culminate with participant-driven demonstrations of learning.

For: School teams at the local level including the principal, assistant principals, instructional coaches, teacher leaders. Superintendents and district leaders are also encouraged to participate.

Meetings: 12 synchronous sessions total across 3 sprints of 2 weeks each with asynchronous, optional supporting work between sessions. Ongoing communication is provided through the What School Could Be Community.

**Click to Open or Download 1 Page Overview**

Registration Deadline: Feb. 13 (Monday)

Why Learning Must Change
Science of Learning
Constructivism v. Behaviorism
Student Agency
Listening to Margins
Inquiry Learning
Project-Based Learning

Student-Led Conferences

Exhibitions of Student Work
Defenses, Portfolios
Rubrics
Inquiry Learning
Project-Based Learning
Next Gen Assessment and Accountability

Community Engagement

Portrait of a Graduate
Competencies
Grading/Reporting
Technology as Support Tool
Professional Development for Teachers
Exhibitions of Learning

What School Could Be Academy

Academy Overview

The What School Could Be Academy seeks leaders who understand that the educational system, originally designed for an Industrial Era, is no longer adequate in preparing students for a diverse, global economy.

We engage leaders at all levels to share innovative models and approaches for creating personalized systems of deeper learning to:

Transform the teaching and learning experience
Leverage technology for disruptive change
Facilitate strategic planning efforts in systems redesign
Coach and support change leaders

For over a decade, participation in the Academy has sparked innovation around next-generation learning across the state of Kentucky. We are excited to partner with Ted Dintersmith and What School Could Be to bring the Academy model to school teams across the world now in Year 2.

Kentucky leaders who have participated overwhelmingly credit the academy experience with helping them move forward in creating learner-centered innovations in their schools and districts. Students and teachers are more engaged and student achievement has improved as a result.

We provide the "how" for your mission:

Networked leaders

Focus on transformation
Creating cultural change toward innovation
Robust background in student-centered, deeper learning models
Real-life examples and guidance from others doing the work

You choose the path. We support you at each step:

Identify your unique point of entry.

Will it be your Portrait of a Graduate, student-led conferences, exhibition nights, digital portfolios, project-based learning, defenses of learning, multiage, inquiry-based learning, passion projects, making and doing, school networks, early college models, or something else?
Design a specific project
Implement that project with fidelity
Create a gateway to broad implementation of transformative change

Academy outcomes:

A better understanding of structural intersections of key elements of deeper learning models
A better sense of local, student-identified opportunities for growth
Identify specific levers for change within your schools setting
Position participants for summer strategy development for implementation the following school year
Identify specific school models that resonate as potential examples for growth locally

“We are excited to partner with Next Gen to help teams develop and implement entry points to school innovation.”

— Ted Dintersmith

Feedback from 2022 What School Could Be Academy Participants

It really forced me to reevaluate my pedagogy and how I think about education and being an educator. I really enjoyed all of the resources and examples, as well as hearing about other schools' journeys.

The most beneficial part was learning ideas to revamp what our idea of school is, how we can change the experience of learning of students, and, most importantly, how we can engage these students back into learning and allow them to take ownership in their own learning.

I loved that we started with small pieces that ended up helping us create a bigger picture/project.
The sharing of resources is absolutely invaluable.
The guidance to figure out what deeper learning would look like for our school was the most beneficial.
I appreciated the steering of WSCB and how it made the district follow the guidelines and think outside the box to do upgrades to education.