ALERT: Position Practicum!

Students 2.0

21st Century Education: Thinking Creatively

Posted: 22 Jan 2008 01:15 AM CST

This was originally written for publication for my school’s newsletter’s edition on “21^st century learning”. I present it to you here not as an attempt to present any new ideas, but in the hope that it might help to pull together many of the ideas that are floating around in online education discussions. Those familiar with Dan Pink might see some of his influence here. Enjoy.

Twenty-first century education won’t be defined by any new technology. It won’t be defined by 1:1 laptop programs or tech-intensive projects.

Twenty-first century education will, however, be defined by a fundamental shift in what we are teaching—a shift towards learner-centered education and creating creative thinkers.

Today’s world is no longer content with students who can simply apply the knowledge they learned in school: our generation will be asked to think and operate in ways that traditional education has not, and can not, prepare us for.

Education has long tried to produce students who can think (and at times, think critically) and it has, for the most part, succeeded. As we move into a world where outsourcing, automation, and the ability to produce a product, physical or intellectual, at the cheapest cost, become the cornerstones of our rapidly evolving global economy, the ability to think critically is no longer enough.

The need to know the capital of Florida died when my phone learned the answer.

Rather, the students of tomorrow need to be able to think creatively: they will need to learn on their own, adapt to new challenges and innovate on-the-fly. As the realm of intellectual accessibility expands at amazing rates (due to greater global collaboration and access to information), students of tomorrow will need to be their own guides as they explore the body of information that is at their fingertips.

My generation will be required to learn information quickly, use that information to solve new and novel problems, and then present those solutions in creative and effective ways. The effective students of tomorrow’s world will be independent learners, strong problem solvers and effective designers.

If we accept the above to be true, I would argue that there are two types of education that will prepare students for the world of tomorrow: experiential learning and project-based learning.

Experiential learning can be best seen in extracurriculars and in some schools, senior projects. These experiences give students the opportunity to face first-hand the challenges that arise when applying the theoretical knowledge provided by traditional classroom learning to real-world challenges. Light designing for MICDS Theatre has taught me how to take my technical knowledge of lighting and apply it to a creative and artistic end. As issues arise, I must problem-solve within the constraints provided by my technical knowledge and my creative vision—I must think creatively.

Project-based learning is the in-class complement of experiential learning. The concept behind project-based learning is simple: give students the basic tools, then ask them to go above and beyond on their own projects, exploring the information in their own way, and on their own terms. The effect can be awe-inspiring. Our students are diving deeper into subject matter than ever before, and doing so on their own terms in ways that they enjoy. Whether it is through producing a movie on burlesque dance or deriving Kepler’s laws using calculus, students are not only learning, but they are learning how to learn.

Traditional-rote learning has its place too, as a jumping-off point for our intellectual endeavors.

We are, however, crippling our students if we don’t give them the tools necessary to be life-long learners.

Video: Learning by Design (Communities of Designers)

Video: Learning by Design: Build San Francisco Institute

Architectural projects and internships help students build math and science skills.

Studios for the Mind!

Master Classroom: Designs Inspired by Creative Minds

Let Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Jamie Oliver show you the future.

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by Randall Fielding
Jeffery Lackney
Prakash Nair

Laddies Who Lunch:

English chef Jamie Oliver, with one of his own creations -- and a satisfied customer -- has cooked up his own design for a perfect learning environment.

Credit: Corbis

The industrial era had a long run, both gritty and great, but it's over. The problem is, someone forgot to tell the education establishment. In schools across America, the factory model is still alive, and nowhere is it more readily apparent than in the classroom.

In these little factories, every day we can find teachers encouraged (and often compelled) to mass produce learning and marginalize the differences in aptitudes, interests, and abilities. The industrial-age classroom was not all bad in its time; after all, America did all right in its heyday. But this model is no place to prepare students for the fast-changing global society they will inherit.

As school planners and architects, we challenge communities and clients to explain why a regimental row of desks facing a chalkboard needs to remain as a school's primary building block. We ask them to review the eighteen modes of learning (see www.designshare.com) that educators accept as essential for success in today's world, so they can see how a traditional classroom can accommodate only two or three of them.

But if not the old-style classroom, then what? How should the model evolve? In exploring this question with educators around the world, we've come up with at least three distinct "studios." To help us, we called on illustrious thinkers who shaped the ideas of their times: Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and a modern master named Jamie Oliver. Destroying the traditional learning environment and creating something entirely new was a major challenge for our three maestros, but here's what they came up with.

Laboratory in Three Dimensions:

Leonardo da Vinci's work space would incorporate the hands-on elements of an artist's studio, a science lab, and a model-building shop.

Credit: DESIGNSHARE

The Da Vinci Studio: Action Through Synthesis of Knowledge

In the coming years, no educational paradigm shift will be more forcefully felt than the enrichment of disciplines through cross-pollination. Context and connection are fundamentally changing the way teachers teach and students learn. Not only are we hurtling at breakneck speed into an era in which traditional hard lines between the arts and the sciences are blurring, but we are also doing so with one eye firmly fixed on the way design can help the left brain and the right brain work in harmony.

Leonardo da Vinci has already provided a highly workable model for how this shift might be accomplished. In da Vinci's world, the lines between the disciplines, pervasive in today's schools, were absent; the works he did as a scientist, mathematician, and artist all informed the other efforts. No wonder one can look at his scientific drawings and wonder whether they were meant to be works of art and at his artwork and marvel at its scientific rigor. This kind of free-flowing interchange was accomplished in a workplace that was part artist's studio, part science lab, and part model-building shop.

So, what would a modern-day da Vinci studio look like as a classroom? Imagine a place with lots of daylight and directed artificial light, connection to an outdoor deck through wide or rolling doors (for messy projects), access to water, power supplied from a floor or ceiling grid, a wireless computer network, lots of storage, a floor finish that is hard to damage, high ceilings, places to display finished projects, reasonable acoustic separation, and transparency to the inside and outside with the potential for good views and vistas.

To take full advantage of today's da Vinci studio, teachers would need to collaborate more, offer students the opportunity to work on real projects, and encourage cross-disciplinary thinking in a way rarely seen within the four walls of traditional, unrevised schools.

Relatively Reflective:

Albert Einstein preferred solitude in his work. His studio would be the place to go for inspiration -- whether from sitting quietly with your own thoughts, enjoying a view of the outdoors, or strolling in nature.

Credit: DESIGNSHARE

The Einstein Studio: Creative Reflection and Inspired Collaboration

Albert Einstein's workplace was more study than studio. Preferring solitude and connections to nature, Einstein gave himself lots of time to stay in his own head. Because so much of what he did was cerebral, his inspiration could have come during quiet walks and in places other than his primary workplace (among other activities, he loved sailing on Long Island's Peconic Bay).

His official workplace may simply have let him develop ideas he had generated elsewhere. And so, when we talk about the Einstein studio today, we do so more in a metaphorical sense than as a way to actually duplicate Einstein's workplace in the modern school.

We can imagine that today's Einstein studio might include a place that encourages creative reflection, an inspiring setting not sealed off from the world outside or from those real problems and issues that must always have some place in abstract theorizing. To imagine an Einsteinian classroom, conjure the various ways the main lobby of a five-star hotel is furnished: It welcomes people alone or in small groups, it offers comfortable furnishings, it may nurture aspiration and inspiration with high ceilings, lots of glass, and easy connection to natural elements and water features, and it creates zones of privacy that remain firmly connected to the activity throughout the larger space.

A school isn't a five-star hotel, of course, but planners can still draw on this vision for inspiration despite budgetary constraints. The Einstein studio can also be a movable feast, a portable state of mind to be re-created around a shade tree in the spring or on a class nature walk.

Think also about visually connecting the Einstein and da Vinci studios -- one a venue for inspiration, the other a place for inspired action.

The Jamie Oliver Studio: Nourishing Mind, Body, and Spirit

Having spent some time learning from the masters of the past, whose legacy spans centuries of human history, we now turn to an unlikely hero from today's world: young English chef and entrepreneur Jamie Oliver. Using food preparation, a venerable art form, Oliver gives people a reason to celebrate a common goal -- to eat well and be healthy.

As a de facto educator, he speaks to members of the young generation about realizing their potential and making good decisions, about personal choice and real alternatives to success found in unfamiliar places far from the beaten path. But in an era that values the notion of lifelong learning, Oliver's message also resonates powerfully with other age groups.

In today's school, the Oliver studio would be a teaching kitchen connected to a cafe. With student participation as the centerpiece of its operations, it would contain a mirrored cooking station visible to the whole "class" and small, round cafe tables with comfortable chairs. Like the Einstein studio (but unlike the da Vinci studio), the Oliver studio could occupy a space with soft edges. That means it doesn't need to be defined by four walls, but might spill over into circulation areas and also onto outdoor patios. As with the other studios, the Oliver studio's design is limited only by the constraints of a particular site, the needs of the community it serves, and the imagination of its designer.

Money is a factor, of course, as it always is, but imagination is a powerful currency not often accounted for in the red and black ink of budgets. As a place for physical, emotional, and spiritual nourishment, the Oliver studio can be located so that it serves both the da Vinci and Einstein studios.

Once you begin to think of how creative thinkers actually work, the classroom as factory becomes a mere enforcer of conformity, and far more satisfying possibilities arise. Unless you have the good luck to be able to start from scratch, the trick is to adapt new design ideas into existing spaces. It's a tricky trick, but one well worth mastering.

Prakash Nair, Randall Fielding, and Jeffery Lackney are futurists and architects with Fielding Nair International, which has developed award-winning schools around the world. Write to them at prakash@designshare.com, fielding@designshare.com, and lackney@designshare.com.

SIDEBAR: 10 Ways to Outthink the Box

Credit: DESIGNSHARE

1. Discard the mental model: Remember that the classroom "box" exists not only as a physical place but as a mental one as well. Determine to get rid of an outdated idea.

2. Assign a group project: Have your students research school design (use our Web site, DesignShare.com, as a resource) to figure out an alternative way to furnish the box.

3. Develop an "activities matrix": Decide which of the eighteen learning modalities (search for that term on our Web site to find the list) can be reasonably accommodated in the classroom spaces.

4. Soft is good: Make sure the plan includes soft seating -- beanbag chairs, cushions, a couch, and upholstered chairs are all worth considering -- for a less rigid feel.

5. Pretest the design: Using graph paper and templates for furniture, examine the various ways the room can be arranged to facilitate different modes of learning.

6. Raise funds, get used furniture, seek merchant donations: Develop and implement a plan to raise money for new furniture, or (better still) approach local corporations and other businesses for donations of their used furniture that matches what your desired plan calls for. Ask your local home-improvement store to donate paint and equipment to build display boards, shelves, windowsills, and so on.

7. Make it green: Use this project as a conscious exercise in environmental responsibility by choosing indigenous materials, connecting with outdoors and nature (if possible), and expending minimal resources.

8. Do it yourself: If students build it, they will love it, take care of it, and feel the satisfaction of passing a new environment on to future classes.

9. Down with walls: If you have a bit of renovation money, take down some walls to facilitate team teaching, create social space, and break out of corridors.

10. New space, new practices: Let your teaching style, and the way students learn, take advantage of what you have created.

This article was also published in Edutopia Magazine, June 2006

Please...I tried to locate

Submitted by Lisa-Gaye (not verified) on January 9, 2008 - 14:24.

Please...I tried to locate the '18 learning modalities' on the Edutopia site, but the only link was this article! Can someone point me in the right direction? :-)

• reply

studio spaces

Submitted by real teacher (not verified) on January 9, 2008 - 10:45.

I too have spent much time and energy developing plans for dream classrooms. However, once you are given 40 desks to fit into the "box" and all those energetic students for each seat, the ideal of bean bag chairs isn't practical. In addition, NCLB has made art, science, nature, and history irrelevant to today's schools--that is the real tragedy. Everything boils down to a test that focuses on vocabulary and lower level thinking skills. Talk to your president if you want to move away from the factory model of education. Remember, factory workers are easier to control than a populace that can evalulate ideas, detect biases and think outside of the box.

• reply

The illustrations I have

Submitted by John (not verified) on January 8, 2008 - 15:13.

The illustrations I have looked at thus far do not seem to show accessible facilities. They are beautiful.

• reply

outdoor science classroom

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 9, 2007 - 10:59.

I need a model for east because that is a project that she gave me so i need a model or a sketch of an outdoor science classroom to use for my project.

• reply

I appreciate your colective

Submitted by Hal Hart (not verified) on October 26, 2007 - 22:55.

I appreciate your colective expertise. As an architect, planner and person working with school districts for the past 20 years, I have to say that your message and th way you package it is not for the masses and it should be. I would like to konw, if any one of you has surveyed an exsting building personally, crawled through the crawl spaces and attic spaces, met with staff, designed a building, hanndled the construction phase and conducted a post oppucancy evaluation? My guess is NO!
Welcome to my world fellows, and that of many others like me. Your ehterial words are heeded, and respected. But gentlemen, YOU HAVE NO CLUE.

Creativity & Innovation, Disruptive (Digital Learning) Technology, Openism, the Larger Conversation! Communities of Practice!

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Another Year ANOTHER Global Trade Mission PROJECT!

Automation Alley seeks sponsors for virtual global trade mission for students

Posted on 1/3/2008 8:08:57 PM Automation Alley, the Troy-based technology business promotion group for Southeast Michigan, said this week it has partnered with the Macomb Intermediate School District, Oakland Community College and Oakland Schools to host its upcoming virtual, student-based Global Trade Mission and is currently seeking sponsors and volunteers. Automation Alley’s GTM is a business simulation that prepares Southeast Michigan high school students for work in the global economy. With collaboration from business, education, and government, the GTM stands as a regional response to the challenges of the new global economy. More than 200 students from Genesee, Macomb, and Oakland counties will learn skills for global citizenship; develop business solutions to trade challenges using the tools and information of the global marketplace; work hand-in-hand with business and trade experts; explore emerging careers in the region; and develop team skills to work effectively across diverse backgrounds. “Offering high school students the opportunity to learn about international business at an early age is key to building our future knowledge-based economy,” said Ken Rogers, Automation Alley executive director. “As the world becomes increasingly flat and our economy diversifies, it is our hope that students explore new career opportunities.” The GTM this year will be held at the Macomb Educational Service Center in Clinton Township from April 3-5 and Oakland Community College on Feb. 28, 29 and March 1. Volunteer opportunities include being a cultural ambassador and educating the students on your home country; a cultural or business coach; helping students with their business plans; or a presentation evaluator. Available sponsorships include a Career and College Fair Sponsor at $5,000; a Global Trade Sponsor at $3,500; an Internship Sponsor at $2,500 and a Challenge Sponsor at $1,500. Other sponsorships are welcome. If you are interested in participating or would like additional information, visit www.automationalley.com or call (800) 427-5100.

HOW! HARK: A Crack in the Ivory Tower!

Techlearning blog

« Getting Started With Blogging in the Classroom | Main | A model for permeable classrooms »

Semi-Permeable

An essential concept in the study of biology is that of permeability. As a former biology teacher, it was my experience that students often struggled with this concept and what impermeable, permeable, and semi-permeable meant and how it applied to things such as diffusion and osmosis (you remember those, right?).

Permeability can be applied to other concepts besides biology. Specifically, the concept of permeability can apply to learning communities, and how open and closed they are to their members, and potential members. In a typical high school, learning communities are fragmented and isolated, if they even exist at all. It’s unlikely that any of us would label a typical high school classroom, with its characteristic five rows of six desks, limited access to information and conversation, a learning community. Very little interaction exists within the classroom, and interaction from sources outside the four walls of the classroom is generally non-existent-the classroom walls, in effect, are impermeable.

That certainly can be changed, and the tools (blogs, wikis, social networking, RSS, etc.) we have now at our disposal make it doable and achievable, but many things have to fall into place. Teachers have to be willing, the technology must be available, administrators must understand the need, and the school’s climate and culture, which is greatly influenced by the community that the school serves, must be supportive.

So, as a result, the formation of learning communities in schools depends greatly on the school itself. What is a solution, or a plan, in one school may not be a solution, or a plan, in another. Additionally, even within a school, there may be different needs-some teachers may be ready, others may be not so ready, so that a plan for building learning communities needs to be flexible and scaleable, and provide the necessary infrastructure to meet the varying needs of the different constituents of the school. One size does not fit all...

There is no right or wrong answer to building learning communities, but I do think there is a basic flow.

If the end goal is to help students and classrooms build learning communities with individuals and other schools or classrooms, and make the classroom permeable, you have to start with the teachers. Teachers have to learn the tools, learn how to connect and contribute (typically through a blog), learn how to manage time and feeds, learn how to adjust the membership of their learning community, and learn how to accept being criticized when their ideas oppose those of others. Teachers need to see firsthand the benefits of a learning community, and what it means to their personal learning, before it can ever translate successfully to students. To get learning communities to develop and stick, start with teachers first.

From there, I’m interested in building skills in students that will make them successful when they ultimately join wide-open learning communities. I’m teaching them how to read blog posts, how to collaboratively create content in wikis, how to comment appropriately, how to manage RSS feeds, and how to manage content resources with social bookmarking tools. I'm teaching them how to operate in a community. And I’m teaching them all about safety.

Is this a necessary step? Ask yourself-yes or no? If no, stop reading this post. If your answer was yes, then what’s the best way to do that?

What’s the best way to do that on a large scale, and in a systemic way? Where you can impact the most teachers and the most kids, in the most effective and safe way? I’m not talking just blogging now, I’m talking about building learning communities, which is what I’m interested in. Blogging OK, I get it. But that’s just a part of a larger goal.

You can do all of that in a number of ways. You can do it by asking teachers to manage multiple online tools that all work differently and require different management requirements. Or you can do it with a content management system where all of this is under one roof. And before some of you go CMS on me, you could also do it with Ning, couldn't you?

So, what's the plan? Expose the most teachers and kids to these capabilities, teach them in a controlled environment, where teachers and students, mostly new to the process of working in a learning community, can make their mistakes without too high of a cost? Or maybe the plan is to stay "true to the process" and put the kids out there, really out there, but certainly prepare them prior with what they need to know.

I’ll take Door #1 Bob, the semi-permeable classroom, where true community is first established within the classroom. That’s just me. It might not be you.

I think a classroom must be semi-permeable before it can become a permeable classroom.

Creating a truly permeable classroom is a major change in how classrooms work. It is a big departure from where most classrooms are now. You just don’t change that overnight with a few commonly available tools, and just by blogging. It’ll require a great deal of professional support and curriculum design, with a great deal of reflection and course-correction. I’ll approach that carefully. The stakes are too high not to.

And when the time comes, I’d turn them loose. When the specific curricular needs suggest a permeable experience is warranted, I’d turn them loose. When the teacher says, we need to connect outside of our classroom because of this and this, I’d turn them loose. When the teacher says I’m ready and so are my kids, I’d turn them loose.

But I’m crawling before I’m walking.

images from istockphoto.com

Posted by David Jakes on December 27, 2007 3:57 AM | Permalink

Comments

I've been seriously groping with this issue on my campus lately David. As the tech. specialist for my school I've really taken the tact of keying in on 2 to 3 individual teachers and working with them solely to build their knowledge and comfortability with working with these tools.

From my experience is this, it's not so much the teachers who have been unwilling to change their teaching practices, it's the administrations unwillingness to change from antiquated learning practices. Which to continue with your permeability references, the learning is quite non-opaque

Posted by: Tom Turner | December 27, 2007 2:11 PM

Permeability (even semi-permeability) is more easily said than done. Most teachers (heck, myself too) find it much easier to stay in the rut, in the comfort area, in the "I am in control" area and have to fight daily (even by the minute) with getting past all those barriers that truly allow one (and one's class)to able to be permeable.

It is very hard to take risks -- and most schools are not as fortunate as the school that you work at, that Tom works at, and that I work at that have the capable teacher support that assists, guides, and equips them to feel safe with being permeable. Hopefully, that will continue to change as more educators demand "tech support"!

It is always the baby steps and not the giant leaps forward that get most of us to where we are going. I see evidence DAILY of teachers being willing to open their minds to new ideas, to trying things they have never done before, to becoming "permeable" (if you will).....but it is very hard thing to do. I am just glad that I am there to assist them as they learn to not only be permeable but to also be pliable.

Good post. Lots to think about!

Posted by: Jennifer Wagner | December 27, 2007 3:28 PM

I have been giving this a lot of thought lately. In fact enough thought that I am looking seriously at moving back into the classroom. I think what I need is to prove to myself that I can make it work. Then as a school we can move forward. Then as a district and so forth.

I also think we need more great examples of this working. We need more who are making it work to let their stories into the wild. More like Brian Crosby and Clarence Fisher and others. Then we need to point these examples out to others.

Posted by: Kelly Dumont | December 27, 2007 4:10 PM

Tom: I think that working with a small group of teachers first is generally a good idea. See what works, what doesn't and build momentum towards the inclusion of more teachers. And I would agree with you on the admin part; how many use these tools and understand their implications for classroom learning? I know of several districts where the administrators do use Web 2.0 tools, and it makes for a completely different set of expectations for teachers. That's a good thing, because the support and the infrastructure to support permeable classrooms is likely to be more available.

Jen: there certainly are many barriers to developing permeable classrooms, and risk -taking is one of them. One of the success stories in my school district has been using a CMS to reduce both the barriers and the risk-taking. We've been successful in helping teachers take those small steps, and over time, this can indeed result in significant change. Unfortunately, while I do agree with you that there are teachers out there who recognize the need for a different type of classroom, and a different type of learning, pressure from high-stakes testing and the enormous pressure of AYP pushes schools is just the opposite direction. I don't think that these are necessarily mutually-exclusive, but in many instances, schools (read administration here)seem to be moving backwards to try and meet these goals.

Kelly: I've given that more than one thought myself. When I left the classroom, none of this was available. Part of me would like to see what I could accomplish with my own students. I do get to work with students on a daily basis, but it's different.

And I agree, the stuff Clarence Fisher and Barbara Barreda, along with Darren Kuropatwa, will help us all understand how to create a different type of classroom.

Thanks for your comments.

Posted by: David Jakes | December 27, 2007 7:04 PM

Tom: I think that working with a small group of teachers first is generally a good idea. See what works, what doesn't and build momentum towards the inclusion of more teachers. And I would agree with you on the admin part; how many use these tools and understand their implications for classroom learning? I know of several districts where the administrators do use Web 2.0 tools, and it makes for a completely different set of expectations for teachers. That's a good thing, because the support and the infrastructure to support permeable classrooms is likely to be more available.

Jen: there certainly are many barriers to developing permeable classrooms, and risk -taking is one of them. One of the success stories in my school district has been using a CMS to reduce both the barriers and the risk-taking. We've been successful in helping teachers take those small steps, and over time, this can indeed result in significant change. Unfortunately, while I do agree with you that there are teachers out there who recognize the need for a different type of classroom, and a different type of learning, pressure from high-stakes testing and the enormous pressure of AYP pushes schools in just the opposite direction. I don't think that these are necessarily mutually-exclusive, but in many instances, schools (read administration here)seem to be moving backwards to try and meet these goals.

Kelly: I've given that more than one thought myself. When I left the classroom, none of this was available. Part of me would like to see what I could accomplish with my own students. I do get to work with students on a daily basis, but it's different.

And I agree, the stuff Clarence Fisher and Barbara Barreda, along with Darren Kuropatwa, will help us all understand how to create a different type of classroom.

Thanks for your comments.

Posted by: David Jakes | December 27, 2007 7:08 PM

A directory of exemplar examples of teachers using emerging technologies at different grade levels and within different content areas would be a great asset for all of us working with teachers. How do we collaborate to create such a directory as a dynamic document? Or does one exist already?

Posted by: Lucie deLaBruere | December 28, 2007 10:18 PM

Lucie: I'm not aware of any such list, although it would certainly be helpful. A wiki would be the easiest way to do that, in my opinion.

I would point you to the following blogs of educators who, in my opinion, offer best practice classroom techniques, from several perspectives:

Clarence Fisher
http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/

Barbara Barreda
http://dare-to-dream--classroom-technology.blogspot.com/

Darren Kuropatwa
http://adifference.blogspot.com/

Konrad Glogowski
http://teachandlearn.ca/blog/

I would also suggest getting a Twitter account if you do not have one, and follow some of the educators there. There are lots of good ideas there, and it is a logical place to connect with others who share the same passions.

Posted by: David Jakes | January 1, 2008 4:47 PM

HARK!

Is this the sound of the ole impremeable "ivory tower" cracking?

Take note the students are well on their way over at Students 2.0 http://www.students2oh.org/

I'm sure they would be glad to lend a hand and minds to this effort.

Come on in the waters fine.

Much continued success here.

Best,

Jim

Posted by: Jim Ross | January 3, 2008 6:36 AM

WHAT!

Empower teachers, principals

A smarter idea gets left behind in NCLB act

January 3, 2008

BY BARRY McGHAN

A recent state report, that nearly 50% of Michigan high schools failed to meet important goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law, is nothing new. It's the message we've heard for 40 years: Schools are bad and getting worse.

Not surprisingly, the peons of the system -- school principals and teachers -- are offered up as sacrifices by NCLB, in collusion with powerful special interests who control the purse strings and rules of this 19th Century education system we keep trying to whip into shape for a 21st Century world.

Crack! "Teach those kids!"

"If you don't, we'll give them to other schools, leaving you fewer resources to do your job. We expect things to become so hopeless you'll need to have your school reorganized. You'll be out of work!"

Crack! "Have we got your attention, yet?"

This all-stick-no-carrot approach perpetuates a top-down system where power is held by people who have no accountability for the work to be done. The accountability rests on people who have the least control over the situation.

This is crazy.

So, is NCLB a bad law? Yes and no.

The law has a good heart. But that's about all.

At its heart is the idea that all children can succeed in school, no matter their sex, color, family finances, parents' education, home language or any other factor. Beyond that, the law has problems.

For example, it lets states set their own goals for achievement. They understandably set them as low as feasible. Coincidentally, Michigan, desperately deep in recession, decided it could teach its way back to financial health by raising high school standards to unrealistic college entrance levels -- "all students can learn" on steroids.

Producing college-ready students starts in the home for most, and progresses step-by-step through the grades. It takes time. Kids from families unlucky enough to fall below the middle class require special efforts -- preschool, early intervention, and so on. If they missed those benefits, more is needed: special alternative schools and programs. That's a tall order for a state that can barely put a budget together.

The education power brokers -- politicians, state and district bureaucrats, experts in universities and think tanks, teachers unions -- impoverished of ideas, are little help to impoverished students. Commands from on high have not worked. They will not work.

The best the powers-that-be can do is empower the peons to do the job, and get out of the way. Give individual schools the autonomy they need to accomplish their mission as they see fit.

The bureaucracy should give schools decision-making authority, as well as control over most of the resources to implement those decisions. Individual schools need to control at least 95% of the money their students bring into a district.

This idea is hugely threatening to current power brokers. Further, making this transition to a leaner, meaner, more agile system will be very disruptive. At first, schools will flounder, some more than others. It's a price that has to be paid.

Take heart. There are reasons to believe the transition can succeed.

Let me tell you about Lula and Lois.

Grandma Lula taught more than 40 years in country schools in west Michigan. She loved her students, respected their parents, kept a laser-like focus on student achievement. She was a force to be reckoned with, known and loved (or at least respected) throughout the county.

A generation later, Lois, my late mother-in-law, another no-nonsense teacher, had a similar approach to her work with second graders in city schools. Other teachers loved to receive students from her classroom -- they could all read! Students, long gone from her class, kept in touch, as did their parents.

Most of the teachers I've known over 40 years of working in schools are good, honest, responsible people like Lula and Lois, doing their very best to help students. They are beaten down by the bureaucracy, disrespected by the press and much of the public, captives to a system that offers little more than a paycheck as a reason to keep up the good fight.

Many Michigan teachers are ready to take on managing their own schools for the benefit of their students. They need the "daddy-may-I" power brokers to become "sister-can-I-help" coprofessionals. They need a system in which parents have more choices for schooling their children, so that a better match can be found between a school's mission and a family's needs. They need an assessment system that enlightens the task ahead. Something more than ...

Crack! "Do better, or else!"

BARRY McGHAN, 68, of Fenton worked for the Flint Schools for 33 years, 20 as a teacher and 13 in a variety of nonteaching curriculum specialist positions. He retired in 1995 and founded the Center for Public School Renewal (www.publicschoolrenewal.org ). Write to him in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226 or at oped@freepress.com.