蜜桃影视

1. Personalized learning starts at home

We grabbed a lot of headlines as being one of the pioneers of personalized learning. We remain staunch advocates for the purposeful integration of technology to support student learning and promote student agency, but personalized learning is about much more than tech. It鈥檚 about a deep understanding of the unique needs and interests of every student and family. Our annual home visits have become an essential component of our personalized learning model. When we change the dynamic from a parent in a teacher鈥檚 classroom to a teacher in a student鈥檚 home, we develop much with our families and a deeper understanding of how to best serve each and every Rocketeer.

2. To change the system, we need to create more demand

Rocketship is focused exclusively on elementary education. Of course, a lot of parents, funders, and partners have encouraged us to build out a K-12 system. It鈥檚 definitely tempting. It鈥檚 hard to watch our Rocketeers leave us in fifth grade and wonder, ? But for us, it comes down to the difference between trying to transform our public school system and building a parallel system. We believe a self-contained K-12 system undermines our ability to engage parents beyond the classroom and create parent demand for equity in public education. It鈥檚 what former U.S. secretary of education John King was talking about when he said, 鈥淲e are investing something like 98 percent of our national philanthropy in supply, and at best 2 percent in demand, and we鈥檙e not seeing equity-focused systems change happen quickly enough.鈥� We need to invest more energy in creating demand.

3. Honor the power of parents

We built our parent leadership program to help families exercise their power to demand political attention, hold leaders accountable, and enable high-quality public school systems to thrive. Because we offer only elementary education, parents must engage, organize, and advocate for high-quality middle and high schools 鈥� at least, that was our theory. Well, 10 years later, we鈥檝e seen this movement take hold in San Jose, where have helped open high-quality middle and high schools. We learned that if we truly want to scale to the size of the problem in public education, we need to focus on catalyzing movements for high-quality public education that puts parents in the driver鈥檚 seat.

4. Integrating students won鈥檛 create culturally responsive schools 鈥� teachers will

There has been a lot of chatter about charter schools and segregation lately, and much of it is off the mark. Parents from historically marginalized communities choosing a school because they believe it is in the best interests of their child is a far cry from the government prohibiting students from attending a school on the basis of their race. Rocketship Education in our schools, regardless of ethnicity, race, class, or creed. We value diversity, but we don鈥檛 believe students of color should have to to attend a great school. Furthermore, there鈥檚 a different measure of school diversity that research shows is much more impactful to students of color: We need to build to ensure our students experience 听滨苍 , he uncovers a powerful interview from an African-American teacher in Virginia who said, 鈥淭he first people that should have been integrated was the teachers and administration.鈥� She was right. And still is.

5. Actions speak louder than words

I didn鈥檛 have any children of my own when we launched Rocketship. Now I have two. Both my kids attend Rocketship Fuerza Community Prep. When my wife and I decided to enroll our kids in Rocketship, I wasn鈥檛 trying to make a statement; I just wanted my kids to go to a great school, as every parent does. And fundamentally, if our schools aren鈥檛 good enough for my own kids, how can I honestly say they are good enough for any kids? But I now realize the significance of that choice. It鈥檚 what : 鈥渢he hypocrisy of progressive people who say they believe in inequality, but when it comes to their individual choices about where they’re going to send their children, they make very different decisions.鈥� It鈥檚 not a comfortable topic to discuss, but we need to confront it.

Rocketship schools start every day with a full school assembly called 鈥淟aunch.鈥�

Photo: Rocketship

6. Meaningful inclusion benefits all kids

In our early years, we struggled to develop a quality program to serve students with disabilities. Like most schools, we focused on compliance. But over time, we developed a program that we are deeply proud of. In our , the vast majority of students with disabilities spend 80 percent of their day in general education classrooms. The benefits to students with disabilities are clear. But inclusion also benefits typically developing students who develop greater empathy for the diverse needs in our school community. Don鈥檛 get me wrong 鈥� it鈥檚 hard to achieve. When a student with behavioral challenges is disrupting other students in a classroom, many parents鈥� first thought is to remove that student from the class. When we don鈥檛, some parents get upset. But that鈥檚 a small price to pay for developing an that celebrates and helps all students as they discover and develop their remarkable potential.

7. Never stop learning

A few years ago, we tested a new approach that we called the flex model. The idea was to unleash the impact of excellent teachers by creating a dynamic, open learning environment guided by three teachers and one school leader. Some schools thrived with this model, but others did not. The lack of structure made it difficult to control quality, and . But the flex model taught us about the critical impact of student agency, real-time coaching, and how to build an adult culture based on continuous learning, weekly goal setting, and actionable feedback. Those tenets have become a hallmark of our work today. We took a lot of heat for this pilot, but we are stronger for it.

8. Define your mindset

Building a culture of continuous learning may sound nice, but it is not for everyone. Not every educator wants a coach in the classroom every week. For some, it feels like they are constantly being judged, and they burn out quickly. We learned this lesson the hard way. So over time, we鈥檝e honed our hiring practices to find educators with a mindset that better matches our model. Teachers who thrive at Rocketship are tenacious learners who embrace feedback and constantly strive to master their practice, no matter how many years of teaching experience they have. By adapting our hiring practices to evaluate mindset alongside skill, we are strengthening our adult culture and improving student outcomes.

9. You won鈥檛 go far trying to go it alone

We set some lofty goals for our growth when we launched 10 years ago. And while our moonshot may have helped draw attention to the massive size of the achievement gap, it grossly underestimated the complexity of growing a network of public schools that depends on a dizzying array of public agencies, from authorizing school boards to zoning commissions to bond-financing boards. Building strong, productive, and transparent partnerships with these stakeholders takes considerable time and attention, yet it is paramount to our collective success.

10. Proud to be a public school

Last spring, I was chatting with a couple of parents at my kids鈥� school. They were telling me what got them interested in Rocketship Education. They said, 鈥淩ocketship is like a private school, but free.鈥� I get it. In a world divided by haves and have-nots, it鈥檚 a pretty clear pitch. But it doesn鈥檛 sit right with me. I remain a staunch advocate for public education. It鈥檚 the backbone of our democracy and the foundation of the American dream. Do we need to revitalize public education? Absolutely. But we can鈥檛 take the 鈥減ublic鈥� out of our schools. We must wear it like the badge of honor that it is. Which is why we are making a small, but symbolic, change to our name. Rocketship Education is now Rocketship Public Schools.