The Silicon Schools Transcend Design Collaborative
We’re thrilled you’re here.
As you launch your journey towards reimagining what school can look and feel like in the future, we invite you to return here as your home base: This is where you’ll find the activities you’ll do on campus with your teams, how to prepare for our in-person convenings, and lots of bonus resources you can customize to meet your unique needs.
Transcend is a national nonprofit dedicated to accelerating innovation in the core design of “school.” It does that in three ways: 1) Build and spread innovative models in partnership with visionary school communities (like yours!), 2) Build and deploy a diverse force of R&D talent, called the Yellow Hats League, to develop, codify and spread these new learning models, and 3) Build and share actionable knowledge to inform the innovation process with evidence-based insights.
This Collaborative is made possible by Silicon Schools Fund, which supports the creation of new schools and the redesign of existing schools in the Bay Area that foster personalized learning through high-quality instruction and innovative school models leveraging technology. Its goal is to create empowered students, passionate teachers, and engaging schools that use technology to enable teachers and students to teach and learn to their full potential.
what to expect
Your Journey
Over the next ten months, you’ll engage in a three-stage journey that will prepare you to reimagine school. Inspired by design thinking, teams will participate in practical research and development cycles – towards their unique visions for their school communities.
Together, we will support you to create version 1.0 of a new holistic school model, design and test new learning experiences to improve outcomes for all students, and develop a plan to advance your school’s conditions to support your new vision.
Throughout, we strive to inspire, challenge, and support you – and have some fun! In the end, it is our hope that this journey sparks something awesome and enduring for your entire school community.
FIrst convening: October 7-8 Oakland,ca
Why reimagine school today? Let’s begin by learning more about your own community. Before the convening, you’ll conduct empathy interviews, shadow students, and collect data. All of this will be used to help craft a working vision for your school when we come together in Convening 1. We will also introduce the R&D Cycle process, and support you to conduct small scale pilots at your school sites.
Second convening: January 13-15 San Jose, CA
How might “a day in the life” differ for students in this newly imagined vision of school that you started to craft with your team in Convening 1? In this Convening, we will learn about the science of learning to strengthen learner experiences, and continue to utilize the R&D Cycle tools to build and test theories to increase outcomes for all learners. Throughout, we will engage in equity work as designers, in service of a more equitable and inclusive process and more equitable and inclusive learner outcomes.
Third convening: March 16-17 Santa Cruz (area), ca
You’re on a roll now -- let’s keep this going! How will you bring your working new vision of school to life in the near and distant future? What did you learn about your problem statement in the second round of pilots, and how does that influence your actions going forward? You’ll continue to flex the R&D cycle muscle to better understand, and solve for, your identified problem statement, and build a plan for ongoing innovation in your context.
Participating Schools
Los Arboles Literacy & Technology Academy
Wilson Elementary
Fred T. Korematsu Middle School
Cerra Vista Elementary School
John Sinnott Elementary School
Elma G. Bradley Elementary
Yu Ming Charter School
Mar Vista Elementary
Meet Your Coaches
Design teams will be matched with a coach from Transcend, a national nonprofit that accelerates innovation in school design. Your coaches – either Emily, Crystal or Nikolaus – will serve as an ongoing thought partner, design and facilitation support, running buddy, and connector to additional experts and resources at Transcend and beyond.
THOUGHT PARTNER
We’ll act as a provocateur and guide to ensure your team is building the skills to transform schooling, and eventually, to take your organization to new heights.
DESIGN + FACILITATION PARTNEr
Sometimes we’ll roll up our sleeves to build together. Other times, we might “hold the pen,” putting your ideas to paper to help accelerate your thinking.
RUNNING BUDDY
Part of our role is to hold you accountable to your goals. Much like a trusted running buddy, we’ll be sure you follow-through on the commitments you make to yourself and to your community.
CONNECTOR
We will help to identify other resources, experiences, and people who will be helpful along your journey.
Emily Rummo
Dr. Crystal Palmero Ward
Nikolaus namba
Emily is a founding Partner at Transcend. She leads Finance, Operations, Human Resources for the organization, and coaches school partners in their innovation journeys. Prior to joining Transcend, Emily was the founding Chief Operating Officer at KIPP Bay Area Schools and served in the role from 2008 - 2014, and continues as a Senior Advisor to the team. As COO, Emily oversaw finance, human resources, talent recruitment, real estate, technology, operations, and the KIPP Through College alumni program for the 11 school charter network, serving over 2,100 students. Emily began her career in management consulting, and spent two years on the venture team with NewSchools Venture Fund (2004-2006).
She holds a BA in English from Dartmouth College, and an MBA and Masters in Education from Stanford. Emily lives in San Francisco with her husband and two young sons.
Crystal’s passion to create the schools and systems that allow all children to reach their individual excellence brings her to Transcend as a School Design Partner. She started her career in Washington, DC as a 6th grade science and social studies teacher. Though many kids thrived in her classroom, she witnessed students entangled in unfair disciplinary policies that negatively impacted their grades, investment and self-esteem. This drove her to leadership as the founding dean of culture of Achievement First Endeavor Elementary. Crystal’s school gained network and regional recognition for exceptional academic achievement, parent satisfaction, and high teacher retention. Due to strong results at Endeavor, Crystal was promoted to oversee strategy, vision, and implementation of culture across 32 schools and 3 states as the Director of School Culture.
Crystal holds a B.S. in Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University, a M.A.T. from American University, and a doctorate in Education Leadership from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
Nikolaus has spent his career engaged in system-wide transformative work focused around building learner-centered personalized education systems. His last six years were spent in Lindsay Unified School District (CA) where he was a Principal and then the Director of 21st Century learning for the district. Prior to this position, Nik served as the Chief Academic Officer of a charter management organization operating schools in the Los Angeles area. He has also been an academic coach and a teacher, and has been fortunate to experience all of these positions in competency-based systems focused on personalizing learning for all learners.
Nikolaus holds a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Liberal Studies from California Lutheran University. He currently lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, son, and daughter.
Jane Bryson
Jane comes to Transcend with 15 years of experience in classrooms, school leadership, and rethinking school models to personalize learning. She began her career as a teacher-in-residence at an innovative private middle school, and then broadened her experience teaching in a charter school serving low income students. In her school leadership roles, she acted as a lead teacher and ran both a service-learning and early college program. Prior to working at Transcend, Jane spent four years building and leading the consulting team at Education Elements, a personalized learning consulting firm, where she had the pleasure of partnering with some of the earliest innovators around blended and personalized learning. Jane has also worked at NewSchools Venture Fund and the Federal Department of Education, on Race to the Top. Jane has an Masters of Business Administration, Masters of Education and Bachelor's degree in History from Stanford University. Jane lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area where she can be found chasing after her two young children, exploring the area’s hiking trails, and finding new restaurants.