News & Resources
How can we improve our schools? What will help our children learn? Read about innovations in education and what they mean for your school, your children and your community.
March 11: What is the Future of Redwood City?
Elected officials are making important decisions right now about Redwood City’s growth and schools. Parents with Innovate Public Schools are hosting a Community Action Forum in Redwood City with Mayor Jeffrey Gee, Santa Clara County Supervisor Warren Slocum and others.
New Videos Help Parents See if Their Children Are On Track
GreatSchools has launched a series of free, new videos to help you understand what your child is expected to learn from kindergarten through 5th grade and what that looks like!
Partnering to Support Rising Principals at Rocketship
This year, Innovate kicked off a yearlong leadership development series to support Rocketship principals to foster the mindset, leadership skills, and school design strategies needed to ensure that their schools serve students exceptionally well from day one of the upcoming school year.
Innovate Public Schools’ 2015 Year in Photos!
Innovate Public Schools aims to make the Bay Area a place where every child in every neighborhood has access to world-class public schools. This year, we worked hand in hand with parents, educators and community leaders to make that vision a reality. We have much to...
Schools that are beating the odds for low-income students in Silicon Valley
Innovate’s report, “Struggling Schools, Promising Solutions,” identified schools in this region that are beating the odds for low-income students – serving a majority of high-need students and achieving high levels of performance.
New Report Names Silicon Valley’s Lowest-Performing Schools and Calls for Urgent Action for Students
More than 15,000 students in Silicon Valley are currently attending schools that have been persistently low-performing for years, according to a new report from Innovate Public Schools. “Struggling Schools, Promising Solutions” calls on local communities, especially superintendents and school boards, to take swift action to find lasting solutions for the students attending the 28 schools singled out in the report.
Where it’s worked: School Turnaround Spotlights
What can we learn from communities across the country that have successfully turned around low-performing schools? What approaches are effective?
Turnaround Spotlight: Green Dot Charter Schools
As one of the few charter management organizations nationwide that have taken on the difficult work of turning around large, very low-performing schools, Green Dot has achieved great success with schools all over some of the most impoverished schools in South Los Angeles.
Turnaround Spotlight: Renaissance Schools in Philadelphia
The School District of Philadelphia launched the Renaissance Initiative in 2010 to identify and transform chronically low-performing district schools to dramatically improve student achievement. The district initiates this transformation by converting low-performing...
Turnaround Spotlight: UP Education Network
In 2011, UP Education Network (UP), previously Unlocking Potential, opened its first turnaround school in Boston, and the first of its kind in the state of Massachusetts. A nonprofit turnaround organization, UP believes that the practices of the highest performing...
Turnaround Spotlight: Academy for Urban School Leadership
The Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) was founded in 2001 as a teacher training organization and, since 2006, has been managing turnaround schools in Chicago. The AUSL school management model keeps the same students, initiating new leadership, teachers, and...
Turnaround Spotlight: Philadelphia Mastery Charter Schools
Mastery Charter Schools (MCS) is a charter management organization operating 17 schools with over 10,000 students. Currently operating exclusively in Philadelphia, all but one of MCS’s schools are turnaround schools. MCS keeps the same buildings and students while...
Turnaround Spotlight: Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
In 2009, the office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and local foundations came together to create the nonprofit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (the Partnership). The Partnership is one of the largest...
Turnaround Spotlight: Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Miami-Dade County Public Schools (Miami-Dade) is the third largest school district in the country and has made major strides to improve student achievement, winning the Broad Prize in 2012, an award given to large urban school districts that demonstrate the greatest...
Turnaround Spotlight: Sanger Unified School District
In 2004, Sanger Unified School District (Sanger) was designated one of the lowest-performing districts in California. Serving a rural, predominantly Latino community 15 miles outside Fresno, Sanger has steadily improved, outperforming average state gains every year...
Turnaround Spotlight: Lawrence Public Schools
In May 2012, the Lawrence Public Schools (LPS) Turnaround Plan was released in response to the district being placed into state receivership by the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. LPS describes their turnaround model as “open architecture”...
Turnaround Spotlight: Boston Public Schools
In May 2010, Boston Public Schools (BPS) finalized their five-year plan, including a turnaround strategy for its 12 schools designated by Massachusetts among the lowest-performing statewide (Level 4) and just one step away from state receivership. The following...
Parent Leaders Strive to Leave Legacy for Their Children
“We don’t possess academic titles or bring in six-figure salaries, but we have come together and overcome our personal fears and insecurities to speak directly to our elected officials about our experiences so that we can be heard,” writes Innovate parent leader Maritza Leal in this post on the Rocketship blog about parent’s efforts in Redwood City to improve local schools.
Meet the 2014-15 Start-up Schools Fellows
The second year of our Fellowship kicked off in July 2014 with 18 leaders representing a wide range of school districts and charter schools from across Silicon Valley.
Spotlight on School Turnaround
What would it take for the lowest-performing schools in Silicon Valley to become great? That was the central question of Innovate’s convening on school turnaround featuring speakers Russlynn Ali of Emerson Collective, Scott Given of UP Education and several local panelists. See the high lights video.