DESIGN THINKING IN ACTION: Crosstown High School, Memphis, Tennessee

Crosstown High School is a public charter school located in Crosstown Concourse, a mixed-use development that houses the school, businesses and personal residences.  The school is housed on three floors of a repurposed one million square foot Sears office complex in east Memphis. (1)

What’s interesting, and how does it apply to a design thinking-based classroom experience?

Learning Competencies.  The school experience at Crosstown is built around a comprehensive list of competencies that serve as a framework for the school experience.  They are straightforward and simply stated, but together form a powerful foundation for teaching and learning.  Here they are:

  • Lead one’s learning

  • Read critically

  • Lead inquiry

  • Reason quantitatively

  • Design solutions

  • Express oneself boldly

  • Develop self-knowledge

  • Collaborate on teams

  • Sustain wellness

  • Build community

  • Learn from the past

  • Engage as a citizen (2)

These are not only simple and straightforward but in my mind, timeless. 

https://www.gettingsmart.com/2020/03/crosstown-high-innovative-memphis-school-in-a-vertical-urban-village/

I’m a big fan of identifying and clearly articulating a vision for learning.  I’m not talking about a school’s mission and vision statement, but what I am looking for is a declaration of what the school believes students should be able to do as a result of their experience.  If these are communicated, known, and embraced, they can form the framework for designing what happens in the classroom.  What if you were to identify and communicate your expectations for what students would experience in your classroom in a similar fashion to what Crosstown did?

Community-based Learning.  To build competencies, students participate in community-based project work that creates an authentic context for learning.  Each project investigation is guided by an essential question (e.g. What is the future of humans' relationship to the environment?) which is investigated by students by applying a design thinking approach.  Projects such as “Aquatic Rescue,” a study of a local river, challenges students to understand soil and water contamination and then develop solutions to mitigate both.  Other projects include “Equitable Memphis” an investigation into the history of the lived experience of Memphians and “Through the Eyes of Immigrants'', a study of the lives of immigrants and refugees located in Memphis. Project work is enhanced by seeking individuals from the community to provide students with access to outside expertise.

Core curriculum:  Like the Synnovation Lab, the student experience includes immersion in core curriculum subjects.  The focus at Crosstown is to use these courses to drive interdisciplinary project work.  For example, the “It's The End of the World As We Know It” project, a study of dystopian societies, was a joint effort between the Sociology, English, and Environmental Studies courses.

Cool learning spaces.  Beyond their flexible classrooms, students have access to what the Concourse offers, including a YMCA for workouts, a 420-seat black box theatre, and the “Big Stairs,” and bleacher-like stairs on the first floor that hosts speakers and performances.

The Upshot: what can this mean for your practice and a design thinking classroom? Crosstown High School has created a comprehensive foundation for learning by identifying core competencies that students must achieve.  The focus on interdisciplinary community-based project-based work as well as design thinking places students at the heart of authentic inquiry and provides a rich opportunity to build the competencies the school seeks for its students while developing solutions for the larger school community.

Literature Cited

  1. "Crosstown High: Innovative Memphis School in a Vertical ...." 5 Mar. 2020, https://www.gettingsmart.com/2020/03/crosstown-high-innovative-memphis-school-in-a-vertical-urban-village/. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

  2. "Competencies - Crosstown High School." https://www.crosstownhigh.org/competencies/. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.