Harvard Graduate School of Education

What Next?
Educational Innovation and Philadelphia’s School of the Future

Edited by Mary Cullinane and Frederick M. Hess

When the school district of Philadelphia teamed up with the Microsoft Corporation in 2006 to redesign the American high school, the result was the School of the Future, hailed by National Public Radio as “the next big thing,” by Education Week as “a new high-tech school [that is] strutting its stuff,” and by NBC News as “next-generation education.”

While technology was a crucial element at the School of the Future, the redesign sought fundamentally to rethink the models for teaching and learning. Their trademark framework for decision making, the “6Is”—introspection, investigation, inclusion, innovation, implementation, and, again, introspection—is now being used by organizations in more than fifteen countries.

What Next? offers a detailed study of the school’s first three years (2006–2009) revealing what the School of the Future can teach us about high school redesign, public-private partnerships, and the use of technology in school reform. The book’s contributors—researchers, educators, and practitioners—offer countless insights into “when and how technology-based school redesign leads to improved teaching and learning, when it does not, and what this means in terms of dramatically improving the American high school.”

Advance Praise: 

“This volume thoroughly documents the evolution of an important model for educational improvement. Beyond insights about school design in an era of sophisticated technology, it delineates a process for developing and refining innovations. Its ideas will prove useful for teachers, administrators, parents, school board members, the business sector, and policy makers.”
—Christopher Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“I have little doubt that innovations—technological and otherwise—will transform schools and education in coming years. This volume provides important insights into the challenges of provoking such change at an accelerated pace.”
—Mitchell D. Chester, Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education

“A well-reasoned analysis of a dramatic reform effort. Sober, yet optimistic, and above all realistic, it shows that school reform is not for dreamers with silver bullets—or for the faint of heart.”
—Jane Hannaway, director, CALDER/Education Policy Center, The Urban Institute

“Cullinane and Hess have assembled a strong and balanced group of analysts who chronicle a highly innovative attempt at high school reform. School leaders should find this book illuminating as they think through what it takes to foster changes in the core technology and instructional norms of schools. This book will be a mustread for the policy and reform communities, who often imagine technology as a transformative force in school improvement.”
—Kent C. McGuire, dean, College of Education, Temple University

About the Authors:

Mary Cullinane is U.S. director of innovation and business development for the Microsoft Education Group. Frederick M. Hess is director of educational policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He has edited and authored numerous books, including Educational Entrepreneurship and The Future of Educational Entrepreneurship, both with Harvard Education Press.