Two weeks ago I attended the Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform. Hosted by the Foundation for Excellence in Education, an organization chaired by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the summit brought together major players in education policy from across the political spectrum. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former NYC Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein, Khan Academy founder Sal Khan, Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Melinda Gates, and Superintendents of Public Instruction Tom Luna, Tony Bennet, Chris Cerf, Stephen Bowen, Janet Barresi, and Hanna Skandera from the states of Idaho, Indiana, New Jersey, Maine, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, respectively. There were many more influential policymakers in attendance, including legislators from virtually every state who were eager to learn of policies that they can promote in their home districts.
The two days of seminars, meetings, and keynotes expanded my perspectives on education reform in a myriad of ways. For example, I learned about education reform, something that is mainly the purview of state governments, straight from the mouths of state Senators and House members. I spent the most time with lawmakers from Tennessee, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, and learned of the unique policy environments of each state. For example, Arizona State Senator Rich Crandall told me about the school choice movement going on in his state. Like many of the other school choice advocates at the conference, Senator Crandall is a believer that school choice can’t be meaningful unless parents and students can choose from a menu of excellent schools, not poor ones. In fact, on a Friday morning seminar at the conference, Senator Crandall wowed the attendees when he described how many schools his family can choose from within a ten or fifteen mile radius of his home.
I learned that Tennessee is doing a lot for education too. In fact, after speaking with Tennessee Representative Dennis Powers I realized that the Volunteer state had recently passed some major education reform policies, including those that relate to collective bargaining, rewards for effective teachers and tenure constraints for chronically ineffective teachers.
If there were a few “take home” messages from the conference, they would be for educators and policymakers to:
- 1. Consider the force multiplier to education reform that is digital, blended learning. Just look at what Rocketship schools are doing!
- 2. Avoid falling into the trap of thinking that digital learning replaces teachers. In fact, it allows for teachers to be designers of truly differentiated curriculum and facilitates faster and more efficient data collection of learning outcomes. Imagine having tremendously efficient, fun, and interactive lessons that each student can work on simultaneously. Imagine the students working on lessons that correspond to their specific needs. Then think of these same students feeling unafraid to ask a colorful, organized software program to explain or re-explain a concept. Even more, picture the students being able to review lessons as many times as they need using different modalities: videos, dynamic tutorials, or in blended classrooms, “pull out time” with the teachers when the student can get individual attention.
- 3. Recognize our bias. Many of us are products of the same public schools that we are trying to improve. It might be hard to consider doing BIG things to make our schools better simply because we haven’t known anything different.
- 4. Be brave and be open-minded. There are pro-reformers from the right and the left. In my opinion, this is what makes the issue of education reform particularly exciting. People from both sides of the aisle are joining forces and recognizing common ground. We as educators must do the same thing. We can’t be constrained by ideological boundaries. We must fight for efficiency, effectiveness, and transformation – nothing less! Lucky for those of us who are affiliated with Rossier, arguably the most cutting edge Ed-school around, we are in the right place to do just that!
FIGHT ON.
