Imagine NYC Schools is an initiative to empower students and communities to play an active, central role in creating the future of education, here and now. This initiative is the first of its kind in New York City–a student-centered, community-driven approach to creating bold, innovative, academically rigorous school options.
Background
Research
Prototype
Approach
Communication
Meetings
Demand
Mapping
Youth Interview
Expert Interview
Focus Group
Activities
Toolkit
Models
Systemic Changes
Social Innovation
Background
Bring Student Voice To Table
The existing K12 education system was designed by professional educators, while the students' voice and needs were largely overlooked. It was insufficient preparing students for future challenges and caused inequity in education.
The New York City Department of Education is looking for design team to submit ideas for new schools that prioritize equity and inclusion. Students, parents, educators, and community members are a recommended part of design teams.
Imagine New Schools
innovative ideas for academically rigorous, engaging and equitable new schools. These schools will serve as models for the system.
Reimagine Existing Schools
existing schools that want to engage in a total transformation using the Imagine Schools process. The process will support existing schools as they envision plans for their schools that are academically challenging, authentically diverse, and aligned to the skills and knowledge young people need to be successful in an ever-changing world.
Research
Mapping the project
Identify the problem
Understand the project by mapping out the context, stakeholders and the ecosystem
Desk Research
A few other organizations are already doing similar approaches in the realm of education. They address a range of problems within the current education system.
Standardized processes may not work properly in the extremely diverse context in New York. Localized approaches are needed.
What is "K-8" education in NYC? Key demographics like age, milestones, structure, communities, etc?
What are the differences between k-8 and k-12 education in NYC?
Who are the key stakeholders? Students, faculty, families, social workers, administrators, school staff, etc.
How is the DOE and the NYC education system structured?
Any history here?
What policies are a part of the system?
How does the NYC school system compare to other school systems in the US or abroad?
What are other models of education? Private, charter, hybrid, specialized?
Who is innovating in this space?
Who is funding in this space?
Stakeholder Interview
Conducted interviews with Department of Education staff, current students and educators to hear their thoughts
Note taking & Synthesizing interview data
There is a gap between marginalized communities whose kids go to schools and city officials who sit in the office and make the decisions. Now the NYC Department of Education wants to hear the youth voice and design a new public school system for them.
Prototype
Brainstorm
Ideation
We decided our deliverables to be equity checklist and learner goals activity
User Testing & Youth Jam / Focus Group
In the process of prototyping, we recruited some students and did user test to measure how our prototypes work.
We invited current students and recent graduates to our meeting, talked to them and guided them through our first drafts of both prototypes, and observe their reaction.
After the youth jam, we found that the majority of the youth did not understand our contents, which were based on information from professional educators.
Iteration
Pathway 1: Equity Checklist
Pathway 2: Learner Goals Activity
This activity is designed to generate content through rapid ideation, and spend time exploring possibilities. It aims for participants to compare their learner goals with educators' ones, identify alignments and conflicts.
Activity deck
Activity process
Online activity
Paper alternative
Physical learner goals activity
Worksheet iteration
Approach
It was with great pleasure to work with the New York City Department of Education in the Imagine NYC Schools project and make the public school system more equitable. It is such an interdisciplinary social design paradigm that tackles the complex systemic problem of education.
In the process, our team takes a range of design methodologies including user research, prototyping, mapping, data visualization, graphic design, interaction design, gamification and more to our human-centered design approach.
Team Members
Instructors
Partner
Project Year
Duration
Special Thanks
Dori Jacobson
Daphne Luo
Jenny Lin
Kehan Zhang
Mickey Ferrara
Neil Jia
Ruike Pan
Zahra Bukhari
New York City -
Department of Education
Miya Osaki
Corwin Green
2021
6+ months
Jaimie Cloud
DSI studio
NYC public schools