Reinventing School: The Collaborative Lab School

Powering Students and Educators as Co-Designers of a Collaborative Lab School

In partnership with Hopkins Schools, we will power students as partners and co-designers of their own learning by establishing a collaborative lab school. Thrive Ed will provide unprecedented learning experiences where units of study will be co-designed by teachers and students focused on interests, exploring meaningful local and global issues, and contributing innovation solutions to pressing issues. We will develop community and business partnerships as a part of the Thrive Ed co-design process so that students will have ongoing, deep learning and career development experiences in authentic settings.

Your contributions to this project will fund a pilot group of 45 10th and 11th graders this fall to experience this new innovative schooling that will eliminate opportunity gaps, ensure learning, relevant learning and assessment experiences, authentic internships and apprenticeships, and infuse the joy back in learning as our students become future ready.

We know that Minnesota’s workforce requires a pipeline of talented and diverse youth who can think flexibly, act with agility, and consider multiple perspectives. Twenty years into a nationwide push to provide every student with an equal education, Minnesota schools have grown more segregated and our academic opportunity gap refuses to close. In Minnesota, we have some of the worst achievement disparities in the nation and many teachers are leaving within the first five years of entering the field. With the tremendous strain on schools during the pandemics, the number of teachers leaving the profession is expected to grow. Thrive Ed will change this. 

Dual pandemics in 2020 revealed and amplified inequities in our schools and for our students. Educators pivoted in a matter of days and relentlessly pursued new ways of learning and supporting our students in their academic and social and emotional well-being. The promise of education that works for every student can’t be shouldered solely by our schools. Through these projects, we aim to leverage the strengths of all aspects of our community -- collectively and individually-- to allow for the transformation that is possible and urgent. We knew education had to change prior to 2020, but there were so many barriers in the entrenched system. Dual pandemics have taught us and revealed that some of what we as educators and the community thought was necessary actually is not essential at all. We have a moment to pause, reflect and dramatically disrupt our current factory-model of education to something that will profoundly transform schools. 

Thrive Ed is collaborating with Hopkins Schools. With significant budget deficits facing our schools, it would be easy to fall into survival mode and leave change to a future moment. We can’t wait. The moment to mobilize our community and lift up and partner with our schools is now. As a community it is time to work alongside educators to create the educational system we want for our young people. Thrive Ed will mobilize the strengths of all aspects of our community and create the next iteration of innovative schooling. We will blaze the trail for this kind of community mobilization and power.

We welcome your partnership with us as we continue our work in powering student voice to innovate and transform school experiences. 

• We commit to authorizing the and powering the voice of students.

• We commit to fully engaging in issues of equity to create places where all folks feel connected and heard.

• We commit to creating a space where educators of color thrive.

• We commit to setting ambitious goals that are rooted in the belief that ALL students can succeed.

• We commit to intentionally creating the conditions where hope and optimism can thrive.