Reinventing High School: Entrepreneurship & Personalized Learning in Utah

I'm Carrie McDonald, and this is Deliberated Podcast.

Cory Henwood, welcome to Deliberated Podcast.

Oh, thanks so much for having me.

I'm excited to be here.

It's great to have you here.

We were connected by an education entrepreneur,

a microscope founder that I know in the St. George, Utah area.

And she said, Carrie, you have to interview Cory.

He's doing some really great things

with some great organizations throughout the state of Utah.

So I'm thrilled to have you on the podcast.

And would love for you to share with us, Cory,

sort of your trajectory from public school math teacher

kind of earlier in your career to in-district innovation

leader and education entrepreneur.

Yeah, no, happy to.

It has been a wonderful journey.

And each phase of it has been shown me new roads

and new opportunities, starting as a math teacher primarily

because I wanted to help children to navigate

a difficult subject that I was able to do

with math instruction.

And throughout, I guess, my entire career,

it's always been about empowering students and their families

to try to get what each of them want out of education.

And so that started with math and maybe a pre-neural scope.

It led me towards helping to be a coach

and eventually a principal at a private school,

where I was doing that, and maybe a more holistic setting

for parents who were looking for larger changes

and larger opportunities for their student

than just narrowly in academics.

And brought me to doing some innovative things

at the county office or district level where I'm at in Utah

to try to provide innovative opportunities for families.

And do that in all sorts of settings

in both public district settings as well as charter settings

that I've been able to advise several schools on.

So it's really been an awesome journey for me

because each phase of it has led me to find different ways

and more unique ways to customize and to empower families

with what they really want.

Amazing.

And so you are currently the innovation coordinator

at Iron County School District in Utah.

So it's sort of this in-district innovation role.

Tell us a little bit about that.

What does that job entail?

And what sort of innovations are you most excited about now?

Yeah, while there is so much going on

in the educational technology space,

that's certainly part of my job is helping

to evaluate educational technology,

including artificial intelligence

and other opportunities for schools to take advantage of.

Again, with the same goal of deeply personalizing

or customizing education for students and for families.

But I would say more of my day-to-day role

is helping to manage magnet school programs

and other magnet schools within the district

that are classified, I guess, as innovative programs.

So that's online schools or launch high school,

which is a school for aspiring entrepreneurs,

those who want to launch their own businesses.

It's something that I founded in 2020

and it's been a great success story in Iron District.

Okay, I want to talk more about that program

that you helped to launch.

But first, for those who may not be familiar

with what a magnet school is,

maybe you could give us a quick overview of that

and kind of how magnet schools interact

in school districts more broadly.

Yeah, so unlike a battery school

where you're signed by boundary,

these are schools of choice

where families apply for a particular program.

So, for example, at launch high school,

there's a lottery that students apply

from multiple boundary schools to come to launch high school,

which serves 200 students a year.

And so they're owned by the school district,

they're not necessarily charter schools or private entities,

but they are, in essence, act in somewhat some more ways

that they're schools of choice for families.

Okay, great.

And so then, what about this launch school

that you were instrumental in creating?

Tell us more about that.

Yeah, well, it was an opportunity that we saw through

the state of Utah offered a series of grants,

both initially exploratory and then into planning

implementation grants for more personalized learning,

competency-based progression, project-based learning,

a series of different things.

And so through exploring different models

throughout the country came back

and had serious conversations with our superintendent

about what we might offer in Iron County.

And launch was the child of those discussions.

So it was an interesting time to open a school.

We had applied for planning grant in 2018,

planned for a couple of years and planned to open the school

in August of 2020, which we did.

But it was a tricky year to open a school.

But it's been the most successful school in Iron District

by in terms of academic measures,

which was not really the purpose of the school.

And in fact, I was quite ready for it to do poor academically

as long as the outcomes around more durable skills

and essential skills, like communication and creativity

and others were flourishing.

But it has led students to be excellent in their academics

as well as do some wonderful things

in the world of creation and design

and starting businesses and the like.

So yeah, can you tell us a little bit more

about the structure of launch high school?

How many students are you serving?

What is the typical week like?

I know it's very kind of personalized competency-based

you mentioned, integrating design thinking

and entrepreneurship.

But what does that look like in practice sort of day to day?

Yeah, students come in in the morning,

they meet with their advisor,

who's there to look out for them in all ways.

But certainly in terms of advising their project

that they take on over a course of at least a quarter,

maybe a whole year, depending on the project scope.

And so students meet with them every day

at the beginning of the day, set goals for the day

and then check in with them at the end of the day

on those goals and their progress.

And throughout the rest of the day,

they have check in times of some of their academic teachers

based on their needs.

In some cases, they don't need any academic time

with their teacher.

They're able to do their curriculum online,

move ahead of their pace,

go to the testing center when they're ready

to demonstrate their covenant

in a particular academic area.

And then spend the rest of their time working on their business,

their ideas, their designs, their projects

and some of them lead towards, you know,

for profit businesses,

others towards a nonprofit organizations

and other cases just helping and working alongside

local businesses and community organizations.

So that's kind of what their day looks like.

It's a wonderful opportunity for students.

Most of them are there for one day out of two

in their school week.

So they're there for a day doing their course subjects

and then they go to their boundary high school

for their more elective classes,

you know, to take advantage of the wood shop

or the gymnasium that's at their boundary school.

So those are the types of things

that it looks like for most schools.

So are they,

so are these students getting

then a diploma from launch high school

or from their kind of zoned high school?

Yeah, they get it from launch high school.

Launch high schools, their school membership.

Their school membership.

And how many students?

200, 200 students.

Incredible.

Yeah, and it could take more.

There's just a women on the space, actually,

has kind of been the trouble

is that we just have women in space there for that program.

And so there's always a lottery

and a wait list for the program.

And launch high school is also operating structurally

as a magnet school for the district.

Correct.

Yeah, you got it.

It's so great.

So what is attracting students to launch high school?

Obviously 2020, I imagine there were different attractions

than now, but maybe some things have stayed the same.

What is sort of the typical student

that's attracted to this alternative program?

I think it's a student

and I just got done speaking with eighth graders

kind of talking through what their options are for next year.

And a lot of the students that are interested in launch

want a higher level of independence, flexibility,

and freedom and how they schedule their day.

Again, to the same through line, if you will,

of empowering students,

that's part of why this program,

at least for me, has been created

that we want to empower students to take control

over what they do with their education,

including their day-to-day schedule

and what that looks like.

So a lot of them that's appealing for them,

the other piece that's appealing for them

is the opportunity to advance when they're ready,

potentially graduate early,

take on college classes,

or start, we even start their own business

a little bit early.

And then lastly is the integration of their interests

with projects that take roughly half their time

and they're associated with half of their grade

for all their core classes.

These projects that will end in their business ideas

are creative passions.

So those are the types of students that come.

And it's a variety of interests, right?

You have students who are into the arts

and theater productions and others who want to build out

some new technical tool to sell or to scale.

And so a variety of interests,

but largely the motives are the same.

Independence, freedom, flexibility,

and to take on something they're passionate about.

Yeah, so independence, freedom, flexibility,

kind of passion-driven learning.

And yet you said that Launch High School

has some of the best academic outcomes

in the district.

What do you attribute that to?

Yeah, and not just sort of their way ahead too,

like 40% ahead of date averages

and 15% to 20% ahead of the rest of the district averages.

I think the biggest piece there is actually

the competency-based model of the school

taking few topics that are high-leveraged topics

in each of the courses that a student takes

and focusing directly on those

and that students are competent in those,

not just sort of proficient or could maybe pass,

but they have to score at least an 80% or higher

on these types of competency-based exams

in each of the areas that we've identified as critical.

And so that's how they move on.

There's roughly four of those in every course

and every quarter of every course that they take on.

So when they pass those pieces,

that's when they move on and not until.

And some cases students are able to demonstrate

competency really quickly and others

that takes them a little longer than a quarter

to show that they're competent in the material.

But again, that solid foundation allows them

to really understand their academics

and I'm guessing that's what leads into score well

when they are leveraging that knowledge

on a standardized test, for example.

Which again, probably the least of my concern personally,

I was not that concerned about standardized test scores

and remain that way to date.

It's just a nice byproduct of the model.

Yeah, it's a byproduct of the model.

I think that that such a crucial point

is that when we create really innovative,

personalized, in this case competency-based learning models,

it can and often does lead to significant academic outcomes

because students are so engaged in their learning

and so motivated by the content that they're working with.

And you are for five years, five and a half years

into launch high school.

So you have some graduates, I presume.

You mentioned some go on to start their own businesses.

What are some of the profiles of your alumni?

Yeah, it's widely varied

because of who we attract, like I said,

is less about this isn't an art school or a tech school

or whatever, it's a variety of folks

who go in lots of different directions.

So we do have a lot of business owners

that have left and created their own business

and most of us have begun the roots of that

or started their business at launch.

And many of our students who've left have also gone on

to further studies at University of Technical College

and others to the Army.

I mean, it's really a variety of places

just like you'd expect from probably any school, I guess.

Yeah.

Yeah, so we'll shift in just a minute

to talk about some of the work you're doing

out of district with innovative learning models

but sticking with in-district innovation.

And again, you're talking about

launch high school, which is a magnet school,

which is a tuition-free public school run by the district

that students can apply to be a part of.

And in Utah, specifically,

there's just abundant choice now,

particularly with the recent passage

of universal school choice programs

that enable every K to 12 student to be eligible

for an education savings account scholarship program

that enables them to use funds

toward any kind of private education option,

including unbundled options

where they're able to kind of piece together

an educational plan.

And then some charter schools

and other options throughout Utah

from the district's perspective

and some of your work innovating

within the district,

how do you think school districts

can respond to this abundant choice

that's appearing outside of district schools?

And sort of what are some of the,

it seems like you're already doing that, right?

And your role in particular is leading innovation in district.

So clearly, you know, the sort of cutting edge

of this topic, but, you know,

how can and how do you see districts

meeting this moment

when there is so much more competition

and so much more choice for families?

Yeah, while the options for districts are really endless,

the limits are generally in the people and the board.

And if they want to adopt those types of options,

is what I found.

And you'll see that when I talk about what Charter's doing

because they have the same options.

It's just a matter of usually a little bit more nimble

and flexible and are set up in a way

that's meant to be those types of alternative programs

for students where districts have the same options.

They don't always take advantage of them,

but there are some interesting things happening.

And since the start of this type of personalizing

competency-based grant movement in Utah,

launch was one of the first schools

to open exclusively to serve that type of option.

But since then, I've filled it many, many,

I don't know how many, but several visitors

who've come through launch to tour it

to build their own model in their own district.

And at this point, there's a good dozen of those

throughout the state of Utah now that have been built out

who serve those types of students exclusively.

In addition to all the work that districts are doing

within their traditional schools

to try to lean towards more personalization,

but schools that are specifically geared for this

are growing as well within the public sector,

which is a neat thing.

So what would be sort of the first recommendation

you would give to an entrepreneurial educator

working within a school district,

wanting to make change from within?

Is it kind of bored by in?

Is that the first step?

Is it colleague commitment?

What where do you begin as sort of an entrepreneur,

educator working within a conventional school district?

Yeah, well, you take what you have control over

and you try to do the best you can with that.

And in some cases, like me, I was lucky to have

a large amount of control and opportunity to work within,

but honestly, like it was a lot of luck

and good timing for things to just happen the way they did.

When you can imagine, when you're dealing with a series

of other directors and superintendents,

that they all need to be on the same page

and then you need to be on the same page

with the board and with the public.

By the time you convince the 15th person

to do the thing that you want to do,

you generally need to go back and recommence

the first person on questions in the middle.

So it's a very tricky process to do things

large at scale like what we've been able to do

with some of the programs like Wanch High School.

And honestly, had we waited even a little bit,

COVID would have totally collapsed that entire process.

I don't know if we would have gotten that off the ground

if it hadn't have already had such legs

by the time that the pandemic hit.

And so it's just a matter, in some cases, a matter of timing,

but when you have control over what you can control,

for example, it could just be your classroom

that you wanna do in an innovative way.

I support teachers with a project

called the Modern Classrooms Project

where it's teaching them and giving them the tools

and resources to be able to use this same type of model

within their classroom walls,

which that's a great place to start.

But most teachers have the autonomy

within their own classroom walls

to be able to do something unique and different.

But it is, it can be off-putting

when you run into a series of roadblocks

on your way to innovation.

And in some cases, that's easier outside the system,

but obviously it can be rewarding

inside the system as well, so.

Yeah, and it seems to me that maybe those roadblocks

are becoming fewer and far between now

because of increased competition and choice,

particularly in states like Utah,

then maybe they were previously, right?

That to me, it seems like there may be more opportunities

for educators inside districts to have their ideas heard

and appreciated and executed today

than previous years.

Is that your sense as well?

Yeah, I mean, you would hope so

because the roadblocks through legislation

and board rule are really minimal.

There are not many things that are keeping districts

and schools from doing what many innovators

would like to see done.

And in fact, there's usually incentives

to do those things, grants and other things.

The difficulty is often in dealing with the people

administrators making sure everybody is on the same page.

And when you're moving at a speed of a large district,

sometimes that can become person.

And so that's usually, I don't think there's many roadblocks

for people outside of people themselves

and trying to get everybody together and on the same page.

But if you can do that effectively,

then you're on it well in your way.

Now, you have a really interesting perch, Corey,

as someone who's working within district innovation,

but also is helping out of district innovation

through emerging charter school networks in Utah.

I wonder if you could talk about your out of district

innovative work.

Yeah, well, I've been lucky enough

to be able to consult with several charter schools

and those who are doing innovative work.

Those who've wanted to mirror maybe some of the work

that we've done at lunch high school or in Ireland line.

And the most exciting one of those opportunities

is one that's emerging right now.

And that's at custom class.

That's a space where students and families really drive

what happens with their student

and receive funding and opportunities

to meet up with other like-minded families

to kind of connect the dots from where they are now

to where they would like their children's education to be.

So that's a new and cool opportunity

that I'm lucky to be part of.

Yeah, so again, in terms of definitions,

charter schools are also tuition-free public schools,

but they're typically privately run

usually by a nonprofit organization.

And unlike magnet schools,

charter schools are not run by the district.

Typically, they are usually run

kind of outside or independent of the district.

And so with custom class, how does that work?

What is the vision for custom class throughout Utah?

Yeah, custom class is meant to make customized learning

much more convenient and accessible for families.

The type of cafeteria approach that most families

want for their child, a little bit of this,

a little bit of that, can we help pay for this?

Can we do that?

It's just unavailable and tough to scale

for most districts in other schools,

whereas this particular model is set up to do just that.

And so it can take the form of,

it's kind of a cross between an ESA program,

a charter school, and so that you're helping

to fund the things that families want.

Well, providing more opportunities than any ESA really could

in terms of building to meet up and meet in regular classes

in terms of being able to access a network of support

for, you know, if you ever have talked to somebody

or have done this yourself, trying to navigate an ESA,

it's difficult to be informed on all the options

and make the right choices for your child

most are overwhelmed with those pieces.

And so getting the help and guidance that can come

from community liaisons and advisors that work

at custom class is a really valuable service

that they provide as well.

So it's a unique thing.

And it's not just for those who've maybe traditionally

homeschooled or accessed customized education.

Also for those who, you know,

they've traditionally been in a public school,

brick and mortar school even,

that want to access more options than they've been able to.

So having a building for their student to go to

to be supervised by staff while working on these kind

of customized projects and accessing online curriculum

and still able to go to their boundary high school

or secondary school or a couple of classes,

this type of cafeteria approaches appealing

for most families.

I love that.

So as we begin to wrap up,

Kori, I'd love to hear your prediction.

So where you think education is going in the next five years,

both within your state of Utah, but also nationally

because I think, you know,

what you're telling us is happening in your backyard

is a microcosm of what we're seeing across the country.

Where do you see this all going?

And are you optimistic?

I am optimistic.

There is going to be my prediction is that there'll be

a lot of yin and yang opportunities and back and forth

between the amount of choice and funding that's available

for families to make those types of choices.

And the amount of accountability and, you know,

government play in that space.

You know, the ESA space is growing right now

and it may eventually grow further.

It may eventually get more restricted.

You know, it's tough to predict exactly how it's going to go,

but one thing that will happen,

I think is that the idea that parents and families

will direct a lot more of what happens

with public education dollars

and with their student's education,

that's here to stay and it will continue to grow.

So whether the model is through Charters, ESA,

public school districts trying to innovate

and do something unique as an offering for families

that gives them voice and designs with parents

and not for them.

I think those three lines are going to continue

to stay into a merge.

So that's great.

So Cory, I'm sure my listeners and viewers

are inspired by the work that you're doing,

both in district and out of district.

If they would like to connect with you

or follow your work,

what is the best way for them to do that?

Yeah, they'd be, I would love to connect with them

on ex ed Cory henwood or LinkedIn.

It's another space I'm on

or connecting with the school programs

that I currently advise whether it's my custom class

at my custom class on Facebook or Instagram

or through our district.

I'd be happy to chat further with like mine and folks

who are trying to do the same type of work.

Amazing.

Well, best wishes to you and Cory henwood,

thank you so much for being on the Liberated Podcast.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me here.

This has been great.

Appreciate it.

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