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.