Education Innovation: Dear to My Heart
I was aiming toward similar goals in my previous roles as teacher, instructional coach, personalized classroom designer, and researcher/storyteller of innovation trends from K12 to postsecondary education.
In 2008, I started my career as a first-grade teacher at a Title I public school in Phoenix. Of the nearly 600 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, more than 80 percent were Hispanic and about 15 percent were African American. Besides feeling that I was walking into an oven every day (at least for me, a native Northern Californian) and seeing how unfazed my students were about the searing heat, I remember how much the faculty and school leaders cared about and worked toward student success.
A Winding Journey of Progress
When I arrived, roughly 80 percent of the student body was underperforming in literacy, according to the state assessment. Low literacy scores spanned the district, which comprised 19 schools serving nearly 10,000 students.
To meet the challenge, the school district had to innovate — immediately. During my first year, district administrators rolled out a comprehensive reading intervention program to 11 schools, and by the third year, all schools were on board. The program included a scripted curriculum, which blended cooperative learning strategies with interactive whiteboard lessons, as well as a redesigned schedule that included 90 minutes of literacy instruction every morning. The administration evaluated students’ reading ability every three months using benchmark assessments, and then assigned faculty members to teach different reading levels. These reading level groups, which included students spanning various ages and traditional grade levels, were updated after each assessment period. The approach enabled students to rapidly progress as their reading levels improved.
This experience taught me that innovation is often a messy process. In this situation — which I believe applies to public and independent schools alike that attempt large-scale instructional shifts — multiple stakeholder groups felt the burden of rapid change.
- Upper grade teachers who considered themselves content-area experts were uncomfortable about becoming literacy instructors.
- Many non-tech-savvy teachers expressed frustration with the daily interactive whiteboard lessons and simply stopped using whiteboards.
- School administrators regularly made tough calls between a student’s academic performance and classroom socialization. In one case, leaders had to decide how far below grade level they would place an eighth-grader who was reading at a first-grade level to avoid classroom trouble and provide instruction at the appropriate level.
- Often older students, when grouped with younger ones, suffered from low motivation and poor self-perception, particularly if the teacher did not foster an inclusive class culture.
- Finally, parents complained that too much of the school day was dedicated to literacy instead of math. In some circumstances, parents did not accept that their child was performing below grade level.
Our network supported us through the friction. With the other schools in the district attempting the same instructional shift, we ended up fostering a collaborative problem-solving community by visiting others’ classrooms and learning from our peers. We leveraged our parent engagement committee by hosting quarterly literacy nights to increase buy-in, and found a weekly support group in ongoing after-school professional development sessions.
Defining the challenge was necessary to redesign a portion of our learning model, and building a support network to make the change played an enormous role in improving student literacy levels. Our school reported a 10 percent overall increase in literacy levels on the benchmark after just one year. In subsequent years, we continued refining our data analysis and student placement to meet students at their level and share best practices in teaching literacy.
Eyes on Two Elements
I’m reminiscing about how my old Arizona district reimagined literacy instruction because I see the same patterns rippling across the educational landscape, thanks to my recent yearlong fellowship at the U.S. Department of Education. In my view, educators must focus on two elements.
Grand challenges that inspire us to define and address difficult and unwieldy problems facing students today and in the future.
Collaborative partnerships that provoke new ideas and creativity, and provide specialization and focus.
I was lucky enough to work on both elements while at the department. In 2016, I was a lead writer on a set of policy recommendations that addressed the challenge of reimagining the role of technology in higher education. Earlier this year, I supported the Department of Education’s partnership with OpenIDEO that challenged the global community to more broadly redesign higher education.
For this grand challenge, participants worldwide logged onto OpenIDEO’s web-based platform to submit research, post ideas, and collect feedback to iterate and refine them. The challenge lasted about five months and received financial and professional development support from several organizations, including Strada (formerly USA Funds), ASU/GSV Summit, Northeastern University, and Georgia Tech.
What’s noteworthy about grand challenges is how professionals outside of education pioneer big ideas that impact the field. In this challenge, one winning entry came from an architect, who prototyped the app MyBoard, focusing on the power of mentorship. This tool helps students without prestigious alumni networks or strong professional bonds build a personal “board of directors” based on their backgrounds, interests, and career aspirations. Another challenge winner, SideKick Education, was the brainchild of two MBA students desiring to turn nonprofits’ pending projects into real-world project-based curricula for higher ed faculty. These top ideas received help from additional outsiders. User experience designers created mockups of how the winners’ technology platforms would look and feel, and software engineers wrote the code for the initial prototypes.
Examples in the Independent School Community
A similar partnership and grand challenge platform is available from The Teachers Guild, a professional development community started by educators and designers at Riverdale Country School (NY) and IDEO. Members can participate in a 10-week collaborative design process to meet challenges, including building empathy, cultivating curiosity through programs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and redesigning the parent-teacher conference.
At the same time, Mount Vernon Presbyterian School (GA) focuses on grand challenges and collaborative partnerships in many ways, including through its own Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation. The institute acts as a research and development lab for the school’s redesign of educational programming and hosts learning events where educators use design thinking to solve pressing issues.
NAIS’s Grand Challenges to Meet Schools’ Needs
Any school can dig into grand challenges and cross-sector partnerships. No matter what your big question is, the answers come by employing a human-centered framework and tapping into an engaged group of education advocates. NAIS is using this foundation to support independent schools today.
Earlier this year, our “Mini-Hack” opened up time and space for educators to consider and define pressing issues.
This fall, we’re expanding our work by offering a series of “SummitHacks” to help school teams build the capacity to innovate. Moving forward, we’re eager to showcase innovation success stories.
Share Your Challenges
What is your grand challenge and how are you leveraging partnerships to help you find the answers?
Share your comments below or email me at [email protected].
