Grand Rapids — What will high school look like 10, 20, 30 years from now? Grand Rapids Public Museum High School is going to have a hand in answering that question.
Museum School is one of only 24 institutions nationwide selected to be part of the Future of High School Network, a 10-year initiative of the Carnegie Foundation and XQ Institute. The goal is to redefine the high school experience and think beyond the restrictions of using the Carnegie Unit to gauge academic progress and success.
Christopher Hanks, former Museum High principal now serving as a principal on special assignment in innovation design, oversaw the school’s application process. He said the purpose of the initiative is to reevaluate how high school works and, hopefully, adapt the existing model to better prepare students for the future.
“The things we think are important for young people to know and be able to do have evolved,” Hanks said. “What people need to be successful in the world just looks different” than it did more than 120 years ago when the Carnegie Unit was established.
‘Let’s dismantle what we initially created because it was very limiting, and broaden the scope so that all learners have a space in education.’
— Tamika Henry, Grand Rapids Public Museum High School principal
Exemplifying Innovative Programming
Museum School has a long history with XQ Institute, Hanks said. The school received a $10 million grant from XQ to expand its program in 2015, and though that grant has since expired, the relationship with XQ has continued.
Through XQ, the school was connected with the Carnegie Foundation and eventually invited to apply for a spot in the Future of High School Network initiative. With its project- and competency-based learning model, the school was a natural fit for the initiative.
“Carnegie looked around the country to find schools, school districts and systems that are already doing that rethinking, and approaching learning in a different way, using the places that they found not as guinea pigs, because we’re already doing it, but as sort of facilitators to kind of explore, refine new processes, investigate, and do some research on what works and what doesn’t,” Hanks said.
As a result of its participation in the initiative, Museum School will spend at least two years sharing various types of academic data with Carnegie, and working with other schools in the network. The school is receiving a $100,000 grant over two years to ensure that the data collection comes at no cost to the district.
Nothing will change in terms of day-to-day learning for Museum School students, Hanks noted. Rather, “The school’s role is to be the best example, the best exemplar of an innovative program that it can be, which was already its goal.”
By looking at the data shared by Museum School and other participants, the initiative hopes to develop a “new architecture” for high-school learning in the U.S., reexamining everything from learning environments to grading scales, Hanks said.
Reinventing High School Structures
New Museum High Principal Tamika Henry said the school has already started networking with Carnegie and other participating schools via twice-monthly Zoom sessions. Once or twice a year, all the Future of High School Network schools will touch base to “share what has worked, what’s not working, how can we tweak it, how can we get better,” Henry said.
Henry has a passion for shaping and improving education systems to make them more equitable, accessible and relevant for learners. She said she’s overjoyed to be leading Museum School as it participates in the initiative.
“What Carnegie is saying is, let’s go backwards. Let’s dismantle what we initially created because it was very limiting, and broaden the scope so that all learners have a space in education,” she said. “I’m very excited, I’m very proud to be a part of it, I’m honored to be a part of it.”
While students’ lives won’t be affected by the school’s participation in the initiative, they’re aware that the process is underway. And several said they’re glad that, as a result, schools throughout the nation may end up following Museum School’s lead.
Junior Angie Cifuentes said she values the school’s place-based framework, which emphasizes community involvement, and addressing local needs.
“That’s my favorite part — being able to go out and actually make a difference, and do things to help our community,” Angie said.
Fellow junior Jaela Corporan said she appreciates the flexibility of Museum School’s format and the opportunities it offers. Jaela noted that students “create our own freedom throughout the years of attending our school.”
Hanks said it’s possible Museum School will continue to participate in the initiative after the first two years have wrapped up.
“Right now, it’s just little steps here and there,” he said. “And I think for Carnegie, their goal is that in 10 years, every state has … completely reinvented their structure for schooling.”
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