Charting a Bold Educational Future
Ascend Public Charter Schools designs a “grown-up” vision for its young educational network.
Summer 2021 wasn’t a vacation for K-12 teachers. After a year of navigating pandemic upheavals, 44 percent of elementary and high school teachers reported burnout, the highest rate of all professions in the US, according to a 2022 Gallup Poll. Meanwhile, a 2021 Rand Survey found that one in four teachers were likely to quit, compared to one in six pre-pandemic. Black and African-American teachers were particularly likely to leave the profession, threatening an already strained teacher supply. At Brooklyn’s high-performing Ascend Public Charter Network, the largest charter school network in the borough with more than 6,000 students, burnout and exhaustion were compounded by a leadership transition at the top. The pivotal moment inspired Ascend’s incoming CEO, Recy Dunn, to ask for IDEO’s help in “figuring out who we want to be when we grow up.” Together, IDEO, Ascend leadership, and the larger Ascend community co-designed a new purpose, mission, cultural values, and vibrant visual language, empowering the network to chart a joyful, energetic, and unified new course for itself.
$11M grant
Ascend received a $11M grant from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation a few months after the collaboration.
1 collective vision
To guide a network of 17 schools.
In the summer of 2021, one in four K-12 teachers was ready to quit. Pandemic stressors and increased curriculum scrutiny were to blame, according to a 2021 Rand Survey.
In 2022, 44 percent of K-12 workers reported burnout, the most of any US professions the time, according to a Gallup Poll.
Pandemic exhaustion and leadership turnover left Ascend’s new CEO eager to align staff around an exciting new vision.
Founded in 2008, Ascend Public Charter Network prides itself on providing “rich, joyful learning experiences that unlock lives of boundless choice” for its students, 93 percent of whom identify as Black or Latinx. The organization is also proud of being Black-led: 78 percent of staff and 80 percent of the executive team are people of color. Using co-design and joy, IDEO held a mirror up to Ascend’s core optimistic spirit during a moment of anxiety and change, helping its new CEO, staff, students, and parents reflect a dynamic, collectively imagined vision.
While the project’s goal was serious, the combined team centered the collaboration on bringing back fun, beauty, and imagination to those who could use it most: educators. Through engaging interactive activities, the IDEO team invited principals, PTA members, student council representatives, and board members to join “organizationally sanctioned play” moments like creating collaged vision boards and writing poems about Ascend’s impact. These interventions helped burned-out educators escape the day-to-day tasks of running schools and dream expansively about Ascend’s future. The team also solicited written, visual, and audio stories, asking community members to describe Ascend at its very best.
Stitching together submissions from 551 students, 75 parents, and 16 staff members, the co-design sessions resulted in a powerful new purpose, mission, and values, as well as a vibrant visual language and activation tools to bring Ascend’s vision of a “dope,” “unapologetically Brooklyn” charter network to life. The joyful, eye-catching visuals are embedded throughout its 17 Brooklyn schools, staff recruiting and training materials, and digital presence.
Shortly after the collaboration with IDEO, Ascend received an unsolicited $11 million donation from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation, the most significant gift the then-14-year-old institution had ever received. The pivotal funding will allow the organization, with its bold new “grown-up” vision, to focus on becoming the school of choice in Brooklyn by 2027.
Founded in 2008, Ascend Public Charter Network prides itself on providing “rich, joyful learning experiences that unlock lives of boundless choice” for its students, 93 percent of whom identify as Black or Latinx. The organization is also proud of being Black-led: 78 percent of staff and 80 percent of the executive team are people of color. Using co-design and joy, IDEO held a mirror up to Ascend’s core optimistic spirit during a moment of anxiety and change, helping its new CEO, staff, students, and parents reflect a dynamic, collectively imagined vision.
While the project’s goal was serious, the combined team centered the collaboration on bringing back fun, beauty, and imagination to those who could use it most: educators. Through engaging interactive activities, the IDEO team invited principals, PTA members, student council representatives, and board members to join “organizationally sanctioned play” moments like creating collaged vision boards and writing poems about Ascend’s impact. These interventions helped burned-out educators escape the day-to-day tasks of running schools and dream expansively about Ascend’s future. The team also solicited written, visual, and audio stories, asking community members to describe Ascend at its very best.
Stitching together submissions from 551 students, 75 parents, and 16 staff members, the co-design sessions resulted in a powerful new purpose, mission, and values, as well as a vibrant visual language and activation tools to bring Ascend’s vision of a “dope,” “unapologetically Brooklyn” charter network to life. The joyful, eye-catching visuals are embedded throughout its 17 Brooklyn schools, staff recruiting and training materials, and digital presence.
Shortly after the collaboration with IDEO, Ascend received an unsolicited $11 million donation from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation, the most significant gift the then-14-year-old institution had ever received. The pivotal funding will allow the organization, with its bold new “grown-up” vision, to focus on becoming the school of choice in Brooklyn by 2027.
“We wanted to ensure we heard the voice of our students, parents, teachers, board members, and more. IDEO helped craft a unique process that engaged so many stakeholders and guided us in reflecting on our identity and aspirations."
