21st Century Learning

21st Century Workforce Readiness

I had the opportunity recently to facilitate a group of business, education, political and community leaders in a discussion about developing a workforce ready group of graduates in the 21st Century.

I was given the task of relaying the experience. I have decided to share with you to see if you agree or disagree with these leaders' ideas and action steps and why. I encourage you to read and weigh in in the comment section below. I look forward to your responses.

Executive Summary

Newport News Public Schools is moving quickly to address learning in the 21^st century, its barriers and its possibilities, and kicked things off for 2009 with a 21^st Century Leading and Learning Conference.

As a precursor to the conference, held Jan. 9-10, 2009 at Heritage High School, global and regional leaders in education, business and religious organizations met to brainstorm together 21^st century learning concepts in a Global ThinkTank. 

An electronic global panel discussion kicked off the day’s events with an impressive group of thought leaders from Scotland, Thailand, and the U.S. logging in to Elluminate, a webinar software platform, to share their ideas and answer questions. Bios of the guest speakers can be found here. An archive of the conversation that took place can be found here.

In the following facilitated discussions, leaders were given a chance to voice their opinions about what they saw as barriers to implementation of 21^st Century workforce readiness and a re-culturing of our curriculum to meet the needs of today’s changing student.

Through the economic lens, business leaders expressed a need for 21^st century students to not only be prepared for the technology of the changing world, but to still grasp soft skills needed in the workforce, such as problem solving and leadership skills.

Education leaders saw disconnect between teacher preparation programs and the changing learning environment. High stakes testing was seen as another barrier to learning in the 21^st century.

“That accountability hinders the changes in curriculum and teaching practices needed to impact instruction, problem solving, literacy…”

“If pass rates are high, teachers/students feel a certain sense of fulfillment, but the SOLs are a minimum competency assessment. They are not enough to prepare kids for the future.”

A major theme from the breakout sessions was the disconnect between education and relevance.

“Students need to have the tie in – that what they are learning has relevance to the career they choose.”  

“When kids fall in love with learning it’s because they see the relevance.”

Leaders in the sessions admitted fear as a big barrier to 21^st century learning – the fear of change, of trying something new. This fear hinders the modeling necessary in 21^st century learning.

“Everyone needs to model from top down. . . .Principals model to teachers, teachers model to students, etc.”

After the facilitated discussions, leaders were asked to come up with proactive recommendations to the barriers addressed. From this long list, leaders filtered and organized their recommendations under different categories and then ranked the categories by the most important in their opinion. Some of the top ranked categories included leadership development, cultural awareness, professional/teacher development, partnerships/community involvement and student curriculum.

Empowering educators through leadership development, building relationships and cultural awareness, training and modeling were some of the most recommended steps to overcoming the barriers.

Out of the discussions recommended action statements emerged:

- Inventory the technological skills already available in the division to identify and address gaps. 

- Ask students to teach the teachers how they use technology and how they see these tools being used in a classroom.

- Allow teacher experts to train other teachers so there is no additional cost involved in the training. The business community can also provide in-kind support by providing training in these technologies.

- Build cultural awareness and infuse relevance into our instruction by teaching educators and students the facts of our global economy and community. 

- Teach educators the importance of and how to build their own online personal learning networks as a 21^st Century networking literacy leveraged for student growth.

- Teach students how to develop their own personal learning networks and discriminate information value and organization.

- Use technology to access and examine current events from various world perspectives through original sources and global connections.

- Teach the whole child by using inquiry driven approaches that reexamine curriculum through a 21^st Century lens.

- Work on belief systems, so that they produce citizens who can meet the challenges of this world with confidence and embrace all its people with compassion.

- Develop leadership networks that collaboratively function as professional learning communities to address and solve barriers to learning. These networks would include administrators, teachers, school staff, community and business leaders, and student leaders in the district, state and world.

Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Lead a Group
In addition to the facilitated focus groups that addressed 21^st Century issues, one group of community leaders also had the privilege of interviewing a special guest and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Rebiya Kadeer. A copy of the transcript of her interview can be found in Appendix E.

To review all data collected at the Global ThinkTank please refer to the following appendices:

Appendix A – Participants List- Removed

Appendix B – Round Robin Discussions

Appendix C – Categorization of Ideas

Appendix D – Crafts of Recommendations

Appendix E – Interview with Rebiya Kadeer

Appendix F – Panel Discussion Archive

Appendix B – Round Robin Discussions 

After breaking down into groups, participants engaged in round robin discussions of the barriers to 21^st century learning. They responded to the question, “Thinking in terms of the skills, knowledge, abilities and opportunities needed to prepare today’s students for the 21^st century workforce – what are the barriers that are currently keeping this from happening in our classroom and community?” One participant acted as scribe for the group, recording responses, while another facilitated the discussion. The notes from these discussions are reprinted below.

Group A

Round Robin Notes:

Financial Constraints are a barrier especially when we look at the technology budget. 

 There is not enough investment from all of our organizations.  Exposure and experiences are another part of 21^st century that our students are not getting.  Critical and Creative thinking is a big part of children’s learning.

We got away from the basic skills.  We still need to be able to read, write and do multiplication tables.  Attitudes start at home and are nurtured at school regarding the importance of learning. No matter whether their disposition is to go to college or not, these skills are important and you are not a failure if you don’t go to college.  And students ought not be stigmatized because they want to be a carpenter.  We ought to help kids know what they want to do and then help them do it and not stigmatize them if that means they don’t go to college. 

We are only allowing kids that can’t do to go to vocational classes. 

NNPS has the burden of raising children because of societal issues.  So now schools have to be responsible for social development too. 

Skills, Attitude and Disposition don’t cost a lot of money.

We underestimate kids’ ability to learn.  Expectations build the attitude that is needed. 

There needs to be a better cultural awareness across schools and business and finances need to be available.  Students need to be geared towards their interests not just college.  Tools to help students know their interests are needed and the finances to provide them need to be there.  

You can’t just work with the students and then send them back out in the community.  It needs to be a community effort. 

Young people have built their own community through technology.  Social networking, texting, etc.   We need to pick up on the skills our kids have and build on that with kids. 

As an instructor and parent, I am dealing with fear, not knowing what the kids are doing.  Amazement at kids’ ability to write a report, listen to iTunes and  text all at the same time.  How uncomfortable are educators and parents. 

Importance of educating our community…

Money is a problem.  We don’t have enough equipment.  Teachers are afraid that they are going to break the equipment.  They have to have critical thinking skills.  We are bad about the SOL’s but they have to be able to think.  It is more than rote memorization. 

 Consensus Issues:  Money issues, Critical Thinking, Tapping into the knowledge base of students around technology.

Group B

 I asked the question in the classroom of how our bureaucracy hinders us.  “Every school should be looked at as an independent franchise.”  So students and staff in the building has a sense of ownership.  Mediocre has become acceptable in this country.  I’m a stickler for more independent in the public structure.  Empower the individual school.

The current structure is interrupting the learning potential.

I’m coming from a different background.  I’m new to education.  “My insight is four years out of high school.  I wish I had this in my high school.  Why didn’t we have smart boards in high school or college?”  A lot of school board members are stuck in how school s use to be.  If we focus on that point that people are still involved in this process.  Teachers and students will be more willing to learn. A fear of learning something new seems to prevent the progression of the 21^st century concept.  A Student’s perspective.

Kids who start of in school are excited in the elementary level and by the time they get to high school they are brain dead.  “Why am I learning this?” Teachers have technology in front of them, but they don’t have the role models to know how to use it in the workforce arena because the have nothing to relate to. “We have to train our teachers to learn and teach in a different way.”  Relationship, relevance and investment.  When kids fall in love with learning it’s because they see the relevance.

A lot of what kids learn in the old way of learning is not relevant to what is happening in the real world.  It doesn’t mean necessary learning technology it means teaching kids so it’s meaningful. “We tend to teach kids how we were taught.”  Change is feared. Our perspective is what limits our growth.  One of the largest bearers is not teaching kids collaboratively. 

“For us to see this type of education is amazing.  We do not sit and discuss education in China.  In US a child can study any subject they chose.  That is not the case in China.   The Chinese education system only praises the Chinese government.”  Embrace change! American students should understand how fortunate they are and become global citizens to see how they can make the world a better place.  Later I was in prison for speaking about lack of human rights in education.  It is very important for me to let the children know in America how fortunate they are.

Besides the global competitive gap we need to get our kids to understand the global haves and have-nots.  We have to compete and support in service projects, awareness projects, etc.

Change is the wall that we need to overcome. “If we introduce it the right way it enables one to overcome the obstacles.”  Everyone needs to model from top down. . . .Principals model to teachers, teachers model to students, etc.

What points of consensus emerged in the discussion? The need to learn, teach, train and communicate not only within our community but throughout the world.

On which points were the participants’ responses divided?  none

On which points did participants reveal a wide range of responses?  Student learning, cultural awareness, exposure and appropriate modeling, best practices

Group C

In the classroom, too much emphasis on lower levels of learning due to standardized testing occurring- incredible peer pressure for kids to fit in instead of being individuals. “Kids need knowledge” but we teach facts, but not how they connect to their world.”

A barrier for SPED pop is transition. I like European out of the box thinking. “Keep the bar up, but we know were the students is heading.” Look at the child’s ability and go that track. Train them so they are vocationally sound by the time they exit school (rather than pushing them to be college bound – when we know they may not be). 

A barrier I see is a conformative mentality. We have lost the sense of being an individual. It is not sportsmanship or working as a team. WE have lost a sense of civility. We are not working in teams or offering assistance. Emphasis on SOLs, NCLB, - schools, teachers, principals are evaluated on how kids score on a mc test – critical thinking skills is missing. “The soft-skills of team-work and problem solving need to be part of our education to be ready for the work force.  We need situational leaders in addition to supervisors, etc. Know when to lead, when to step back, be cross-functional”

Barriers:  homelife – a major part for students who don’t have the support structures at home = community issue

School issue = playing the blame game on parents/community

Not all children learn the same way – we teach like they only learn one way. We teach in the same classroom environment as the one from the civil war. We need to convert the methodology of teaching to using the tools kids use today. = relevance!

Kids don’t believe their teachers care about them. So many distractions/baggage in the classroom. Teachers need to be thoughtful and think in terms to being able to relate to a particular student who is different or struggling…the teacher is influential –one of the most influential people in children’s lives. Engagement between teacher and student is critical piece. All the kids aren’t likeable – but they are all human beings, need to have a future. I am not casting aspersions on all teachers, but teachers need to get into the lives of kids – go beyond the content.

Kids cannot relate what they are doing in the classroom that day to the future. There needs to be a connection – this is why dropouts occur. Serious systemic challenges

Serious concern with the SOLs being the end all, be all of education. And it shouldn’t be.  If pass rates are high – teachers/students feel a certain sense of fulfillment – but the SOLs are a minimum competency assessment – they are not enough to prepare kids for the future.

Not enough articulation between colleges and public schools – teacher prep programs. 1^st year teachers often enter the teaching field ill prepared for the reality of teaching and learning in the 21^st century. There is also a disconnect in the classroom in the classroom to the real world = relevance.  There is no questions about the fact that we have different societal practices as before but we cannot let community “situations” interfere with teaching kids.

Global, 21^st century is exciting, but we have to pedal furiously like ducks on a pond.

Lack of training, experiences and connectedness between teacher prep training and teaching reality.

From a SPED perspective, one of the barriers is isolation. If you are the only teacher certified in a certain disability in a building, it can be very isolating.   The emulation exercise could be an interesting way to connect people via technology.

Lost sight of vocational side of education (for SPED students). Unrealistic expectations for students based on their abilities.

The preparation of elementary school teacher = 20 hours of elementary ed. We only test knowledge, not can the teach the knowledge. Does that teacher know how to communicate to that kid and teach him?

Deficit model – we cannot give up on the children, let them drop out and it becomes a community problem.

 Teacher quality is critical – do they know the content? Do they know the pedagogy?

Key barriers

“Trust, communication, team work, caring and vision are missing”.  Issues: “we can’t give up on kids”

We can predict a roadmap of a student (in school, in community) – we see it coming – there needs to be something we can do to prevent it from happening.

Prisons predict future jail population based on 3^rd grade reading pass rates of the SOL.

Most issues were agreed upon by all----

Group D

Barriers to 21st Century Learning

 Guiding Question: Thinking in terms of the skills, knowledge, abilities and the opportunities needed to prepared today’s student for the 21^st century workforce, what are the barriers that are currently keeping this from happening in our classrooms and community?

Respondent 1:

Part of barrier in our community – most of the businesses in our community are not global minded at this time – fear if school system goes ahead, businesses are not going to be ready for the students when they come out of school, her company builds buildings and the global market doesn’t impact what they do on a daily basis – is a progressive student going to be satisfied with what her company has to offer,” I can see there being problems”, students coming out today seeing everything as flexible time as opposed to working standard hours – doesn’t feel there is currently a demand for a supply of technologically advanced students – are they going to be more attracted outside the city of NN – not opposed to what the education system is doing just afraid of the outcomes

Respondent 2:

Colleges and university teaching 1950’s education – works with leadership and universities to redesign teacher and leadership programs – colleges and universities not training teachers to teach in 21^st cent mindset – works with school division leaders as well – just redesigned the principal leadership program – school districts are far ahead of colleges and universities – until we get colleges and univ.’s in line with school divisions, were not going to get there

Respondent 3:

One barrier is our history and educational bureaucracy – not preparing teachers as we are preparing students – 21^st cent. Learning is larger than just the tools – values and work ethic – that is part of the 21^st century skill set as soft skills – schools are still subscribing to minimum competency based standards that is scary concept– economy is a barrier to the success of 21 c learning over the net few years

Respondent 4:

– this area loosing many of its best and brightest – the numbers support that concept that there isn’t as much of a demand – we loose a percentage of our brightest college candidates to other states because the jobs aren’t here – while we focus so much on the tools of technology, there is a loss of values, social skills, personal interactions, teaching respect, but we can’t loose sight of trying to help our students learn how to get along – the heart of how we learn to move our schools forward

Respondent 5:

Education is critical to him – rapid technological advances – cultural lag in applicants that come forward, technology advances exponentially and inversely with students who can use them, analytical abilities not there, lack of motivation – problem with work ethic – no long term goal setting – need to have desire to excel and overcome learning shortfalls, lack of emphasis on why a solid education is important, students need to have the tie in of what they are learning has relevance to the career they choose, need to have long term goals and objectives instilled in kids early, HS diploma doesn’t guarantee students have the skill sets to perform the tasks, students having difficulty passing national exams, goes back to elementary school and the parental support system – we need to look globally, technology is just a small sliver – more emphasis needs to be placed on the soft and human skills – need to have long term objectives and goals, need to realize that college is not a universal goal

Respondent 6:

-emphasis on values and work ethic cant be overstated, starts in preschool with the early education and early intervention, spend years trying to catch up, in many cases they don’t have parents who are educated and realize the importance of all of these skills, reading comprehension and math are critically important need to have other skills before you can really use the technology, people who don’t have the confidence to learn the technology are always playing catch up need to be able to play catch up through self-directed learning, we need to be teaching are children make sure you have enough money to make good decision

Respondent 7:

Key barriers – high stakes accountability testing, when you look at needed competencies that accountability hinders the changes in curriculum and teaching practices needed to impact instruction, problem solving, literacy numeracy, people are beginning to see the importance of that

What about the children who are not going to need 21^st century learning sk

Appendix C – Categorization

After a round robin discussion of barriers to 21^st century learning, participants tackled the task of coming up with proactive solutions and steps to addressing those barriers. They were asked to think in terms of the questions: What’s working now? What’s missing? What can individuals/organizations do? And other innovative ideas not related to overcoming barriers.

Participants then paired up to discuss their steps and find common ideas. After sharing in pairs, participants organized their ideas with sticky notes under different categories, from leadership development to finance and budget issues, among others. After the steps were categorized, participants voted which categories were most important or pressing. These ideas and categories, as well as the weight each category received, are reprinted below.

Leadership Development - 16 Dots

·         Empowerment

·         Great leadership team

·         What about kids who won’t need the tech (21^st) skills to make it in life?

·         Basic skill sets missing: 1. Reading comprehension 2. Math skills 3. Analytical capability

How to motivate students? Need to have desire to overcome

·         Communicate, trust, teamwork

·         Leaders should be able to identify with subordinated as peers

·         Rapid technological advances- cultural log to utilize the advances need to have students

Cultural Awareness - 26 Dots

·         Relationship building

·         Give students an understanding of world

·         Cultural awareness between teachers and students who all “other”

·         Involvement in local and global community

·         Engage stakeholders in global conversations with other cultures to learn from each other

·         Solutions: 1. Create pen-pals in other countries 2. Websites/email/chat with foreign students live under dictatorship countries 3. Teach students about the unfortunate situation of children in other countries 4. Invite representative of foreign student groups to speak on campus 5. Visit the countries of less fortunate children 6.create a textbook on the lives of third world children

Professional Development/ Teacher Development - 27 Dots

·         Training

·         Professional development is learning differently

·         Individuals do- pair with each other to learn new strategies

·         Missing- knowledge of new ways of teaching

·         Teacher internships in business

·         Professional development that is on-going

·         Continue to focus on ways to develop good teachers

·         Teach adults how to be willing to accept empowerment

·         Top-down modeling

·         Overcoming barriers bring higher ed teacher prep programs into 21^st century

·         Teacher training that models that “one size does not fit all”

·         Create teacher candidate residencies in classes of highly effective teachers known for 21^st century skill teaching

·         Must start with the teachers

·         Professional development commit to lifelong learning

·         Develop appropriate professional learning programs for educators

Partnerships/ Community Involvement - 15 Dots

·         Effectively integrating community based programs into schools (mentors)

·         Community participation in schools- let students know what employers expect

·         Higher ed partnering with school districts to solve problems through data collection, analysis and research. Using college students in a clinical model and fieldwork based learning.

·         Increase utilization of social workers and community workers in collaboration with educators

·         Community partnerships are working

·         Invite community members to solution focused meetings

·         Increase community partnerships

·         Build more business partnerships

Student Curriculum - 18 Dots

·         Reprioritize education goals- career goals. Focus on students interests, abilities vs. only “college” goals

·         More class time

·         School-wide global awareness projects

·         Use other tools of assessments (e.g. something different from SOLs) that don’t bog down actual creative teaching- make classroom learning fascinating not repetitive.

·         Basic computer classes in elementary schools

·         Allow students to “educate” students

·         Development of career pathways

·         Expose our students to the human network by giving them a chance to interact with others and the world around them including the use of technology of course but also giving them the chance to see the outside world physically not only on a screen

·         Continue efforts toward differentiation of technological learning

·         Distribute lap tops to students

·         Let kids finish course as they learn it and do something more

Critical Thinking - 10 Dots

·         We need to teach critical thinking skills

·         Focus on lifelong vs. finite/terminal degrees

Engagement of Legislators/ Policy Makers - 9 Dots

·         Work with state legislators and policy makers to change ideas and needs of schools to prepare students

Parents - 8 Dots

·         Increase parental involvement

·         As individuals- learn what’s new- pay attention engage in the unknown

·         Encourage parents to keep in touch with teachers all of time when things are going right or not

·         Telephone call from each teacher to each parent at the beginning of the year

·         Parent involvement

Data Driven Decision Making - 5 Dots

·         Collection of data- not good at analyzing the data

·         Missing- assessments that truly measure what’s important- critical thinking

·         Allow more “independence” for schools

Collaboration - 7 Dots

·         Organizations, educators and community leaders must be open to what works for individuals

·         Teach openness-be open to new ideas

·         Business leaders to help contribute to school computers

·         Create action plans centered around skills needed for success in a society

Finance/Budget - 4 Dots

·         To look at the budget differently

·         Rally public support for our public school initiatives for 21^st century technology

External Resources - 4 Dots

·         Apprentice programs

·         Get rid of textbooks

·         Lap tops to be signed out just like books

Character Development (Soft Skills) - 2 Dots

·         Missing: Soft skills, etc, needed in place? Early development and continued emphasis

·         What’s needed? Etiquette classes as a “required” elective

Early Childhood Education - 2 Dots

·         More early childhood education

Set the Stage-Defining

·         Acceptance of change

·         “21^st century learning” needs to be defined so that everyone can understand exactly what it is without misunderstanding. Misunderstanding=fear=conflict=not productive. Must understand in order to implement and be successful.

·         Reduce the fear by giving a global definition of 21^st century learning

Relevance - 15 Dots

·         Real world education. Relating curriculum to jobs.

·         Organizations make their needs as employers known- join the conversation- help shape the education of their future work force

·         Establish a career emersion program to highlight career opportunities in a non college career path- i.e. Fire Cadet Program

·         Making teaching relevant to today’s learner. i.e. technology/flexible schedules

·         What do/will business need? Now and for the next 100 years!

Communication - 11 Dots

·         Explore learning through collaboration with and without use of technology

·         Effort of teachers/administrators

·         School districts are working together and sharing ideas

·         Open line of communication parent/teacher

·         Now? Kids can “text” 24/7 and think it is the best way to communicate

·         Proliferation of virtual schools

·         Communication between the community and school

·         Home visits

Appendix D – Crafting of Recommendations

 As a final activity, participants again formed their groups to craft specific recommendations for the school system to address barriers to 21^st century learning. Each group’s notes and recommendations from this discussion are reprinted below. Group B interviewed Rebiya Kadeer at the conference and their notes are included in Appendix E.

Group A

Inventory the technological skills already available in the division so that you can then identify the gaps. 

Have students teach the teachers how they use technologies and how they see these tools used in a classroom.

Allow teacher experts to train other teachers so that there is no additional cost involved in the training.  Also, the business community can provide in kind support by providing training in these technologies.

Group C

Cultural Awareness:

Build cultural awareness by teaching educators and students the facts of our global economy/community and infuse relevance into our instruction.

Teach teachers understand how to build their own personal learning online networks so it can them be disseminated to the students.

Teach students how to develop their own personal learning networks – discriminate information

Use current technology to examine current events from various world perspectives.  – ie. Change up the URLs to see what other countries’ perspectives are about the same issue.

Clash of values – disenfranchisement – look beneath the jacket – from disadvantaged to ‘different”

Teach the whole child….

Work on belief systems – can every child learn

Group D

Leadership network,

recognizing leadership qualities

community leadership

educational leadership

Objective

Develop leadership network that includes administrators, teachers, school staff, community and business leaders, and student leaders; that collaboratively function as professional learning communities to address and solve barriers to learning

Action Steps – Option I

Research current models of PLC’s and compare information             

Develop a school and/or district leadership team

Develop a clear communication system to share information, etc. with all stakeholders

Empower leadership team members and distribute leadership responsibilities

Build capacity within the school/district that encourages and ensures sustainability

Action Steps – Option I

Identify the stakeholders in the school community who should be invited to participate in the network.

Identify barriers to the target

Empower members of the network to lead data collection analyze the results to network and all stakeholders

Provide recommendations/approaches to solve the problem or remove the barrier

Appendix E – Rebiya Kadeer

Rebiya Kadeer, Chinese businesswoman and political activist, attended the conference and participants had a chance to work with her in a small group. Participants interviewed Kadeer, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, about her life, which included being tried and imprisoned in 1999 until 2005 when the United States pressured for her release. The following are notes from that discussion.

Concept: Reform

We would die for freedom in China.  I think that’s why your people take things for granted.  We take nothing for grant in my culture.  It’s a very unique culture.  We have our own music.  In our culture women are trained to cook.  We have respect for animals and we have stories related to these animals imbedded in our culture. 

The Chinese government could wipe us all out.  People would be detained if they learned a foreign language.  By being multi-cultural students can learn about any cultural.  They have the opportunity and privilege.  There are less then 1,000 Uyghurs in this country.  The government separated their people throughout China to keep them from forming strength.  Her two sons are in prison because of what she is doing in this country.  All her grandchildren were kicked out of school.  In China the entire family is punished when one family member does something wrong. 

Were you limited because of tracking or because you are a female?  I was limited because of my families’ social class. 

The government strips you naked of your freedom, your religion, your rights to force you to become Chinese.  The Chinese government is trying to wipe out our language.

Professors, teachers, professionals were fired and forced to become janitors or unemployed because they could not speak or teach in Chinese.

How was she able to create a business?  When the former Chinese president was in place he allowed for a few lower class citizens become business owners in an attempt to become wealthy.

Appendix F – Panel Discussion

 An electronic global panel discussion kicked off the day’s events with an impressive group of thought leaders from Scotland, Thailand, and the U.S. logging in to Elluminate, a webinar software platform, to share their ideas and answer questions.

 Biographies of the guest speakers can be found here:

http://21stcenturylearning.wikispaces.com/NNPS+Symposium

An archive of the Elluminate session can be found here

https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/meeting.jnlp?suid=M.B35EA4F8E3D03B8032D6C429C65CB0

Senior Year: A Teenage Wasteland

My brilliant friend Mary Tedrow posted this piece over on Teacher Magazine. It is a must read.

Senior Year: A Teenage Wasteland
In 2001, the U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley called the high school senior year a "wasteland." In 2005, researchers concluded that the majority of high school students were not challenged during their senior year in reading, writing, or math. To many teachers who work with high school seniors, these findings ring true. They best apply to the wide swath of "average" students who travel the featureless landscape called senior year. Teacher Magazine, 8/1/07 (free registration required)

To give you a taste of why the free registration is worth it, here is a piece from the article as Mary describes what the senior year *could* be...

I would go a large step further and treat the senior year as a unique capstone experience. By eliminating strict scheduling, a team of teachers and counselors could shepherd seniors through a meaningful transition. Students could work with teachers to design a schedule that would include coursework, apprenticeships, and community activities. Seniors could also accept ownership in the school community by participating in tutoring, student courts, in-house television and radio programs, designing and writing school publications, maintaining websites, or even helping interview prospective teachers. In short, let kids test the waters. Let them make decisions in close mentorship with adults.

I say-- YES. And let's take it a step further. Let's imagine the entire school experience being that meaningful. Why stop at one year?

Mary Tedrow, a National Board-certified teacher, has taught high school English and Journalism for 17 years. In the fall she will begin teaching juniors at John Handley High School in Winchester, VA.

Part 4 of NAEHCY Keynote-Tips and "Must Knows" for Working with the Homeless

And the final podcast of 4 from my keynote for the NAEHCY conference. This shares valuable information that the homeless need you to know when working  with them, especially the 5 Es of blossoming. This clip also gives 7 tips of what you should do if you ever find yourself homeless.

Click below to play or download:

Part 4- Tips for Those Who Work with the Homeless Podcast

Please feel free to check out and add to the wiki (the virtual handout I used with my presentation)
http://naehcy.wikispaces.com/

Adult Years: NAEHCY Keynote cont... Unexpected Outcomes

As promised here is the 3rd podcast in a series of 4 from my NAEHCY conference keynote. This one relates my experiences after high school and into adulthood. Embedded are many stories and a theoretical justification about why we should use technology and inquiry driven approaches when working with high poverty populations. Specific examples of how I used technology at W.T. Cooke Elementary school (a Title One school with a high percentage of homeless students) are shared.

I also share ways to help children and adults experiencing poverty escape and begin to develop a skill set that will enable them to break the cycles they find themselves in.

Click below to play or download:

Part 3-Homeless Adult podcast

Other Related Resources

http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/bd/new_page9.htm

http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech157.shtml

http://www.teacherleaders.org/misc/Beach_principal_intervw.pdf

http://www.readingonline.org/articles/voices/nussbaum-beach/

Ohio NEA NBCT Policy Summit

While I will be sharing Part 3 & 4 of my keynote, (see previous posts) I didn't want to let too much time slip by before I bragged a little on Ohio! This seems very appropriate considering their outstanding win in last night's game.

Check out the pics from the breakout sessions!

On Thursday of this past week, 600 NBCTs gathered at the Ohio NBCT Policy Summit  in Columbus. This unique event, hosted by an impressive coalition of state and national education organizations, brought NBCTs from Ohio together to generate specific public policy recommendations to promote the success of all students and eliminate the disparities in achievement among demographic groups. Policy makers need to hear what accomplished teachers say about the most vexing teaching and learning challenges confronting public schools. Ohio's NBCTs gave policy makers concrete, workable recommendations for state and local policies that will foster the conditions for high-quality teaching and learning for all students.

The day (agenda) included in-depth discussions and recommendations on educating high-needs students, closing all achievement gaps, and staffing high-needs schools. The NBCT Policy Summit was an opportunity for some of Ohio’s most accomplished teachers to make a difference for thousands of educators and the students and families they serve. It is hoped that through exploration of critical teaching and learning issues with peers from across the state, the participants will gained new information and will now build collegial networks beneficial to their practice and their school communities.

Breakout Topics
There were 10 breakout topics that were offered in 25 breakout sessions led by trained facilitators who were also NBCTs. This is where I come in. I had the privilege of helping these facilitators prepare for the task. These fantastic teachers truly rose to the occassion doing an incredible job of  guiding participants through passionate discussions that resulted in well constructed policy recommendations that were shared in the afternoon session with a panel of policy makers.

I led the virtual training of the facilitators in Elluminate prior to the event with Melissa Rasberry of the Center for Teaching Quality and Randy Flora of the Ohio Education Association, leading them through the process which they used in the breakout sessions.

Randy Flora discusses plans for Policy Summit follow-up with participant.

Follow-up
All of the discussion and recommendations captured at the Summit  will be considered in the compiling of a policy report that will be released in March of 2007 via the Ohio Education Association Web site.

This was the 5th NEA Summit I have helped to lead. Other states include: North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Washington State.

A copy of NC's policy report can be seen here. This will be a similar format to the report being developed for Ohio.

Other posts related to the Summits can be found here.

Introduction to Keynote at NAEHCY: Unexpected Outcomes

I have decided to share my keynote from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth conference to help create an awareness about homeless children and to debunk some of the myths, as well to help those of you in the Web 2.0 world to make a connection to the urgency of addressing the digital divide... starting with your schools and spheres of influence. I will be sharing it in pieces with supporting dialog to the ideas I presented. Today, is part one- my intro, next, I will share my childhood, and so forth.  I hope you will join in on the conversation through your comments here on the blog.

Click below to download or play:

Part one: Podcast : Introduction

A wise man once said... that what you are in life has not so much to do with what you have accomplished, but the obstacles you overcame in doing so.

The Intro of Unexpected Outcomes: Empowering Those Who Need it Most
In the intro to my presentation I tell a story about my son Noah and how his brush with disfluencey led me to an important life lesson, a lesson taught by an enthusiastic speech professor who just happened to be handicapped. She taught me that disabilities should be celebrated. She explained that because of being disabled she had become smarter and more creative. She said that disabilities nurture creativity and out of the box thinking in those who are seemingly (to the rest of us) confined by them. She helped me realize that in life we often measure success by time to complete the task. We even dole out degrees based on Carnegie Units of time spent in a seat in a classroom.

The problem with this type of thinking is the presumptions that are made. We presume that if you complete a task quicker it some how makes you smarter or better and that if you do the time in a classroom you will emerge enlightened. The truth is-- especially in the Web 2.0 world-- that time is irrelevant. We must realize that those with disabilities (or circumstances that have conspired against them) can do anything that an able-bodied person can do... it just takes them longer and they need to be imaginative in their approach. 

Those who overcome challenges to achieve what you and I take for granted become very astute at problem solving, adaptive expertise, and creativity in the process. Which are very marketable skills in the 21st Century, skills which those of us who haven't been faced with huge obstacles to overcome and who have been educated in public schools structured for 20th century outcomes, simply haven't developed. So in essence, it gives those we presumed to be at a disadvantage, a clear advantage once they emerge from their circumstance, and it is our responsibility as educators to make sure they indeed do emerge.

Innovation
In terms of homeless children, we simply need to make sure they have the time they need to accomplish the tasks. Sure it might take them longer due to the circumstances that have conspired against them, but they can accomplish any task other children can accomplish and it is our responsibility to make certain they have more time, more opportunity, or more of their basic needs met so they can achieve.  And as those who serve children  impacted by extreme poverty it is our responsibility to  use our full creative capacity to be imaginative in how we come up with out of the box strategies for making sure they get their chance to succeed.

Homelessness Defined
When you look below at how homelessness is defined by the McKinney-Vento act, I have been homeless at several stages of my life; as a kid, as an unaccompanied youth, and as an adult.
Please take a moment to read more so you can become more informed about this controversial issue.

For those of you that need homelessness defined please take a look here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness

By the mid-1980s, there was also a dramatic increase in family homelessness. Tied into this was an increasing number of impoverished and runaway children, teenagers, and young adults, which created a new sub-stratum of the homeless population.

Also, in the 1980s, in the United States, some federal legislation was introduced for the homeless as a result of the work of Congressman Stewart B. McKinney. In 1987, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was enacted.

In 2002, research showed that children and families were the largest growing segment of the homeless in America ^{[9] [10]}, and this has presented new challenges, especially in services, to agencies.

Homelessness according to McKinney-Vento has been defined as such:

II. Definitions

    Section 725 of the McKinney-Vento Act defines the following terms:
    (a) Homeless children and youth means individuals who lack a fixed, 
regular, and adequate nighttime residence. The term includes--
    (1) Children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons 
due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are 
living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the 
lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or 
transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals; or are awaiting 
foster care placement;
    (2) Children and youth who have a primary nighttime residence that 
is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a 
regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
    (3) Children and youth who are living in cars, parks, public 
spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train 
stations, or similar settings; and
    (4) Migratory children (as defined in section 1309 of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended) who qualify 
as homeless because they are living in circumstances described in this 
definition.
    (b) Enroll and enrollment include attending classes and 
participating fully in school activities.
    (c) Unaccompanied youth includes a youth not in the physical 
custody of a parent or guardian.

NEA NBCT Washington State Policy Summit

The recent NEA NBCT Washington State Policy Summit was simply incredible. It was evident in every way that this group strives for excellence.

More than 200 National Board Certified Teachers gathered in Seattle Oct. 21 to craft policy recommendations that would ensure students in high-needs schools have access to our most-accomplished teachers.

About 225 National Board teachers, plus about 75 representatives of supporting organizations, attended the one-day policy summit.

Washington's gathering was the fourth state summit of board-certified teachers I have helped put together.

"The summit was historic in that it put National Board Certified Teachers in the role of 'policymakers for the day,' noted Jim Meadows, WEA's National Board certification expert. "NBCTs provided many recommendations that, if implemented systematically, could help enhance student learning in high-needs schools."

My Role
Serving as a consultant for the Center for Teaching Quality and the NEA, my role with each of these state summits has been to virtually train (in Elluminate) the hand selected National Board certified teachers to be facilitators of breakout sessions that  use a  well defined process to  produce  well crafted policy recommendations that are then shared with policy makers in  an afternoon session.

The Facilitators
Washington's facilitators were outstanding. They took participants through each stage of the breakout process with such professionalism. The comments and ideas that were generated will certainly bring value added to educational reform initiatives around staffing and supporting high needs schools across the state.

If you would like to see other pictures from the summit please check out the flickr photo stream.

These are the facilitators for Washington State's Policy Summit

Bruce Becker
Christina Carlson
Rita Chaudhuri
Frank Dellino
Kristin Edlund
Carolyn Fragner
Karen Hatley
Sandra Hoffman
Kim McClung
Beth McGibbon
Dora Noble
Dennis O'Conner
Miki Paulson
Cindy Rockholt
Becky Schmuck
Nancy Shimeall
Diana Stray
Sara Van Donge
Sue White
Tom White
Lisa Wison
David Wright

The Agenda
The day begain with a welcome from Rita Chaudhuri, NBCT Tacoma
and the Convener Welcoming was given by–
Terry Bergeson, State Superintendent and Charles Hasse, WEA

I got to spend some time with Terry  Bergeson and was so impressed. The stories that were told about her life as a teacher leader and the inroads she has made on behalf of children made her standout as a role model in my mind.

The Keynote Address was given by Eric Liu, Washington Learns/Guiding Lights Network/State Board of Education
and was absolutely awesome. I grabbed two clips for you and uploaded to YouTube. I will embed them here... they were taken with my digital camera so video isnt that great, but audio is perfect.

 

Interactive Session Highlights

One of the highlights of the day was an interactive polling session led by:

Barnett Berry, Center for Teaching Quality
Ana Elfers, University of Washington
Tom Charouhas, NBCT
Anne Walker, NBCT

Facilitated Process
It has been very satisfying watching breakout process work in four states now as a strategy for bringing NBCTs together and in under two hours resulting in several well crafted policy recommendations.

Break Out Topics

Leading from the Classroom: Fostering Teacher Leadership in High-Needs Schools:

Incentives for Teaching: Monetary and Non-Financial Rewards for Teaching in High-Needs Schools:

Growing Our Own: Developing National Board Certified Teachers in High-Needs Schools:

Recruiting and Supporting Teachers of Color into National Board Certification and into High-Needs Schools:

Diversifying the Teaching Force: Attracting, Recruiting and Supporting Future Generations of Diverse Teachers:

Building Collaborative Cultures: Opportunities to Think, Plan and Learn:

Cultural Competence: The Knowledge, Skills and Support Needed to Effectively Teach Students in High-Needs Schools:

Professional Development: Career-long Opportunities for Teaching, Learning and Growth in High-Needs Schools:

Mentoring and Induction: Comprehensive Support Systems for New Teachers in High-Needs Schools:

Conditions and Strategies for Closing the Achievement Gaps: Roles for NBCTs

Lunch

During lunch keyleaders shared. A National Perspectives from National Partners

Kevin Teeley, NBPTS Board Member & WEA Executive Board Member

Joseph Aguerrebere, President, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

Segun Eubanks, National Education Association

Lunch and all the food and snacks were outstanding! Washington really knows how to throw a summit! Dessert was a special treat!

 

Presentation of NBCT Summit Recommendations

The recommendations that were crafted through the breakout sessions were presented by the following NBCTs.

Richelle Ward, NBCT
Lori Fujimoto, NBCT
Debra Blodgett-Goins, NBCT

 Legislative Panel Policy Conversation

Representative Glenn Anderson, House Education Committee Member
Ann Daley, Executive Director, Washington Learns
Roger Erskine, Professional Educator Standards Board
Senator Rosemary McAuliffe, Senate Early Learning, K-12, and Higher Education Chair
Representative Dave Quall, House Education Chair

The conversation was lively between NBCTs and the policy makers. Challenges were given and accepted. The recommendations that were shared will be shared soon on the WEA Web page.

The next summit is in Ohio. See you there!

 

 

Keynote: Former U.S. Secretary of Education and South Carolina Governor Richard W. Riley

As I said in the last post  I just got back from the SC NBCT Policy Summit where Richard W. Riley gave the keynote. I was so impressed. He began his keynote by praising National Board as being a good idea and how the teachers who go to great lengths to attain National Board are the gold standard of education.

He feels that NB certification will allow us to develop a generation of teacher leaders. Riley said by having America's best teachers at the policy table keeps policy makers from accepting quick fixes that won't work. He shared how Terry Dozier, SC ToY,  who went on to be a National ToY, and teacher in residence under Riley when he was the US Secretary of Education, kept him from making wrong choices. He said she always kept them honest and focused on what was important. When researchers would come in and share strategies he said he would look over at Terry and she would say, "Mr Secretary, it sounds good, but it won't work." He told us that her wisdom on such issues was priceless and that he always took her advice and used it.

He went on to suggest how we need to develop many more incentives to keep our best teachers in schools. He suggested that NB certification is one way to do that. He called for a cultural and organizational vision change at a district level. That we needed to change the learning environment that surrounds teachers if we want more effective classrooms. He said this only happens when we move from a top down form of leadership and adopt collaborative leadership models. And we need to be encouraging teachers to step forward and lead for change.

He spoke out in favor of pay-for-performance for teachers if it was structured so that it was fair and based on multiple measures, not just standardized tests. Riley feels if adopted pay-for-performance will make teaching more professional. He said that we need to move forward, but that will only happen if we are willing to break new ground and change the current paradigm on teaching. According to Riley, this includes looking closely at teacher quality, smaller schools, smaller classrooms, greater community involvement, providing better after school activities and creating better pathways to college. Making sure the arts, music, foreign language and PE are part of the school day. Standards should be about a love of learning. Teachers need to be reaching standards in creative ways... making sure students have a love for learning.

Aims for Education- Alfred North Whitehead said - The rhythms of education occur in three stages: Romance, Precision, and Generalization. Romance makes precision palatable. Without romance precision dulls the mind and causes the student to concentrate on inert dead knowledge. In recent years precision has become king in education and we have moved the love of learning (romance) to the side.

Then Richard Riley said something I felt worthy of a quote.

If our children love to learn, they will learn to live and in doing so will become engaged, active citizens. Yes, all graduates need to learn 21st century skills in order to prosper and thrive in this knowledge based economy. But we also need to give them the capacity to work in teams, the ability to communicate is so important, a sense of wonder about the world, and a commitment to serve others.

He went on to discuss how with the innovation of the Internet and the increasing demand that all children learn 21st century skills to respond the our increasingly "flat work" that we hear so much about, things will have to change. Riley reminded us that when you think about change just over the last few years it has moved so very quickly. Yet with all the change... the teaching profession has remained fixed and has become stuck in the 20th century. The rest of the world is putting a premium on team work and becoming more collaborative, yet teachers remain locked in the outdated paradigm of the "stand alone" teacher. We send our most inexperienced teachers into the toughest classrooms and close the door. The message is clear-- you are on your own. No wonder we loose so many teachers. We have to move to a paradigm that recognizes that more is better than one. Even the best educator becomes better when collaborating. Preach it Riley!

He continued to describe how teachers are leaving right at the time when they should be getting into the top of their game. Riely posed the following...How do we change the culture of the teaching profession? How do we create a new definition of 21st century teaching? He suggests we need to create a new foundation of education and make each child the responsibility of the entire learning team.

He then asked, "Will you answer the call to action? " Schools need strong learning teams, more rewarding professional career paths for retaining our best teachers, better teacher preparation programs, and teaching preparation must become more embedded in a collaborative school culture. Riley feels we need to prepare the next generation of teachers to work collaboratively and overcome the isolation that so many new teachers feel.

He closed with this...In these challenging times in our nation we all have a patriotic duty to perform. There are many types of patriotism. He gave credit to those who are protecting our country and said regardless of what we think about the war - we all stand passionately behind the troops.  He then suggested that teachers have their own role to play as patriots in making this nation stronger. Every time a teacher captures the imagination of a child through art, music or language this nation gets a little more hopeful. Every time teachers keep a young person from dropping out of school our nation becomes more secure. Every time we get a child to attend college we become stronger. And every time we get a college student to become a math or science teacher-- our nation moves one step forward into a vibrant future. Teachers are giving their all to help the children of our nation prepare for a world that is rapidly changing and becoming increasingly more complicated. But if we are to be successful we will have to make principled changes in the way we define school and education overall.

I say-- "You Rock" Richard Riley! Who says the old guard doesnt get it? Richard W. Riley is one patriot who indeed does get it. I hope we all are willing to heed his advice.

SC NBCT Policy Summit

A Conversation Among South Carolina’s National Board Certified Teachers

Supporting and staffing high-needs schools is a critical issue for the state of South Carolina. I just got back from Columbia, South Carolina, the site of the SC Summit where the purpose was to use the voices of some of SC's most accomplished teachers to make practical, specific recommendations to the individuals who can impact policy at the local and state level.

Working as a consultant for the CTQ, my role was to equip 20 National Board Certified teachers (NBCT) to facilitate 10 break out sessions (9 of them repeat sessions done twice for two different groups) around various content topics that relate to supporting some of SC's most needy students using a process I designed for that purpose.

Dr. Ed Epps, one of the NBCT facilitators with which I had the privilege of working, is pictured below during one of his sessions.

Hodges Consulting Group, one the sponsors of the Summit, quoted Ed Epps in their press release about the event.
"I'm looking forward to coming together with my fellow NBCTs to explore fresh solutions for South Carolina's schools," said NBCT Dr. Ed Epps, a veteran English language arts and creative writing teacher at Spartanburg High School in Spartanburg, S.C. "All children can learn, but not all can learn in the same way. The challenge we, as educators have—and what this Summit affords the opportunity for—is finding effective and efficient ways for supporting our students, our schools and therefore, our communities."

South Carolina is the third state to hold a NEA NBCT Summit to date; North Carolina and Oklahoma had sessions earlier in the year. And the NEA's work on the summits has just begun. Plans are underway to convene National Board Certified Teachers in three more states. If you would like to read the recommendations by NBCTs that came out of the NC Summit you can do so here. Some of these recommendations have already been enacted as policy.

The training for the NBCT facilitators began in Elluminate where we spent two 2-hour sessions talking about facilitation skills and reviewing the detailed process that would enable the participants to craft policy recommendations for  their discussions. The agenda for each breakout session was intense and included a round robin discussion on barriers, an affinity diagram that developed proactive and innovative solutions, weighted ranking of the categories in which the solutions fell, and then group collaboration to craft the policy statements around the top five categories dealing with supporting high-needs schools in the content area being discussed.

South Carolina's Summit NBCT discussion facilitators were an incredible group and did an outstanding job.

Bunny Bechamn, Kathy Crain, Cindy Pride, Andrea Derrick, Christine Dobson, Linda Dowling, Ed Epps, Louisa Jane Fleming, Carolyn Gaillard, Deborah Gatt, Vicky Gibson, Pamela Harris, Susan Keaton, Karen Leveaque, Bill McCormick, Deidre Murph, Buffy Murphy (SC's TOY and TLN's newest member), Ann Nichols, Leshonda Reed, and Yvette Robinson.

After the 40-some policy recomendations had been polished into the top 10, the NBCTs convened with SC policy makers to discuss them. The process doesn't end here— there are a number of important follow-up activities planned to build on the momentum of the SC NBCT Policy Summit, including policy papers, a discussion listserv, and plans for action at a district and local level.

While there were wonderful presenters throughout the Summit, including Buffy Murphy, SC's newest ToY; The Honorable Robert W. Harrell Jr., Speaker of the South Carolina House of        Representatives; and Inez M. Tenenbaum, South Carolina State Superintendent of Education; the highlight for me was hearing former U.S. Secretary of Education and South Carolina Governor Richard W. Riley speak. I knew of him from my friend and colleague Terry Dozier, director of the Center for Teacher Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth U., who served as the teacher in residence in his USED administration. His powerful speech blew me away! So much so, I've decided to do a separate post on his message.

All in all, the SC Summit was an incredible experience that will help bring about a quality education for every child in every classroom, in every school in South Carolina.

If you would like to see other pictures of the event please check out  Flickr.

 

Barnett Berry (CTQ), Karen Garr (NBPTS), Richard Riley, and Susan Carmon (NEA)