[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# $10M Question: How Would You Redesign High School?

O'Connor K, 2016, Ithaca Journal — Education

Patterns: [Distinctions](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/distinctions), [Systems](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/systems), [Relationships](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/relationships), [Perspectives](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/perspectives)

## In short

Coverage of the work in Ithaca Journal. The source contributes evidence that DSRP was incorporated into real-world school-reform efforts alongside VMCL and was used as part of building organizational and instructional capacity.

## What they found (results)

The reform approach treats meaningful school redesign as more than changing schedules, buildings, or individual lessons. Instead, educational change involves aligning a school system’s vision, mission, capacity, and learning, while developing students’ and educators’ capacity for systems thinking. The later scholarly account of these reforms describes changes extending across school culture, classroom practice, curriculum, assessment, technology, physical learning environments, and organizational leadership.

## What they set out to do (purpose)

The article covers efforts to rethink and redesign high school education in the context of the national XQ: Super School Project, which challenged communities to reconsider the structure and purpose of the traditional American high school. The broader initiative sought new models that were more relevant, engaging, and capable of preparing students for complex real-world problems rather than relying primarily on traditional schedules, memorization, and standardized structures.

## In more detail

The article is associated with a period in which school leaders and community stakeholders were reconsidering high-school design at the organizational level rather than modifying isolated classroom practices. A later scholarly analysis identifies O’Connor (2016) as an example of high-school reform informed by complexity and systems thinking and cites the article while discussing districts in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania that incorporated DSRP and VMCL (Vision, Mission, Capacity, Learning) into broader educational transformation. Those initiatives addressed classroom design, school culture, instructional practices, curriculum, assessment, organizational vision, professional capacity, and continuous learning. In the New York example, the Ithaca City School District adopted a district vision of “6000+ thinkers” and the mission “engage, educate, and empower,” while building capacity partly through DSRP instruction and using feedback to revise organizational mental models.

These researchers were not testing DSRP. The finding is theirs; the correspondence to DSRP is drawn by this site.

[Source](https://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/local/2016/05/23/10m-question-how-would-you-redesign-high-school/84602168/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)