Clayton Christensen Institute
Project Title
For phase two of the Canopy project and building collective knowledge on school designs during COVID-19
Date
Sep. 10, 2020
Duration
14 months
Description
Years of education innovation have resulted in several exemplary school models, but many of those schools aren’t known beyond the communities they serve and there is no mechanism for systematically elevating the practices and lessons that can be gleaned from them. The Clayton Christensen Institute (the Institute), a nonprofit thinktankthatdevelops and adapts innovative research strategies toaddresscriticalproblems of practice, is addressing this gap through the Canopy project.The first phase of this projectemployed a novel expert recommendation process to identify little known innovative schools, and resulted in the public release of areport,a searchabledataset, anda set of recommendations for the field.Based onwidespread interest in the project on the partoffunders, practitioners, and school staff,the Institute has developed a plan for a second phase of work, which has beenadjusted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to prioritizeactivities of greatest utility toschools, districts, and intermediaries as they adapt totheongoingimpact ofthe crisis.
Project Title
For continuation of the Canopy project
Date
Dec. 05, 2019
Duration
7 months
Description
Years of education innovation have resulted in several exemplary school models, but many of those schools aren’t known beyond the communities they serve and there is no mechanism for systematically elevating the practices and lessons that can be gleaned from them. The Clayton Christensen Institute (the Institute), a nonprofit think tank whose education team is dedicated to applying theories of disruptive innovation in service of student-centered design, is addressing this gap through the Canopy project. Canopy was designed to illuminate a more diverse set of innovative schools and explore the potential to transcend the silos inherent in existing school lists and databases. This has resulted in the public release of a trend report and dataset, as well as a set of recommendations for the field. Continued Corporation support will enable the Institute to prepare for the second phase of the Canopy project through four activities: 1) Track validated use cases of Canopy data and trend index; 2) Conduct advanced data and tag analysis of school practices; 3) Lay the groundwork for improved crowdsourcing of schools; and 4) Scope strategic partnerships to scale the project.
Project Title
For the creation of a robust dataset on school-level innovation nationwide
Date
Sep. 13, 2018
Duration
12 months
Description
Years of education innovation have spurred the creation of exemplary school models across the country. Yet, while some have attempted to elevate the practices and lessons that can be gleaned from individual models, there is no mechanism for doing so systematically. Funders, intermediaries, and research organizations continue to collect information within the context of their particular projects, yielding data that is either unavailable to or of limited utility to others. This project from the Clayton Christensen Institute (the Institute), a nonprofit think tank whose education team is dedicated to applying theories of disruptive innovation in service of student-centered design, will address this gap. With support from the Corporation and three other seed funders, the Institute will: 1) source and compile existing data sets of innovative schools; 2) overlay this data with additional tags on specific approaches being taken such that various data can be linked; and 3) share and analyze the data across the national landscape.