Frank S. Kelly – författare

"This might well be THE contemporary manual for effective education reform. In a world where the future is now, schools are falling behind. It is a lag we can no longer afford."—Sean M. Nosek, PrincipalWestview Secondary School, Maple Ridge, BC, Canada

"This is the most important book about high schools since Breaking Ranks for school facilities planners."—David E. Anstrand, Principal, Education Environment Planning ConsultantsBoard Member, Council of Educational Facility Planners International

Discover options for instruction and school design that reflect the needs of 21st-century students!

Preparing students to meet the demands of a constantly changing, technology-driven environment presents today's educators with unique challenges. This innovative resource demonstrates how traditional, industrial-type high schools have become outdated and helps school leaders plan facilities and curriculum in ways that benefit students' academic development and performance.

Teaching the Digital Generation examines how educators can address the learning needs of secondary students immersed in a digital world by designing and implementing new instructional models and technology infrastructure. The authors explore ten alternative high school models that address 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and digital literacy, and pose five critical considerations:

What should instruction and learning look like in a 21st-century school? How can technology foster this kind of learning? What noninstructional components are required? How can time be used differently to support our vision? How can new facility design turn this vision into reality?

Incorporating issues of facility design with curriculum and instructional planning, the authors offer educational leaders a new vision for schools.

In recent decades, the populations in major urban areas across the country have become increasingly diverse in terms of their ethnicities, languages, and economics, and within these evolving contexts many of our schools have struggled to produce good learning results for substantial numbers of their students. Our schools have tried to be fair to all they serve by using similar instructional methods, materials, and technology, and comparable schedules, facilities, and funding, but the outcomes realized for many students are seriously worrisome in terms of their abilities to succeed in our economy in the future. The Covid-19 pandemic further exacerbated this problem. Diverse Students, Diverse Outcomes: Portal Schools for Access to Diverse Teaching and Learning proposes ways to preserve our enormous staff and facility investments in order to provide schooling that will help different students learn in different ways and in the process make education much more attractive and engaging for all concerned—and thereby more economical. The concepts outlined are enriched by perspectives of other building types and supplemented with brief descriptions of twenty-eight schools created over the last fifty years that have been very successful—yet from which we seem to have learned little.