To thrive in and transform the world, all children need an extraordinary education.
Extraordinary learning environments provide experiences that are deeply engaging and effectively build the knowledge, skills, and mindsets young people need to thrive. An extraordinary education is aligned to how young people learn best, what students and families want, and what the future demands.
While we have seen promising innovations that have resulted in new research-based models and practices, most students still learn in an outdated model of school.
What Needs to Change
The experiences young people have in our schools today will shape our society tomorrow. Transcend’s Leaps describe the key ways we believe these experiences must change, so that every young person can reach their infinite potential.
Today, too many students experience isolation, low expectations, irrelevance, and a one-size-fits-all approach that leaves little room for who they are or what they need.
These aren’t abstract ideals. They are the conditions that allow young people to show up fully, engage deeply, and build the knowledge, skills, and mindsets they need to thrive in and transform the world.
The Path Forward: Community-Based Design Journeys
Top-down reform efforts in education overlook local context, while bottom-up solutions burden communities. We need a third way, one that combines the best of top-down and grassroots paradigms for change.
A community-based design journey is an iterative process where young people, families, educators, administrators, and experts come together to change the way we do school. When powerful designs are well-implemented and strong conditions are developed, extraordinary learning environments are created for students.
Community-Based Design Works
In our ten years of reimagining the purpose of school, demand has never been higher and the need has never been more urgent. Students are increasingly disconnected from traditional schooling and the rapid rise of AI demands continuous evolution of school. More and more communities are ready, actively seeking Transcend’s support to address these crises quickly and economically.
We know community-based design works. The question is not whether to scale, but how. Over the next five years, we will focus on building the infrastructure and capacity needed to scale community-based design everywhere.
Our Ambition
To meet the rapidly increasing demand and need for school transformation, we are laser-focused on making this work accessible and affordable for every community in the country.
By 2030, we will make it possible for communities everywhere to transform the way we do school through community-based design journeys.
Our Reach
We have developed this perspective from working directly with communities across the country. We’ve partnered with nearly 2,000 schools from 175 systems, serving 1 million students across a mix of urban, rural, suburban, and other geographies in 30+ states, and a mix of district, charter, independent, and other models.
