What San Diego High School Faculty Learned After a Year of Personalized Learning

About “1,500 (High School) students from 75 of the nation’s poorest schools in 35 cities,” are enrolling in college courses in elite universities like Harvard and Columbia through an initiative started by a nonprofit—and succeeding. The aim of the program is to prepare underprivileged students for the rigors of college education, and give them a confidence boost before they enter college. They complete the same coursework as the college students and get a grade. “All of these schools talk this game, ‘We want diversity, but we can’t find these kids,’ and this proves they can build a pipeline."

Amy Edelstein thought that if high school students knew how to meditate they could learn how to focus, stay on track, and regulate negative self-talk. They could become better. So, in 2014 she started the Inner Strength Foundation to provide public schools with research-backed mindfulness curriculum. The curriculum has become a 12-week program, with instructors visiting classrooms in 19 schools across the city once a week.

A Catholic high school in Ontario is leading Canada's efforts to use restorative justice and mediation strategies in the classroom. The school has found that students who go through this process often don't get in trouble again.

In order to protect the endangered rufous-headed hornbill, endemic to the islands of Antique and Negros in the Philippines, an organization has teamed up with local schools to extend its conservation efforts. Each school has used varying methods like morning announcements, mural-painting, and even putting on theater plays to raise awareness, all with the hope that students develop an appreciation for the species that aids in its survival.

In Australia, a universal survey in several secondary schools helps to identify students who are at risk of becoming homeless and connects them with wraparound services. The prevention-based model may soon be piloted in King County, Washington.

A nonprofit in Seattle is identifying youth between the ages of 16 to 24 who are out of school and work and reconnecting them with the public education system. Two-thirds of students enrolled in the program have gone on to pursue college.

A "near-peer" mentoring program offers a promising model for similar initiatives working to prevent "summer melt" for low-income students in the summer between their graduation from high school and arrival at college. College-age mentors provide in-person coaching and respond to texts about financial aid and other concerns.

A variety of nonprofit and philanthropic programs have started offering virtual college counseling to students living in rural communities. Through these setups, recent college graduates are often paired with students at schools where there are no full-time counselors or where the ratio of counselor to student is as high as 600 to 1.

The Detroit Food Academy brings together local educators, chefs, and business owners to teach youth and young adults in the city business and entrepreneurship skills through cooking lessons and opportunities. The program is instructing students “how to think about entrepreneurship, equity and production in the food industry, and getting a wide range of experiences to help them understand food sovereignty.”

A unique boarding school in Thailand has inspired close to 200 more of its kind. At Mechai Bamboo School, students benefit from a combination of traditional classroom instruction and hands-on activities, including starting their own small businesses. Targeted at some of the most disadvantaged students in Buriram Province, the lessons in economic development encourage students to give back to their home communities instead of migrating.