New Designs for School
Breakthrough Schools D.C. Round 3 Grantees
16 schools reimagining for more personalized and deeper learning ...
New Designs for School
San Jose Unified School District
New Designs for School
New Designs for School
We’ve all had the experience of truly purposeful, authentic learning and know how valuable it is. Educators are taking the best of what we know about learning, student support, effective instruction, and interpersonal skill-building to completely reimagine schools so that students experience that kind of purposeful learning all day, every day.
School: Burnett Middle School
Grades Served: 6-8
Location: San José, CA
Operator: San Jose Unified School District
Operator Type: District
Setting: Urban
Students at Start: 890
Students at Capacity: 890
Hallmark Feature: Blended, competency-based IB program
- San Jose Unified School District initiated a school redesign effort in 2013 inviting all schools to submit transformational ideas to redesign their learning environments. Burnett Middle School was one of five ultimately selected by the district to undergo detailed redesign planning in 2013-14.
- Two key elements of the redesign vision for this International Baccalaureate (IB) school includes:
- Full implementation of personalized blended learning across five subject areas and all grade levels
- Full implementation of criterion-based grading, to focus student assessment and feedback on content mastery as well as application, collaboration, and other 21st century skills.
- The district’s teacher contract allows Burnett Middle School to acquire waivers, with 75% approval voting of staff, to determine the organizational model that best supports the school’s transformational academic redesign.
Featured on KTVU, August 14, 2013