What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers across America

An inspiring account of ordinary teachers who are doing extraordinary things that could transform education

What School Could Be offers an inspiring vision of what our teachers and students can accomplish if trusted with the challenge of developing the skills and ways of thinking needed to thrive in a world of dizzying technological change.

Innovation expert Ted Dintersmith took an unprecedented trip across America, visiting all fifty states in a single school year. He originally set out to raise awareness about the urgent need to reimagine education to prepare students for a world marked by innovation--but America's teachers one-upped him. All across the country, he met teachers in ordinary settings doing extraordinary things, creating innovative classrooms where children learn deeply and joyously as they gain purpose, agency, essential skillsets and mindsets, and real knowledge. Together, these new ways of teaching and learning offer a vision of what school could be—and a model for transforming schools throughout the United States and beyond. Better yet, teachers and parents don't have to wait for the revolution to come from above. They can readily implement small changes that can make a big difference.

America's clock is ticking. Our archaic model of education trains our kids for a world that no longer exists, and accelerating advances in technology are eliminating millions of jobs. But the trailblazing of many American educators gives us reasons for hope.

Capturing bold ideas from teachers and classrooms across America, What School Could Be provides a realistic and profoundly optimistic roadmap for creating cultures of innovation and real learning in all our schools.

Ted Dintersmith is one of the nation's leading voices on innovation and education. His four-decade career spans technology, business, public policy, and education philanthropy. He was the executive producer of the acclaimed documentary Most Likely to Succeed, as well as the author, along with Tony Wagner, of the book Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era (Scribner). When he's not visiting schools, he lives in rural Virginia.