Educational Innovation and Philadelphia's School of the Future

Grand claims about the transformative power of technology in education are common, yet decades of high school redesign have yielded mixed results. One of the most widely touted efforts to tackle these challenges has been the School of the Future in the Philadelphia School District, created in 2006 through a partnership with the Microsoft Corporation. This $63 million school incorporated new technologies in areas such as data and curriculum management, virtual simulations and mentoring, and personalized instruction intended to fundamentally change how students learn in high school. National Public Radio touted the school as "the next big thing," and Education Week described it as "a new high-tech school [that is] strutting its stuff."

AEI and Microsoft have assembled a select team of analysts to explore how this pioneering effort is unfolding on the ground and the lessons it holds for the use of technology and high school redesign. New research will examine key elements of the School of the Future--including its genesis, design, flaws, and implications--and what it can teach about broader questions regarding educational innovation, public-private partnerships, and the integration of technology in the classroom. At this AEI conference, researchers will present their findings, and an array of discussants will respond.

About the Author

 

Frederick M.
Hess



  • An educator, political scientist and author, Frederick M. Hess studies a range of K-12 and higher education issues. He is the author of influential books on education including “The Same Thing Over and Over,” “Education Unbound,” “ Common Sense School Reform,” “ Revolution at the Margins” and “Spinning Wheels,” and he pens the Education Week blog, Rick Hess Straight Up. His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, National Affairs, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic and National Review. He has edited widely cited volumes on education philanthropy, stretching the school dollar, the impact of education research and No Child Left Behind.  He serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the review boards for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and the Broad Prize for Public School Charters as well as on the boards of directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 SCHOOLS and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum.


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  • Email: rhess@aei.org
  • Assistant Info

    Name: Lauren Aronson
    Phone: 202-862-5904
    Email: lauren.aronson@aei.org
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