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Strong interpersonal relationships and character development are at the core of this San Jose, CA blended school’s model. Students learn a significant portion of core academic content online at their own level of mastery and pace and receive teacher-led instruction informed by real-time data from their online content. Unlike most middle schools, one teacher stays with a class of 34 students throughout the day and throughout the year.

The student-centered school model of Epic Charter School in Oakland, California, framed around a hero's journey empowers middle school students with sense of unity and purpose in life, where they can feel part of a culture with a shared experience and with more opportunities to experiences growth and accomplishment. Design and engineering is front and center and game mechanics drive the school model.

One observer of the model for this Horry County, SC district school commented, “They are really creating a new middle school model rather than shuffling the chairs in a turnaround.” The new student-centered, competency-based model, “iCAN,” has four central elements: individualized, college and career readiness, aspirations of students, and network of support.

This Chicago middle school serving grades 5-8 builds on the KIPP academic model by blending instructional technology with high-quality teaching methods. The technology is a tool that allows a single instructor and a single classroom to serve the individual needs of a diverse student body. In "Power Hour" housed within a flexible Learning Lab space, students use videos, tutorials, and interactive content to practice key competencies on their own and in teams based on an individual learning plan.

A tutor guides a small group of students while a master teacher circulates the room to provide feedback, support, and to pull out students for additional instruction in this high-touch, deeply personalized Boston middle school. The charter organization envisions the school as a research platform that can generate knowledge about the technology and tools that work best with low-income, inner-city students in order to serve a growing community of blended learning schools.

At Piedmont Middle School, the future for students is changing through relevant, engaging learning opportunities, a school culture filled with hope, and a redesigned teaching and learning environment that utilizes blended learning, project-based learning, and competency-based learning to personalize education. The academic model is anchored by a focus on advanced mastery, relevance, and student ownership. This small, rural district intends to scale the model district-wide after phasing in the model at the middle school.

This new district partnership school, slated to open in fall 2015, will serve Columbus, OH students in grades 6-13 in a competency-based, blended learning early college high school model that is focused on both college and career success. The Metro Institute of Technology is designed to solve two problems: (1) capable students may struggle in schools that assume everyone acquires the same knowledge, at the same rate, towards the same goals; and (2) the high cost of a college education prohibits many students from completing a degree.

This small district south of Lexington, KY is completely redesigning its only middle school and high school by adopting a competency-based blended learning model. Personalized learning pathways directly link middle school, high school, and college curriculum. Projects play a central role in the new learning environment which aims to equip students with 21st century skills so they can seize their place in the Information Age as inventive learners.

At this 6-12 Chicago school that opened in Fall 2014, differentiation is key not just for the students – who access adaptive digital content and participate in diversified classroom rotations – but also for the teachers. Multiple teacher roles include expert teachers, resident teachers (those with limited experience), and instructional leads. The Foundations team hopes that the school, grounded in a rigorous college prep curriculum, creates learners who can perform as well as or better than their higher-income peers.

This Denver public 6-12 school operated by Generation Schools Network, which opened in Fall 2012, redesigned the academic model to a rotational blended model for greater personalization, more time for learning, and stronger support for academic and 21st century skills development. It also redeployed the school’s existing resources to change the model without adding to school costs and operating within key parameters of teacher contracts. The goal is to ensure that innovative practice and change occurs not just outside the system, but within it as well.