(from EdSurge):

By EdSurge staff

There are many building blocks that make up a school. The schedule, budget, infrastructure, school culture and the learning environment represent just a handful. Each element has a tremendous impact on the learning experience for students, staff and families. These blocks can be organized and reorganized in any number of combinations. The way they are put together defines the model of a school.

All over the country, schools regularly experiment with rearranging, reshaping or redesigning these pieces to make school more engaging and personal for students and teachers. These experiments range from a small pilot in one classroom to large scale systemic transformation at the district or even state level and everything in between. Sometimes, a small pilot in one classroom can spark change across an entire region.

Across the country, we see examples of these experiments, big and small, that inspire us to think about what’s possible in schools.

But rethinking schools is hard; changing one building block can shift the entire structure, and always poses challenges. Sometimes a school manages these challenges on its own, but in many cases, a school seeks out experts in a specific area that can help pave the way for change. Experts can come in many forms. Sometimes an expert is a teacher or administrator from another district, and other times an expert is a consultant or organization that specializes in school redesign.

In this guide, we hope to give you a glimpse of what it can look like when a school changes its model. CONTINUE READING HERE