Reimagining School

This is a sponsored event by Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs.

Myra Kraft Open Classroom, Spring 2021: Inspiring Design

Featuring:

• Todd Richardson, President, Crosstown Redevelopment Cooperative
• Ginger Spickler, Chief of Staff, Crosstown High
• Ron Bogle, Team Leader, Reimagine America’s Schools

A high school was an essential component of the vision for Crosstown Concourse (2019 RBA Gold Medalist), the transformation of an abandoned, 1.5 million square foot Sears, Roebuck & Co. distribution center in Memphis into an inclusive, vertical mixed-used village anchored by arts, education, and healthcare. Crosstown High is a ‘learner-centered’ public charter school (and member of the national XQ Super School network) that engages grades 9 through 12 students in interdisciplinary project-based learning that emphasizes problem solving, collaboration, relationship, and communication skills. Join Todd Richardson, President of Crosstown Redevelopment Cooperative, and Ginger Spickler, Chief of Staff of Crosstown High, for a discussion about how the 16-acre complex—designed to promote openness, connection, and exchange—is a classroom for real-world collaboration, exchange, learning and community-building.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand and describe how investment in urban development can address community welfare through access to arts and culture, education, healthcare, and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
• Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships in the planning, design, and development of inclusive, community-based projects.
• Discuss the relationships between the design of schools, educational curricula, and place-based learning.
• Describe initiatives that are rethinking approaches and redesigning high school education in America.