Remix
Purpose or Promise
Remix exists to fundamentally reimagine school as a learning community, not a standalone institution. Its promise is to replace a one-size-fits-all school model with a flexible, community-embedded framework that nurtures self-aware, confident, and connected young people who can thrive personally, professionally, and civically. Learning is designed as something that matters—rooted in real relationships, authentic contribution, and meaningful contexts—so young people see themselves as capable agents whose growth benefits both their own futures and the communities they belong to
- Mission: Design a learning community that supports young people to discover who they are, build agency, and contribute meaningfully to the world around them.
- Vision: School is community and community is school—education as a shared responsibility across families, educators, businesses, nonprofits, government, and community members.
- Why it exists: Traditional schools are structurally disconnected from the realities, relationships, and opportunities young people need to navigate an uncertain future. Remix exists to reconnect learning to life by distributing education across a community ecosystem and centering health, belonging, and purpose as foundational conditions for learning.
Key Measurable Outcomes
Remix defines success through developmental outcomes rather than seat time or course completion. Growth is evidenced through a Learning Passport—a living, digital portfolio that aggregates experiences, reflections, feedback, and verified skill development across time, contexts, and settings. Outcomes are cumulative and developmental, aligned to a clear progression from self-discovery to self-direction.
Desired outcomes for learners include evidence of:
- Self-awareness: clarity about interests, strengths, learning preferences, and values.
- Agency and self-efficacy: confidence in directing learning choices and navigating next steps.
- Self-advocacy: ability to articulate needs, goals, and learning evidence to adults and peers.
- Core competencies: literacy, numeracy, and academic foundations applied in real contexts.
- Durable skills: collaboration, communication, problem-solving, adaptability, and reflection.
- AI literacy: understanding and critical use of emerging technologies.
- Entrepreneurial mindset: initiative, creativity, and resourcefulness.
- Adaptive capacity: readiness to navigate complexity, uncertainty, and changing pathways.
Learning Environment
Remix learning environments are distributed, relational, and personalized. Rather than organizing learning around classrooms and schedules, Remix organizes learning around cycles, relationships, and community-based experiences. Each learner moves through repeating learning cycles that include exploration, co-design, experience, reflection, and recalibration—“reset and remix”—with increasing levels of agency over time.
At the core is a co-design process: learners, learning guides, and families collaboratively design each learning cycle using rich data from learner profiles, asset mapping, and reflection. A technology platform supports this process by mapping community assets, matching learners to opportunities, and generating recommendations—while humans retain decision-making authority.
How learning happens:
- Hub-based learning: Small-group and workshop experiences focused on core skills (e.g., literacy, numeracy, research, reflection), intentionally connected to learner interests and community projects.
- Community-based experiences: Projects, internships, workshops, and mentorships designed with local partners (arts organizations, nonprofits, businesses, civic institutions).
- Integrated skill development: Academic and durable skills are layered into authentic experiences rather than taught in isolation.
- Health, belonging, and relationships first: Daily rhythms prioritize emotional safety, connection, movement, reflection, and wellbeing as prerequisites for deep learning.
Developmental learning journey:
Learners progress through three clear phases that span grades 6–12, each with distinct developmental goals, signature experiences, and portfolio artifacts:
- Self-Discovery (Grades 6–7): wide exploration, identity-building, curiosity, and reflection.
- Self-Awareness (Grades 8–10): pattern recognition, metacognition, ownership of learning, and early pathway exploration.
- Explore the Learning Navigator tool that learners use to remix their learning
Self-Direction (Grades 11–12): deep engagement, leadership, capstones, internships, and postsecondary launch planning.
Young Person role(s):
Active co-designer of learning cycles, goals, and experiences.
Builder and curator of a Learning Passport documenting growth, artifacts, and reflections.
Community participant and contributor through projects, internships, and creative work.
Reflective learner who sets intentions, evaluates progress, and recalibrates next steps.
Adult role(s):
Learning Guides: primary relational anchors who support goal-setting, reflection, and learning design (small ratios, e.g., 1:20).
Subject specialists: provide targeted instruction and scaffolds within authentic contexts (e.g., literacy educators supporting projects).
Community partners/mentors: designers and facilitators of real-world learning experiences, offering feedback and authentic audiences.
Families and caregivers: active collaborators in co-design conversations and long-term planning.
Young Person Day in the Life:
A learner begins the day in an advisory circle focused on reflection, emotional check-in, and planning. The morning blends targeted skill-building workshops (e.g., literacy strategies) with collaborative project work connected to a community issue or creative endeavor. After lunch and social time, learners transition to a community space—such as an arts studio, nonprofit site, or business—where they apply the same skills in an authentic context with a mentor. The day ends with structured reflection, helping learners recognize how skills showed up across settings and what they want to work on next.
Adult Day in the Life:
Adults coordinate across roles—facilitating workshops, coaching learners through projects, collaborating with community partners, and reviewing portfolio evidence. Their work centers on making learning visible, aligning experiences to learner goals, providing timely feedback, and supporting reflection that helps learners connect experiences into a coherent sense of growth and direction.
Time, Space, and Resources
Key artifacts and systems that express the model:
- Learning Journey Map (Grades 6–12): a clear developmental progression from self-discovery to self-direction, with phase-specific outcomes, experiences, and portfolio artifacts.
- Learning Passport: a dynamic digital portfolio capturing experiences, reflections, competencies, feedback, and verified skill development over time.
- Technology platform (Learning Navigator): supports asset mapping, personalized recommendations, and experience matching across the community ecosystem.
- Co-design protocols: structured conversations with learners, families, and guides to design and remix learning cycles.
- Distributed spaces: learning hubs, community partner sites, studios, workplaces, and civic spaces—learning happens wherever it is most meaningful.
- Cycle-based schedules: flexible rhythms organized around learning cycles rather than traditional periods or semesters.