School of the Future

The School District of Philadelphia and Microsoft joined forces in 2003 to plan, build, and support a 750-student high school that could serve as a model for 21st-century learning communities around the world and would:

• Practice and promote digital inclusion.

• Integrate technology into every area of the learning community, including curriculum delivery, community collaboration, office support, content creation, and sharing content and assessments.

• Generate innovative education practices and new models for learning.

• Create an environment that engages all learning community members and helps to inspire passionate, personal responsibility for learning.

Through the project, we wanted to explore ways to better prepare students (learners) for success in our digital world and global economy. And we wanted to magnify those successes by enabling others to replicate or adapt the processes, innovations, and outcomes realized during its life cycle (from conception to planning and formation, and continuing through running the school). Essentially, the school is intended to be a reference—a model—for others who want to create a 21st-century learning environment.

The answer is surprisingly simple: They asked.

Through the visionary leadership of the Chief Executive Officer for the School District of Philadelphia, members of her team, and the General Manager of Microsoft Education Solutions, the opportunity to build a School of the Future for 750 kids in grades 9–12 was presented to and accepted by Microsoft.

As we and our partners considered donating millions of dollars and time to create this school, an important consideration was how the benefits of this project would extend beyond Philadelphia and this one school: It had to scale.

An important component of scalability is funding. Schools are built and maintained by their surrounding communities; therefore we knew that this school's funding had to come from Philadelphia, and the funding had to be part of their general school expansion capital plan.

We committed employees and corporate resources. By sharing our best practices and providing insight and access to internal resources, we believed that, together with the School District of Philadelphia, the School of the Future could be built.

When the Philadelphia School of the Future opened its doors to 170 students in 2006, we were proud. And we continue to be encouraged every day as the effects of our joint effort impact communities around the nation and world.