Brightworks Reimagines School

At Brightworks, we put kids in the driver’s seat of their own learning.

Brightworks is a small school with a big impact - not just on its immediate community, but on the global community of educators. Founded in 2011, we started by asking the question: how might school be different? Brightworks reimagines what’s possible in education by innovating on best practices from project-based and experiential learning. We fundamentally view kids as capable of driving their own leaning: that’s why we call teachers collaborators. Collaborators lead flexible, mixed-age environments where students explore their curiosities both individually and together, actively breaking the conventional walls between school and the community outside the classroom to give kids real work in the real world. In every action we take, we tell kids: We see you. You’re capable. Tell us what you’re interested in. Let’s figure out together how to make that come to life.

We use Brightworks arc as our framework for deeply engaged learning. Through he arc, collaborators support children through project-based explorations as they find wonder and delight in the exploration together. Students practice working together to turn ideas into reality, and to learn how to communicate what they have done and why – all in the context of a diverse community of collaborators, families, volunteers, and supporters.

Brightworks is unlike any other school: it’s named, “one of the 13 most innovative schools in the world,” and is frequently mentioned in articles about the future of education in The New York Times, NPR, The Atlantic, and other national and global publications. What we’re building together is magic. Come build with us.

Using the Brightworks arc as a framework for deeply engaged learning, children develop the ability to find wonder and delight in the exploration of any topic, to practice working together to turn ideas into reality, and to learn how to communicate what they have done and why – all in the context of a diverse community of collaborators, families, volunteers, and supporters.

Our Core Values

(TRUST) 

Students are coauthors.  Brightworks values trust. We view the relationship between student and educator as a collaboration. Students partner with educators and each other to set their own goals and evaluate their progress as they engage with experiences that reflect and expand their curiosity, and interests.

(MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT)

Real tools, Real problems. Brightworks values meaningful engagement and authenticity. Students use real tools to engage with complex problems through projects that are important to them and impactful to their communities and the world.

(CURIOSITY)

Everything is interesting. Brightworks values curiosity. We see problems as puzzles and make time for failure, feedback and iteration. This inspires students with the courage to challenge themselves and try new things.

(COMMUNITY)

Brightworks values Community, Connection & Care. Our community members work to know themselves, build empathetic relationships, navigate conflict using restorative justice and understand their sense of place and context in the broader community and world. 

(EQUITY/JUSTICE)

Brightworks values and is committed to systemic equity and justice. We acknowledge, honor and celebrate our differences and individuality, while amplifying and affirming marginalized voices, those of Black, Indigenous, people of color, LGBTQIA+, physically and medically impaired, and neurodivergent. 

Brightworks acknowledges the disparities and inequities that exist in our community and the world today to be rooted in systems of white supremacy and we seek to disrupt the ways we uphold those systems and work to transform our school and greater community

Brightworks stands strongly against hatred, bigotry and exclusion and works to create a culture of learning, healing and reparation.

Our Vision

Brightworks, a vanguard of educational innovation, envisions a cadre of dynamically talented, purposefully empowered, socially conscious, and antiracist young people who have been encouraged to be curious, creative, and motivated throughout their Brightworks years and beyond.

Through our transformative project-based model, our learners have taken risks, failed, and iterated on their ideas leaving them equipped with tools for success. Brightworks alum are critical thinkers who work to become architects for a just, sustainable, and equitable future doing their part to dismantle systems of white supremacy, anti-Blackness, LGBTQIA+ discrimination, and the legacy of systemic injustice, oppression, and economic inequity for BIPoC, while acknowledging our place on unceded Native lands.

In a dynamic and changing world Brightworks alumni answer the call to engineer and design for a safer and more caring world through thoughtful application of their learning.