Innovative Schools Stories & Virtual Learning Excursions

Seeing Is Believing

After one of the most challenging and isolating years in education, we invite you to connect with students, teachers, and leaders at some of the most innovative high schools across the nation.

Mission Vista High School and Vista Unified School District in San Diego County, California. Apply by September 8, 2022!
Blackstone Academy Charter School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Ready to leave the "old normal" behind and create a new future for your students? Curious about student-centered, experiential, or competency-based learning? Looking for inspiration for how school can become a place for equity and 21st-century success? Want to make the time that kids spend in school meaningful, valuable, and even fun? The Innovative Schools Stories & Virtual Learning Excursion is the place to start.

With funding from the Barr Foundation, NGLC is partnering with innovative high school and district sites to offer two unique learning opportunities:

Multimedia Stories The freely available Innovative Schools Multimedia Stories are built for educators who are ready to explore other schools’ and districts’ learning models. In their own words, students, teachers, school leaders, and others share how their innovative schools' learning design, practices, and culture create student success. Educators can use these first-person stories and real artifacts—tools, student work, and more—to spark, inspire, and inform their self-directed approach to refine or define next gen, personalized learning for their own students.		Virtual Learning Excursions Teams from New England with a high school focus are invited to apply for an interactive learning experience combining Multimedia Stories + Deeper Engagement Sessions + Support from NGLC. The Innovative Schools Virtual Learning Excursion is built for New England-based teams that are ready to learn from and with host-schools and districts and ready to develop and implement a plan for redesigning one or more aspects of their own learning model.

With both opportunities, it's all about connection and seeing innovative next gen learning come alive!

Find out below what makes these sites "must see" locations and how they will spark your own high school learning redesign.

Explore the Innovative Schools and Districts

Choose your path—Multimedia Stories or Virtual Learning Excursion—to deepen your learning with NGLC and these two innovative sites as your guide.

Mission Vista High School and Vista Unified School District

The strengths-based culture at the high school drives a student-centered approach through a variety of personalization strategies and teacher agency aligned to school and district goals. The district creates the conditions to reach its mission and vision through invitation, personalized adult learning, co-design with stakeholders and industry partners, and more.

Multimedia Stories Mission Vista and VUSD students, teachers, school leaders, district staff, and community partners tell their stories of innovation and educational excellence; strengths, interests, and values; and personalizing learning.		Virtual Learning Excursion This experience takes place Sept.-Dec. 2022. It features a medium-sized district and a single high school within the district that has multiple high schools. It is best for New England-based teams of educators, students, and key partners who are ready to work together to explore district and high school strategies in support of personalized, next gen learning.
Read and Listen		Application is Closed

Blackstone Academy Charter School

This mission-driven high school, with its focus on trusting relationships, feels like a family. Using a community-engaged, project-based approach, Blackstone Academy prepares learners for college and career success and for positive impact on the wider community.

Multimedia Stories BACS students, teachers, school leaders, and parents tell their story of the school as a community, preparing for life after high school, and the integration of academic support with social-emotional support.		Virtual Learning Excursion This experience takes place Nov. 2021–Jan. 2022. It features a single school and is best for small teams from a secondary school in New England who want to go deep on one learning model.
Read and Listen		Application is Closed

Participant Isabel Senat gives her take on the value of NGLC Learning Excursions.

Funding for the Innovative Schools Stories & Virtual Learning Excursions is provided by the Barr Foundation. Photo at top courtesy of Ola Elementary School, Henry County Schools, Georgia.