Round 4: Read & Explore (Reports)

Teams were given a broad selection of reading materials--chapters from groundbreaking books, articles on future treands, case studies of innovative education pilots--and the participants were instructed to both discuss what they learned and apply their learning to real world situations.

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Teams 1 & 2: Rosemary Andrews, Darrell Barnes, Robin Groene, Carol Hilker, Dan Publow, Norm Ronell, Dan Schnoes, Vickie Scow, Bob Uhing, Kristine Wurtz, Gary Bolton, Terri Gross, Darin Hahne, Rhonda Jindra, Marla Prusa, Jim Scheer, Marlene Uhing, Lynne Webster, Debra Welsh

What is Education?
The first idea was a discussion of what education is according to the assigned readings. Communication is key in education. Schools must try to keep barriers low and widely spaced. Staff development and support for classroom teachers is integral to success. Schools should have an organized plan with measurable data and be careful with the pace and overload.

Change
The second idea discussed was change. The group looked at change with the perspective of how it fits in with education. In order to facilitate change there must be a buy in at the top, middle, and low levels. Communication is key to change and schools must provide the skills to make change easier. Change starts on the outside with the employees and external forces. Techniques to use to precipitate change are to get teachers to participate: persuade them to be involved and provide incentives. Some isolate themselves and need ventilation (a breath of fresh air) or need to move on. Don’t manage change, grapple it. It is okay to tinker with the small things. Tinker with a college education. Pace back and forth and use what is within. Hire generalists and use data to measure the impact of change. Keep in mind that rapid growth or change is usually started by a handful. Commitment or support from the top is integral to successful change. Schools must have an identifiable plan.

High School Experience
The third idea was the high school experience. Participants were referred to education list (first idea.) It was commented that procedures for change need to be good in order for it to happen. Schools must listen more to the outside, very important.


Flow Chart
The group had a flow chart denoting the process of the three ideas discussed. The first thing schools need to do is identify a need. What is the problem? Do we need to just do it better?

Use data to find needs for school improvement. Surveys and interviews can also be used. The second step is to build a team. What is the mission? Who are the leaders, power groups, and volunteers? The third step is to make a plan that includes being organized. Objectives should be measurable. When and where is the pacing for the plan? Motivation and staff development are important components to the plan. Step number four is implementation of the plan. The school board, staff, students, community should be involved.

Get them on board. Schools need to recognize successes. The fourth step is monitoring. What data is needed? Who is in charge of supervision? Schools must continue building participation and not be afraid to tinker with it. The fifth step is to make the process available to others both inside and outside the school. Schools use the media to put information out there and trust them to report it. Schools need exposure of the good things they do!

Comments or questions from participants:

• What is the meaning of “keep barriers low and widely spaced?”
• The process is very similar to the School Improvement Process.
• You have an interesting combination for building a team. There are certain people you want to get involved and others who want to help
• As a member of an external visiting team for SIP we found that “make a plan” and “implement” might need improvement to fill gaps.

Team 3

All of our articles were on change. We focused on knowing the purpose of change. We’re going to try to develop learning communities. The change will have to be our idea. We can’t have it come from the outside if it’s going to stick.

Some people are resistant to change, some embrace it. As a leader it’s important to identify who is who.

Seomtimes we talk about good things to do and they may just need to be tinkered with to make them great. To tinker on a larger scale we call kludge. So it’s all tinker and kludge.

There may be some things in your mission that are non-negotiable that you will not itnker with. It’s good to identify those.

We don’t want to wait too long before you look at the data. You want to evaluate on an on-going basis. We want to enact change, look at the reactions and make adjustments. We want to evaluate whether change is lasting. Is it tied to the leader or will it last even beyond their tenure.

We want to loop these changes so they keep going. Our system here follows the change process. Sometimes we have a process but we don’t use it. That’s why we need a learning community.

Comment: When you develop change as part of policy then even when someone leaves, it continues on.

Also, when it’s good change it will make a difference in the system. There may be different ideas of what is good change.

Team 4

Our group looked at ways to develop a process that we can take back. What’s written in red are ideas and in blue is our process. The first thing we needed was knowing the why we were changing. If things are good, then why change.

We showed how to demonstrate the disparity between where we are and where we want to go.

If we have 80% of our students that show proficiency, then my staff isn’t going to be convinced that we need to change.

We did an experiment where the teachers drafted students; the at-risk students first. There werne’t a lot of the teachers who wanted them as their advisees. We want to personalize this experience for them.

When you come up with your why, you need to come up with a common mission. This is a bit difficult but it’s essential. Next we look at what’s working to build on strengths. We need to communicate with all the stakeholders to make it personal and make sure that this change occurs.

Some of our key thoughts were that innovation must come from the bottom up. We want to develop more personalized education for our kids. When Kennedy said we’re going to the moon. Someone asked him “how” and he said that that’s not his to worry about. This is same for us; we need to have a vision that will inspire other people to make this happen.

Stakeholders need to understand the need for change. We need frequent communication with everyone who is engaged in the change process as well as everyone in the community.

You have to decide how much change you’re willing to make and how much dissension you’re willing to take.

The biggest thing for us is that we need to make it personal. It has to connect for people.

You need to find a way to make the change hold.

Team 5


Teach for learning. Our first slide here shows the leadership piece. There needs to be some level of that in the community and within. It’s about doing good thing for kids. We had individualization in trying to . Proficiency might be met but we need to know what that means.

We talked about finding best practices for assessing learning and trying to get away from grades.

We have too many situations where students are cramming for tests. We need to have them be able to demonstrate proficiency without just being able to successfully take tests.

The fun part was to draw a picture of a factory which shows input and output with a set progression of steps regardless of ability. This is how education has been and this is exactly what we don’t want it to be.

If we have to blow up the whole system to be successful, It maybe legitimate but we hope we can come up with something else.

Question: How do you know what’s good?

That’s challenging, but we have to take baby steps. If we don’t give grades, how will universities know how to admit our students?

My daughter is in 6th grade and she is already consumed with her grades and getting only A’s.

There’s a balance that needs to be struck. Competition can be good but only in moderation.

Team 6

We had several ideas. One is the voice. It’s an easy to do experiment because it doesn’t cost money. Teachers give kids opportunities to do their own personalized planning in the class. Another option would be a focus circle. The first two weeks in class were community building and giving kids the opportunity to know one another and agree to what they wanted to learn over the year. They did three personalized projects each semester.

The next idea is about mentors. If we could implement it in every school that would be great. It would be an opportunity to build relations between kids and between kids and teachers. It might be once a month during a planning period—this approach was ineffective. The next year was every day and included half a lunch. It was more successful. We had 15 kids that came to the mentoring because it was about relationship and guidance about lots of things. I brought in treats as well! If you have a true mentoring period where you have time to talk that would be very valuable.

The last idea was “scary school”. We’d try it with a school. We’d take 15 kids integrated and interdisciplinary and one teacher. Just let them go and give them some facilitation. Let them be self-directed during the year. See how it goes. They might do more learning on their own in self-discovery than having a teacher stand in front of the room. Or we might have two teachers and 30 kids. One teacher might have a math science background and the other might have an English history background. It might last 4 hours each day. But it wouldn’t work with every content area (like art). Research says that direct instruction by a teacher is probably the best way that students learn. If students explore new subject area, they may learn something wrong. But this idea could be a senior seminar. Or if it were in a middle grade in a high school, it might work. In 10th grade they could do more exploring in English, for example. But we were playing with the idea. Critical thinking, communications and technology are the three skills that need to be combined.

Team 7

The articles concerned the individualized education plan, the connection between the student, the school and the parent and even out into the community. Everyone will need to have involvement in this kind of learning. We also need to rethink assessment. Assessment won’t go away but we need to change how we think about it.

We are so focused on assessment that we have lost track of learning. We’ve taken away the intrinsic value of lifelong learning because people think if it’s not on the test, it’s not worth learning. We need to make assessment meaningful to learning and not to politicians. It’s regressive as it is now. If you don’t get a certain score, you’re penalized. Entrance tests into college tend to be those kinds of assessments. One test doesn’t fit all.

Do we change for change sake? Change has to be meaningful. Some people feel a little overwhelmed. When in our lives as educators have we not needed to get better? It’s constant. There are no final hurdles to get over—there are always more hurdles. We ask teachers to change without telling them why and what the meaning is for. So they went to New Math without knowing why. Teachers feel like they’re jumping through hoops.

But don’t we need to make a quantum leap now—bigger than we’ve ever been asked to do. Bill Gates says there will be more change in the next ten years than there has been in the last 50. We’re like victims of change. We need to set aside a block of money to giver to elementary and High School so that they can use it to make their school better. They have to sell their ideas to the board, but they have access to the pool of money. This pushes the changes down the chain. They would have to come to some consensus among their staff.

Team 8

Connections
The students need to connect with the adults and other students; adults need to connect with one another. The staff needs to connect and support the process of understanding and engaging each other in the environment of learning and supporting the learning together.

School Families
School families or teams that support the middle school concept of learning communities. There are several examples of learning teams in place, even at the Postsecondary institution and can serve as examples of systems or processes for achieving this activity. The mentoring process and looping creates an opportunity to develop the relationships with a single or a few teachers and students. Seven through twelfth graders stay together and just add seventh graders each year.

School Leadership Role
The administrative presence is essential to the new process. The administrative understanding of what is occurring in the classrooms is essential. The opportunity to delegate versus assigning activities and create the buy in as well as demonstrating the administrative support to achieve the goal is crucial.

The Teacher Role
Creating ownership with teachers to achieve various activities and ensure their involvement, adoption, and the systemic adoption. Administrative support of the leadership roles of the teachers and continued support of the commitment for those activities is crucial to supporting change.

Grades
Should the traditional system be in place and is it truly an indication of learning that has occurred? The role of zero’s on assignments in some situations is not acceptable. The examples of creating an environment that does not accept zeros and might require students to complete the assignments after school, during lunch, or during athletic practice to resolve the issues ensures that the students do complete the assignments and do not receive a 0.

Team 9

It’s all about me
Creating a personalized school experience for the students is the goal of this idea. Promoting the Intrinsic motivation for students is a focus of this process and is designed to give students a voice and personalizing the curriculum to the current generation. Activities to excite the “Nintendo Age” of students and focus on the delivery and content for each individual student are the basic premise of “It’s all about me.”

From Kaiser to Advisor
Moving from the role of the teacher to an advisor role to support the student experience is the goal of this segment. Training and mindset shifts with the teachers to support the process of serving as an advisor are necessary. Becoming the true advocates that student deserve and engaging in the process to personalize the experience for students is the goal of this experiment.

Breaking the Mold
Metaphor: “Education is a machine. If a part breaks, fix it … and put it back into the machine.” The analogy is to create a connection to the entire process of education and support the machine throughout the life cycle.

Out with the old and in with the new paradigm

Management Techniques
Old Approach: Competition
New Approach: Cooperation

Grades
Old Approach: A,B,C,D,F
New Approach: Pass/Fail or demonstrated

Curriculum Goals
Old Approach: Best for colleges
New Approach: Best for students

Structure of School
Old Approach: Assembly line
New Approach: Customized for the student


Team 10

Learning Families
The first idea was that of the learning families that would connect with kids and create a teaming environment. The social aspects are used to create an affective filter through the building of a relationship. The “looping” effect would occur with the opportunity for a teacher to stay with the students for four years.

Abolishing Grades
The idea was to create different varying evaluation methods. Doing grades differently and focusing on the quantifiable entity of the effort. The life skills should also be considered in the evaluation process. The process should be on a continuum and support a mastery of objectives. If a student masters the objective, they should be able to move on and not be held back for reasons of time, command, or control. The quantifiable element was important, but does not necessarily have to be grades in the traditional mindset.

Individualized personal learning plan
Creating a way to support the brain research to engage and support the growth of emotional intelligence with the students in the school. The opportunity to understand the student and their learning styles and sharing with teachers to ensure that all kids learning needs are being met. The differentiated instruction component is difficult, but if there was some mechanism to support the planning and presenting of the teacher it would be great.

Merit Pay
Limited discussion and applicability, but there is support for some level of implementation of the process of Merit Pay. Models exist and should be considered as a potential tool for increasing and adapting the merit pay principles in education.

posted by Peter Durand at 4:09 PM