Communities
At KnowledgeWorks, we know we can’t bring the future of education to every learner without changing the entire education ecosystem. That’s why we involve communities in generating and sustaining the learning revolution. By engaging a broad spectrum of people at the local level, we can apply lessons learned from our high school work across the education continuum and to all areas of students’ lives.
Cincinnati and other cities: Strive
Strive is an innovative model for building education coalitions across all sectors of a community – partnerships with real traction that can help each child succeed from birth through some form of college into a meaningful career.
Strive began in Greater Cincinnati, where it has grown into a partnership of 300 organizations united around shared issues, goals, measurements and results. Strive does far more than simply bring key players to the table, though. Partners work together to actively support and strengthen strategies that work.
Learn more about how Strive is changing education systems in Cincinnati. >>
The Strive model:
- Connects leaders at all levels and across all sectors around a common vision for education and a set of student outcomes.
- Improves systems and services by promoting collaboration and data-driven decision making to effectively and efficiently implement action plans around high impact strategies.
- Advocates for public and private resources to support what works for children.
With its success in changing systems and producing sustainable results, Strive is expanding its innovative model nationally. It is working with university anchors in nine other cities to implement partnerships based on the Strive framework.
- California State University, East Bay (Hayward, CA)
- Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (Indianapolis, IN)
- University of Houston (Houston, TX)
- Virginia Commonwealth University, (Richmond, VA)
- California State University, Fresno (Fresno, CA)
- University of Memphis (Memphis, TN)
- University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM)
- Arizona State University (Mesa, AZ)
- Portland State University (Portland, OR)
Visit the Strive national website
Napa Valley: SC21
Community leaders in California’s Napa Valley have a history of driving innovation in education. In fact, their resolve to prepare students for the 21st century led to the development of New Tech High School and a whole new approach to high school that has since spread across the country.
Napa community leaders are now working to spread the reach of the project-based learning experiences pioneered at New Tech High to students throughout the area in an initiative called SC21.
SC21 has already transformed eight classrooms in Napa and Vintage high schools into project-based classrooms that use integrated curriculum, team teaching and a one-to-one student computing ratio. Early efforts have reached more than 1,000 students and by fall 2011 the initiative could expand into 64 classrooms across the region.
