There are plenty of theories about how to improve education. Most focus on what appear to be big levers--a point of entry and system intervention that appears to provide some improvement leverage. These theories usually involve 'if-then' statements: 'if we improve this, then other good stuff will happen.' Leading theories focus on people, schools, policy and community. Nonprofit ecosystems develop around theories, they ebb and flow with foundation interest. Although seldom discussed, leading levers differ substantially in terms of risk and return.
People. Teach for America was an early leader in what is now commonly referred to as the Human Capital agenda in education. With increased federal and foundation attention, alternative certification programs have achieved some scale but still train a fraction of all teachers and leaders.
• Problem addressed: weak talent distribution
• Key assumption: teacher effectiveness is the key variable; more good teachers will improve student achievement
• Risk: low risk especially with proven recruiting and training programs
• Return: low leverage for teacher programs (one announced this week costs $70k/placement), moderate leverage for leadership, potential for sizable impact with sustained investment over time
• Example: Advance Innovative Education, New Leaders for New Schools, New Teacher Project
Schools. Charter schools are the leading representative of the view that 'good schools will improve the system.' Proponents usually add a dose of competition and choice to theories about scaled impact. While market share in 14 communities exceeds 20%, national market share of the burgeoning new school development sector serves less than 4% of US students.
• Problem addressed: obsolete school designs with restrictive rules
• Key assumption: good schools are sticky--once they develop a constituency, they'll be around for a while
• Risk: low risk especially with proven models and operators
• Return: low-moderate leverage (funders bet on moderate returns given optimistic assumptions about competition, scale, and diffusion)
• Examples: Achievement First, Aspire, Green Dot, KIPP
Policy. A growing number of think tanks and advocacy groups are attempting to nudge the Gordian knot of policy in a slightly more positive and coherent direction.
• Problem addressed: three-tiered mess of American education policy
• Key assumption: a smart investment in advocacy can yield big returns
• Risk: high risk of little or no progress, possible unintended consequences
• Return: high leverage if successful; opportunity to change the opportunity set for millions of students
• Example: EdTrust, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Equality Project, EdSector, ConnCAN
Community. A small number of diehards attempt to organize community support or community services for better schools.
• Problem addressed: underserved communities are disenfranchised
• Key assumption: organizing creates power for change (and/or schools can't do it alone)
• Risk: transitory support and high risk of bureaucratically thwarted efforts
• Return: moderate-high leverage if support can be built around key opportunities
• Example: Communities in Schools, Parent Revolution, PICO, Parent Organizing Consortium
You could add 'data' to the lever list, but given the wide recognition of its importance, better data is usually incorporated into strategies in each category. You could add 'systems' approaches but they are usually cobbled together bundles of these four--more community for the left-leaning foundations, more choice for the right.
One problem not addressed by these theories is the lack of innovation diffusion in education--a good idea won't cross the street. Weak improvement incentives and strong bureaucracy have created a lousy marketplace for products and ideas.
In other sectors, platforms have proven to be a big lever: iTunes for music, Wal-Mart for consumer goods, Windows for computers. Platforms combine a set of technologies--including some we didn't know we needed that instantly become indispensable--into a disruptive value engine.
I'm betting on social learning platforms as a lever for improvement at scale in education. Instead of a classroom as the primary organizing principle, social networks will become the primary building block of learning communities (both formal and informal). Smart recommendation engines will queue personalized content. Tutoring, training, and collaboration tools will be applications that run on social networks. New schools will be formed around these capabilities. Teachers in existing schools will adopt free tools yielding viral, bureaucracy-cutting productivity improvement.
In the coming decade, most middle and high schools will adopt some version of 1:1 technology, online learning will play an increasing role, and learning experiences will be conducted and coordinated on social learning platforms. While adoption won't be simple and smooth, it will cut through the typical barriers that block other reforms.
The platforms that get big will have a business model behind them. Foundations will contribute to niche platforms and apps, but the big platforms will be dot coms not dot orgs. There's no stopping it and that's the beauty of disruptive innovation.
Follow Tom Vander Ark on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tvanderark
2:24pm
Alexandria, VA
As mother of five children who attended public schools and a former substitute teacher I feel qualified to say that the kids need computers (1 for each child) in the classroom in order to succeed. The schools need to stop stalling and just do it.
It would be nice if the kids each had one at home but that probably won't happen any time soon so the schools need to step up and start providing access and teaching the kids how to use them.
Roig
Conformity, conformity, conformity.
Everyone does not learn the same way. Some people learn more 1 to 1, others lean more self study, yet others learn best in structured environments.
Our modern schools apply assembly line tactics to students. Every student is tossed in, ground up, homogenized, blended, and those few who somehow manage to survive the process with an intact, unscarred, and actually useful education are few and far between.
It's a failed system, and transformation is long overdue. Computer tutors, better educational games, social education software, and individualized instruction are absolutely essential ingredients in this transformation, as is acknowledgement that education is a never ending process for both children and adults.
The system as is worked a hundred years ago, when the Industrial Revolution created it. It is long overdue for a update.
You are guiilty of annointing KIPP, Achievemenht First, and Aspire as great. You continue to throw Green Dot in when in fact Green Dot's record of performance is quite poor. But Steve Barr is a great publicity machine in and of himself. At some point their schools will have to make AYP. We look forward to them earning the accolades you and a few other reformers pile on them.
We can educate Americans and dispel their myths about us. We are light years ahead in infrastructure, implementing hi tech to the masses (ironically some developed in the USA) and high education standards here.
We can also show them how we have a superior health care system at a quarter of what Americans pay.
And no waiting like in America. Doctors even perfrom house calls.
Networking is great and many of my American friends have been deprogrammed . The USA MSM is totally controlled and feeds them LIES.
Here's an example. My son's Chinese math teacher--honors math, two years ahead of his grade--paid him an unusual but beautiful compliment. He said "Your son is a good Chinese student." (My son, like me, is very, very white.) Then he explained what he meant: that he paid attention, and ignored distractions, and did everything he was asked to do--the way students do in China. He was focused on achievement, not on the social experience, and almost never talked--the way students behave in China.
In China, students are expected to work hard and excel, and they expect it of themselves. But not so much here in the U.S.
Too many American students are sabotaged by cultural expectations that see such priorities as geeky, such overt cooperation as subservient, and such effort as sad and pathetic. Many adults agree.
If we want to change educational outcomes, we need to change ourselves first.
Enormous economic and social diversity as well.
Oh but they're all Asian, so they all look alike to you?
According to the Lester Maddox Theory of Prison Reform the way to do it is with better students.