Unlocked.

Unlocked, tending to the soul of school.

Are young people unbelievably bored in school?

What about in our nation’s poorest and most vulnerable communities? All students are born with the fruit of curiosity, creative daring, and wonderment, but somehow their verdant genius and talent withers on the vine. Students want to do real work that matters to them and the world. We’re Unlocked and we help existing school ecosystems engage in healthy, real and sustainable change powered by the people in the community.

Young people are capable of doing technical, original, and powerful work. They lead revolutions, invent new technologies, create new cultures, new forms of expression, new genres of music, and more. With their enthusiasm and zest, they throw themselves into work. With their fresh perspectives, they see old things in new ways.

The core function of public education should not be about content delivery, but rather how students transform content into something new. Students (people) need to create, imagine, wonder, build, invent, publish, produce, and reflect upon their experience. Some questions we might start asking:

• How might we support learners in doing high-quality, creative and intellectually challenging work that has a real audience and a real impact?

• To what extent are students able to pursue important questions with others?

• What if students worked like biologists, environmentalists, humanitarians, ethnographers, urban developers, agriculturalists, artists and filmmakers as they studied specific phenomena? One sample: The Colorado River Watershed project, “Heart of the West”.

Fighting for equity in education, should be about fighting for youth to do meaningful work that gives them power. Creative development is a right and ALL students need to engage in world-class creative work--especially women, people of color, and people in poverty. In doing real work that reflects their tastes, interests, and identities, they will gain greater access and fluency to economic and expressive power.

Teachers want to do this type badass (i.e., sophisticated, original and creative) work, but have we created the right conditions? Have we created the capacity for teachers to create experiential, interdisciplinary learning? This is what we do:

• Training in Human Centered Design (HCD): Regional groups of educators, working in low-income, impoverished communities, convene to learn how to use HCD in order to translate student interests, teacher interests and global challenges into  experiential, cross-disciplinary learning experiences. In Session 1, participants practice HCD by prototyping their solutions for an authentic audience. In Session 2, participants apply HCD in working to address community and/or global challenges, test their work in the field with students, and then go back to test their idea again. For Session 3, participants learn to apply HCD to the organizational levers (i.e., time, roles, rituals, etc.) as a way to support experiential, cross-disciplinary learning. The purpose of fundraising is to offer these trainings FREE of charge to participants.

Teachers are the innovators we need. We use human-centered design to activate teacher creativity and to equip educators with the tools, processes, and mindsets to confidently meet the ever-changing needs of students and our schools.

We disrupt inequity.

Innovation in education is not a destination or a final product, but rather a way of thinking and behaving to support schools to continually create value for members of their community. We use a unique form of human-centered design to unearth unarticulated needs of users, to develop prototypes, and to test those ideas rapidly with an eye toward (re)iteration. The innovation is creating innovators, not innovations, creating local innovation ecosystems, and connecting newer communities of practice with more established networks.

We use low-tech, portable technology for this work mostly.  It includes basic tools like: nametags, chart paper, journals, sharpies (fine and chisel points), post-it notes (lots of post-it notes), and low-resolution prototyping supplies (like paper clips, egg cartons, popsicle sticks, construction paper, pipe cleaners, scissors, glue, etc.). All we need to add is people to the mix. The main use of technology involves participants sharing their experiments and reflections and iterations. We use social media, primarily, but we also have a partnership with Real World Scholars and EdTV Live, a Professional Social Network that connects educators through live video posts.

In the next year, we’ll run three (3) design camp experiences across North America, with at least one (1) in a lower socioeconomic community. We’ll work with local collaborators (hosts) to understand their ongoing needs and connect them with a broader network of practitioners. We’ll continue to support hosts in the development and growth of 1) innovative pedagogical practices, 2) school culture, and 3) leading for creativity.

We’ll create 4-6 annual design experiences across North America, with at least 2 in lower socioeconomic communities. We’ll work with local collaborators to understand their needs & connect them with a broader network. We’ll continue to support hosts in developing and spreading 1) innovative pedagogy, 2) school culture, & 3) leadership. We’ll engage in healthy, real and sustainable change efforts in the nation’s poorest, most vulnerable communities. We’ll connect & expand communities of practice with key partners like the Deeper Learning Network, the Stanford d.School, & the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, among others to sustain the work.

We will use a combination of social media, traditional media, video conferencing, and in-person convenings to reach and retain our beneficiaries. Over the past 3 years, when we have offered these services via social media alone and we’ve “sold out”--even though it is completely free to participants--within 5 to 6 days. Participants include K-12 teachers and administrators, universities and colleges, non-profits, and industry partners, including DesignForward Alliance, Inc. Our current range of services are designed to be done in person and participants attend from all over region, across the country, and across international borders.

Participants include K-12 teachers and administrators, universities and colleges, non-profits, and industry partners, including DesignForward Alliance, Inc. Our current range of services are designed to be done in person and participants attend from all over region, across the country, and across international borders. They are a mix of people in both public and private sectors and across industries. Over the past three years, we have directly served approximately 750 participants from Vancouver, BC and Monterey, CA to Kansas City, MO and San Diego, CA. 

Within the next 12 months, we’ll serve at least 500 participants through a series of unique human-centered design experiences. The services will include a progression of experiences from simulations to pedagogy to school culture. All services will be rendered in-person with experienced, field practitioners. Over the next three years, we expect to work with at least 500 people per year, totaling 1,500 participants. In our third year, we have an additional 4 requests for services outside of San Diego: Vancouver, BC and Kansas City, MO in 2018 and Memphis, TN and Cleveland, OH in 2019.

Kaleb Rashad, Ed.D. & Eric Chagala, Ed.D. have experience creating new schools & school transformation efforts. From designing and leading innovative schools to creating systems to sustain the work.

Key Skills & Experiences Include

• Current Founding Principal of Vista Innovation Design Academy

• Current Director of High Tech High

• Led the implementation of inquiry-based learning and cultural transformation in high-poverty, public schools

• Designed and helped start Design39Campus

• Stanford d.School Trained

• Center for Adaptive Schools Trained

• Record of leading projects at both the school, district and state-level

• Secured funding from Verizon and Qualcomm to provide technology for students

Our revenue model is built on the premise of the services being rendered “free of charge” to participants. Host organizations, whether individually or collectively, provide facilities, custodial services, wireless internet services, promotional materials and communications, workshop supplies and materials, catering, and social events. We provide direction and guidance to the host organizations with a range of tools to help support these administrative functions.

Host organizations provide funding to bring together workshop facilitators, locally or from more distant places. In our service offerings, we support up to 150 participants per session, per day, with twelve workshop facilitators. Host organizations are asked to recruit four workshop facilitators from the local network and we provide the additional eight workshop facilitators at a rate of ten thousand dollars. Our service model is about helping to grow and sustain an innovation ecosystem, with our organization moving from a primary (active) role to a more secondary (support) role.

Every public school is funded largely by state and national funding sources and schools receive additional funding for serving lower socioeconomic communities. We believe sustainability is created by reducing our footprint in the local network over time and reducing the cost to the host organization.

We believe that solve can help support our efforts to sustain and grow this work through organizational mentorship, increasing the quality of our media visibility, and improving our ability to capture the impact of our work. We think there’s a tremendous opportunity to learn from others who have created similar organizations, missions and initiatives. We believe that MIT Solve might be a wonderful conduit in connecting us to a broader community of practice, within our industry and across sectors. Finally, we also value the opportunity to connect with other change agents, advocates, funding partners, technologists, and research organizations.

Using mostly “word of mouth” and social media, we have received approximately 8-10 inquiries for services over the past 12 months. We see three key barriers: Media Visibility and Exposure & Capturing the Impact. We feel confident that a partnership with MIT Solve can help improve our grassroots campaigning indirectly through networks and directly by learning how to spread ideas. We also believe that MIT Solve may also help us figure out an effective way to capture the impact of the work.