I have been working in education for over 35 years now and doing what I can so that others can see the possibility in reimagining what teaching, learning, and schooling can look like. Thankfully, there are many before me who have been able to manifest new ideas and ideals of schooling, creating new models of learning and education that could far better serve our youth, their families, our country, and the world. These alternative "images of possibility" foreground supporting the growth of students' agency, interests, passions, talent, and opportunity, yet our education system is designed to perpetuate a factory model of schooling reinforced by current federal, state, and local policy and funding structures as well as our conventional view of learning. Today, there are educators who are pushing the envelope of what is possible for schooling, but these innovative and learner-centered models of schooling should not be so far and few between. Such opportunities should exist for all youth and families. So what would it take for this to happen? What actions could be taken by policy actors, school and district leaders, community members, parents, and classroom educators to create a system that incentivizes, supports, and works to proliferate such new school designs? That is what this book is about: What could be done to scale agency and opportunity for all?
Unger, Chris: - About the author: Chris has been working to transform what teaching, learning, and schooling looks like for over 35 years. He was lucky to have landed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1984, where he quickly became part of a number of innovative research initiatives, ultimately becoming a Principal Investigator at Harvard's Project Zero. After 16 years there (where he also received his Doctorate), he landed in Portland, OR where he helped move the downtown Children's Museum to a space next to the zoo. Then spent 2+ years as a high school re-design coach for 11 of Seattle's high schools. Then to Brown University where he coached high schools across New England, New York, and New Jersey, eventually to work with state departments of education up and down the Eastern seaboard. Finally, to Northeastern University, where he has been since 2009 supporting doctoral students to be change agents in the world dependent on their personal and professional aspirations. Today, Chris is doing what he can to support and assist fellow "revolutionaries" in education to change what teaching, learning, and schooling can look like through his podcast (arevolutionineducation.org), YouTube channels(youtube.com/@arevolutionineducation and youtube.com/@arevolutionineducationseason2, frequent articles (see Getting Smart), numerous presentations, and continued work with doctoral students and educators, and book (A Revolution in Education). He lives in Hopkinton MA in a in a four-generation house, making for a lively household with lots of fun going on everyday. About the schools: Numerous examples of schools and innovative school networks pushing the envelope in teaching, learning, and schooling are presented in this book, along with the stories of how they got off the ground. These include: High Tech High, the Big Picture schools, Iowa BIG, the CAPS Network, the SOTA, SAMI, and IDEA Schools of Tacoma WA, Olympic High School in Charlotte NC, the Charlotte Lab School, VLACS in NH, Design 39, Building 21, and the Northern Cass School District. Such exceptional schools are making a big difference for the youth and families they serve. But these schools are too far and few between. There should be a plethora of such schools across the country, not just here and there. This is what the book is all about.
