—  REDESIGNING EDUCATION  —

TAKING ACTION: The connections Sheila has built with students, parents, and colleagues has strengthened her belief in the need to help students identify their passion and purpose.  Therefore, rather than emulate the school system of the Industrial Age, Sheila is focused on helping educational systems become more student-centered.  With each consulting project, she applies her expertise in design thinking and project based learning.  Sheila consistently seeks new ways for educational systems to engage students and how communities can help students prepare for the rapidly changing global economy.

ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE: If your community is looking to redesign middle school learning, then accept the challenge and submit your request. Sheila is looking to work with school systems in the 2020-21 academic year who are eager to become more student-centered and their students become more future-ready.

Case Study: the process of Redesigning Learning

In Fall 2016, Blue Valley School District, began discussions how to redesign and reimagine middle school learning.  Superintendent, Dr. Todd White, empowered administrators and teachers to really think differently about how schools could transform lives.  The district embarked on a mission to gain deeper empathy of what students wanted and needed from their educational system. 

DEFINING THE PROBLEM: In many respects, there was a struggle to define the clear reason why a redesign was needed.  Test scores were insanely high, parent satisfaction was high and the district had an excellent reputation.  However, the district was experience significant growth and leadership understood a more forward looking vision was needed to meet future needs.  The Blue Valley team defined the problem as a system developed to educate students in content driven courses taught in isolation for an industrial based society.  Although the district had pieces in place to help students work across disciplines and creatively problem solve, there was not an overarching structure to move the changes forward.

EMPATHY & IDEATING: Blue Valley educators began identifying schools and programs across the country that were innovating educational systems to prepare students for a rapidly changing workforce.  The group divided into teams to do site visits and build new relationships. The group was introduced to the process of design thinking. A national research effort was conducted to identify innovative models. A team went to California in January 2017  to visit Vista Innovation and Design Academy and Design 39 in the Poway School District.  The trip to California and similar trips to other schools built the energy and momentum to ideate what the new middle school program might look like. In Fall 2017, parent groups were formed to gather ideas. Students were also surveyed to provide input.  All stakeholders collaborated, and was vested, in ideating what a new middle school system could do for kids. 

PROTOTYPING & TESTING: By December 2017, the district had created a daily structure prototype and began sharing with parents and staff.  New instructional strategies began to be implemented and the culture of middle school classrooms started to shift. Fall 2018, all nine middle schools successfully launched a new daily structure and dramatic changes to the core and elective curriculum.  The immediate feedback from students and parents was incredibly positive.

The story of Blue Valley School District was Sheila’s home district. This example expresses an efficient and effective innovation process toward being more human-centered. While some of the details may vary district to district and system to system, the structure of the process will be similar. The 5-stages of design thinking are the foundation and applied throughout the innovation process. Engagement and collaboration is critical. Sheila’s unique ability to involve the entire community is one of her specialities she brings in to every project.

For more information about design thinking for education, contact Sheila directly, or check out the K12 Lab at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University.