Do you have a strategic plan or school improvement plan? Have you prioritized the ONE THING that has the biggest impact on student growth and overall school growth?

Prakash Nair is a guru of 21st century school design. He's written two books that expound on his philosophy and share the process used by Fielding Nair (FNI) to fashion cost-effective renovations of current buildings and to create remarkably inspiring new facilities. The latest one is, Blueprint for Tomorrow: Redesigning Schools for Student-Centered Learning.

Read this book before you plan your next building!

The Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists has selected School Growth, a global education strategy company, to manage the design and development of a new preschool through twelfth grade campus in North Tampa. This new school is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2018, and, with the collaboration of Adventist Health System, will raise the bar for educational excellence for families throughout the surrounding communities.

Talk of school reform and innovation sometimes makes it seem like this is a recent concept in education, but at School Growth we've had the privilege of visiting two schools in the last week who have managed to effectively understand economic and education forces in order to stay relevant and grow. 

I recently read an article about the Dallas Cowboys new training facility, that many say will give them an advantage against other NFL teams. But what if it will also give some local schools a competitive advantage as well?

What you may also find interesting is that the Frisco Independent School District will share this state-of-the art athletic and entertainment facility that will include a 12,000-seat indoor stadium, a luxury hotel, and convention center. "Teaming up with the Cowboys on the indoor stadium allowed the city to save about $500,000 a year in operating costs and between $10 million and $15 million in capital costs." 

This will certainly be an innovative destination that provides powerful marketing but also economies of scale for the local public schools. That's smart! We've seen some other new designs for facilities that inspire a whole new approach to education. These are some of the school buildings in your future. 

At the School Growth Innovation Lab in Los Angeles last week I was reminded of the importance of knowing families in our target community at a deeper level. As we considered the characteristics, fears, and goals of these families, our attention turned to more effectively learning from them and adjusting the value proposition of the school to sustainably grow quality and enrollment.

During the School Growth Lab in Los Angeles today we discussed how to learn faster and more effectively from the target market in order to gain the attention of families and grow. After all, schools can certainly master the best practices of a learning organization, right?

In light of the geography, it's big news that a blue ocean is frightening Switzerland.

Swiss watchmakers are facing a new, though not unexpected, threat from the Apple innovation tsunami. Like the music and book sellers of old, this is a game-changing moment for the time keeping industry. Those disrupters from Cupertino are at it again, and the insights for school designers are numerous.

Your next school building may look quite different than anything you have previously experienced. From the outside it could be designed to last a few centuries, but the inside will allow flexible use of the space for individual, small group, and even large group learning.

Target Stores is suffering from what some describe as market arrogance, and is now closing 133 stores in Canada. What can school leaders learn from this business debacle?