Transcend

Our Vision All young people learn in ways that enable them to thrive in and transform the world. Our Mission Transcend supports communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. What We Believe The world is changing, as are the needs of learners. It’s more complex, more interconnected, more technological. To thrive, our children need more than academic skills – they need leadership, self‐awareness, creativity, empathy, collaboration, entrepreneurship, critical consciousness, and more. All children deserve this opportunity. The time is now for innovation. The traditional design of K‐12 public schools has served important purposes over time. However, the world’s changing conditions and students’ evolving needs call for wholly new conceptions of what we call “school.” Our Role Transcend, founded by Jeff Wetzler and Aylon Samouha, plays a key partnership role to fuel and grow R&D capacity. Given day‐to‐day demands of school, visionary educators are often held back in the innovation they can pursue. We believe they will make the best progress when afforded the time, capacity, and support to not only imagine and design but also build, prototype, assess, iterate upon, codify, and ultimately replicate breakthrough new models. Through partnering with school operators, Transcend aims to play a vital role in affording visionary educators – and the sector more broadly – the deep R&D capacity needed to accelerate breakthroughs in the creation and spread of new “school” models. Our Approach We enlist school operator partners (district, charter, and other) who have great potential for breakthrough innovation. We assemble world‐class R&D talent (both individuals and organizations), with expertise in a range of areas. We partner with school operators to provide the external R&D capacity that is often much needed, while also helping to grow, unleash, and orchestrate the capacity that already exists within leadership, staff, students, and community.