Chris Gabrieli's New Harvard Course on Remixing Education
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Chris Gabrieli introduced a Harvard Graduate School of Education course focused on “education remixing.”
Education remixing blends K-12, college, and career experiences through models such as Early College High Schools, youth apprenticeships, and co-op colleges.
The course draws on Gabrieli’s work with Empower Schools, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, and education leaders across the country.
Over the first decade at Empower Schools, we have found several ways to work with district educators and leaders to foster sustainable structural innovations that better serve students who have historically been poorly served, including low-income, minoritized, and first-generation students.
One whole branch of this work is what we call Early College and Career Pathways. We have found numerous places and partners for this work, from the Rural Schools Innovation Zone in South Texas to rural communities in Colorado, Texas, California, and Indiana, as well as a blossoming of Early Colleges in our original zone, the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership.
My own journey in this work has been both through Empower Schools and through my role as Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education over the past eight years. I am super grateful to my many Empower allies, as well as the educators, leaders, and pioneers who have helped forge these new directions and, in many cases, made them real for students on the ground.
Now, I am going at this through my role as a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where I will be teaching a new course focused on the big idea that education remixing can be a powerful way to move beyond the limited success we have had by focusing only on readiness.
The course is named “Remixing Education: Innovations in Blending K12, College, and Career Pathways.”
Here are the top four reasons I feel like the legendary Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy, who would ask his team before every game:
“Where else would you rather be than right here, right now?”
Reason 1. Education Remixing Crosses Traditional Silos
I think the topic I am teaching, Education Remixing, is one of the most exciting and important topics I have worked on during my education policy and innovation career.
I define Education Remixing as embedding an authentic learning and practice strand from a field outside a traditional K-12 or college pathway into that core education pathway. I cite three examples:
Early College High Schools, where traditionally underserved high school students take a significant number of college courses while still in high school
Youth apprenticeships, where high school students work as paid apprentices in companies for two, three, or even four days a week while continuing their high school studies
Co-op colleges, where college students undertake as many as three six-month, full-time paid placements in workplaces where they become part of employers’ teams
Each of these reflects education remixing that crosses traditional silos to benefit students.
I summarize the case for the idea this way:
Why leave it to any one education system, high school or college, to define and achieve readiness, leaving students to cross the chasm to their next stage, when we can create remixes where students develop battle-tested readiness and gain real traction by doing the next phase of their lives in college or a career?
Reason 2. Teaching in Harvard’s Online Educational Leadership Program
Teaching in Harvard’s innovative Online Educational Leadership Master’s Program is challenging and exciting.
The students are different, and the medium is different, but I love the challenge of reinvention. The mid-career students are invigorating.
Reason 3. Building a Course Is Fun
I love the adrenaline rush and opportunities to do things like pick remixed music to accompany the class. I am grateful for great colleagues at Empower and allies throughout the field and across the country.
Reason 4. Working With HGSE Students Is a Privilege
It is a privilege to teach the great students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
