The Learners Have Spoken
Embark’s story begins with the inception of our micro middle school in the heart of North Denver. So, as we begin to endeavor into intentionally telling our stories, what better place to begin than a recent major celebration in our youth learning work!
Embark was one of many schools that participated in Transcend’s Leaps Student Voice Survey, which surveyed over 40,000 learners nationwide about their experiences in school. Transcend spoke with students through the lens of their ten Leaps for Equitable, 21st Century Learning, which describe the shift from an industrial-era, inequitable education to 21st-century, equitable learning experiences.
INEQUITABLE, INDUSTRIAL-ERA
LEARNING
Unequal Expectations & Opportunities
Narrow Focus
Rote Activities
Irrelevance
Assimilation & Marginalization
Reinforcement of the Status Quo
Isolation
Inflexible Systems
Passive Compliance
Siloed Schooling
———->
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———->
———->
———->
———->
———->
EQUITABLE 21st-CENTURY LEARNING EXPERIENCES
High Expectations with Unlimited Opportunities
Whole-Child Focus
Rigorous Learning
Relevance
Affirmation of Self & Others
Social Consciousness & Action
Connection & Community
Customization
Active Self-Direction
Anytime, Anywhere Learning
We are so excited to share that Embark learners reported significantly more positive experiences on the Leaps survey than Transcend's nationwide benchmarks – in fact, they were among the most positive responses from hundreds of schools across the country.
This comes as a huge celebration for our team, affirming that our work in building a learner-centered environment at Embark, the school, is serving our learners in the ways we envisioned. In celebration of this milestone in our youth learning work, we’ll be chronicling a series of stories about the Embark learner experience as told through the framing of Transcend’s Leaps and in deep collaboration with the learners themselves.
Our series begins with an exploration into Anytime, Anywhere Learning, one of the Leaps that Embark learners reported especially strong experiences in and that they were particularly excited to share about!
Anytime, Anywhere Learning
Embark learners were asked to respond to a series of prompts intended to capture their experiences in Anytime, Anywhere Learning, which Transcend describes as “Learning can happen anywhere and at any time for all learners with teachers, families, community members, and other important figures in a young person’s life all playing important educational roles.” For this category overall, 76% of Embark learners responded positively, compared with just 46% of other learners surveyed.
A train station. A grocery store. A marketing agency. A Burger King.
These are just a few of the many locales that Embark learners have ventured to on Discovery Days, recurring weekly adventures that often take learners out of our spaces and into the world to learn from the people and places around them. Discovery Days are a key supporting element of an Embark Learning Experience - intentionally-crafted, five or six-weeks-long endeavors that foster authentic learning with projects that have real world implications. While the intended outcomes of each Discovery Day differ based on the Learning Experience at hand, an underlying principle remains consistent: to support youth in understanding that learning happens anywhere, anytime.
“We know learning happens everywhere. Learning happens in the park, in the kitchen, and on the field. But if learning happens everywhere, why are school students confined to a classroom with four walls?”
- Sixth Grader Hazel L.
“Discovery Days are a great opportunity to generate some curiosity and excitement from students because each one is unique and dynamic. There’s a great deal of agency that comes with getting out in the community”
- Educator Jimmy McCue
Sixth Grader Hazel L. recalls one Discovery Day that brought her to a local coffee shop and a fast food restaurant, all in the name of enabling anywhere, anytime learning.
“Embark learners go out into the community at least once a week to enhance our learning. I have gone to some amazing places with my school that I would never have gone to before. We once viewed poorly-rated and highly-rated restaurants in our neighborhood. We looked for trends in the reviews and then visited that restaurant to see for ourselves. We rated each restaurant on cleanliness, customer service, and wait time.
“My group went to Queensberry Coffee, with a 4.5 average rating, and Burger King with an average rating of 2.5. We agreed with the rating of Queensberry Coffee but disagreed with Burger King's rating. We thought it should be a 3. We upped this rating because it was clean, about a four minute wait, and the people were nice. This relates to our Learning Experience of using data to tell a story or come to a conclusion.”
We believe that some of life’s most inspired learning moments can take place in the seemingly unlikeliest of places if we simply allow ourselves the awareness and receptivity to experience them. If we can instill in our youth that there is as much potential to learn from a visit to a fast food chain as there is in a classroom, we can support them tapping into their innate curiosity and courage while fostering their ability to learn in a variety of contexts.
Listen to Embark Learners explain the power of Discovery Days!
Learning Outside the Classroom
When asked to respond to the prompt, “At my school we spend time learning outside of our school building,” 97% of Embark learners reported spending time learning outside of their school building compared to just 28% of other learners surveyed.
A group of Embark students walk into Union Station in downtown Denver. It’s late morning and the train station is bustling with its usual population of visitors: some waiting for a train, others waiting for a coffee, and others sitting around, waiting for nothing in particular. This is the classroom for Embark learners on this particular Wednesday in March. Their goal for the day?
To conduct market research for their proposals for new seasonal drinks to the menu at Pinwheel Coffee.
Embark learners spent their time at Union Station interviewing its visitors about their preferences in coffee. Would they be interested in trying a Pina Colada Latte? (Spoiler alert: they would not.) What do they think is a fair price point for a cup of coffee? Learners then consolidated their data to inform their proposals for the seasonal drink menu, equipped with evidence from actual potential customers and a bolstered confidence for interviewing, and learning from new people with different perspectives.
The result? One group of learners took their data to iterate and pivot their drink proposal from a Pina Colada Latte to an Orange Creamsicle Latte, a current top seller at Pinwheel.
“The world is such a great classroom. There are infinite places to learn and also infinite educators to teach. Any time we can connect our kids with people in the community who have something valuable to offer, it's a great opportunity for the kids to learn from other humans in other spaces.”
- Embark Educator Brett Rubenstien
Infinite Educators
Embark learners were asked to respond to the prompt “I interact with people outside of my school to help me learn.” 55% of Embark learners feel that they are given the opportunity to interact with people outside of school to help them learn, compared with 43% of other learners surveyed.
As the learners descend upon Union Station to do their market research, they’ve got their laptops and notebooks in hand. They have spent hours practicing the basics of interacting with the public, something that was, for many learners, a daunting prospect at first. They have practiced interviewing one another, introducing themselves, and making eye contact, and now the time has come to try out their new skills with new people. Seventh Grader Keller Y. recalls his experience.
“It was a little busy outside, where we were asking the questions. People were working or just chilling with a cup of coffee. We went up to one person who was sitting at a table.
‘Excuse me? Do you think that we could have a minute of your time to ask a few questions?’ I asked.
‘Sure! What’s it about?’ the stranger responded.
‘Well,’ I continued, ‘We are learners from Embark Education, and we are doing a project where we are coming up with a seasonal drink menu for Pinwheel Coffee, a coffee shop that our school is embedded in.’
“We went on to ask the person a few questions about a drink we were considering making, and then we were off to the next person. We did this a few more times until we had gathered enough information.
“This experience helped us learn what people would want to drink, but we also learned about addressing an audience and talking to strangers. We would have gathered much less data if we had just talked to the Pinwheel baristas or someone we knew. Learning from random people can be really helpful because everyone has different viewpoints.”
When learning happens anywhere, anytime, anyone has the potential to be an educator! Embark learners have had the opportunity to learn from an Operations Manager guiding them on a tour of a landfill; Embark’s Social Media Manager taking learners on a dive into creating powerful posts; an exploration into flavor combinations with the staff at Whole Foods; and even a person sitting outside, drinking a coffee, waiting for a train.
Learning on the Road
When asked to respond to the prompt “I can make progress on my learning when I am not in school, ” 74% of Embark learners responded positively, compared to 57% of other learners surveyed.
Sixth Grader Madeline T. is getting ready to go on a trip when one of her educators at Embark makes a suggestion that catches her off guard.
“When I got to Embark, the adults trusted me to take my computer to Nebraska on a family trip. I left on a Friday, and my educator suggested I bring my laptop. It shocked me, but I did. Then I reached out using Slack to see if there was anything I could do. In seconds my educators gave me links to Zoom meetings and assignments. It shocked me but also made me feel some kind of independence that I did not have in my old school. Now I am less stressed about the days I miss.”
Radical trust is one of our core tenets at Embark, something that is not generally extended to middle schoolers. This lack of trust typical of traditional school environments is something that is deeply felt, and internalized, by our youth.
“Society has said that middle school kids are irresponsible and stupid,” Madeline went on to share. “Adults at my old school agreed. They would not let us do work alone because maybe they thought we needed to be watched at all times. Whenever I traveled, I was not given anything to do, which was nice until I returned and had a million things on my plate. So basically, doing work when I was sick or traveling was out of the question.”
Seventh grader Ruby B. echoed a similar sentiment, saying:
“Most people, including middle schoolers, believe that middle school students are irresponsible, untrustworthy, rude, and reckless.”
The widespread lack of trust in our youth has made a seemingly small gesture - like trusting a learner to take their school-issued computer with them outside of school - make all the difference in the way learners perceive their abilities and agency to learn anytime, anywhere.
Giving Learners the Tools They Need
Embark learners were asked to respond to the prompt “School gives me the tools to be learning everywhere, from everyone, all the time.” 77% of Embark learners feel school gives them the tools to be learning everywhere, from everyone, all the time, compared with 54% of learners surveyed.
Expanding learners’ ideas about what is possible when it comes to their education transforms learning from something restricted to a classroom to something that is always happening around us.
For Embark learners, this means being given scaffolded, supportive opportunities to interact with the world around them, and the people in it, with a learning mindset. This not only changes the way learners perceive their education, but in some cases, the way learners perceive themselves.
As part of one recent learning experience, Sixth Grader Natalia T. found her voice and a newfound confidence while visiting a neighboring elementary school.
“Learning happens everywhere. It happens in every part of life, whether in school or as a fully grown adult. When most people think of learning, they think of sitting at a desk, reading a book, or listening to someone talk for an hour. At Embark, we often go off-campus to learn. A lot of the time, we interact with people outside of our school. Sometimes we even present things to complete strangers. One example of doing that was when we did a storytelling project. After some preparation, we all went to different schools and presented book recommendations to younger children.
“I have a fear of public speaking, so standing in front of a room full of people and presenting makes me really nervous. My group did a book talk with a third-grade class at Columbian Elementary and recommended three books. We had practiced a lot before, but I was still really nervous. Then we got to the class, and the students and the teacher were nice. My nervousness started disappearing, and we presented without messing up once. We did great, and then it was done. Before I knew it, we were leaving the school.
“Presenting at Columbian helped me take the first step to overcoming my fear. I am still working on it, but that helped me to start. Embark gives these kinds of opportunities all the time. Interacting with people outside of Embark is very beneficial to learning because it can help collect data, work on projects, and even, for people like me, overcome their fears.”
Embark Educators Lead by Example
Embark’s educators play an integral role in shaping the culture of anywhere, anytime learning, modeling for learners what it looks like to always be a student of the world around them.
“We model for our students by having education exist all the time. The first time I met Brett we were on a hike and he said ‘See that tree over there? That’s a this species and it’s connected to the world this way.’ I thought, ‘this guy is a living, breathing learner! He’s a student all the time.’ We try to model that for our learners, that intellectual curiosity,”
-Embark Educator Jimmy Mccue about fellow educator Brett Rubenstien.
“I really try to model lifelong learning for students and try to look at every opportunity as an opportunity to learn more. And I think we all wear that on our sleeves so kids can see that we don’t necessarily have all of the answers but we’re curious and we’re resourceful and we can figure it out. I think that makes it real for students.”
-Embark Educator Jimmy Mccue
We are so grateful to Embark learners and educators for their partnership in telling this story. We hope you’ll continue to follow us on the journey of sharing our celebrations, our opportunities, and our learnings!