WEBVTT - The XQ Institute 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:03.040 A group of high school students. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.720 High school students Elizabethan High School students started a project 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.880 to research a string of unsolved murders. Their research led 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:12.920 to the identification of the killer. 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.000 Investigators now have an answer to a thirty four year 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:16.720 old question. 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.480 Once you start getting a few tips, or a few leads, 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:25.079 or few identifications, then the cold case isn't so cold. 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.360 In the normal there's a pretty good chance he's still alive. 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.080 Everything that the students predicted through their profile turned out 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:32.839 to be accurate. 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:38.760 Redhead Killer profile mail Caucasian, five nine six, two hundred 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.240 and seventy pounds, unstable home, absent father, and a domineering mother, 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.040 right handed, a Q above one hundred. Most likely a heterosexual. 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.080 There is no profile of this killer except for the 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:51.360 ones the students created. 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:53.920 Just because some of these women no longer have people 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:55.400 to speak for them, it does not mean that they 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:56.240 deserve to not. 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:56.920 Be so anymore. 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:58.240 What if this guy's still alive? 0:00:58.320 --> 0:00:59.639 Like, what if becomes after us? 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:01.640 Consider you're gonna kill me a year. 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:13.880 This is Murder one oh one, Episode eleven, The XQ Institute. 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.319 I'm Jeff Shane, a television and podcast producer at KT 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:23.360 Studios with Stephanie Leidecker, Courtney Armstrong and Andrew Arnau. In 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:25.760 twenty twenty, I came across a story about a group 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.400 of high school students who set out to investigate a 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.200 series of unsolved murders in their community. It was an 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.679 incredible story that here at KT Studios we felt needed 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:41.480 to be explored further. As you've heard, the original project 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.200 in twenty eighteen stemmed from a grant students had won 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:48.520 from the XQ Institute. Founded in twenty fifteen. XQ Institute 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.520 is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving schools 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.320 across the country. We thought it would be important to 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.640 showcase the incredible work XQ is doing and give listeners 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:00.520 a chance to figure out how they them selves can 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:03.720 get involved. I had a conversation with Anne McKinnon, a 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.520 senior advisor, and Carrie Schneider, who works as head of 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.000 Editorial and Publishing at XQ. You previously heard Carrie in 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:10.920 episode three. 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:15.359 My name's Ann McKinnon. I work in Brooklyn. I live 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.720 in New York, but I work for XQ. I'm a 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.680 senior advisor now at XQ. I've been with XQ since 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:24.919 before we even had a name, and have been part 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:30.640 of designing and executing on a whole lot of ambitious 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.680 plans that we've had from the start, including the original Challenge, 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.560 which is where we met our friends from Elizabethton. 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:42.760 I'm Carrie Schneider. I'm head of editorial and Publishing at XQ. 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:48.239 I'm a former second grade teacher turned writer who gets 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.040 to cover and talk about and learn from educators and 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.119 students all across the country who are doing really cool 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.360 things to change schools in their communities. 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:01.959 XQ is completely dedicated to transform high schools. Our purpose 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:06.600 is to help the entire country understand that high school 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:11.519 transformation is necessary and that it's possible, and that it's underway. 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.560 And we try to accelerate and amplify what it means 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.000 to be underway. And so as a result, we are 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:23.320 supporting schools that are doing very innovative things. We're working 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:27.440 on learning experiences that will transform learning and and we 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:32.480 have developed a design process that is community led that 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.600 brings many, many more people into the process and the 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.680 work of transforming high schools. 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.680 Yeah, and I would just add to that too. I 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.760 think when we talk about transformation, you're exactly right that 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:49.480 it's necessary from an equity standpoint that you know, high 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.760 schools have never worked for everyone. They've always worked for 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.560 certain populations of students or some more than others. But 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.840 we really believe that from an equity standpoint, from a 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.720 preparing students for all the future has to offer a standpoint, 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.280 and from communities really knowing what's best for the students 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.800 that they serve, that folks can come together and get 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.640 a big vision for what they hope high schools can 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.200 be for those kids, so that they come out with 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.240 everything you remember from high school, but also a whole 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.080 lot more so they come out as generous collaborators and 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:27.159 original thinkers and critical thinkers. And in order for high 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.440 school to accomplish those things beyond just you know, good 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.240 grades on a test, learning has to look a lot 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.960 different while students are there. So when we talk about 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:40.880 transforming high school, it's really transforming teaching and learning, getting 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.120 educators the agency and the freedom to design lessons that 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:49.039 really engage students, giving young people a voice and shaping 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.440 what and how they learn, the really having the school 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.680 match what the needs are of young people when they 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:58.080 come out of high school and go onto their future. 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:00.680 Explain to me, like, what are the tangible things that 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:02.440 you try to get schools implement. 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:07.840 What we did in the original competition was create materials 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:13.000 that helped schools think much more originally and much more 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:17.040 ambitiously about how to create schools where there was a 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:21.320 really coherent culture and sense of purpose, really meaningful and 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:28.080 engaged learning, youth voice and choice, community partnerships, and schools 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:34.200 that use time, space and technology in expansive ways. More recently, 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.440 we've run similar competitions in the State of Rhode Island, 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.280 all across the state of Rhode Island, with select schools 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:46.040 in New York City and most recently in the District 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:50.000 of Columbia. And what we've done in those areas is 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:52.800 take schools where there was a critical mass of people 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:55.600 who felt that they were ready to change their high 0:05:55.640 --> 0:06:00.279 schools and make them more engaging and more modern. Students 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.200 would graduate ready for the future and with a sense 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.520 of what the future might hold for them, and school 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.960 communities that felt they were ready decided to engage with 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.560 us and went through a really really rigorous design process. 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.520 There's a lot of knowledge out there about how high 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:21.360 schools can and should change. It just isn't permeating necessarily 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.440 to all the places where it's most needed. So we've 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:28.440 made those materials and the whole process available across the 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:33.000 District of Columbia and in Rhode Island and have helped 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.640 people come to a greater understanding of what they can do, 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.320 and they are doing extraordinary things. There are two schools 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.400 in the District of Columbia that we selected as a 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.920 result of the most recent process, and one of them 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:53.080 is taking the concept of afrofuturism, an incredibly important intellectual 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:58.279 and cultural concept, and making Afrofuturism the very center of 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:00.880 the school and the theme around on which the school 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.719 is organized. The other has organized itself around the theme 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:10.240 of entrepreneurship and financial independence for students who graduate. So 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.880 what that means is that in both of those schools, educators, 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:20.320 young people and community partners are designing learning experiences, reshaping 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.280 the culture of the school. 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.360 XC doesn't come in with like a cookie cutter and 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.160 say here's how you transform high school and then you 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.920 just stamp it on the dough and get the transformed 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.160 high school. I think it's much more. We create the 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.440 space for those community conversations to be held and convene 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.520 people and bring them together around guiding questions, and then 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.920 they come to their own articulation of what that might 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.440 be in their community. Whether that's afrofuturism, or whether that's 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:50.120 community partnerships with industry in the area, or whether that's 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:53.080 a school inside of a museum or a school that 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:57.720 serves housing unstable students. It really is very different depending 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.560 on the local context. But that's really the beauty of it. 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.720 It's about really giving kids a voice and what they 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.679 think they need to thrive in their communities after they finish, 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:10.120 and really looking at bigger and contextual factors too, like 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.520 workforce development. There's a school in Indianapolis that really that 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.200 whole high school was created out of knowing that the 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:20.320 state was going toward renewable energy and wind and solar 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:22.560 and a lot of things that they weren't graduating enough 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:26.280 high school students to fill really high tech, stem, high 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.920 paying jobs. So I think it's just a lot of 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:30.880 what we do is create the space and create the 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.400 guides for those conversations to be had so that each 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:35.920 community can form their own vision, and then we help 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.199 them along the way with access to experts and other 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.640 design tools and research and all of those pieces so 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.080 that they can make those visions a reality. 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.199 Which is not to say that anything goes. A design 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:52.360 team works through this series of questions and challenges and 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.360 does a whole lot of research on their own and 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.800 does a lot of reading, has a lot of hard conversations, 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:02.360 and they answer the questions that are part of the 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.600 design process that come together into a school design. And 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.160 then we and other experts look really closely at that 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:14.880 school design and give feedback and rate them for quality. 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.760 So every one of our schools, all as different as 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:23.360 they look, has been through a test for quality of 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.640 their idea and their quite detailed proposal. So because there 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.160 are certain common things that every school needs to do well, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:33.440 they don't need all to be done the same way, 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:34.880 but they all need to be done well. 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:44.560 Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:59.520 a moment. Murder one oh one. The purpose of XQ 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:01.920 is to connect with schools all across the country. 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.360 I grew up in a small town in Ohio with 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:08.960 a high school that a lot of people would say 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.040 wasn't the best place to learn. I drop out rate, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.839 and you know a lot of opportunities that some high 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:16.920 schools around me had that I didn't have. And I 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:18.920 think one of the things that really drew me to 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.280 EXQ as a former teacher and as someone who came 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:26.000 up through that school system, is that high school transformation 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.320 can actually happen anywhere. It's not just something that happens 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:32.800 in big cities, or something that happens with a ton 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.440 of support from people right in the community, or just 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:38.760 you know, on different parts of the country. It really 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.959 is happening everywhere in small pockets, And a big part 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.080 of the work that we get to do is to 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:47.600 find those examples and connect with them and learn from 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:49.880 them so that we can tell others what they're doing 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.520 and inspire more more work and more changes across the 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.760 country from their examples and from their stories. So I 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:01.240 was really drawn to Elizabeth In for that exact small 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.880 town a lot like the one I grew up in 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.959 that proves that this kind of work can happen. 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:11.040 Anywhere exactly, Carrie, and I came from a town like 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.080 that myself, and I was on the original the people 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.640 who were originally looking at all the at all the proposals, 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.800 and I looked because I came from a very small 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.359 town in far upstate New York. That's a lot like Elizabethton, 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.880 in a really rural area, and so I did take 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:31.160 a I'll admit I did take an extra look at 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:35.120 the proposals that came in from rural areas. I was 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.280 really struck by Elizabethton. I may even have been the 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:44.319 person who brought Elizabethton to the attention of our final assessors, 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.400 because they they scored well in the when they in 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:51.600 their proposal. Their proposal scored well, but it was not 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.520 in the very top top ones. But there was something 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.559 just so special, so unusual about the way they put 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.680 their proposal together. It was twenty fifteen. In the fall 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.200 we issued the challenge, and the challenge was, if you're 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.920 interested in redesigning your high school, raise your hand, send 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.360 us a quick concept, and we'll get back to you. 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.760 So we were surprised we got seven hundred concepts. We 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.160 were thinking we would get twenty or thirty, or maybe 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.920 seventy or maybe one hundred. They came pouring in. We 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:28.280 got seven hundred concepts, and we screened them really quickly 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.199 for those that wouldn't be possible. You know, we were 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:34.640 only funding in the United States. We weren't funding parochial schools, 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.720 so a few got told you know, sorry, but we 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.320 don't want to disappoint you. Later, most of those concepts 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:43.760 got a green light from us to go forward and 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:47.720 create a design. So then they rapidly created a design, 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.880 mostly through early twenty sixteen. Some of them got started earlier, 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.600 but they came back from their holiday break and worked 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.520 really hard and put their proposals in. We got those 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.880 in twenty sixteen. They went through a very rigorous judging 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.840 process and all the selection process, and we were able 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:09.720 to make the announcements in September of twenty sixteen. Some 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.720 of the proposals were for brand new schools. Some of 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:17.360 the more intriguing ones were for redesigns. They were existing 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.040 schools where community people had come together and said we 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.200 want to change the way we do school. So no, 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.880 it wasn't try to win millions of dollars to build 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.520 to put a new wing on your school. It was 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.120 take this money and think about what you'd really do 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:38.960 to transform teaching and learning. Students really did the work, 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.840 and those teachers, mister Campbell and mister Hensley, opened the 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:48.560 door for students to do something really original, and they 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.440 they really did. They worked through every detail of our 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:59.680 competition process and wrote really really original and interesting answers 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.480 all of the questions that made up the proposal. They 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.959 were really the only ones who did that, and that 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:13.040 was entrepreneurial teachers who had a vision for a different, 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.440 better way of learning. They had been talking about it 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:21.080 theoretically among themselves for quite some time, and when one 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:26.720 of them saw our call for proposals, our original challenge. Well, 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.480 the story that I've heard is that Dustin Hensley was 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.320 looking for grants because he needed a new carpet for 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:39.320 the library, and he came across the XQ opportunity and 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.880 showed it to his friend Alex Campbell. And the two 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.920 of them had been reading and talking together about the 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.720 need to change high school for quite some time, and 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:50.920 they said to each other, well, is it time to 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.080 stop talking and start doing something? Should we give this 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.000 a try? And so they put this little concept in 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:59.840 to just raise their hands and say they wanted to 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:01.960 be part of it. And then when they heard back 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.240 from us that their concept had been accepted, that's when 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.040 they got really inspired and they said, if we really 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.080 really mean what we've been saying, we would bring students 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.800 into this process, and that's what they did. They organized, 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.600 I think it was mostly mister Campbell, organized a spring 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.680 semester course, an entire course, an elective for a group 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:29.160 of students around the EXQ proposal. And so they dug 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.960 into the history of public education, what education is supposed 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.600 to do, what high schools are supposed to do, how 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.880 you could create a high school that really met all 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:43.120 of their expectations. And they called it, confusingly for many people, 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.920 they called it the Bartleby School, after the character in 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.840 the Herman Melville story, the one who famously says, I 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.360 would prefer not to over and over again to his boss. 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.960 And so they had kind of connected this idea that 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.520 students had and that they felt was present in their students, 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.440 that they would prefer not to have a boring education, 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.080 They would prefer not to just learn out of textbooks 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:12.000 and take quizzes and tests. They would prefer to do more. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.160 And they produced a really good school proposal. They learned 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.280 a lot about education at the same time, and so 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:22.280 we were really pleased with what they'd done and felt 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.600 proud of them and wanted to recognize the work that 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.480 they had done and give them some money and some 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.760 leeway to try to do more, which is exactly what 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.240 they did. They're very entrepreneurial bunch. They will take what's 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:39.640 available and turn it into gold over and over again. 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:42.680 Yeah, A big part of what we believe in and 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.080 what we see happening in schools across the country connects 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:50.120 to what we all know about what motivates and inspires 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.920 each of us when we were young and today right 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.480 following your curiosity, getting intrigued by something, all of the 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.320 stuff that like you have a hobby or you want 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.400 to learn something that you do as an adult in 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.440 schools that's often really stifled. So a big part of 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.040 what we mean when we say high school transformation or 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.760 what the original challenge in our ongoing work over the 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:16.320 years intends to do is help people create the space 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:20.160 for that curiosity and that passion and following interest and 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:24.040 learning to be actually meaningful and engaging and attached to 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.320 real life for young people. So I think it's really 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.439 an example of where we know what young people need. 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.399 They know what they need, but the way schools are 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.320 structured with kids in classrooms and kids following a bell 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:42.639 schedule just isn't conducive to that. So you have teachers 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:46.440 like those at Elizabethson but all over the place really 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:49.200 getting creative about the way that they organize the day 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:51.800 or the way that they organize classers. They teach things 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.719 in a more interdisciplinary way, or they have projects, and 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:58.680 that really does create the space for kids to actually 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:02.040 drive their own learning in a way that follows their curiosity, 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.040 their passions and lets them explore who they are, which 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:07.320 is ultimately what high schools can be. 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.200 Yeah, there are two things that I think are important 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.960 to bring out. One is we know that the job 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.880 of high school for high school students is to build 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:21.959 their identity as an adolescent. Brain science tells us that 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.040 one of the most important jobs to be done is 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.399 to build an identity, and so it's important for students 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.840 to have learning experiences where they discover who they are 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.200 and imagine who they might be. That's what prepares them 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:39.600 for adult for college and for adult lives, and routine 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:45.639 high school learning often doesn't let students develop identities that 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.240 are lasting, that are authentic to who they are. The 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.800 other is that we know that it's important for teenagers 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:58.600 to have caring, trusting relationships in their schools, and many 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:03.000 many schools and they large ones, obviously, but even some 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:07.840 smaller ones are pretty anonymous places for students. And one 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:10.680 of the features of our schools, and one of the 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.920 elements the design principles that we stress a lot, is 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:18.159 the importance of caring, trusting relationships, and organizing the school 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:22.240 so that adults really know students and care about them 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.320 and can help them build their identities. That's one of 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:29.400 the things that Elizabethan is most outstanding at doing. They 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:34.439 really know their students well, and they also create learning 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:39.440 experiences where students can discover themselves, discover what they can do. 0:19:47.680 --> 0:20:02.680 Let's stop here for another quick break. Murder one, oh one? 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:03.640 What excuse? 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:04.320 Ultimate goal? 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:09.840 Excuse? Ultimate goal is to see transformation happening in every 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:12.480 high school. One of the reasons that we're doing high 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:15.399 school is because we think it's the hardest thing to change. 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:17.640 We also think it's the most important thing to change. 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:21.840 High schools are infinitely more complicated than K eight schools. 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.400 They have departments, they have grade levels, they do tracking, 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:29.320 they do a million things, and as a result, they 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:34.480 have developed some standard, routine, status quo ways of getting 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:39.040 the work done that have calcified the system. That's why 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:43.840 the typical bell system that sometimes exists in middle schools 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:47.480 but is absolutely the standard in high school, where the 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:52.000 day is broken up into blocks, where student learning is 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:56.719 divided vertically into certain subject matter areas where they have 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:01.879 to develop their capacities. High schools are very complicated expectations 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:05.880 associated with standardized testing and with being ready for college. 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.639 All of those things create deep structures in high schools 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:12.280 that are just difficult to budge. A lot of people 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.439 want to make change, but they are working within a 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:18.960 structure that's rigid and it's very hard to change. 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.800 I think one of the other important things and why 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.480 XQ focuses on high school, is because high school exists 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:28.679 right at the center of K eight and then everything 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:31.120 that comes after that too. So for most young people, 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:34.280 it's sort of the last stop before adulthood, right, and 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.720 it's not too late. As An has mentioned the science 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:40.800 of learning and of adolescence at that time, it's the 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:44.679 perfect time to really expose young people to new and 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.080 different experiences so that develop who they are and they 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.840 come out into the world as young adults really equipped 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.320 to thrive. Instead of having just gone through the slog 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:54.840 of high school and going, oh, check that box, I've 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:56.919 got a diplomb onto the next thing. But if you 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.199 change high school, then that puts pressure on KA to 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:02.959 make sure that students are coming in prepared for what 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.119 the new high school experience will be. And then that 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.879 puts pressure on the higher education system and the workforce 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:12.359 to make sure that people are coming into jobs and 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:15.480 careers and higher education with a whole new set of 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:18.159 skills and experiences, so that higher ed will have to 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:21.080 change to accommodate that too. We say high school as 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:23.720 a fallcroom for change, but really high school at the center. 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:27.359 If you focus there, then that impacts KA and higher 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:29.200 ed and across the system too. 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.120 We discussed what XQ had coming up next. 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:37.360 So a year ago we launched a really important partnership 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:40.800 with Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. They're one 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.960 hundred year old organization, probably older, and their name is 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:47.960 the name associated with the Carnegie Unit. The Carnegie Unit 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:52.240 is the organizing unit for all of high school and 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:57.239 most of higher education as well. It's also known as 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:00.919 the credit hour, and what the Carnegie Unit did and 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:05.320 what it continues to do, is equate learning with the 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.360 amount of time that a student has sat in a class. 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.840 So that's why we talk about the credit hour, which 0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:14.280 is also called the Carnegie Unit. So this partnership with 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:18.280 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching gives us an 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:22.400 opportunity to think about what would be a more appropriate 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:25.720 way to measure and a credit learning that would be 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:29.240 more flexible, that would measure learning as opposed to time 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:32.680 and a seat. And it sounds simple, but it's actually 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.600 quite complicated to make change in this area because so 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:40.520 much of our system is built around this unit that 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:43.720 is probably invisible to many people, called the Carnegie Unit, 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:47.320 but it is an assumption that is baked very deep 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:51.240 into the way high schools are organized. We think that 0:23:51.359 --> 0:23:54.240 it's holding high schools back from the kinds of change 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:57.280 that they need to make. It really is time, it's possible, 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:00.000 and it's time for us to be measuring student life, 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:03.080 learning and attainment and not just how much time they've 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:07.560 set it in a seat learning biology or learning world history. 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:12.879 So there might be a learning experience where students learn 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:17.560