High Tech High Graduate School of Education

One of the most powerful parts of the National Attendance & Engagement Meta Network is the ability to go deep together.

As Nikki Guinta from New Visions for Public Schools shared, focusing specifically on attendance creates space for more honest conversations, stronger collaboration, and meaningful learning across districts.

This work isn’t about quick fixes—it’s about building relationships, sharing openly, and learning alongside people who understand the complexity of the challenge.

Grateful for leaders like Nikki who continue to strengthen this community through their honesty, curiosity, and commitment to students. Onward! 💛

✨ NEW in Unboxed: Can two seemingly contradictory ideas both be true?

This week, we're exploring a tension at the heart of improvement work: it's about more than just the tools—AND you still need the right tools to do it well.

This week:
🎙️ Stacey Caillier's conversation with Don Berwick on avoiding the trap of becoming too focused on improvement tools themselves
📊 The Theory & Measures Tool—a practical way to start improving without stopping everything else
📝 A closer look at the humble but powerful exit ticket
💬 How empathy interviews can help you understand the experiences behind the data

Whether you're new to continuous improvement or years into the work, this issue offers both big-picture thinking and practical strategies you can put to use right away.

➡️ Read the latest issue + subscribe here: bit.ly/gsenewssub

Two days of learning, reflection, and connection. 💛

This week, our team came together for annual Improvement Reviews and our Graduate School of Education staff retreat—a chance to pause, celebrate, and learn from one another.

From digging into data and examining our impact to sharing celebrations of learning across teams, these moments remind us that continuous improvement is a collective effort. We left inspired by the work happening across the GSE and energized for the year ahead.

Grateful for a team that embraces feedback, asks hard questions, and never stops learning. ✨

We said we couldn't wait to witness what they'd built. We weren't ready.

At YellowHAB's first-ever school-wide exhibition, the range of student work stopped us in our tracks: chemistry experiments, hovercraft designs, original music, fashion lines, Afrofuturistic narratives, dance recitals, and poetry that turned hallways into galleries.

One piece has stayed with me. A student named Ariel took an anchor text by Audre Lorde and wrote her own reflection poetic piece on place, identity, belonging, and liberation — in her own words, in her own voice. Not an assignment. Hers.

This line, among others, was doing real work: “For I have in me a new found freedom, a renewed life." 🔥

Afterward, teachers kept coming back to the same things. The shift in the school environment cultivating creativity and possibility thinking. How students pushed each other's work to the next level of craftsmanship–they were constantly “calling each other higher.” And, how the work itself "showed their learning and showed who owned the learning."

The principal put it simply: "I think we as a society underestimate our young people. They show up when people doubt them, and when we do this right, their natural creativity flows."

YellowHAB hasn't arrived. But they're doing the work — the right way — centered on the voices of their students and the needs of their community. And, their young people were glowing. Lights on with a spark in their eyes.

Let’s go.

🔗 shareyourlearning.org/exhibition

We’re revisiting this powerful 2025 story from the National Attendance & Engagement Meta Network exploring how student-led crew structures can strengthen belonging, connection, and engagement across school communities.

At a time when so many schools are working to address chronic absenteeism, this article is an important reminder that students are more likely to show up when they feel known, valued, and connected to their community.

Still such a meaningful reflection on the power of student voice and relationship-centered schools.

Read more here:
https://bit.ly/3RT0MT3

Joy. Pride. Community. 🎓💛✨

This past weekend, we celebrated the graduates of our Master of Education programs in Educational Leadership and Teaching & Learning.

Throughout their time at HTH GSE, these educators and leaders challenged assumptions, examined their practice, learned alongside one another, and worked to create more equitable, humanizing learning experiences for the young people and communities they serve.

While graduation marks the end of one chapter, it's also the beginning of what's next. 🌟 We can't wait to see how this incredible group continues to lead, teach, and transform education in classrooms, schools, and communities around the world.

Congratulations, Class of 2026—we're so proud of you! 🎉🎓

¿Quieres postular una Inmersión o un Taller para Deeper Learning LATAM 2026?

🔗 Consulta las bases de la convocatoria y postúlate aquí: https://bit.ly/43urcx4

📅 Convocatoria abierta hasta el 25 de junio de 2026.

Nos vemos en Medellín para seguir construyendo nuevos horizontes para la educación en América Latina. 🌎