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This week, educational reform nonprofit, Rochester Education and Development for Youth will showcase its first school incubator cohort.
The nine-month program, which helped educators and others envision new education models, was completed in collaboration with Denver-based Moonshot edVentures. During that time, the cohort received tailored coaching, participated in workshops, and conducted school visits to create their school designs. The READY Design Studio Showcase will feature presentations by cohort fellows who will share their insights from the incubation process.
The first cohort includes: Jasmine Whaley-Mathis, assistant principal at West Genesee School District, Jeremy Smith, executive director of Freedom Scholars, Amber Powers, a founding member of the Taproot Collective, and Katie Trepanier, former principal of School No. 12 and local educational leader.
“I want folks to walk away (from the showcase) fully understanding that change is possible,” says Shanai Lee, executive director of READY. “We don’t have to continue to do what we’ve been doing. We don’t have to educate our children in traditional modes and methods.”
One component the cohort highlighted was the potential of project-based learning models.
“One of the things we did was teach a traditional lesson and what we found was students were not as interested in it as a standalone lesson,” recalls Whaley-Mathis. “However, when we paired it with a project utilizing information from the Genesee River Valley watershed, the kids were able to see how learning this nature-based learning activity, how information you learn in class could be applied to the real world.”
The new school models have been tested by the fellows through two pilot projects, with feedback given by the students themselves.
After the showcase, Lee says the plan is for READY to support one or two of the fellows to execute their ideas further. This could be through developing a plan for a new school, instituting it into a school in the Rochester City School District, or in a different type of educational organization, such as tutoring or afterschool programs.
“We are sector agnostic. At the end of the day, I really don’t care about the governance structure of a school, which is the only thing that distinguishes charters from traditional public schools. Our parents don’t care either, we just want quality education for our kids,” says Lee.
READY began in 2023, under Lee’s leadership, following a two-year Rochester Education Fellowship funded by the Farash Charitable Foundation and supported by Action for a Better Community, the Children’s Institute, Ibero-American Action League and Connected Communities.
Before the fellowship, Lee served as clerk for the RCSD and as regional senior director for Uncommon Schools, a national organization that runs Rochester Prep.
While many organizations have tackled the issue of education in Rochester, she says that READY is unique in its approach due to its emphasis on parent and family involvement.
After doing her own research into Rochester schools during the fellowship, Lee embarked on a four-month-long process of designing schools with 17 parents and students.
“If you were thinking out of the box, what would you want to do for a six-hour school day? How do you want to feel as a learner, as a caregiver?” says Lee. “We found a natural parent demand for different options in terms of traditional public education. They wanted students to not only graduate with something, but to something, like the workforce or higher education.”
“Education operates like no other sector. When you think about airlines or the automobile industry, for example, things start to adapt as your customer base moves and shifts,” she continues. “In education, we have not yet done that. So that’s where READY’s niche is, being ready to listen, to learn, and go get it for you.”
In its two years of existence, READY has created a school comparison database, the READY Parent ACTION Academy, intended to empower parental groups, and the READY Liberation Teaching Academy, a program encouraging high school students to explore a teaching career.
The READY Design Studio Showcase will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on March 20 at the Duke at Sibley Square. Fellows will share their experiences and insights with a keynote speech by RCSD Commissioner Isaiah Santiago.
Priority applications for the 2025-26 READY Design Studio Fellowship are required by March 24.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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Project base learning reminds me as kid going to the grocery store with my Dad who tricked me into practicing math. As a 10 year old with too much energy it was great way to make me focus. Figuring price per lb. /oz. or how many items can be bought with a certain amount of money. Applied learning to real world situation always effective.
I mean the amazing thing here is that teachers are – surprised – that project based learning works better than standing at a chalkboard and lecturing? I mean – that’s not an obvious conclusion? All they have to do is look at a model of some of the best Non-Traditional educational experiences out there like FIRST Robotics to figure that out. Not to mention that working on projects as a team is a skill they will need for life no matter what their career. When they say “education has not adapted” they sure aren’t kidding. Everything from the summer vacation school year, to ending the day at 3pm before parents are home are all oriented around educational experiences from rural farming and factory production days. Kids end up typing for their whole life – do we teach them how? No. Cursive writing which went the way of the dodo decades ago is still taught in some schools. In addition to reading, writing and basic arithmetic, we need to concentrate on modern living skills in schools – from typing, to balancing checkbooks, to managing budgets, to using computers, to critical thinking, science, technology, robotics, AI and research. And we need to do it with the tools these kids will use every day for the rest of their lives.
Stupid initiatives like “putting away your smartphone” is not doing this. They will have the equivalent of today’s smartphones in their hands for the rest of their lives. They should be able to use them as they will as an adult – looking up information when they need it, looking and evaluating information for accuracy, and letting the computer they carry around everywhere do the things for them it can do. Why cripple them by pretending the devices don’t exist and are useful?
Instead of banning the use of AI – which they’ll again have available for life – they should be taught how to use it, and how to evaluate the limitations of the answers it provides, and encouraged to explore these new technologies so they aren’t trying to play catchup as adults.