Recognition of Innovation and Excellence

By definition, innovation involves beginning something new or introducing something new to move beyond the status quo. It also involves willingness to take risks.

In some schools, innovation has involved restructuring the school schedule. Time for regular collaborative planning allows teachers to create interdisciplinary project-based learning (PBL) units and effective approaches to supporting struggling students. In others, innovation has resulted in mastery-based grading, schoolwide design challenges, and community based PBL where teachers move learning beyond classroom walls and into the world.

Each year, NC New Schools/Breakthrough Learning honors schools across our network for innovative practices, academic excellence and commitment to college and career readiness for all students, including those that are traditionally underserved through the Recognition of Innovation and Excellence Award.

Each recognized school has quantitative data that points to strong student outcomes, but the impact is clear beyond the hard data. When asked to capture their school experience in a word, students in these schools used the following descriptors: meaningful, challenging, supported, motivating, caring, hard work, unifying, exciting, opportunities, powerful, real, achievement, loved and life-changing.

Recognition of Innovation and Excellence Award recipients will have the option of serving as demonstration sites for educators, policy makers and community leaders from across the nation.