rEDesign: University of Michigan Students Campaign For Education Redesign On Twitter (VIDEO)

While lawmakers seek to make sweeping changes to public education at the national and state levels, some University of Michigan students are looking to reshape K-12 education from the bottom up.

Campus group rEDesign seeks input from students on how best to fix a broken system in which a wide achievement gap remains, and students -- both privileged and underserved -- struggle to be succeed academically and be globally competitive.

"The only demographic who haven't been engaged to systemically transform the education system is young people," the group writes on DoSomething.org.

In a new campaign, rEDesign wants college students to submit ideas on how best to redesign public education in the U.S. (Tweet your ideas with #rEDesignMyEdu @umichrEDesign and @HuffPostEdu.).

"College students stand at this powerful intersection, where we're the most recent products of the K-12 system, so we still identify with our roles as students, and our knowledge of the system -- at least from a student's perspective -- is still relatively accurate," Libby Ashton, founder and president of rEDesign, says in the campaign video. "Watch us dream, watch us try, and if history is any indicator at all, watch us succeed -- at least sometimes -- in designing avenues by with schools and the students they serve receive the resources they need to be successful."

rEDesign isn't the first college-level organization of its kind. Three years ago, Catharine Bellinger and Alexis Morin founded non-profit Students for Education Reform at Princeton University, focused on supporting policies the students believe will help close the achievement gap.

As membership and interest grew, chapters sprouted across the country, and the two left Princeton before finishing their senior year to focus full-time on taking SFER to schools nationwide.

So as nearly half of America's public schools failed to meet federal achievement standards this year, states across the country are seeking No Child Left Behind waivers to circumvent what has been called a "broken" and "defective" law.

The waivers aim to give states more flexibility in creating curriculum and standards at the local level -- offering them a chance to improve their individual education systems that are catered to the needs of their localities.

Still, the policy-related reform efforts in government focus on top-down, rigid and methodical assessments and frameworks. When few schools offer the arts as individual courses and 65 percent of high school students don't have access to AP classes in core subjects, what does Michigan's rEDesign want, and what ideas do they have to reverse that trend?

Watch the video to find out, and don't forget to tweet your own ideas with #rEDesignMyEdu @umichrEDesign and @HuffPostEdu.

Comments

[urbanlad]

06:43 PM on 12/30/2011

during her tenure. I thought that she would have shared her classroom strategies in raising student achievement and testing. I didn't think it would involve a box of #2 pencils and a box of erasers.

[urbanlad]

06:40 PM on 12/30/2011

The corrosive cancer of edreform has percolated down to college campuses. When it arrives at the secondary level..I'm going into exile. As an aside ...Why do people believe that people with inflated A's are the best candidates for teaching? Why do people also seem to believe that all you need is a "great" education from an elite university? If teaching was so simple then many "newbies" wouldn't be fleeing after 2-3 years and their would be long lines forming at the chance to teach. Organizations like New Teacher and TFA would cease to exist. (Not a bad idea) I challenge anyone, (especially the teacher bashers and the education pimps) who have never taught- to give it a shot. Yup! If its so easy why aren't you doing it? Interesting to note that Michelle Rhee during her time in DC didn't focus on PD. One other thing I was disappointed in was I figured that we would have benefited from her incredible achievement success

[maninal2]

03:04 PM on 12/19/2011

Why don't we also ask college students the best way to perform heart or brain surgery. They're just as qualified. Isn't it time we went back to the professionals that know the industry of education, the teachers?

[Riddy786]

06:34 AM on 12/18/2011

In general our schooling and university system is broken, internationally. We need to stop trying to improve on a broken system. The model of education we follow is based on feeding the industrial age. We can't improve a system that already broken. The education system we follow is extremely linear. Designed to push out like minded people day after day. A system that's based on trying to stop you from shining your light. Or model of education needs to be thrown out.

[maninal2]

03:01 PM on 12/19/2011

Do you throw away your car when you get a flat tire?

[roaddawg31]

06:49 PM on 12/15/2011

I think the issue(s) of standardized testing, scripted curriculum, came about because of the quality of people who come to teaching. The brightest of adults could effectively learn how to best teach a group of students. The problem is that teaching has not attracted this level of person. Teaching has tended to (and still does) attract the lemmings among us. Not to say that ALL teachers are lemmings, but a disproportionate number are.

I see it all the time. A teacher who is supposed to be credentialed to teach "Multiple Subjects" will readily admit her cluelessness when it comes to teaching Math. MOST elementary school teachers IMO, are about the furthest person you want teaching a group of kids about PHYSICAL education (most are overweight, most have no physical aptitude or lifelong appreciation of fitness). And so, because of these deficient people, a protocol or way of doing things has had to be adopted--because they need it.

This all being said, I'm not anti-teacher. I'm actually pro-teacher. But I'm "Pro" employing the best among them. Not (necessarily) the most tenured. We need to find ways to bring the most effective teachers into classrooms, and letting the REST fight it out for the rest of the jobs.

[Pamela Gerloff]

01:06 PM on 12/16/2011

You should try teaching. Then you'll see that what underlies the major problems of education, in the U.S. and around the world, are systemic problems. We need new fundamental assumptions, new operating principles, and new practices. We can't keep saying "we need better teachers" and expect to get anything resembling something new in education.

[Michael Evans]

10:14 AM on 12/17/2011

Pamela, kudos for a simple yet powerful statement. The systemic question I often ask is, "HOW do we get better teachers?" Do we pay them more? Do we, via grassroots movements, somehow transform the perception of the teaching profession to be prestigious and elite? The answer is complex and too often ignored.
I'd be honored if you read some of my pieces! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-evans/school-arrests_b_1147455.html

[roaddawg31]

04:40 PM on 12/17/2011

"You should try teaching"... I would LOVE TO; can you please tell me where I can "try" it? THERE ARE NO JOBS. Why? Because of antiquated seniority systems that place zero value on the quality of teaching (especially as it relates to relative cost).

[SonicUltimate]

02:32 PM on 12/15/2011

Education in this country won't be "reformed" until we drop the naive notions that all classes are equally valuable (they aren't) and that all students can be expected to achieve a universal level of "proficiency" across multiple subjects (they can't).

Education needs to focus on a bare minimum of core principles (i.e. the intro course to all subjects) then allow students to specialize in what peaks their interests based on their own particular motivations.  If we would allow students more latitude to self-regulate we would likely see higher achievement.

Does that mean we would see more people opting out of "harder" classes for "easier" ones?  Perhaps, but that would also indicate what students value and/or what the schools need to do a better job of relating to distal goals (i.e. career aspirations).  

Enter the long forgotten school counselors.

[Michael Evans]

10:18 AM on 12/17/2011

Agree/Disagree.
I am very much with you in regards to motivating kids to do what they naturally gravitate toward. They'll want to do it, they'll push themselves, and they will find their niche in the world of work. We all have natural talents, and only by pursuing them and being pushed toward them can we use them to our own betterment.
What do you do, though, if a kid's home and community life present such serious obstacles to learning - even attending - school each day? What do you do if selling drugs makes much more sense to a kid than the long, arduous process of going to school? This is the reality. In white suburbia, where I grew up, your idea works brilliantly.
In poor, minority communities where I now work, your idea carries no weight. See below for an example.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-evans/school-arrests_b_1147455.html

[kinger50]

12:02 AM on 01/31/2012

What do you do, though, if a kid's home and community life present such serious obstacles to learning - even attending - school each day?

Maybe you don't do much...at least not as a teacher. I think too often we try a slight of hand that burdens educators with the role of social worker/social services. This is very unfair. The teachers and schools have a lot of influence but a very limited span of control. That means about 6 hours a day for around 9 months of the year. The issues you raise or societal problems and schools are the tail of the dog in my opinion. We please asking the tail to wag the dog because it is so tidy that way, however it will never work. Schools are expanding into a social services distribution network. No wonder teachers quit. This is too much work for anyone. Hire people who want to be social workers and keep academic tracks in a clear academic track.

[Sergio Andrade]

02:25 PM on 12/15/2011

Keep Religion and Politics out of it!!!!

[mrld20]

02:16 PM on 12/15/2011

YESSSS!!! This is perfect!!! Who needs teachers and professors to try to cram standardized tests down our throats...

Let the students themselves reform education!!! They did it during the 1960's! We can do it today too!!!