Education Writers Association

Nicholas C. Donohue, President & CEONellie Mae Education Foundation

Nashville, TennesseeMay 20, 2014

@NickDonohueNMEF

2

Education SituationPost Secondary Skills and Knowledge A

MustAttainment Today – @40%

High School Graduation Increasing – 80%

Readiness Flat - 50%2178

Worse for The New Majority - 2300?

5

And BTW… …The Bar is Being Raised Every Day

CollaborationCommunicationProblem SolvingProblem PredictingDeep AnalyticsPattern RecognitionMaking Smart ChoicesGrit – Try, Try Again

It’s 2014….

Why are we still acting like it’s 1914?

Antiquated Practices

Public Education: A 19th Century Factory Model

Source: Wikimedia Commons

11

Student-Centered Learning

Learning Is PersonalizedLearning Takes Place Anytime,

AnywhereLearning Is Competency-BasedStudents Exert Ownership Over

Their Learning

12

Customization: A one-size fits all approach to education is becoming irrelevant… and non-competitive.

Source: University of Maryland

Where learning happens…

15

16

Student Ownership

Learning is Like Cooking

RecipesVarious Ingredients

ExemplarsComplex

Risk, Mistakes and ImprovementMessy

Performance OrientedRewarding

Student-Centered Learning in the Region NMEF Grantees• New Haven Public Schools (Metropolitan Business Academy, New Haven Academy, The Sound

School, Cooperative Arts, Wilbur Cross & Humanities Magnet High School; New Haven CT)• Danbury High School (Danbury, CT)• Meriden Public Schools (Maloney High School, Platt High School; Meriden, CT)• Manchester High School (Manchester, CT)• Chelsea High School (Chelsea, MA)• Revere High School (Revere, MA)• Providence Public Schools (Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School, E-Cubed Academy, Juanita Sanchez

Complex; Providence, RI)• Burlington & Winooski Public Schools (Burlington High School, Winooski High School)• Portland Public Schools (Casco Bay High School, Portland High School, Deering High School;

Portland, ME)• Sanford Public Schools (Sanford High School, Sanford, ME)• Pittsfield Public Schools (Pittsfield Middle High School, Pittsfield, NH)• Hartford Public Schools (Hartford, CT)• Vergennes-Union High School (Vergennes, VT)• Norwalk Public Schools (Brien McMahon High School, Norwalk High School, Briggs High School,

Norwalk, CT)• Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (Exeter, NH)• Diploma Plus at Charlestown High School (Charlestown, MA) • Boston Day & Evening Academy (Boston, MA)• Diploma Plus at Champion High School (Brockton, MA) • Medical Professions & Teacher Preparation Academy (Hartford, CT)• Newfound Regional High School (Bristol, NH)• Raymond High School (Raymond, NH)• Plymouth North & South High Schools (Plymouth, MA)• Nashua North High School (Nashua, NH)• Nute Middle High School (Milton, NH)• Lanconia High School (Lanconia, NH)• Manchester West High School (Manchester, NH)• Nobel High School (North Berwick, ME)• Kearsarge Regional High School (North Sutton, NH)

Other

• Codman Academy (Dorchester, MA)• Boston Arts Academy (Boston, MA)• Champlain Valley Union High School (Hinesburg, VT)• Springfield Renaissance School (Springfield, MA)• The Francis W. Parker Charter School (Devens, MA)• Big Picture Rochester (Rochester, VT.)• Big Picture Depot Campus (Storrs-Mansfield, CT)• MSAD 15 (Gray-New Gloucester, ME)• Our Piece of the Pie (Hartford, CT)• King Middle School (Portland, ME)• High School in the Community (New Haven, CT)• Spaulding High School (Rochester, NH)• Sanborn Regional High School (Kingston, NH)• MSAD 60 (Berwick,ME)• Searsport High School (Searsport, ME)• Flanders Bay Consolidated School District (North Sullivan, ME)

Improvement vs. Systems Change

TechnicalStandardsProcessesStructuresPractices

Practitioners

CulturalBeliefsValues

PurposesAuthorizers

Purpose!

Universal Attainment Of The New Basics

Each One ReadyFor The Public Good

Putting the “Public” Back in Education Reform

• For Too Long We Have Tried to Make Ed Reform “Public Proof”

• Change Will Never Occur Without Growing Full Public Demand

• People Hope For What We “Had” Educationally…• This Last Situation is Real But Not Permanent• It Is Possible and Necessary to Reframe the

Debate Using Research Tested Approaches

Low

Pro

min

ence

Hig

h Pr

omin

ence

• Local school board relationships w/ parents

• Parents’ roles in creating demand

• Transparency & speed of implementation

• Studentslearn at own

pace

• Learning outside classroom

• Students demonstrating mastery

• Students learn in different ways

• Students well prepared for college

• Skills for success

THE PHILOSOPHICAL TENETS OF SCL ARE GENERALLY COVERED VERY POSITIVELY. THEY’RE SIMPLY LOST IN THE SHUFFLE TOO OFTEN.

• Process• Substance

Need to Keep Developing and Showing Effective Examples

Work To Do Culturally

How We Frame Determines Which Values Reign

Individual SuccessA Failing System

The Triad

Will-PowerQuality Education=Caring Teacher

Compartmentalized Skills

Unions

Teachers/Students/Parents Who Don’t Care

The Basics

Will Power

Passive Learning

Standardized TestFinancially Successful Individuals

We Can’t/Get Back to the BasicsMake the Triad Care MoreMake Ed More Like a Business

What is at stake and why should I care?

Who is involved and how does it work?

When and where does it happen?

What threatens the outcomes?

What are the outcomes, how do they happen and why do they matter?

How do we know whether the outcomes have happened or not?

How do we improve ed and learning?

Research on How to Shift the Conversation

Metaphors That WorkOrchestra

Woven RopePolinationCookingHouse

What is at stake and why should I care?

Who is involved and how does it work?

When and where does it happen?

What threatens the outcomes?

How does learning happen?

How do we know whether the outcomes have happened or not?

How do we improve ed and learning?

Future Preparation

Progress

The Educational Orchestra

Cooking with Information

Lack of Scaffolding

Workforce Preparation

Human PotentialInformation Drivers

Weaving Skill Ropes

Dashboard

Pragmatism

Remodeling

Ingenuity

Pollination Points

Spotty Charging Stations

Change in the NarrativeFailing System/Individualism

Fix the CrisisWill Power

Caring TeachersDiscrete Skills

Bad PeopleThe BasicsEndurance

PassiveTests/ $$$$

Can’t Improve/BasicsFix The People

Make It Like Business“Turn It Around”

Future Ready/Social Progress

OrchestraLike Pollination

Lack of OrchestraSkill Ropes

Kind of Like CookingDriver’s License

DashboardPragmatism

FairnessIngenuity

Remodeling

Media Matters

McCarthyismCivil RightsWatergate

NSAClimate Change

Education For Our Country’s Future?

Media MattersUnbiased Integrity

Rooted in Good InformationPublic Discourse

Resources Available

www.frameworksinstitute.orgwww.competencyworks.org

www.studentsatthecenter.org www.nmefoundation.org

Public Education: A 19th Century Factory Model

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Learning is the VariableTime and Place

are the Constants

Learning is the ConstantTime and Place

are the Variables

Universal Attainment Of The New Basics

Each One ReadyFor The Public Good

• Transformation

nmefoundation.org

Photo Creditshttps://begood.good.com/community/getting-started/blog/2012/10/18/how-to-change-your-username

http://simplelifestrategies.com/slsreframe/

@NickDonohueNMEF