Leadership Public Schools

This grant would enable Leadership Public Schools (LPS), a charter school network serving low income students in the Bay Area, to partner with Gooru, a non-profit that creates free and open-source educational products and technologies, to develop and pilot a technology tool that enables personalized learning. The pilot is expected to help at least 350 students achieve substantial deeper learning gains and will serve as the first step in developing a generalized model to create effective, sustainable educational technologies.

Leadership Public Schools (LPS) operates a network of four public charter high schools in Richmond, Oakland, Hayward and San Jose, California. Committed to serving low-income, ethnically diverse communities, LPS serves approximately 1500 students of whom over 80% are low income and 85% will be the first in their family to attend college. To accelerate students who are entering school far below grade level and provide the kind of deeper learning necessary for college success, LPS creates replicable, cost-effective models of technology-enhanced instructional strategies and resources. This grant will support three activities to continue the dissemination of the LPS design process and OER: 1) development of two case studies to be shared online and with other school networks, 2) development of a public sharing repository on the LPS web site, which will include LPS OER materials, and 3) speaking about the use of the LPS methodology and OER use at 2-3 conferences per year.

Leadership Public Schools (LPS) proposes to conduct research culminating in two case studies that focus on the development and implementation of its Open Educational Resources and technology innovations. These case studies will provide educators around the globe with a comprehensive analysis of the OER design and implementation principles that have succeeded in accelerating student achievement and professionalizing the role of teachers throughout the LPS network. These case studies are intended to promote instructional innovation, improve teaching and learning, and help establish the infrastructure needed to sustain a well-functioning open educational ecosystem.