New Designs for School
Breakthrough Schools D.C. Round 3 Grantees
16 schools reimagining for more personalized and deeper learning ...
New Designs for School
Lebanon School District
New Designs for School
New Designs for School
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.
School: Lebanon High School
Grades Served: 9-12
Location: Lebanon, PA
Type: Complete Redesign
Operator: Lebanon School District
Operator Type: District
Setting: Urban
Students at Opening: 1,300
Students at Capacity: 1,300
Blended Model Type: Station Rotation
Key Feature: Blended Learning
The Operator
Lebanon School District is a medium-sized district in central Pennsylvania serving a 81 percent low-income student population. It is a founding member of the Pennsylvania Hybrid Learning Initiative, a consortium of 50 blended learning pilot schools in the state that is an organized group of teachers, administrators, and subject-matter experts seeking to create a more student-centric approach to learning. The twin goals of the district’s grant work are to accomplish the following:
- Provide more personalized learning in a cost-effective manner for Lebanon High School students
- Demonstrate that transforming a “mainstream” school toward blended learning can work and can be replicated across the nation without starting a new school or securing special waivers
The Academic Model
Following pilot efforts with eight teachers and 214 9th and 10th grade students in four core subject areas, Lebanon High School is implementing a station-rotation model of blended learning school-wide. The hybrid learning model is defined as a “blended classroom system that regularly assesses students and uses the data to sort them into small groups for rotations among different instructional stations.” Its purpose is to provide a more personalized learning experience for students at school. In their math, language arts, science, and social studies classes, students rotate between direct, collaborative, and independent learning stations.
The Organizational Model
- Hybrid learning occurs in 60-minute class periods with up to 36 students per class and one to two teachers per classroom. The daily schedule is redesigned to provide more flexibility to students and teachers.
- The school maintains a student-to-instructional staff ratio of 16:1.
- While legacy costs are fairly high, the financial model for the school is coherent and sustainable.
Application Deck