K12 Schools in the U.S. Known For Innovation

K12 Schools

“Innovation with the right intention never loses its way but meets the right destination.”
Innovation, meaning bringing in novelty, unconventionality, dynamics, and separation from norms. In education it can bring technology-based teaching methods, field studies, community-based teachings, etc. Have you heard of the floating school? Lagos, Nigeria has one like that named Makoko Floating School. Better even to think of a school that is unbiased towards particular gender, like Egalia pre-school in Stockholm. So, what have K12 schools in the U.S. to offer to the  education sector in the coming times? We do not know, but what we know is progress is already begun on these lines, and we are yet to witness. For now, let us concentrate on the already talked about innovative American K12 schools:

E3 Civic High (San Diego, California)

San Diego Public Library has the best charter high school named e3 Civic high school. This school was founded in 2013. The school largely depends on its library for new innovations in education. E# considers the library its home that provides co-education to its students. So, if you hear about the number of books the students have access to, you will be impressed. Let us give you an estimate here: say bout 409 students are able to access to 1.2 million plus books in the library. Added to this,  reading rooms, art gallery and auditorium are within the students’ access all the time. Do you like the idea of motor or vehicle themed classrooms? So, there you have it all set in e3. The classrooms have furniture on wheels; and walls are meant for building on ideas, problem solving, etc., given the fact that 77% of its students are below poverty level. What do they offer as part of their education curriculum? Biotechnology, medical biology and Bio Engineering. Wonder if every school provides a MacBook Air computer; this school allows high schoolers to take it home.

STAR School (Flagstaff, Arizona)

Some charter schools are limited to the 8th grade. But that does not keep it from innovating new ways of grooming student development. STAR is a K-8 charter school that is environment inclined. So, how did begin? They opened in 2001, and provided power the school with 245 solar panels and two wind generators. The school holds Arizona’s largest Native American Reservation with 130 students as members of both the regional community and Navajo Nation. Environmental sustainability is integrated in the school curriculum. They conduct a program named "farm to school," which facilitated the supply of fresh fruits produces in the neighboring Navajo farms. These are included in school lunches. This process also included students’ tour to farms that help them to learn about agriculture and the local and neighboring community.

Alliance School (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

This charter high school happened in 2005, and is known for its anti-bullying mission. When the school witnessed 196 students experiencing harassment or bullying in their former schools, it took it into serious consideration to protect students of any class, ability and economic status from domineering situations. Other challenges that school faced was to help students about 76% of them from low-income families and 28% with disabilities to get involved in extracurricular activities that teach them about various societal norms, cultures, tastes. They were introduced to unexplored communities soas to increase their awareness against bullying. So, most students go back as messengers of anti-bullying.

There are various organizations associating with such schools to contribute to their development. If there is any difficulty, it is with ignorance, which if shed, a lot many positive changes will appear in the k12 schools.  

Written By: Jennifer Einstein

Written For: K12 Lists

For marketing professionals and education marketers

We at K12 Lists support exclusive business communication and correspondence between you and the School Principals in the U.S. K12 schools through the School Principals Mailing Database. 

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Sources: cnn.com; clipart

Are you a Principal of Change?

Principal is a leader guiding schools to better teaching and learning. They are always in a paradoxical position. As we all know that old educational programs are no longer suitable because it did not match the industry needs and requirements. So it is highly required for principals to bring in change to their schools. Here are few highly effective changes that Principals need to really improve their schools. They are:

Discipline: It is nothing but guiding students and helping them to learn what is expected, and it is main the thing that principal need to concentrate on. It is a key component to effective school management. Every individual has their own type of discipline to follow, henceforth every Principal have their own discipline strategy which they try to introduce in their schools. These different types of disciplines are categorized into 3 types and they are Preventative Discipline, Corrective Discipline and Supportive Discipline. 

Academic curriculum: Principals should identify the potential in students and help them to develop academic confidence and independence. Academic curriculum is lessons taught in a specific school program. They should be designed and developed in such a way that areas of challenge may be strengthened and help students to reach their road to success. 

Extracurricular activities: As we all know that extracurricular fall outside the domain of the normal curriculum of school, so School Principal need to give the same importance to it. Principal should allow students to get involved in activities outside the classroom as involving in extracurricular have various beneficiaries such as student-led initiatives.

Nurturing student teacher relationship: Principal's main role in improving their school is to nurture student teacher relationship. In order to make it easy, there should be a lot of interactions between students and teachers and also teachers should be friendly with their students and help them solve all their academic activities. Principal should make way for students to communicate to their teachers at every level and not only during specific 40 minutes course period. 

Building relationship with other schools: Principal should build a positive relationship with other schools so that students can take part in inter-school academic and extra curricular activities, so that they will have higher scope for improvement and will learn new things. And also should allow students to work closely with each other to meet their mutual goals. 

However, School Principal, as an administrator should think wisely about their educational mission, academic program, community relationships and organizational structure. 

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How to Implement Pilot Products to Drive Referral K-12 Sales

Introducing a product in the education market is a challenge, especially with tight budgets and changing landscape in the education industry. 

• So, how do you ensure your pilot product is accepted? 
• How do you ensure it is suitable for a school or district?
• How do you ensure you achieve satisfaction, loyalty and referrals?

These challenges were discussed by Glen McCandless on BlogTalkRadio with Farimah Schuerman and Mitch Weisburgh, Partners in Academic Business Advisors.

1. What Preparations are required before launching a product?

• The product has to be ready to use and implement. The company has to be confident that the product will work, is safe and effective.
• A defined market penetration plan needs to be prepared. Before launching a product, a defined plan should be set as to which market you would like to target. Those schools need to be selected which will have a good impact from implementation of your product or service. You need to consider whether the school is stable and if the district is functional to avoid challenges in the future. Selection could also be done based on geography and profile of schools suitable to your products or service.

There are 2 types of pilot products:

a. A start up pilot product – This kind of product implementation s is usually in the early adoptive stage and is accepted by schools willing to take the risk of implementing a new product. When launching a product at such a stage, it is important to set expectations in the beginning and provide strong service and support. At this time, it’s not about profits, its more about gaining satisfaction, building loyalty and gaining referrals.

b. A trial product – Many schools / districts like to try out product before completely adopting or implementing it. At this stage it best to align product implementation with the school.

2. How is social media used to leverage successful pilot launches

In order for a product launch to be successful, what needs to be done is to:

• Understand the problem
• Identify the implications of the problem
• Get to know what the school did before your product / service was introduced
• How your product solved or will solve the problem
• What were the results – whether in terms of student achievement, teacher performance or cost savings

Once you find this information, you can create a story that can be shared in the market place through social media channels. This will help in showcasing how your products / service benefited the school and the problem that it solved. This success story can be distributed across channels through your website, blog, twitter or through video testimonials.

An important aspect to consider is that social media activity in a company should not be considered as a marketing task. Instead it should be assigned to someone who need not necessarily be a marketing person, it could be someone who is just comfortable using social channels. This will help in making social media interaction natural and not as forced communication.

With too many pilot products being introduced and implemented, companies need to ensure they are prepared, that they have defined goals, set expectations, relevant selection criteria and reliable service and support. This will help them establish a strong relationship with schools and districts, and will help in creating loyalty, referrals and sales.