Powerful learning by design.Co-created in community.
About Us
School Foundry finds equity-driven leaders and connects them to each other and a broader network of change agents, mentors, and design support to reimagine and reinvent public education at scale. It’s about collaboration and co-design to shift schools and systems on behalf of kids and families.School Foundry evolved from an incubator for (and of) school founders. It was relaunched in 2025 by Jeff Petty, its principal consultant.
Our Work
We work with individuals, schools, districts, and larger systems. Current projects include a multi-year and multi-partner statewide initiative in North Carolina called Together We Learn, in collaboration with Open Way Learning; a project with the Center for Powerful Public Schools to support career-connected learning in continuation schools; and various leadership and design consultations in Washington state.Any project we undertake aims to help youth, especially those marginalized by prevailing systems, experience school as a place they love to go because it celebrates who they are, engages their interests, invites their family into their learning, embeds their learning in real world contexts, and helps them discover and launch a future they're excited about.
Thank You
Together
WE LEARN .
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Together We Learn is a learning community helping alternative schools create the conditions where young people and adults can thrive.
What we are building
A collaboration between School Foundry and Open Way Learning, Together We Learn connects alternative-school teams within a growing community of practice to learn across schools; co-design new approaches informed by students, staff, families, and community partners; try these ideas in the real world; and carry forward what works.
Alternative schools are places of possibility.
Too often, alternative schools are asked to respond to the consequences of systems that have not worked for young people. Together We Learn begins from a different belief: these schools can be engines of learner-centered innovation—and places where the field develops better answers for all students.We bring teachers, students, families, school leaders, and partners together to learn across schools and systems, test new approaches, and strengthen the conditions for meaningful learning that prepares students to thrive after high school.
Interested in learning with us?
