School Rethink 2.0: Putting Reinvention Into Practice

Ten brilliant approaches that are disrupting US education and actionable advice for their broader implementation

In School Rethink 2.0, editors Frederick M. Hess, Michael B. Horn, and Juliet Squire gather leaders immersed in the nuts-and-bolts work of educational reinvention to present ten promising education improvements and ways to implement them. Contributors, including acclaimed education pioneers Sal Khan, Beth Rabbitt, and Larry Berger, explain what it takes to reinvent schooling and the hurdles that emerge when tackling everything from curricula to staffing to assessment. These entrepreneurs and practitioners detail both the challenges and successes they've experienced in putting their ideas into practice, and they offer wise advice to administrators, policymakers, and educators who hope to adopt these approaches.

Many of the approaches described in the book were driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the nation to rethink core tenets of schooling. Contributors find solutions in robust career and technical education and new staffing models. They champion best-fit environments achieved via school choice programs and variations in school size, from colossal, highly resourced school systems to microschools. They turn to technology, leveraging adaptive software programs and generative artificial intelligence for learning and assessment. And they highlight a range of alternative instructional models such as mastery-based learning, personalized instruction, and multimodal learning labs for math instruction.

This collection offers a host of actionable solutions to help accommodate different learning needs.