Education 3.0
Two Years in the Life
This chapter tells the story of Carson Unified, the school district that houses H.S. 21+. We join the district two years ago, while they were still in the era of Education 2.0, and watch them as they go through the process of awareness, planning and transformation.
This chapter is best read after you have experienced A Day in the Life of a Student at H.S. 21+, as well as the days in the lives of a teacher and a school leader. Carson Unified goes through seven steps as it moves toward Education 3.0. We'll look at each step in turn.
The district realizes it's not preparing its students for the lives they'll lead in the 21st century. As the world outside of school changes, especially with the application of new technologies to work, the schools may not have adapted. This recognition happens in many ways, most often with an impetus from the community outside of the normal channels.
At the board meeting, Superintendent Hunter reports on her participation in the annual State Leader's conference, at which she heard Tony Wagner speak on his new book, The Global Achievement Gap. The next item on the agenda is a petition from the Student Council asking the Board to stop buying textbooks and shift instead to digital curricula. And then during the public part of the meeting the personnel director at the local General Selectic reports how H.S. 21+ students are not doing as well on the new employment screening tests.
The superintendent, noting the convergent nature of these last three items, proposes to the board a voluntary task force to look more deeply into how well the schools are preparing students for the 21st century.
Educators and community in the district work together to paint a picture of what education should look like. With advice and provocation from partners in business, industry, and academia, they imagine what school needs to be like to produce the kinds of students who will succeed in college and work down the road. As they do their work, they go out of their way to practice and model Education 3.0 principles, communication methods and technologies.
The Board votes to empower a task force to recommend to them a revision of the focus of education in the district. It's made up of volunteers: a student, a parent, two teachers, a recent grad, and a local businesswoman. The Board charges them to seek input, draw up a vision, and report back, led by Superintendent Hunter. It votes a small budget for visits and administrative help for the task force.
Ms. Hunter finds a principal from a neighboring district who needs an internship project for his degree in educational leadership. She convinces him to serve as staff for the task force, arranging its communications, doing its research, and generally keeping it on track. A retired accountant from the community agrees to serve as its secretary and bookeeper.
The Vision Task force meets, discuses, sets goals for itself, collects ideas from many places, and visits neighboring schools following 21st-century practices. They hear of a school in Denmark, Orestad Gymnasium, built expressly around Education 3.0 ideas. They ask their H.S. 21+ exchange student, studying across the Øresund in Sweden, to visit the school and send back her findings. Two weeks later, the Danish principal invites them to a live video walkthrough of the school through WeBex.
Carson Unified joins the Partnership for 21st-Century Schools, and takes advantage of their online network and resources. Ms. Hunter meets (by telepresence) with the state's deputy commissioner of education to see how much leeway they have to bend state regulations and policies as they implement their vision. She learns that while there's no way to avoid the state accountability tests, the state economic development office does offer incentive grants for innovative high schools.
Having worked throughout the fall and winter, the Vision Task Force completes its report, entitled Carson 3.0, and publishes it as a multimedia presentation, a podcast, and a brochure. The first part of it imagines and describes a Day in the Life of a Carson student, and the second part explains the rationale. The Board schedules public hearings on the vision, and members of the Task Force present it to their various constituencies: students, faculty, parents, business leaders, and community.
Endorsements of Carson 3.0 trickle in from various groups: the teacher's association, the Rotary Club, the PTA, the student council, the Chamber of Commerce, the state education department. The Carson Unified Board votes to adopt Carson 3.0 as a policy.
Carson conducts a careful analysis of where are today compared to the vision they dream of. This process, involving surveys of all constituencies as well as learning walkthroughs of all the schools, identifies areas where the reality and the vision are far apart. These gaps will become the focus of the plan for action in the next step.
Students at the high school respond to the Carson 3.0 Inventory, a survey of how the elements of the vision are present in the current situation. Teachers and parents complete similar inventories. The Task Force gathers hard data on which elements of their vision are currently under way, and which are missing. They also discuss the vision with focus groups from each constituency.
Each faculty member imagines a Day in the Life My Classroom, specifying how each element of the Carson 3.0 vision will manifest itself in teaching and learning. As a result, three choose to take early retirement and four seek transfers to other districts. Meanwhile, a flood of experienced and qualified teachers, hearing of Carson's plans, fills the applicant pool. Real estate values rise as families consider moving to Carson.
Superintendent Hunter, accompanied on each visit by a teacher and a student, inventories the Education 3.0 practices in each school. These learning walkthroughs gather further hard evidence of what needs to be done to achieve the Carson 3.0 vision. As the team walks, they use iPods to complete the inventory and Flip cameras to capture video clips. All these results are sent to the Task Force, which compiles them into a needs analysis.
Superintendent Hunter with the principals study the teachers' Days in the Lives, and review the various survey and walkthrough results. They identify, at each school, the gaps between current practices and the vision of Carson 3.0. From this process, they develop two lists for the district: one of educational needs, and another of technical needs.
Faculty and leaders throughout the district work with each other and with outside experts to develop concrete and detailed plans to close each gap identified in the scan of the system. The plan describes educational infrastructure as well as the technical infrastructure that will need to be rebuilt, with cost estimates for each piece. Like the vision document, it is published in several formats for ease of digestion by the various constituents.
The leadership team sets a schedule for closing the gaps, both educational and technical. For each item, they set a completion date, name the person responsible for its accomplishment, and estimate a cost. The goal is to introduce the key elements of Carson 3.0 at the opening of school in September of 2010, and complete the implementation by the end of the 2010-2011 academic year.
Faculty members work with a consultant to plan the changes necessary to curriculum, policies, scheduling and teaching called for by Carson 3.0. The technical staff does the same for their part of the new infrastructure, with the consultation of a corporate partner. Both educators and technical people visit other schools that have adopted some of the new practices.
The work of the leadership team, the faculty, and the technical staff is summarized and published as a podcast, a booklet, and a web page. The costs to build the educational and technical infrastructures are detailed in this plan, and will necessitate a bond issue or tax levy override at Carson Unified.
Members of the task force, as well as others in the leadership and the community, take the document Building Carson 3.0 to their constituencies for discussion.
Leaders communicate the plan to to its many constituents and build support in the communities. Earlier communications work with the vision makes this work easier.
Building Carson 3.0 is the hot topic around town. Everyone seems to be talking about it. It calls for a major change in the way students are educated, and a substantial commitment of public funds. Supporters answer questions and explain details. Selected members of the Task Force meet with the editorial board of the local newspaper. Supporters appear on local television and radio programs. They speak to the Rotary and Exchange Clubs. They build support among faculty and students. The Board arranges finance options with local banks, and seeks state and local grants and matches to help defray the costs.
The vote for a bond issue of tax levy override succeeds, but the building of public support does not end. The real work of transformation is just beginning for Carson Unified, its teachers, its students, and its leadership.
The district Invests in the technical and educational infrastructures necessary to support the vision set forth in Carson 3.0. Work focuses on developing the ability of faculty, students, and staff to teach and learn in new ways.
Building Carson 3.0 in all its detail is posted online as a GANTT chart so that all can follow its progress. Accomplishments are posted as they occur. Superintendent Hunter hires Clerks of the Works for each of the infrastructures, educational and technical. Contracts are let as necessary. A Carson 3.0 Transformation Task Force meets weekly via WebEx to track progress and solve problems as they occur.
Season's greetings: Mr. Bacon, the science teacher, and his faculty colleagues get laptops, iPods, video cameras, data probes, and other technologies necessary to their transformation objectives. Each writes a personal teaching, learning, and technology professional development plan, based on the Day in the Life they wrote earlier in the process. Each gets a coach to help them work through it.
The technical infrastructure for Carson 3.0 is installed and tested. Wireless, cables, servers, software, learning management system, online curriculum content, student and teacher databases, all are set up and tried out through the network. Tests are conducted with videoconferencing, mobile devices, off-site access, and other aspects of the technical infrastructure.
Faculty work over the spring summer to plan one year of work for their students: courses, units and group projects, all carefully coordinated with each other. They also familiarize themselves with their technical infrastructure, their online curriculum content, and their new digital devices. The collective bargaining agreement is modified to enable the working conditions for faculty called for in Carson 3.0.
School opens under a new organizational scheme and some very different practices in teaching and learning.
The district tracks its progress through the plan of action, and its accomplishment of the principles of its vision, through a variety of channels. After the first year of implementation, it will refresh its vision and adopt a plan of action for the second year.
As the first year of Carson 3.0 progresses, the Task Force keeps its fingers on the pulses of transformation. They conduct quarterly surveys of students, faculty, and parents, measuring how well they are approaching the principles set forth in the Carson 3.0 vision. In addition to these formal measurements, the Task Force collects comments and suggestions through informal channels as well. They meet monthly to share their findings and take care of difficulties that arise. And they publish quarterly an online progress report to the community.
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copyright © James G. Lengel 2010 |
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