Summit Public Schools was a very successful charter management organization with schools in California and Washington State. The students came from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, many from economically-disadvantaged households. While nearly all of its students were accepted to a four-year college, Summit’s leadership discovered that nearly half of graduates had failed at college. This was unacceptable to Summit’s leadership and they set out to create a new learning model that would enable its students to not only get into a four-year college but succeed there. The new learning model significantly altered the role of the teacher and brought technology to the forefront of student teaching. This new personalized student self-directed learning model was instituted to build knowledge and skills graduates needed to be successful in college. The case study describes the history of Summit and its evolution to this new learning model.
Keywords: k-12; online learning; virtual learning; blended learning; Secondary Education; Middle School Education; Early Childhood Education; Learning; Business Model; Performance Improvement; Technology;
Citation:
Kim, John J-H, and Aldo Sesia. "Summit Public Schools (A)." Harvard Business School Case 318-067, March 2018. View Details