Happy Thanksgiving

As we enter the Thanksgiving break, I want to wish all of you a relaxing time with your friends and family.  There is so much to be thankful for in our country and school district.  I recently spent some time watching YouTube videos of military members surprising their children and coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan without the kids knowing.  The videos of the kids running to their parents with such a great look of love and happiness is heartwarming.  Just search YouTube for "military homecoming" and you will find them.  After I watched the videos I just walked over t my three kids and just hugged them.  I bet you will do the same.

Response to Blog Comments

There have been a few comments in the blog concerning the building project, the PSERS increase and the financial health of the school district.  I thought it would be best to answer those concerns in a blog post instead of responding within the comment section.  This way, it will be easy for people to find my response...if you are interested!

The School Board is adamant that any building project should be done within the current tax structure.  In other words, the current millage dedicated to our current debt gives the school district the ability to borrow up to 55 million dollars.  Again, that 55 million is within the current millage structure.  The high school renovation will be about 30 million dollars.  The school district's current debt "comes off the books" in 2015.   At that time, the bond sale the Board will approve for the high school project will come on the books.  Again, this is all done within the current millage structure.  Here is a link to the presentation by the school district's Bond underwriter.

There are a few "moving parts" in this equation and it is the reason the school board is moving cautiously.  First is the status of PlanCon.   PlanCon is where the State reimburses school districts for some of the cost of a  building project (typically somewhere between 20% and 30%).  If the State does not fund PlanCon that will obviously have an effect on the amount of money that is available for a project.  The 55 million dollars would  turn into between 40 and 45 million dollars that is actually available for a project.  The second moving part is the configuration of the rest of the school district.  The Board will decide in the next two years what configuration the school district will take to provide a great education and be the most cost effective.  Education priorities and fiscal reality will dictate what any new configuration will look like.

Finally, there is the PSERS issue.  I am not as concerned about this issue as some people because this school district has positioned itself very well for the increases coming in the future.  There is a dedicated account that the board has placed money in over the course of the last few years that will help mitigate the increases in PSERS.  The School Board is also researching cost savings measures that can have further impact on the budget.  Penn-Trafford has a long history of fiscal responsibility and being very cost efficient.  Thanks to previous Boards and administration, the school district is positioned as well as any district in the State as the PSERS contributions increase.  We also must remember that in the past, school district's PSERS contributions were in the 20% range.  Although our rates will settle in at about 25%, in the 1980's the rate was in the low 20's and school districts adjusted accordingly.

The Fourth Disruption

The fourth disruption in education according to the report Recombinant Education is “Customizable Value Webs”.  The definition for this disruption is, “Innovative, open business models will leverage complex networks of assets and relationships to create ultra-customer –centric experiences across industries.” Harkening back to an earlier disruption as a starting place, this disruption will leverage the “edupreneurs” and the companies they create to help parents, teachers and schools create a customizable learning experience for students.  Schools (and parents) will be able to match their student’s interests, ability level and learning style and create a learning experience customized to the student.  This disruption will allow schools (and school districts) to form partnerships with outside organizations that will lead to a more individualized educational experience for students.  

I believe that the biggest challenge for public education will be to recognize this disruption and respond accordingly.  Schools will be able to cost effectively coordinate learning experiences for students.  If a school wants to create a “focus” or form their own identity  (for example a school that focuses on play, or the environment, or politics, or social justice) they will be able to spend their scarce resources on providing those experiences centered on their focus while accessing quality learning experiences for their students.  Maybe school districts will allow their schools to form their own identity (or focus) so parents and students in the school district have more “choice” in their educational options.  Either way, schools must recognize that learning experiences can be enhanced and managed differently.

Chainsaw Art at Penn-Trafford

On Thursday and Friday students at Penn-Trafford had the opportunity to watch a chainsaw artist at work.  Rick Boni from Appalachian Arts Studio answered questions and demonstrated the folk art of chainsaw carving.  Rick has travelled all over the world teaching classes on this relatively new art form.  I believe deeply that art and music education are both essential curricular options for our students.  In the past, I have blogged about how creative thinking and the ability to problem solve will be critical abilities for our students as we move forward into the 21^st Century.  The arts provide these skills.  For example, one of the elementary students asked Rick if he ever made mistakes while carving.  His answer was that most people would not know whether or not he made a mistake because he would figure out a way to “fix” the mistake as he completed the carving.  This is an example of both problem solving and creative thinking.  

On Thursday, all third, fourth and fifth grade students from across the district watched a demonstration and also asked Rick questions about his art form and his career path.  Additionally, on Friday Rick spent time at the high school with all art students.  Again he demonstrated his art while at the same time talking more in-depth about the inner workings of his art studio in general and chainsaw art specifically.  I appreciate the hard work of our elementary and high school art teachers (Mrs. Brenda Christeleit and Mrs. Carla Gialloreto, Mrs. Connie Vaskov, Mr. Ron Nigro and Mrs. Jen Haberberger) who helped to organize the event.  Finally, I appreciate the work and good humor of Rick as he interacted with the students over the past two days.  The two carvings that he made will be auctioned by the Penn-Trafford Community Education Foundation.  The last two days have been a great time for me as I watch students experience something that is a little different than what they normally used to.  Thanks to everyone!

Third Disruption

The third disruption in my series is “De-institutionalized Production”.  The official explanation in the report says that De-Institutionalized Production is where activities of all sorts will be increasingly independent of institutions as contributions become more ad-hoc, dynamic and networked.  In layman terms, for educators, De-Institutionalized Production recognizes that valuable learning and resources for people and institutions do not necessarily have to come from a school, university, or official training programs.  The ramification for people in the 21^st Century is profound.  

As people start to recognize that expertise and knowledge does not necessarily have to be found in a public or private institution, career opportunities will expand for people.  Experts recognized for their worth (not just where they work) will become their own bosses, working at many jobs open for them.  In other words, a “full time employee” that works for a single company will be increasingly scarce.  Instead they will be replaced by people who work in many different settings at different times as their work is recognized as “expert”.  This can be a liberating or terrifying “disruption” for people.  Our schools must prepare students for this new world of work by assuring that they graduate will critical thinking and problem solving skills that allow them to be a nimble player in this type of work environment.  Schools (like PT) can do this by assuring that classroom instruction encourages divergent, creative thinking where students create and solve problems.    

Another result of this disruption is the decreased importance of credentialing.  Currently, our society credentials people.  We get a credential for high school graduation; a credential for post-secondary success; to become a member in many professionals one must become “credentialed”.  I think we all know people that are knowledgeable in something and they have no “credential” to “prove” that they are experts.  My grandfather used to say that a bachelor’s degree stood for “B.S.” and a Master’s degree was just more of the same.  I am not claiming that advanced degrees are not important (or I would not have gone to school to get a Ph.D.), however, the workforce in the 21^st Century will start to recognize the importance of alternate ways of recognizing expertise.  There will always be a minimum threshold to be allowed in some professions (you will need to have a medical degree to be a doctor, or pass the teachers exam to become a teacher). However, the learning that goes on once you are in the profession or on your path to a degree will be more flexible. For example at PT, we are starting to discuss how we can recognize professional development experiences that teachers undergo.  In many cases the training that teachers undertake are more valuable than the classes they sit in to earn a Master’s degree.  Why shouldn’t we recognize those trainings as valuable?  In the future, all of us will have a digital portfolio that will list “badges” that we have earned through our experiences and education.  These badges will prove to prospective employers that we have the expertise necessary to do the job for them.  We might not have the degree or the official credential, but we will have proof of expertise.  Schools can start this process with students by having digital backpacks where students store artifacts of their mastery of a topic through project-based or experiential learning.  The digital backpacks are more important than grades because they hold proof that the student holds mastery on a specific topic.  This could change (for the better) how we prove that students have learned.

Educational Disruption #2

The second disruption in the report Recombinant Education: Regenerating the learning ecosystem by The KnowledgeWorks Foundation is High-Fidelity Living.  At first blush, the title might seem a bit esoteric.  However, this disruption is a direct result of the new world we live in.  One of the challenges that we face in the 21^st Century is making sense of all of the information and data that is available to us.  I would posit that our most important task as a school is to help students gain the skills necessary to “make sense” of all of the information vying for their attention.  Just think about the amount of information available to you every day.  You can Google any topic and find hundreds of web sites, research reports, blogs, Twitter and Face book accounts dealing with your topic.  Separating the useful (and valid) information from propaganda or poor information is an essential skill for all of us to have if we are to live effectively in a globalized world.  In education, the amount of information can be overwhelming, but is essential for educating students.  Effectively using data to help students learn will be (and is) and essential component of 21^st Century education.

The future of education will be dominated by customizing educational experiences for our students.  Penn-Trafford has three pilot programs in place this year that focus solely on customizing education for students. What we are finding out that we need a lot of information about the child to determine where they are in a specific place in time in their curriculum.  We also need to know the best learning modality for the students that coincide with their place in the curriculum.  Gathering this information and using it to help students is invaluable for our teachers.  In the future, PT will utilize programs that will allow teachers to make a “dashboard” of student data which will allow them to customize education at a granular level. Penn-Trafford has been using programs that adjust student instruction based on “real time” data for a few years. Currently, our schools utilize intervention reading programs (for accelerated and struggling students) that can determine the reading level of a student based on their use of the program (on the computer) and “move” students to a more difficult reading level as their reading improves.  This is just the beginning of how PT will use data to help teachers enhance their classroom instruction.  By using data to customize education, school systems will be able to more effectively pinpoint resources to help students learn in the best way possible.

The First Disruption in Education

One of the most innovative and challenging web sites that I have followed throughout my career as a superintendent is the KnowledgeWorks Foundation (knowledgeworks.org).  The resources they provide and the research they make available to education leaders will move the educational system forward.  Their “Future Forecast” is simply a must read for anyone professing interest in public education.  Recently, KnowledgeWorks published a report entitled “Recombinant Education: Regenerating the Learning Ecosystem”.  I have spent the past few days processing what the report means for public education in general and for Penn-Trafford specifically.  The report lists five disruptions that will shape the educational landscape over the next 10 years.  I will address my interpretation of each disruption in five separate blog posts.  I wholeheartedly believe that the report is an important source of information for all of us who are engaged in public education.  I am also confident that my interpretation may not coincide with yours.  Please feel free to read the report yourself.  The report can be found HERE.

There are changes that are occurring in education that are slowly changing our system.  The combination of small changes is adding up to a seismic revolution in education.   There are people who say that public education has not changed since the Committee of Ten first developed its recommendations for education in 1893.  In many ways education is fundamentally the same as the vision created in 1893.  We teach students in “batches” based on age.  We use courses broken into “Carnegie Units” to credential students.  And, unfortunately, many schools have a look and feel of a factory.  So, in some ways, public education has not changed that much.  However, we must not forget that public education has changed in very positive ways.  The most important change is that we now welcome everyone into school regardless of race or disability.  Opening schools to all people only occurred within the past 60 years.  Just within the last 10 years accountability and testing reforms have changed the way schools and teachers are evaluated.  So there have been positive changes in the school systems that have helped society.

However, there is one aspect of education that has not seen a significant change.  I believe our instruction of students has not kept up with the changes in society.  Public schools on a whole still teach their students in much the same way our great grandparents were taught.  Collaboration is not utilized enough while didactic teaching methods still prevail.  I believe the five disruptions articulated in this report will help change even the entrenched instructional models of the school system.

The first disruption as laid out in the report is “Democratized Startup”.  This disruption centers on the growing trend of educational entrepreneurs (called edupreneurs).  Edupreneurs are adding energy and innovation into the educational system.  By accessing capital usually reserved for technology and other business startups, edupreneurs are starting companies aimed at assisting parents, students, and schools in providing a better education for all of our students.  I have had contact with one of these startups in my role as a superintendent.  At Penn-Trafford we want to have assessment of children to be as valuable and useful as possible.  We know that a valuable assessment must go beyond test score data and capture the true essence of a student’s academic life.  One way to capture this information is through building portfolios of student work.  Portfolios have been an integral part of education for years.  However, the gathering and storage of portfolios have always been cumbersome.  Teachers in two of our pilot programs at PT have researched ways in which they could help their students create an “e-portfolio” to showcase their work.  Through Twitter I was able to contact Steve Silvius who founded a company (Three Ring) whose product specifically makes it easier to capture authentic student work in an e-portfolio. Three ring is an example of how edupreneurs will help shape the future of education by providing services and products that are helpful to teachers and students.

What does “Democratized Startup” mean for Penn-Trafford?  One opportunity that the report lists for school district educational leaders is that our job will shift to “district and regional innovation portfolio managers”.  We have started this process on a micro-level at Penn-Trafford.  We have unleashed the creative power of our staff to create 12 pilot programs in the school district that are all focused on enhancing classroom instruction.  I believe that before we can look to the outside for innovation, we must harness the creative powers of the staff already in place.  However, their work does not happen in a vacuum.  They are utilizing resources (like Blackboard, Edmodo, Kindles, etc) that have been created in many cases by edupreneurs.  I recently spoke to a group of undergraduate students in an elementary education class at Penn State.  When they asked me what the most important program that PT used to help students, I quickly answered “the space between the ears of our staff is the most important program we have”.  Edupreneurs and the startups they create will help our teachers provide the most engaging lessons that customize education for our students.