A Conversation with Dr. Keeanna Warren of Purdue Polytechnic High Schools
CompetencyWorks Blog
Vision and leadership are essential ingredients in the creation of a student-centered learning community. CompetencyWorks Director Laurie Gagnon sat down for a conversation with Purdue Polytechnic High Schools CEO, Dr. Keeanna Warren about her experience in education innovation.
Laurie Gagnon: Tell us what makes Purdue Poly High School special.
Keeanna Warren: What makes our school special is the relationships that happen on so many levels, the relationships between the students and other students, between students and the staff. Between students and the community. And it really is a school that integrates the community needs, the industry needs, and the statewide needs in a way that is engaging for students and makes them feel more prepared for future success.
LG: That’s amazing. How did you first get involved with Purdue Poly and what excited you about the role?
KW: I’m a natural disruptor, but I’d like to consider myself a kind disruptor. I look at systems and I see inequities and I have a vision for making our city, our state, our country a better place for everyone. I feel that all students can achieve. I believe deeply in agency. I don’t think that agency is something that is afforded to students who are low income or traditionally underrepresented in higher education or high-wage careers.
I loved the idea of starting a school that truly valued the community and valued building skill sets and not just worried about credit. Working in education, it was all credits, credits, credits. And it led to students being, in my opinion, more dishonest – they were more worried about, “How do I get an A?” or “How do I pass this class?” So you get the students who say, “I have to get an A,” which is great. Then you have the students who say, “How do I get a D minus? How do I do the bare minimum?” The Carnegie unit sets people up to not love learning. We naturally want to learn. We learn in relationship. We learn by experience. All those things were not showing up for me in traditional education environments and I wanted something different.
LG: What surprises or powerful moments that you’ve experienced along the way stand out to you?
KW: I am surprised sometimes by how great the teacher retention is at our school compared to other environments I’ve been in. And it’s simply because the teachers are trusted to do their job. It’s so simple. They’re like, “I don’t have to teach things that don’t make sense. I can actually build relationships.”
The most inspiring moments are every time I talk to a student and they tell me about something they’re leading. And I knew this to be the case. If you get out of young people’s way, the world will be better. They know what they’re doing. We limit them. And so that’s been really cool and inspiring.
LG: What’s the opportunity for learning that you’re running towards and what’s important in your community right now?
KW: Continuous learning is one of my core values. And I think it’s so important to remember that we’re learning from each other and from a community. One of the things to uplift that I don’t hear enough is there’s so much ancestral wisdom that exists within our student bodies. Whether that’s a grandmother who is a community organizer or it shows up in ways that have not been traditionally valued by our systems.
Our flagship location exists in the Englewood neighborhood and before our school existed, it was a vacant building that had a wonderful history. There’s been multiple generations who’ve lived in that Englewood neighborhood and one of the iterations of our physical location was the first amusement park that allowed Black folks to come to the park. Because a lot of times, our white students hear and feel the weight of decisions that happened way before them, but [now] they also get to hear some redemptive stories that happened right in their neighborhood.
And the folks whose parents or ancestors were part of that neighborhood get to appreciate that. A lot of our Black and Indigenous students can’t trace back their ancestry. So we’ve had some really cool projects to dig into your family history, see what you can learn. Be proud of who you are.
LG: If we have this conversation again in five years, what do you think we’ll be talking about?
KW: What’s really exciting to me is our ten-year target to give students access and opportunity so that they can change the world. We’re making future change makers. We’re going to see our students working on a legislative level. I would love to see our school full of teachers who were once students at our school. That’s a really beautiful thing.
We run three schools now. We have plans to grow. I’d love to see some of the practices that we have learned that are really good – in student agency, student voice and choice, competency-based education – spread throughout the state. It’s not even that people have to say, I learned this from PPHS. The win is when it’s just what education is, not “we’re trying something that Purdue’s doing.”
LG: Where are opportunities in Indiana that are giving you hope? Are there places where you see some possible strands to weave together?
KW: What I feel really good about is our state superintendent, Dr. Katie Jenner. I think she understands. She’s bold in her leadership. She’s understanding that what we’re doing right now doesn’t work. She’s a state chief that actually cares about diverse perspectives. You don’t always get that, which is really great. So I know that I can reach out to her and share ideas. And so that’s what gives me hope in our state.
LG: If you could magically change something today, is there something? What would it be and how would that shift the trajectory of your work?
KW: If I could magically change something, it would be funding. We could do so much more. I’m grateful for the work we’re allowed to do and the funding that we have, but we’re not funded at the same level as other schools. I think if we even had equitable funding, we could do more for our students.
When they walk into the school building, I want our students to feel like somebody cared about me when they created the space or when we co-created the space together. And so funding would open a ton of doors.
For instance, our students love robotics. Our students love coding. Coding is not super expensive, but just some of that hardware and software, the software is not as expensive as the hardware that students in more affluent neighborhoods get access to. That’s something that I’m really passionate about, making sure our students have access to the same things that folks in neighborhoods with higher tax brackets get access to because of that tax base. The environment in Indiana is great, and with just a little more funding, we could do more of what we’re already doing.
LG: Absolutely. What lessons or messages or calls to actions do you want to share with the Aurora community and the larger education innovation community?
KW: It’s important to think about the future of work and to reflect on the actual environments that our students are living in. The world is different. Let’s make sure that our educational practices match that. I can’t think of how many times I heard a math teacher – and I was a math teacher too – say, “Don’t use a calculator because you won’t have one in your pocket.” But we kind of do.
We’re in an information age. We’re at a point where we don’t have to really memorize facts unless we’re trying to win jeopardy. We want to make sure we are not wasting students’ time when they’re with us because students are telling us that they’re bored. They don’t see how school, especially in high school, is leading to their future success.
Then the second thing I would say is to get out of the way and let students lead. They are ready. They are knowledgeable. The information age puts them light years ahead of at least where I was as a child. So there’s many more responsibilities we can give them. I think schools have come a long way in not making kids sit in straight rows and things like that, but we have to continue to push the envelope so that our students can compete globally. I’ve seen students do amazing things when we get out of their way.
LG: Do you have a favorite example of a student leading something maybe tied to an example project?
KW: For years, we always ask our students, what are we doing well? What are we not doing well? And they give us the hard truths.For the longest time, it had gone great until they said, “The school lunch is really, really bad.” So the students had a project about how to improve the school lunch. We now have an all-scratch kitchen. Before we were using a vendor that also supplies food for prison. Something about that didn’t quite feel right.
It took a couple of years, but we did a really great press release with the mayor of Indianapolis, the mayor’s office, and other partners who helped this come about. It took a ton of funding and resources. We had a student-led press conference where the students answered all the questions. It was incredible. It was a proud moment.
The students saw a problem, solved the problem, and got to lead. A lot of times once the problem is solved, someone like me might do the press conference, but no, the students did it. And I promise you it was way better than I would have ever done. It was awesome.
LG: I love that story. Thank you. Anything else that you’d like to add that we haven’t talked about yet?
KW: I think it’s important to emphasize how important communities like Aurora are to this work. This year was my third convening. Every year you come together with folks and realize, “I’m not the only one doing this work, it’s been done for years and there’s a support system.” That’s really important to the work.
LG: That’s a beautiful gift to end on. Thank you so much.