Redesigning Schools for the 21st Century

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Redesigning Schools for the 21st Century
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A Changing Economy Makes Education more Important
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Expectations for Learning are Changing

• The new context means new expectations. Most
  studies include
• Ability to communicate
• Adaptability to change
• Ability to work in teams
• Preparedness to solve problems
• Ability to analyse and conceptualise
• Ability to reflect on and improve performance
• Ability to manage oneself
• Ability to create, innovate and criticise
• Ability to engage in learning new things at all
  times
• Ability to cross specialist borders

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NAEP, 8th and 12th Grade Science

• 1. What two gases make up most of the Earth's
  atmosphere? 
• A)  Hydrogen and oxygen
• B)  Hydrogen and nitrogen
• C)  Oxygen and carbon dioxide
• D)  Oxygen and nitrogen
• 2.   Is a hamburger an example of stored energy?
  Explain why or why not.__________________________
  __________ ____________________________________

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Factory Model High Schools Cannot Meet Todays
Needs

• 75-80 graduate from high school
• 
  60 of graduates go on to college
• 
  40-50 of college entrants finish
• About 25 of
  the age cohort gets a college degree
• Yet 70 of jobs involve knowledge
  work requiring specialized higher
  education, and many high-tech jobs are
  filled by workers trained overseas

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Why think about redesign?

• Every organization is perfectly structured
• to get the results
• that it gets.

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Effectiveness of Education Systems
Investment in education as of GDP, compared
with mean PISA score
Investment in education as of GDP
Mean PISA score across reading maths and science
literacy
Sources OECD education at a glance 2002 OECD
PISA report 2002 EMB Education Indicators, from
Chris Wardlaw, "Mathematics in Hong Kong/China
Improving on Being First in PISA"
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What are High-Achieving Nations Doing?

• A lean curriculum focused on deep understanding
  and higher order skills
• Performance assessments to gauge progress with
  classroom-based assessments as part of the system
• Massive investments in initial teacher education
  and school-level teacher support (including
  teacher time)
• Smaller schools with continuous relationships
• Equitable spending, with extra investments in
  high-need schools and students

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Smaller Redesigned Schools Produce Better Outcomes

• 40 years of research show that smaller high
  schools with thoughtful designs produce
• Higher achievement
• Higher graduation rates
• More positive feelings about school
• Greater safety
• More leadership opportunities for students

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• To design a new System its important to
  understand the old system
• And what you need from the new System

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Schools Designed in 1910 Adopted the Factory
Model

• Schools are often large bureaucratized
• Students change teachers each year
• Secondary students see many teachers in large
  groups (the platoon system)
• Teachers do not share students
• Teachers plan teach alone
• Curriculum is fragmented
• Counselors have large case loads
• Parents have no easy way to connect to teachers

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Bureaucratic Management of Teaching
SourceThe Right to Learn by Linda
Darling-Hammond, p. 200
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Within this system

• More managerial coordination was needed
• Less money made it to the classroom
• Curriculum staff effort became more fragmented
• Relationships became less personalized
• There was less front-line accountability for
  outcomes

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U.S Schools Spend Education Dollars Differently
than do Other High-Achieving Countries

• 52 of US ed. reach the classroom vs. 80 in
  high-achieving European and Asian countries
• 43 of US education employees are classroom
  teachers vs. 70-80 in other countries
• Teachers work is more discontinuous (1 subject
  for one semester or year vs. 2 subjects for gt1
  yr.)
• Teachers have much less time to work together to
  create a coherent, high-quality program

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Old AssumptionsHow is the work to be done?

• Division of labor by subject / department
• Batch processing of students
• (batches of 25 to 30 5 times per day)
• Isolated teachers in egg crate classrooms
• Differentiation of curriculum (tracking)
• Add on programs to handle problems

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Old Assumptions How much work needs to be done?
And how variable is the work to be done?

• How much work? Whatever amount fits into the
  designated structures and can be done in four
  years
• How variable is the work? If kids vary in their
  ability, curriculum content should be watered
  down for them, but time, resources, and work
  design do not vary

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New Assumptions

• What Work Needs to Be Done?
• High levels of learning focused on critical
  thinking for all students
• How is the Work to Be Done?
• Organized around clear standards and assessments
  of real performance
• What needs to change? .

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Studies of Successful School Redesign Factors
influencing new school success

• 1. Small Size and Personalization
• Small classes reduced pupil load
• Advisement relationships
• 2. Teams working continuously with students
• 3. Coherent, purposeful curriculum tied to
• 4. Performance Assessments exhibitions
• 5. Adaptive pedagogy
• Explicit teaching of key skills
• Multiple strategies for active learning
• Real-world connections

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Factors influencing new school success

• 6. Flexible supports (routinely available)
• Resource room
• Tutoring homework time
• Saturday School
• Labs or foundation courses alongside
  heterogenous courses
• 7. Collaborative planning professional
  development w/ regularly scheduled time

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Personalization

•   School should not be mass production. It
  should be loving and close. This is what kids
  need you need love to learn.
• -- a student at Vanguard HS, New York City
• Smaller classes
• Reduced Pupil Loads
• Advisories
• Reallocation of Staff
• Less Fragmented Schedules
•  

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I had passing grades when I decided to drop-out.
Nobody tried to stop me. Nobody cared. None of
the counselors paid any attention to me. The only
time I ever saw the principal was when I got sent
to him, which I never stayed around for. The
individual classes were too big for students to
learn, students should have longer exposure to
individual teachers. If students could have the
same subject teachers throughout their high
school careers, this would allow teachers to get
to know students better. No high school should
have more than 400 students max, and all on one
floor. Who needs seven floors in a school? --
A recent city school dropout
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In U.S. Schools, there is

• 1 adult for every 9 students in schools
• 1 professional adult for every 13 students
• 1 classified teacher for every 18 students
• Average class size of 25
• Average pupil load in high schools of
• 1120 to 180

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Resource Allocation Differences
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Typical High School Teacher Schedule
Monday Tuesday Wed. Thurs. Friday
805-849 Planning Planning Planning Planning Planning
854-936 Class Class Class Class Class
940-1025 Class Class Class Class Class
1030-1112 Duty Duty Duty Duty Duty
1117-1200 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch
1200-1245 Class Class Class Class Class
1250-135 Class Class Class Class Class
140-225 Class Class Class Class Class
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Redesigned Teacher Schedule
Monday Tuesday Wed. Thurs. Friday Advisory
800-900 Planning Planning Planning Planning Friday Advisory
900-1100 Humanities Humanities Team Meeting Humanities Humanities Humanities
1100-1200 Humanities Team Meeting Humanities Meetings, Planning Humanities
1200-100 House Meeting 2x month _at_ lunch Lunch
100-145 Lunch Elective Lunch Elective Lunch
145-300 Advisory Elective Advisory Elective Staff Meeting
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Continuous relationships

• Through looping, Ive had my students in math
  and science class for two years now. What strikes
  me most is the progress of students who often get
  lost in the system the shy ones who now ask
  questions because they trust me, the unmotivated
  ones who now come in for help because they know
  Ill be supportive, and the defiant ones who now
  recognize that Im an ally who cares for them.
  These are the kids who need adults support the
  most, but it takes them the longest to develop
  relationships. Looping gives us the time to make
  these relationships happen.
• -- a teacher at Benjamin Franklin
  Intermediate School, Daly City, California

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High Standards and Performance Assessment

• Clear goals and Common expectations
• School engagement in standard-setting
• Focus on student work
• Performance and exhibition
• High Standards for Adults as well as Students
• Opportunities for revision and redemption
• When you take a test you dont feel like you
  need to know it after its done. The portfolio
  stuff sticks in your brain better.  
• -- a New York City student

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Performance Assessments Include

• Performance tasks that ask students to do or
  demonstrate something specific (e.g. research a
  problem, design a computer program, conduct an
  experiment)
• Student work samples that are scored based
• on standards e.g. math solutions, essays
• Portfolios that collect evaluate work over time
• Exhibitions that are evaluated by outside jurors
• Teacher documentation based on observation of
• performance (e.g. miscue analyses, reading
  records)

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High School Biology Exam, Victoria, Australia

• 3. When scientists design drugs against
  infectious agents, the term designed drug is
  often used.
• A. Explain what is meant by this term.
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ____________________________
• Scientists aim to develop a drug against a
  particular virus that infects humans. The virus
  has a protein coat and different parts of the
  coat play different roles in the infective cycle.
  Some sites assist in the attachment of the virus
  to a host cell others are important in the
  release from a host cell. The structure is
  represented in the following diagram
• The virus reproduces by attaching itself to the
• surface of a host cell and injecting its DNA into
  the host
• cell. The viral DNA then uses the components of
  host cell
• to reproduce its parts and hundreds of new
  viruses bud off
• from the host cell. Ultimately the host cell
  dies.

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Analysis and Application of Knowledge

• B. Design a drug that will be effective against
  this virus. In your answer outline the important
  aspects you would need to consider. Outline how
  your drug would prevent continuation of the cycle
  of reproduction of the virus particle. Use
  diagrams in your answer. Space for diagrams is
  provided on the next page. _______________________
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Design and Scientific Inquiry

• Before a drug is used on humans, it is usually
  tested on animals. In this case, the virus under
  investigation also infects mice.
• C. Design an experiment, using mice, to test the
  effectiveness of the drug you have designed.
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Family and community connections

• At our school, there is a true partnership
  between parents and teachers. It feels like we
  are both raising the same child.
• -- A parent at San Francisco Community School
• Families as experts and partners
• Looking at student work together
• Regular meetings with advisors
• Student-led conferences

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The district role shifts from

• Proliferating programs
• Enforcing procedures
• Rationing educational opportunities
• Allowing and excusing failure
• Creating hierarchies of staff to manage
  compliance
• Rewarding staff for Doing things right

• Focusing effort
• Building capacity skills
• Expanding successful programs
• Re-allocating resources to prevent or remedy
  failure
• Creating quality teams to manage improvement
• Rewarding staff for Doing the right things

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Key Questions for Districts

• What should be done at the center and what should
  be done at the schools?
• What district structures are working to support
  school learning and improvement?
• What functions are currently fragmented or
  dysfunctional and need re-examination?
• What gets rewarded in your system?
• What are the incentives for change?