Author: Melissa Graeser

Led by assistant principal Amy Burns and principal Troy Silvia, Central Falls High School (CFHS) is dedicated to helping students meet their graduation requirements and preparing them to make informed decisions around post-secondary opportunities. The school reform plan (SRP) goals at CFHS include increasing the graduation rate, improving English and math proficiency, and decreasing chronic… Read more

Narragansett High School, led by Principal Daniel Warner, is a high performing school located in Narragansett, RI. Principal Warner believes that personalized learning is a key element of growth for Narragansett and that meeting students “where they are” is very important to all teachers. Narragansett Demographics # of students % of Free and Reduced Lunch… Read more

Have you thought about bringing design thinking to your school or district? One of the major foundations for the Fuse Architect project is design thinking. Through a partnership with IDEO, the Fuse Architect schools’ design teams used and continue to use design thinking to help re-envision the way school happens. IDEO defines design thinking as “a… Read more

Stephen Osborn of the Rhode Island Department of Education and Daniela Fairchild of Rhode Island’s Office of Innovation provide some background on each of their offices’ work around personalized learning and touch on their own roles in the Integrated Learning Systems initiative. They also share in more detail their hopes for this grant program’s accomplishments. This… Read more

A Providence Public School, 360 High School (360) opened its doors in 2015 with 80 students entering 9th grade. It is one of two schools in Providence that have been chosen to participate in the Fuse Architect project (Central High School being the other, which was featured in another blog post). This new high school… Read more

Central High School (Central) is the second school from the Providence Public School District selected for the Fuse Architect program. Central High School is actively working to become a more student-centered and student-directed school. Central’s Fuse Architect design team believes that “anytime, anywhere learning” is an important part of building an educational model that works… Read more

The only high school within the district of Barrington Public Schools, the school population information for the 2016-17 school year is shared in the table below. # of students % of Free and Reduced Lunch % of English as a Second Language % of Special Education Services 1000 6% 1% 11% Barrington High School and… Read more

This is the first episode in a series documenting the Integrated Learning Systems project, a collaboration between the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the Highlander Institute, and several other Rhode Island-based stakeholders endeavoring to design and pilot systems that promote student-centered learning. In this first episode, we talk with Lucas Orwig, a program officer at Nellie… Read more

What if the best way to make decisions about education technology starts off with not thinking about technology at all? This is the approach the Fuse Architect project took as they began their work this past spring. Rather than jumping into product selection, Fuse Architect participants spent the first phase thinking much more broadly. Using… Read more

As the Highlander Institute embarks on its Fuse Architect initiative with NMEF, six LEAs and seven high schools, collaborations with external partners are in the forefront. In this blog, we highlight key partners working with Highlander Institute to help make the vision for student centered learning and integrated learning systems a reality for participating Rhode Island schools…. Read more