Reimagining the High School Experience

The Superintendent Collaborative kicked off 2024 with an inspiring meeting on January 11. Our first guest speaker of the year, Dr. Michael Nagler — superintendent of the Mineola Union Free School District in New York — shared his experience in pondering the future of high school education and how he has blazed a trail for a new curriculum at Mineola to reflect the needs of today’s students.

What should learning look like?

“If your parents are saying, ‘My kid should have the same experience I did,’ that’s where we need to start.” In his discussion, Dr. Nagler discussed how much the world has changed and continues to change rapidly and that teaching the same way we did 20 years ago is a disservice to today’s students.

Pondering the future of work, Mineola explored how a skills-led — rather than content-led — curriculum will better prepare students for their careers post-graduation. That’s how Synergy at Mineola High School was born.

Prioritizing skill-building over content-based learning

As a means to rethink time, space, and pace, Synergy has no bells, no periods, and all subjects are in the cloud. Learners can co-design their daily agendas with mentors and teachers to shape how and where their time is used. They advance through their coursework at a pace that suits their wants and goals, and unassigned, open spaces offer an opportunity to work asynchronously — a shift that the pandemic helped get us all more accustomed to.

While the integrity of core classes is kept, Synergy offers today’s learners more flexibility in exploring and building the skills they’re interested in.

Dr. Nagler mused, “If I want to be an engineer, how do I really know I want to be an engineer?" While traditional high schools may offer simple career days and informational content on career paths, it may be unreasonable to expect teenagers to have a solid grasp on what they’re good at and how to build a career. Nagler and Mineola High School aim to shift their curriculum to allow students to explore these opportunities while learning their core subjects.

Navigating the mind-shift of a new curriculum

This is simultaneously an exciting and daunting concept. During our conversation, many school district leaders questioned how Dr. Nagler successfully navigated this shift with the school board, parents, and other stakeholders.

The answer? Synergy at Mineola High School is continuously improving and providing dialogue on the needed shift in education for the future. Not every student will attend a four-year school post-graduation, so what skills can learners build to shape what their tomorrow will look like? 

Multiple phases of Synergy have and will consider implementing industry-standard certifications, non-credit-bearing courses, a catalog of choice micro-credentials that connect to interest inventory categories, and more. They are always asking for feedback and looking to add more options to their curriculum — Drones, as pointed out in conversation, is a growing field with needed certifications, and Synergy at Mineola High School offers it as a discipline.

Another leader in this discussion shared that their district used NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) data to help realign parents of high-achieving students to see the importance of skills over content focus. 

Today's discussion offered plenty of shared resources among members. If you're interested in receiving these resources, please contact Matt Miller.

Thank you to our members and Dr. Nagler for joining the Superintendent Collaborative for its first meeting of 2024. We look forward to sharing resources and ideas and continuing our inspiring conversations throughout the year.