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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
A practical blueprint to rebuilding an education system that is no longer working for its students In From Reopen to Reinvent, distinguished education strategist Michael B. Horn delivers a provocative and eye-opening call to action for the overthrow of an education system that is not working well for any of its students. Grounded in what educators should build in its place to address the challenges that stem from widespread unmet learning needs, the book walks readers through the design of a better path forward. Using time-tested leadership and innovation frameworks like Jobs to Be Done, "Begin with the End," tools of cooperation, threat-rigidity, and discovery-driven planning, From Reopen to Reinvent offers a prescriptive and holistic approach to the purpose of schooling, the importance of focusing on mastery for each student, and the ideal use of technology. It also provides readers with: * A set of processes and ideals that schools should implement to deal with the challenges they presently face * A way to transform threats into opportunities using threat-rigidity research * A discussion of how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that schools are not as flexible and equitable as we need them to be Perfect for K-12 educators and parents and school board members involved in the school community, From Reopen to Reinvent is also an essential resource for professionals working in education-related non-profits and state education agencies.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Foreword
The Story of Jeremy and Julia
Introduction
THE SCHOOL SYSTEM ISN'T OPTIMIZED FOR ANYONE
A BETTER WAY FORWARD
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 1: From Threat to Opportunity
THREAT RIGIDITY
AUTONOMY
THE TOYOTA PRIUS
SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSITY
WHAT THIS COULD LOOK LIKE IN K–12 SCHOOLS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 2: Begin with the End: What's the Purpose of Schooling?
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOLING
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEGINNING WITH THE END
AN OPPORTUNITY TO CLARIFY PURPOSE
A STARTING POINT FOR THE PURPOSE CONVERSATION
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 3: The Scope of Schools: How Do We Accomplish a School's Purpose?
SCHOOLS' SCOPE
A BETTER WAY FORWARD: THE THEORY OF INTERDEPENDENCE AND MODULARITY
APPLYING THE THEORY TO SCHOOLS
SIX DOMAINS TO CONSIDER IN YOUR SCHOOL'S SCOPE
PERSONALIZING THIS APPROACH IN MY COMMUNITY
REMAINING CONCERNS
THE FUTURE OF SCHOOLING
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 4: Student Experience: Lose Learning Loss
WHAT DO STUDENTS WANT?
TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS FALL SHORT
LOSE LEARNING LOSS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 5: Student Experience: Guarantee Mastery
A LEARNING CYCLE BUILT ON SUCCESS
HOW TOYOTA ILLUSTRATES THE POWER OF GUARANTEED MASTERY
TIME-BOUND VERSUS GUARANTEED LEARNING
DON'T JUST CHANGE GRADING WHEN IMPLEMENTING MASTERY-BASED LEARNING
ANSWERS TO FOUR CRITICISMS OF MASTERY LEARNING
HAVING FUN WITH FRIENDS
FROM ZERO SUM TO POSITIVE SUM
SUCCESS AND FUN WITH FRIENDS IN ACTION
RESULTS
IMPLEMENTATION OF PODS AND MICROSCHOOLS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 6: T in Teachers Is for Team
MOVING PAST NORMAL
THE BEST USE OF FACE-TO-FACE TIME
NO TEACHER SHOULD DO ALL OF THESE ACTIVITIES
TEAM-BASED CO-TEACHING
UNBUNDLING TO TAKE THINGS OFF TEACHERS' PLATES
TEACHER MOTIVATION
WILL TEACHERS EMBRACE THE SHIFT?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 7: The Parent Experience
UNDERSTANDING PARENTS' QUEST FOR PROGRESS
IMPLEMENTING CHANGE
IS ANYTHING UNIVERSAL?
KANO MODEL
FLEXIBILITY AND UNBUNDLING
THE STRESS OF SCHOOLING FOR PARENTS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 8: The Technology
THE BARE MINIMUM
HOW TO ENSURE ADEQUATE TECHNOLOGY FOR ALL STUDENTS
HOW TO USE DIGITAL LEARNING WELL
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 9: Culture
WHAT IS CULTURE?
HOW TO CREATE A STRONG CULTURE
THE POWER OF GREAT CULTURE
THE RISKS OF GETTING CULTURE WRONG
REINVENTING CULTURE
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 10: Test Your Assumptionsand Learn
WILL YOUR PLANS TO REINVENT SCHOOLING “WORK”?
A LESS RISKY PATH THAT EMBRACES INNOVATION
THE STANDARD PLANNING PROCESS
WHAT IS DISCOVERY-DRIVEN PLANNING?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 11: Implementing Change When People Don't Always Agree
UNDERSTANDING THE LEVEL OF AGREEMENT
LEADERSHIP TOOLS
MANAGEMENT TOOLS
CULTURE TOOLS
POWER TOOLS
TOOL OF SEPARATION
MECHANISMS OF MOVEMENT
THE POWER OF EDUCATION
KEY TAKEAWAYS
NOTES
Chapter 12: Conclusion
RESOLVING THE PARADOX
NOTES
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 Today's educational jargon
Figure 2.2 Purpose
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Summit learning cycle
Figure 5.2 Time-fixed, learning variable
Figure 5.3 Learning fixed, time variable
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Forces of progress equation
Figure 7.2 Kano model
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Be expansive about assumptions
Figure 10.2 Prioritizing assumptions
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Tools of cooperation
Figure 11.2 Tools of cooperation (leadership tools)
Figure 11.3 Tools of cooperation (management tools)
Figure 11.4 Tools of cooperation (culture tools)
Figure 11.5 Tools of cooperation (power tools)
Figure 11.6 Tools of cooperation
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Foreword
The Story of Jeremy and Julia
Introduction
Begin Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
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Praise for From Reopen to Reinvent
“Michael has been at the forefront of reimagining education for over 15 years. His work has inspired me and continues to be a beacon toward which we seek to design our solutions and transform learning worldwide. This book continues that tradition by pointing in a clear direction that all schools should strive to unleash the talents of each and every learner.”
—Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy
“From Reopen to Reinvent offers a blueprint both for what schools should be and a set of steps to help educators start moving in that direction to better support each and every student. At a time when districts could easily freeze in the face of challenges from all directions, the wisdom in the book is in helping them carve out pathways to move forward and prioritize the success of each child and family.”
—Arne Duncan, former U.S. Secretary of Education
“The pandemic exposed serious, long-term problems in K–12 education and identified significant educational achievement gaps across this country. If ever there was a time to hold ourselves accountable for student performance and consider new strategies, it is now. As Michael Horn's book, From Reopen to Reinvent: (Re)Creating School for Every Child, reveals, our education system must consider new strategies that ensure that every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential and is prepared for both work and life in the twenty-first century.”
—Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education under President George W. Bush and president and CEO of Texas 2036
“In this book, Michael Horn has beautifully articulated a profound, insightful examination of the future of learning and a call to action for us all. He truly raises the bar of what education should look like in a post-pandemic world. Bravo!”
—Phyllis Lockett, CEO, LEAP Innovations
“In From Reopen to Reinvent, Michael Horn presents a carefully reasoned case for moving from time-denominated public education to a system of student-centered mastery. Reinforced with ample evidence, his insightful articulation of the operation and impacts of our current design is clear-eyed and pragmatic, showing that improvement is not only needed but mandatory. He offers clear and sensible ideas for building support and practice to move to a mastery system. Wide-ranging examples of schools, districts, and communities where successful adoption of mastery-based education already has been achieved provide compelling proof that we can do far better for our students, educators, and the nation.”
—Macke Raymond, director of CREDO at Stanford University
“The challenges facing our K–12 schools are unprecedented. In this book, Michael Horn gives a concise, compelling outline of a way forward that holds the promise of excellent education for every child.”
—Jane Swift, president of LearnLaunch Institute and former Massachusetts governor
“For those of us who work in education, are impacted by its outcomes, or are passionate about its possibilities, From Reopen to Reinvent belongs in the small, dog-eared stack of resources we keep close to hand. Michael Horn asks not for immediate, radical overhaul; rather he artfully combines research-based vision with pragmatic solution-seeking to paint a picture of achievable progress. Rich with examples, From Reopen to Reinvent calls for us to be curious about how schooling can benefit from the new knowledge, new tools, and new opportunities in front of us, and to let that curiosity lead us to shed old assumptions and reinvent for the sake of today's students and all we aspire for them.”
—Vicki Phillips, CEO, National Center on Education and the Economy, and former director of education, College Ready at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
“Michael Horn does not shy away from presenting bold ideas and frameworks to make learning more equitable and empowering for every student, with care and attention to how critical parent involvement and understanding are as we seek to unlock each child's potential. This book is packed with research alongside concrete strategies for implementing the ideas presented; the storytelling and examples woven throughout make it particularly compelling and powerful. At a time when being an educator feels challenging, this book is filled with a hopeful vision of what is possible and methods educators and administrators should consider as we seek to improve the education system.”
—Stacey Roshan, math teacher and director of innovation and educational technology at Bullis School and author of Tech with Heart: Leveraging Technology to Empower Student Voice, Ease Anxiety, & Create Compassionate Classrooms
“Michael Horn's new book is a must-read for all true champions of public schools. COVID-19 shone a light on the many learning and equity problems that students were facing prior to the pandemic. In From Reopen to Reinvent, Michael shows the path forward to future success for public schools and the millions of students they educate. Through all the challenges in this tough time, Michael explores the great opportunities that exist to better educate students in a learning environment that is personalized, mastery based, and focused on the most important goal—individual student success. This book lays out how teachers, school board members, school leaders, parents, and others interested in education can come together, move forward, and embrace the opportunities available in a tough time. This is the right book at the right moment that lays out the future of learning leading to the success of our students and the nation.”
—Chip Slaven, former executive director and CEO, National School Boards Association
“While some wring their hands about the disruption of school as we knew it, Michael Horn asks us to seize this moment to design the learning environments and experiences our children have needed and deserved all along … and then offers a practical guide on how to begin. Let's go!”
—Jim Shelton, chief impact and investment officer, Blue Meridian Partners and former deputy secretary, U.S. Department of Education
“Michael Horn's call to recreate schools so that they work for every child is particularly timely and important for our nation. Horn provides a clear pathway and action plan for school leaders, teachers, and parents to envision a different future—one that really honors and enables the individual talents and dreams of each child. A thought-provoking read with great real-life examples, this book should be essential reading for school leaders, teachers, parents, policymakers, and others who want to step up and create more opportunities for students and schools to thrive.”
—Kevin Hall, CEO of the Charter School Growth Fund
Michael B. Horn
FROM REOPEN TO REINVENT
(RE)CREATING SCHOOL FOR EVERY CHILD
Copyright © 2022 John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Horn, Michael B., author.
Title: From reopen to reinvent : (re)creating school for every child / Michael B. Horn.
Description: Hoboken, NJ : Jossey-Bass, [2022] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022010314 (print) | LCCN 2022010315 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119863021 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119863496 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119863502 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: School management and organization. | Educational technology.
Classification: LCC LB2805 .H678 2022 (print) | LCC LB2805 (ebook) | DDC 371.2—dc23/eng/20220425
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022010314
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022010315
COVER ART & DESIGN: PAUL MCCARTHY
FIRST EDITION
To Madison and Kayla and the educators who support them.
Acknowledgments
Every book has its origin story. This book came about because of the work Diane Tavenner and I started in May of 2020 with the launch of our Class Disrupted podcast.
With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting every facet of schooling, parents and educators had big questions about why our schooling system works the way it does. The podcast was a place where we could provide answers.
Diane and I had been pursuing transformational changes in education for years—me from a position of thought leadership and her from a position of starting, running, and growing an inspiring network of innovative schools. The pandemic lifted the lid on education in America—and opened many to the idea that school can work differently from how it has over the past many decades. We wanted to seize that opportunity for reinvention to benefit all students.
Three school years later, Diane and I never imagined we would still be doing our podcast, but we are. Each episode, I learn from and enjoy the time with Diane. Her imprint—in her ideas and wisdom—is on the text and structure of this book. I owe her a debt of gratitude for her insights, balance in a world of extremes, grace, empathy, and curiosity.
Steve Chaggaris, Jenna Free, Emmeline Zhao, and the rest of the team at The 74, an education news site that has hosted and distributed the podcast, played a valuable role in bringing Diane and my musings to life.
The teachings of Clayton Christensen have continued to give me a set of lenses through which I see the world. I remain not only indebted to him, but also to the Clayton Christensen Institute we cofounded. My colleagues—Julia Freeland Fisher, Ann Christensen, John Riley, Everett Poisson, Bob Moesta, Efosa Ojomo, Ruth Hartt, and many others—have all played a role in helping this book come together. I also want to single out Thomas Arnett for his help. He not only read through the manuscript and provided valuable edits and feedback, but he also allowed me to call and email him several times to continue to test new ideas and drafts.
Susan Patrick, Tom Vander Ark, Razan Roberts, Jane Swift, and the ever-formidable Gisele Huff also provided valuable input, edits, and pushback.
Many individuals provided encouragement and support as well, including Jeff Selingo, Lucy Greenslade, Jen Holleran, Biff Maier, Sarah Jamison, and Maxwell Bigman, along with the inspiring team at Guild Education, including CJ Jackson, Andrew LaCasse, Rachel Romer Carlson, Paul Freedman, Sam Olivieri, Christy Stanford, and Sveta Dawant.
Guests on our Class Disrupted podcast, including Evan Marwell, Larry Berger, Sal Khan, Angela Duckworth, Todd Rose, Jeff Wetzler, and Aylon Samouha, played a significant role in the shaping of the book, as did guests on my YouTube channel, including Annette Anderson, Mark Van Ryzin, Cory Henwood, Gina Meinertz, Hattie Sanness, Brigid Moriarty-Guerrero, Pete Driscoll, Macke Raymond, David Miyashiro, Ed Hidalgo, Jonathan Haber, Elizabeth Chu, Matt Bowman, Andrew Frishman, Izzy Fitzgerald, Dayvon W., Amy Anderson, Joel Rose, Amir Nathoo, Scott Ellis, Julie Young, Doug Curtin, and more.
I also want to thank my literary agents Danny Stern and Kristen Karp, as well as Paige Russell at Stern Speakers. They have been there every step of the way for me, as usual.
It's been wonderful to once again work with the team at Jossey-Bass Wiley. Thank you to Amy Fandrei, Pete Gaughan, Mary Beth Rosswurm, Ajith Kumar, Kim Wimpsett, Philo Antonie Mahendran, and Cape Cod Compositors for their help in shaping this work.
My parents were, as usual, instrumental in the book-writing process. Although I'm sure I haven't fully followed my mom's wisdom to shorten and simplify, their dedication, edits, and pushback to their son are always appreciated. I promise. My brother and bestselling author Jonathan Horn's wisdom on the publishing process was helpful as usual, as was Steven Horn's love and unflagging support.
Finally, a thank you and love to my family that, given the pandemic, has often seen me during almost every waking minute. Madison and Kayla were thrilled to provide some edits for this book—and were understanding that there were fewer pictures than in my previous one. And my wife, Tracy Kim Horn, not only once again provided valuable feedback on the manuscript, but she also heroically gave me the time and support to finish this labor of love as she worked through her own challenges. We remain fortunate with more blessings than I can count.
About the Author
Michael B. Horn strives to create a world in which all individuals can build their passions and fulfill their potential through his writing, speaking, and work with a portfolio of education organizations. He is the author of many books, including the award-winning Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns; Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools; Choosing College: How to Make Better Learning Decisions Throughout Your Life; and Goodnight Box, a children's story.
Michael is the cofounder of and a distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute, a nonprofit think tank. He cohosts the popular education podcasts Class Disrupted and Future U. He also serves as an executive editor at Education Next.
Michael was selected as a 2014 Eisenhower Fellow to study innovation in education in Vietnam and Korea, and Tech & Learning magazine named him to its list of the 100 most important people in the creation and advancement of the use of technology in education. He holds a BA in history from Yale University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Foreword
Fine. The word I most often hear people use to describe how their child is doing in school is “fine.” And these are the people whose children are doing best in school. I believe our children, our communities, and our country need better than fine. I think most people agree. The challenge is, how do we transform schools that are “fine” for some to places that are preparing all for a good life?
I met Michael sometime around 2011, when we discovered in a public dialogue that we share a vision for what American schools can be and a disappointment in what they are. As it turned out, we also share a commitment to doing everything in our power to help schools realize a much more compelling vision.
In late March of 2020, a few weeks after working around the clock to convert all of our schools from in-person to virtual in response to the global pandemic, I had two realizations. First, closing our school buildings was the easy part. Getting back into the buildings was going to be a long and difficult process, and there would be real costs for the students. And second, given that toll, we could not waste this unprecedented opportunity to truly redesign schools to serve every student and society, which even our “best” schools simply aren't doing. The next thing I did was call Michael.
My pitch was simple. The pandemic might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform schools (he agreed). Parents are seeing first-hand some of the significantly flawed structures and elements of schools that need changing (he really agreed as a parent). Redesigning during a crisis would be extraordinarily challenging and we should try to make it as easy as possible (he was in). As a first step, we decided to create the podcast Class Disrupted to surface real questions from families stemming from the pandemic chaos, ask “experts” to illuminate design principles and design advice, and then engage in real talk about what is required for schools to change.
Michael then took this joint project a step further. In this book he captures the best of those discussions and our dialogue over the past two years and combines them with additional research and insights. He has the incredible ability to take nuanced ideas and make them clear and, most importantly, implementable. His curiosity leads him to pursue understanding to a depth that is imperative for those of us who are doing the work. Over a decade ago, the book he coauthored with Clay Christensen, Disrupting Class, played a profound role in how we at Summit thought about redesigning our school model.
Leading and operating schools during these pandemic years is by far the most demanding and least rewarding experience I've had in my 25 years as an educator. On many days, simply keeping schools open takes every minute and all of the energy. Finding the mental space to step back and up to seize this moment, which is begging us to change, most often feels untenable, and yet imperative. It is my hope that this new book is as faithful and helpful a companion to educators, parents, and policymakers alike as Michael's previous works and weekly conversations have been for me.
Diane Tavenner
Cofounder and CEO of Summit Public Schools
Cohost of the podcast Class Disrupted
Author of Prepared: What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life
The Story of Jeremy and Julia
Jeremy and Julia are two of the 600 students at Spruce Park Elementary School in California.
As the bus rolled in to the school parking lot at 8:30 a.m., Jeremy trudged down the stairs and outside. He yawned.
After pausing for a moment, he noticed his fellow fifth-grade classmate Julia and a couple of her friends skipping up the hill to school. Walkers, he thought. A moment of envy flashed through his mind and then passed. He waved to Julia, who smiled and waved back.
Then his stomach grumbled. He turned to walk toward the school cafeteria to grab a quick bite before the bell rang. His mom had been so tired from working the late shift at the convenience store that she hadn't had time to scrounge some breakfast together. Again.
Jeremy couldn't sort through what was worse: when his mom was laid off when the pandemic started and she moped around the house all day while he was stuck inside away from his friends, school, and reliable food, or now when she had finally decided to work again and barely saw him—but at least he could see his friends at school and eat the cafeteria food. Maybe his teacher, Mrs. Alvarez, would ask him to write about it again. He sighed.
While Jeremy scarfed down food in the cafeteria, Julia happily skipped rope with her friends as they waited for the bell to ring. She loved these precious moments with her friends before they were told to sit silently during class and before the cascade of after-school activities that greeted her each day after dismissal. She loved gymnastics, piano, soccer, and robotics, but she sometimes longed for parts of the early days of the pandemic when the whole neighborhood was outside playing games of socially distant hopscotch under the California sun.
The principal, Dr. Kathleen Ball, watched all the students arrive—bussers and walkers alike. Her gaze was pleasant as she greeted each child by name. But her mind was elsewhere, as she wondered what was worse—the chaos and confusion of the early days of the pandemic or the tormented and unsettled nature of the current school year with so many students having so many different needs and so many parents frustrated that their child's needs still weren't being met.
Things were hard at the outset of COVID—so many decisions to make, so much uncertainty, so little time.
Ball had been so proud of how her teachers banded together and came up with creative solutions. They weren't perfect. But what they put together and the speed with which they did so was better than the alternative.
The parents were so kind, understanding, and appreciative back then. They understood the stress under which she and all her teachers were operating—even as they dealt with so much at home as well.
Things were different now. Different pockets of parents had different priorities and opinions. On everything.
That had always been true, of course. But now there was less trust. Needs had gone unmet and become more severe. Parents held higher expectations that these needs would be—no, should be—met. Many displayed a lack of common courtesy.
Now in the fourth school year impacted by the pandemic, her teachers and team just didn't have the same reserves to deal with the heightened expectations. They were all just exhausted—physically and mentally. They were overworked, and the school still struggled with staffing shortages.
Why couldn't parent emotions be focused on something else other than being angry at teachers, Ball wondered. If she were principal of a high school, maybe she could have at least rallied parent emotions around something else, like the opposing players on other schools' sports teams. She knew that sounded better only in theory compared to her current day-to-day reality.
Introduction
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic shattering the routines and lives of students, parents, and educators, schools have been through so much.
In the Boston Globe, Sarah Carr told the story of 10-year-old “Daniel”—his middle name to protect his identity. A struggling reader who is dyslexic, Daniel had finally gotten the support he needed from his school district after six years of effort by his parents.
Yet when schools shut down in March 2020, the support stopped—the tutoring, small-group classes, and specific teaching interventions.
Daniel's heartbreaking story was far from unusual, as COVID-19 interrupted schools' operations across the world.
But schools were struggling before the pandemic as well.
Most of these challenges weren't of any one person's making, nor were they the fault of the people who work in schools today. Many of the challenges were the result of structures and processes that were designed long ago for a different age. These structures have become stuck in our world as “the grammar of schooling” or “just the way school is.”
That students start kindergarten fascinated by schooling and end up bored isn't a coincidence. It's the logical outgrowth of how our schools are built. For decades, it was a successful design.
But in today's knowledge economy that prizes intellectual capital—where we need all individuals to build passions and develop their full human potential—it no longer suffices.
Amid the disaster since the pandemic's assault on society and schools over multiple school years, there is opportunity to rebuild better by altering the fundamental assumptions undergirding our present-day schooling model.
Despite my background, this isn't a book about disruptive innovation.
Nor is it a book about the devastation and disruption that the pandemic caused.
It's about what we build out of this devastation. What we choose to create.
It starts with educators.
Although there are many obstacles over which educators have little control, this is a book for administrators, teachers, and those communities involved in schools—parents and school boards—to help them reconceive what they are trying to accomplish and create a more supportive model that allows them to better serve each child. For parents frustrated with the challenges their children have faced at schools, the book presents a path forward from the pandemic.
It's also a book for policymakers and voters to help them rethink what is standing in the way of building better learning opportunities for all individuals.
The idea of this book is to shift us from seeing the pandemic as a giant threat to also viewing it as an opportunity. An opportunity to overthrow an education system that's not working as well as it could for anyone—certainly not for low-income students. Certainly not for far too many boys and girls who are judged by the color of their skin rather than for their vast potential. Nor is it working for wealthy and privileged children in our society, despite popular perception.
THE SCHOOL SYSTEM ISN'T OPTIMIZED FOR ANYONE
In a podcast called Class Disrupted that I started during the pandemic with Diane Tavenner, the founder of Summit Public Schools, a network of 11 schools in California and Washington State, we told two stories of fictional students to illuminate a flawed education system that treats students not as individuals but as parts of a group.
The first student we called Jeremy, an only child of a single mom who works multiple minimum-wage jobs, which leaves Jeremy home alone at many points during the day. The other student we called Julia, a student from an upper-middle-class home with lots of parental support.
In the podcast, we talked about why and how the school system doesn't work well for students like Jeremy along three dimensions: resources, curriculum, and sorting.
Resources
Today's school system assumes that children like Jeremy will have tools, resources, and opportunities—when in fact they aren't readily accessible to them.
Families with means can buy enrichment and advancement opportunities or, at the minimum, childcare. But families without these resources just have to make do—whether that means hours in front of the TV and video games, or worse. Jeremy has no access to summer camp or other chances to expand his horizons and imagine life outside of his home and immediate neighborhood. In normal years, when Jeremy returns to school in the fall, his classmates have done everything from coding to sports to arts camps. Or they've taken advanced math classes so they can get an edge when they go back to school. Jeremy has none of that.
The system also assumes that Jeremy has access to things like computers and the Internet—or even books at home to build his background knowledge across an array of subjects, which will give him the foundation to learn what his school teaches. But as we've learned during the pandemic, many families can't afford these tools and services. Even after roughly a year of trying to get all children connectivity, somewhere between 9 and 12 million students still didn't have adequate Internet at home.1
It's not like Jeremy's mom consciously realized she couldn't afford all these products and services. No one sent her a list. Families with means talk and network to find these opportunities. Families without struggle.
Curriculum
In life, success isn't just about the academic knowledge one masters or one's “intelligence.” Those are important, but other skills and habits are also critical. After achieving a baseline of academic preparedness, many studies suggest that these other skills and habits, along with access to social networks, rise in importance.
Jeremy misses building these skills and habits because his school's curriculum doesn't adequately address them.
In many schools, things like working on projects, teaching habits of success, providing actionable feedback, and connecting students to new networks of people aren't integrated into the curriculum—or are offered only as a dessert to the traditional main meal.
By not receiving these opportunities, Jeremy misses out on many experiences that could change his life. Take habits of success, which include mindsets and behaviors like self-direction, agency, growth mindset, and executive functions,2 to illustrate why.
Jeremy, like most of us, didn't come out of the womb as an organized human being. He hasn't learned explicit habits in the context of his academics to help him excel. Not having support to learn self-direction or executive function skills means that it may be hard for Jeremy to complete and turn in his homework each day. Unlike many of his peers, he doesn't have an adult there to remind him. That lowers his self-efficacy.
It's one thing to preach about growth mindset or grit to children, but it's a different thing to model it. Our education system does the opposite of modeling it, instead affixing labels to students, sorting them into static groups, and signaling that their effort doesn't matter.
This is because in today's system, time is held as a constant and each student's learning is variable.
Students move from concept to concept after spending a fixed number of days, weeks, or months on the subject. Educators teach, sometimes administer a test, and move students on to the next unit or body of material regardless of their results, effort, and understanding of the topic. Students typically receive feedback and results much later and only after they have progressed.
The system signals to students that it doesn't matter if you stick with something, because you'll move on either way. This approach undermines the value of perseverance and curiosity, as it does not reward students for spending more time on a topic. It also demotivates students, as many become bored when they don't have to work at topics that come easily to them or fall behind when they don't understand a building-block concept. Yet the class continues to progress, and students develop holes in their learning. This fixed-time, variable-learning system fails students.
Contrast this with a mastery-based—or competency-based3—learning model in which time becomes the variable and learning becomes guaranteed. Students only move fully from a concept once they demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills at hand. If they fail, that's fine. Failure is an integral part of the learning process. Students stay at a task, learn from the failures, and work until they demonstrate mastery. Success is guaranteed.
Mastery-based learning systematically embeds perseverance into its design. It showcases having a growth mindset, because students can improve their performance and master academic knowledge, skills, and habits of success.
Even if Jeremy's teachers talk about the importance of perseverance and growth mindset, today's system in which he's stuck doesn't reward it. It undermines it.
Similarly, by not providing timely feedback that is actionable, schools demotivate learners. Research shows that when a student receives feedback but cannot improve their performance with that feedback, it has a negative influence on student learning. Conversely, when the student can use the feedback, it positively impacts learning.4 It also opens the door to more positive and personalized interactions with teachers to build trust.
Most schools also don't make a point of offering students access to new networks that help them discover new opportunities and endeavors beyond those of their immediate family and friends. Connecting students to new individuals can be life-altering. It brings students together with people who can open doors and allows them to build passions in areas about which they would never otherwise know. Introducing students to successful individuals, particularly those with whom they share commonalities, can inspire them. In life, success is often not about what you know, but who you know. There's a mountain of research to back that up.
But children like Jeremy struggle because they don't get these sorts of opportunities in school. And all too often they don't have the offerings in their own lives to compensate.
Sorting
As if this weren't bad enough, the current education system was built to rank and sort students out of the system at various intervals. It makes judgments about the capacity of students before they have had a fair chance to prove themselves.
The traditional grading system doesn't exist to convey what a student knows and can do. The grades are there to rank students—and sort them out of certain life paths. This didn't cripple an individual when the economy offered well-paying jobs for those who hadn't succeeded in school. But that no longer describes today's economy.
When Jeremy doesn't turn in his homework because he doesn't have a structure at home conducive to reminding him—and his school hasn't explicitly helped him develop his own self-direction and executive function skills—his grade is docked. And he can't change that because the grade is designed to label him so that schools know in which classes he should and shouldn't be enrolled.
Summative and standardized tests similarly aren't used to help students and teachers figure out how to make progress. They're used to help sort students into different pathways.
Tests aren't inherently bad. They are critical to learning. But when they are used as an autopsy on a student, as opposed to an actionable moment, they become counterproductive. If Jeremy developed a misconception in an earlier grade because he lacked the background knowledge to make sense of a concept that is critical to a new lesson he's tackling in the fifth grade, his lack of understanding will show up on a test. The implications will haunt him.
These structures of our schools are built from a historical legacy of sorting students into different careers, from factory-line workers to managers to leaders. They stem from a scarcity mentality—that there are only a few select opportunities such that we must select the few students who will benefit from them.
This zero-sum mindset—that for every winner there must be a loser—means that by age 18, before people have lived most of their lives, we have labeled the vast majority of students and signaled to many that they aren't good enough for certain pathways or that they are “below” others.
Although this might be easier administratively than the alternative, it is devastating. This overlooks talent that could be developed. And it ignores that so much of our society—like capitalism, when it works properly—is built on a positive-sum mindset. Schooling and its scarcity mindset are anomalies today.
As Todd Rose, author of The End of Average, told us on our Class Disrupted podcast, the opposite of a zero-sum game is a positive-sum one in which the pie grows larger as individuals achieve success. One of Adam Smith's central insights in the 1700s, Rose said, is that “the mercantilist idea of zero-sum economies was just fatally wrong” and that society should instead create the correct conditions in which self-interest could create positive-sum outcomes. A big benefit from moving to a positive-sum system is that instead of competing to be the best—as in a zero-sum game—you compete to be unique.
“The last thing you want to do is be competing with some other people on the exact same thing. It limits you. It limits your value,” Rose said. “[Our research shows that trying to be unique] translates into much higher life satisfaction.”
That's the opposite of those who compete to be their best, “in which even higher levels of achievement do not correlate with higher life satisfaction or happiness. So there's something about understanding how to compete, to be unique and achieving on that uniqueness. That matters both for personal fulfillment and the life I want to live, but also ultimately my greatest contribution to society.”5
Competition can be good. Social comparisons can help an individual realize certain things are possible that they never otherwise would have imagined. But when we narrow the definition of life success and only rank and value people on a uniform and narrow dimension, competition is problematic. Competition is also a problem when we declare prematurely that the game is over.
That's because people don't learn in a linear way all on the same path and at the same pace. People develop at different rates. They have different strengths and weaknesses, which means they have what some call “jagged profiles.” That's because students have different working memory and cognitive capacities, background knowledge, social and emotional learning states, and contexts.6 Customizing is critical to meet this reality and help every child fulfill their human potential. It's vital that we do not sort students out of a pathway too soon.
An anecdote that played out in California several years ago shows just how flawed this system is—and how the Jeremys of the world could benefit if we would just change the assumptions.
At Santa Rita Elementary School in the Los Altos School District in California, a suburban school in an affluent area of California, a scene unfolded in 2010 not too different from scenes in schools around the country. A fifth-grade student, “Jack” (his name has been changed to protect his identity), started the year at the bottom of his class in math. He struggled to keep up and considered himself one of those kids who would just never quite “get it.” In a typical school, he would have been tracked and placed in the bottom math group—because the system is built to sort, not support, students. That would have meant that he would not have taken algebra until high school, which would have negatively impacted his college and career choices.
But Jack's story took a less familiar turn. His school transformed his class into a blended-learning environment in which students not only learned in person but also used some online learning. After 70 days of using Khan Academy's online math tutorials and exercises for a portion of his math three to four days a week, Jack's learning started accelerating. He went from a student who was well below grade level to one who was working on material well above grade level.
Of importance wasn't just the use of technology to personalize Jack's learning, but that his class rejected a fundamental and implicit assumption in today's schooling model: that just because Jack started the year behind his peers, the school should judge him as a slow learner and place him in a group out of which he couldn't move. Fixed grouping of children by perceived ability as measured by point-in-time tests and grades narrows opportunities.
What blended learning looked like in Santa Rita:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7lttowsC0Y
What Santa Rita looks like today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU6KRKHndJI
It's Not Just Bad for the Jeremys of the World
People's typical perception is that the schooling system won't change because those who come from well-off families benefit from it. Although there's some truth to that, the system doesn't work well for students from privileged backgrounds either.
For students like Julia, who has lots of resources outside of school, we leave a lot to chance. How is an elementary school student with busy parents to know what digital resources to trust or which ones are reliable or safe? Social media and search engines expose individuals to lots of questionable information.
A long summer break probably doesn't work for Julia. She crams a bunch of her interests into the break instead of spreading them throughout the year. Why is this negative? Instead of modeling a balanced lifestyle, it pits academics, athletics, arts, and other areas of passion against each other.
It also doesn't work for her busy parents as they figure out in which camps to enroll Julia and how to make the schedules work with their demanding jobs—to say nothing of the expenses and stress they incur as they try to make sure Julia won't “miss out” on any opportunity. It will also force Julia to load up on what she's doing during the school year, which creates significant stress.7 Creating a more flexible, balanced, year-round calendar wouldn't take anything away from Julia. She and her parents could ideally still take breaks when it made sense for them. But it could improve her baseline.
That speaks to the second bucket. Although it's likely that given Julia's family background and her resources she will perform well enough in school, that doesn't mean that she finds school engaging. She's likely bored. She may be stressed soon, too. Odds are her focus will be all around “getting by,” but it's unlikely she finds that school speaks to her or how she learns. Witness the numbers of second-semester seniors in high school who stop trying once they figure out which college they will be attending. It's also likely that Julia will graduate without a real sense of what she cares about or different pathways she could carve out for herself after high school ends. Even worse, many Julias graduate high school burned out and feeling like a failure after being rejected by the dozens of selective colleges to which they apply. One student we spoke to for my book Choosing College said he felt like he had “had a midlife crisis” after his dream school rejected him. He was 18 at the time.
This speaks to the final set of reasons why today's schooling system doesn't work for the Julias of the world. Spending her weekends doing test prep or extra math classes in the afternoons just to stay ahead in the rat race of rankings is exhausting. And it sends the unambiguous signal that schooling is a game to be won—not a pathway to help individuals prepare themselves for life. Although Julia might have the tools to play the game well, that doesn't mean it's a game worth playing. It's likely that once she enters middle school what she's really learning to do is constantly compare herself to others along a narrow set of measures. Nor is it likely that she's learning critical organizational or collaboration skills, let alone agency, self-efficacy, and self-direction. These are critical skills not to get in to college, but to successfully navigate college, the professional world, and her life. School is setting her up for a “real” midlife crisis.
A BETTER WAY FORWARD
Too often the debates around improving schooling get stuck in a zero-sum framing where for every winner there must be a loser. But the reality is that there are many more losers in our current education system than winners. By moving to a positive-sum system and a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity, we can transform that system into one that benefits both the Jeremys and the Julias of the world.
In that world, as children grow up, schools will help them discover and build their passions, understand what it takes to pursue what they want, learn how they can contribute value to society, and fulfill their human potential. Although many people are scared of change because of what they might lose, everyone has much to gain.
As schools have struggled over the past three academic years and the media has fretted about learning loss, education experts have recommended everything from summer school for all to redshirting every student. What these ideas share in common is that all students should just have more of the same type of schooling experience they've always had—a schooling experience that wasn't working.
In the years ahead, students will need personalization to meet them where they are—not just academically, but emotionally and socially as well. They will need support and help building strong relationships and networks. They will need to develop strong habits of success. We will need to think comprehensively and expansively, because if the goal is to help all students succeed in today's complex society, going back to the way things were is not an option.
That's what this book is designed to do. In the chapters ahead, we revisit many of the themes and ideas presented here in the Introduction. Unpacking them offers a way forward so that all members of society can benefit from a better, more enjoyable, and more positive schooling experience.
Chapter 1
explains how to reframe the predicament in which educators find themselves as an opportunity, not a threat.
Chapter 2
encourages educators to start with the end in mind—what's the purpose of schooling?
Once the goal is defined, it's easier to work backward to make sure students develop what they need to be successful.
Chapter 3
walks through a theory to help schools define their proper scope so that they can successfully fulfill their purpose.
Against that backdrop,
Chapter 4
describes what students are really trying to accomplish—and where traditional schools fall short. It asks all of us to move past the notion of learning loss.
Chapter 5
outlines what the student experience should look like to help students accomplish their priorities. It shows why we need a system that guarantees mastery for each student.
Chapter 6
reimagines the teaching experience with an emphasis on helping educators think about the “T” in teachers standing for “teams.”
Chapter 7
speaks to the parent experience and how to design schools and new solutions to fit into the progress that parents desire.
Chapter 8
talks about the technology imperative in today's world and offers some tips for choosing educational software.
Chapter 9
discusses the importance of the right culture and how to create it.
Chapter 10
helps educators create a mindset of testing, learning, and iterating. It proposes that rather than creating a “plan” and following it blindly, educators shift to thinking about “planning” as a verb—a perpetual cycle that allows people to learn and improve.
All of these changes described in the preceding chapters will be hard. Stakeholders will have varying levels of agreement. To bring the different strands together,
Chapter 11
offers a framework to help leaders manage change when key stakeholders have varying views on the goals of schools or how to realize those outcomes.
With the havoc that COVID has caused and the challenges educators, students, and parents face, the appetite for new solutions that work for everyone will be larger than before.
* * *
To seize the moment, we will follow the fictional stories of Jeremy and Julia set in an elementary school in California at the beginning of each chapter.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Today's school system doesn't work well for anyone given the complex demands of today's world.
The system assumes all students have resources that they don't; it neglects teaching them certain key skills and dispositions and connecting them to other networks of people; and it sorts them prematurely.
Moving from a time-based system to a mastery-based one is imperative.
Shifting from a zero-sum mindset to a positive-sum one is overdue.
There's a way forward that can customize for different student needs and help all individuals build their passions and fulfill their human potential.
NOTES
1
. Mark Lieberman, “Most Students Now Have Home Internet Access. But What About The Ones Who Don't?”
Education Week
, April 20, 2021,
https://www.edweek.org/technology/most-students-now-have-home-internet-access-but-what-about-the-ones-who-dont/2021/04#:~:text=School%20districts%20are%20aware%20much%20more%20work%20needs%20to%20be%20done&text=Still%2C%20the%20report%20estimates%20between,at%20home%20for%20remote%20learning
.
2
. According to Prepared Parents, habits of success encompass a range of mindsets and behaviors, including attachment, stress management, self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy/relationship skills, executive functions, growth mindset, self-efficacy, sense of belonging, believing in the relevance of education, resilience, agency, academic tenacity, self-direction, curiosity, and purpose. Self-direction refers to students being able to drive forward the actions needed to achieve goals, with or without help. Agency refers to the ability of an individual to make their own decisions and act on them. Growth mindset means believing that one can become smarter; they aren't born with a fixed level of smarts. And executive function refers to the ability to concentrate, stay organized, juggle lots of things happening at once, and plan for the future. “Focus on Habits Instead of Test Scores,” Prepared Parents,
https://preparedparents.org/editorial/focus-on-16-habits-of-success-not-test-scores/
(accessed November 4, 2021).
3
. CompetencyWorks, an initiative of the Aurora Institute, has developed an updated definition, as of 2019, of competency-based learning. Their original definition started with a question of what does “high-quality” competency-based learning, not just competency-based learning, look like? The current definition, while dropping the “high-quality” moniker in the report, has retained that emphasis on what good practice of competency-based learning looks like. It has seven parts, which are abbreviated here:
Students are empowered daily to make importance decisions about their learning;
Assessment is meaningful and yields timely, actionable evidence;
Students receive timely, differentiated feedback based on their needs;
Students progress based on mastery, not seat time;
Students learn actively using different pathways and varied pacing;
Strategies to ensure equity for all students are embedded;
Rigorous, common expectations for learning (knowledge, skills, and dispositions) are explicit, transparent, measurable, and transferable.
See Eliot Levine and Susan Patrick, “What Is Competency-Based Education? An Updated Definition,” Aurora Institute, 2019, https://aurora-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/what-is-competency-based-education-an-updated-definition-web.pdf.
4
. Barbara Gaddy Carrio, Richard A. DeLorenzo, Wendy J. Battino, and Rick M. Schreiber,
Delivering on the Promise: The Education Revolution
(Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press, 2009), Kindle Locations, pp. 1624–1630.
5
. “LISTEN—Class Disrupted Podcast Episode 6: Help! My Child and I Are Overwhelmed!,” The 74, June 22, 2020,
https://www.the74million.org/article/listen-class-disrupted-podcast-episode-6-help-my-child-and-i-are-overwhelmed/
.
6
. Barbara Pape, “Learner Variability Is the Rule, Not the Exception,” Digital Promise Global, June 2018,
https://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Learner-Variability-Is-The-Rule.pdf
.
7
. This stress is something that has been well documented and is the flip side of the challenges faced by marginalized students and families. See, for example, Alexandra Robbins,
The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids
(New York: Hyperion, 2007).
