Breakthrough Schools D.C. Round 3 Grantees
16 schools reimagining for more personalized and deeper learning ...
We’ve all had the experience of truly purposeful, authentic learning and know how valuable it is. Educators are taking the best of what we know about learning, student support, effective instruction, and interpersonal skill-building to completely reimagine schools so that students experience that kind of purposeful learning all day, every day.
The schools funded by the NGLC grants were closed in June 2017. Matchbook Learning continues to support a school turnaround in Washington, D.C. through its Spark Accelerator.
School Name: Michigan Technical Academy
Grades Served: K-8
Location: Detroit, MI
Operator: Matchbook Learning
Operator Type: Nonprofit
School Type: District
Setting: Urban
Students: 1,014
School Name: Merit Prep Newark
Grades Served: 6-12
Location: Newark, NJ
Operator: Matchbook Learning (formerly Touchstone Education)*
Operator Type: Nonprofit
School Type: Charter
Setting: Urban
Students at Start: 80
Students at Capacity: 630
Blended Model Type: Flex
Key Features: Turnaround School, Competency-Based Learning, Next Generation Staffing Model
The Operator: Matchbook Learning envisions an ecosystem of public education that applies the very best turnaround design to the very worst schools. The goal is to lead schools out of the bottom five percent into the top 20 percent. What works for a school district’s lowest-performing schools will eventually work for all schools, creating a transformed education ecosystem in which all students thrive. The turnaround process is laid out in a prescriptive 206-step project plan that addresses assessment, content, and classroom design and works with the community and school on mission alignment and student-centered practices grounded in evidence.
Matchbook Learning launched its first student-centered blended turnaround model prototype in 2011 with a bottom five percent K-8 school in Detroit Public Schools. After taking on two more schools, witnessing school improvement in student performance and state-level recognition, and iterating its model, Matchbook Learning shifted to a fourth prototype with two charter school turnarounds, Merit Prep in Newark, NJ in 2014 and Michigan Technical Academy in Detroit in 2015.
Sajan George at TEDxUNC on the Future of Education
The Academic Model:
The Organizational Model:
*Merit Prep launched in 2012 by Touchstone Education with funding support from NGLC. On July 1, 2014, Touchstone Education merged with Matchbook Learning, another NGLC grant recipient. Learn more about the merger.
Application Deck
Archive: Learning Matters - Technology in the Classroom at Merit Prep
Archive: Profiles Video of Touchstone Education