In 2020, however, the pandemic enabled families to see (and often engage in) their children’s school experience. This window into school made transparent the quality, types of learning and community that made up the lived experience of their children. For some, low satisfaction fueled renewed interest in microschooling led by parents, political support and philanthropic dollars.

The last two years of microschool growth (estimated enrollment by the National Microschooling Center at 1-2 million current students), heavily subsidized by the philanthropic sector, demonstrated that the demand exists. Alongside this resurgence, key questions arise: Are microschools sustainable? What outcomes should they measure (if any)? Are they compatible within the public sector? Can they scale? 

Below, we briefly hit upon the first three questions and then dive into the question of scaling.

Sustainability

Most microschools operate in the private sector, sustained by public funds (via Education Savings Account structures) or private tuition. Both of these funding sources supply individual students with far less than can be found in the public sector, making the business models and staffing (1-2 educators and a handful of students without the support of larger operations systems) challenging over time. Organizations like Microschool Revolution (investment model) and Prenda (service and support model) have emerged to address this issue.

Outcomes

In the public sector, there is a heavy focus on narrow slices of accountability which challenges  many families. Although microschools have far fewer accountability expectations outside of the public sector, they do have a responsibility to ensure that every child finds success. As a sector, we remain in the early stages of alternative, efficient, adaptive and flexible forms of measurement addressing both academic and whole child development.

Public Sector

With increasingly diminished enrollment in many districts (3% post-pandemic), the public sector needs to imagine the power of microschools within their existing communities. More specialized approaches, autonomy for teachers and small communities that benefit from larger districts will better serve all students. High school academy models such as CAPS and NAF have scaled around professional pathways to provide more opportunities for high school students.

Scale

Roughly 1-2 million students are enrolled in some form of a microschool, just 2% of all students enrolled in K-12 schools (estimates are difficult as many microschools are not required to report enrollment numbers). If demand is high for microschools – and demonstrated success continues, then scaling support is needed. ASU Prep in Phoenix, Arizona built a Microschool Entrepreneur Fellowship Program program to help facilitate this scaling. Based on the success of their microschool options — powered by ASU Prep Digital and partnered with ASU Prep school or ASU higher education campus — ASU Prep wants to support others in this journey. 

The size of microschools may provide the sense that they are easy to start and run. Yet, anecdotes from the field indicate challenges with sustainability and operations. Partner organizations and programs, like ASU Prep’s Microschool in a Box fill a needed space in the ecosystem to help these programs thrive and scale.

The ASU Prep Microschool Entrepreneur Program provides training and support for microschools. The fellowship spans one year with coaching calls starting for those accepted as early as October. A 3-day in-person Fellowship gathering in February in Tempe, Arizona kicks off the formal programming which leads to an online community of practice designed to build community amongst fellows. They then round out the year with frequent resources and ongoing mentorship and support. The program will support the launch of several new microschools in the Fall of 2024 to serve diverse learners across the country leveraging the assets of ASU Prep. The fellowship covers a range of topics including:

1. Policy and funding. Policy, rules and regulations, and funding models are the lifeblood of the microschool. Adhering to local and state regulations and securing appropriate funding is a key priority that ASU Prep will support.
2. Operations. Hiring, space design, leadership training, and general operations (schedules, transportation, facilities, etc.) can be overwhelming for microschools with 1-2 teachers and no administrators. Using established templates and resources, ASU Prep guides the construction of the operations of the microschool.
3. Pedagogy. While most microschools founders have some ideas of the approach for a school, ASU Prep’s robust resource base from a variety of approaches allows for more rapid development in this area. ASU Prep’s experience with professional learning and growth supports microschool leaders as they maintain relevance in the education landscape.

Funding is often a barrier for entrepreneur support programs like this but the Stand Together Trust has funded this program enabling up to 20 full grants for fellows. Similar programs from the Learning Innovation Fund at Getting Smart Collective and Community Partner Grant Program have also funded microschool models.

Microschools are meeting strong market demand for more personalized, more contextualized and more relevant learning for every student. Programs like ASU Prep’s Microschool in a Box make it possible for more learners to become future-ready with access to affordable, relational microschool learning.

The post Microschool in a Box: Programs Enabling the Microschool Movement appeared first on Getting Smart.

Teachers often report feeling anxious, stressed, and eventually burned out from technology. Oftentimes, it’s due to a lack of effective training.

More than 50 percent of teachers said their edtech professional development training was a one-time event with little follow-up coaching or mentoring. Behind the data is a pattern that many superintendents and principals should recognize. Often a leader hears powerful claims about a new tool, gets educators excited about how the technology can unleash teacher capacity, implements the tool and then turns their attention to the next big tech trend. Teachers are left swimming alone in the deep end, trying to figure out how to effectively use the new technology.

Leaders can break this cycle by easing the edtech learning curve for teachers with professional development experiences that focus on teacher-centered mentorship, practicing and modeling patience and setting realistic expectations. It’s a philosophy that Concord Community Schools in Concord, Michigan recently took to heart. 

Redesign Training as Teacher-Centered Mentorship

Many traditional professional development and training models are built on the same “sit and get” approach that leaders are trying to move away from in classrooms. In contrast, a teacher-centered mentorship model enables teachers to learn in ways that supports diverse learning levels, provides ongoing support and becomes self-sustaining so new teachers can easily adopt technology. 

At Concord Community Schools the transition in professional development began as the district explored the power of the Modern Classrooms Project (MCP) framework as an instructional shift in classrooms. The model centers on blended instruction, self-paced learning and mastery-based grading, as opposed to a traditional lecture-based model. Using the model, teachers leverage technology to engage students with a broad diversity of learning levels and social-emotional needs through bite-sized teacher-created videos, and one-to-one and small-group classroom learning. The MCP framework also enables parents, guardians, or other people in a student’s life to get involved, because they can access the content just like a student would and support the student’s learning.

As part of adopting the model, school leaders and an initial cohort of teachers, completed a modern classrooms mentorship program. The district experienced how mentorship could help teachers learn new instructional skills, inspiring them to think about how it could be used in other forms of professional development.

Along with in-person training, the district converted professional development sessions into self-paced virtual units so educators could rewatch the material as needed. Educators at Concord Community Schools also continue to receive ongoing coaching to maximize their impact in the classroom and even guide their fellow educators in developing new skills in everything from technology use to instructional models. One educator described the experience as, “It’s a challenge, but worth it. What worked 10-20 years ago, just isn’t as effective anymore! This is the method all schools need to be introduced to, in order to be relevant in this time of teaching kids.”

Practice Patience with Yourself and Your Team

In a world of instant gratification, it’s easy to stop innovating when challenges arise. However, learning to use new technology, especially if it impacts how teachers teach, takes time, dedicated and intentional work and a resilient attitude. When scaling innovation, a leader must practice patience and not cut the process short because someone is struggling or stakeholders are questioning a district’s progress.

Practicing patience starts with understanding not all teachers will be ready to change. Leaders will be best served by starting small and focusing on a coalition of the willing. 

When it comes to actually showing teachers how to use new technology or implement a new approach, leaders have to be the number one risk taker and model self-compassion because inevitably there will be frustrations and failures. Afterall, educators, just like students, learn at different paces and in different ways. Dedicating time to nurture teachers through their struggles, help them identify their strengths and develop a solution together, will soften feelings of fear and self-doubt and help guide teachers from initially learning a new model or technology to competency and mastery and then to advocacy. 

Reaching the advocacy stage is essential to easing the learning curve for teachers who may initially be hesitant about new technology. Amplifying the voices of teachers who successfully adopted a new tool can help those still going through the process see what is possible. It takes patience and a willingness from administrative leaders to create space for teachers to get there.

Set Realistic Expectations

During the pandemic, districts were focused on helping students continue to learn so there was minimal time to thoroughly vet edtech solutions, provide sufficient professional development and communicate changes to families. 

Today, however, districts have the capacity to be more intentional when implementing educational solutions. In addition to easing teachers into using these solutions, district leaders must be transparent with all stakeholders on the progress of the implementation so any issues can be worked out before a new program launches. For example, families who may have concerns about the implementation of a new instructional model can be invited into a conversation to better understand the impact on their students. When introducing new technology or models into the classroom, some educators at Concord Community Schools have created demonstrations for parents and guardians during parent-teacher conferences. Teachers walk parents through the new approach or tool or even create mock assignments where family members pretend they are students. It’s a meaningful step that helps the larger community fully understand the goal of changes in the classroom.  

Bonus considerations for leaders. Reimagining professional development is a journey. The above practices will make the biggest difference, but leaders can also consider:

• Learning alongside educators – joining educators in the process of learning a new tool or model creates a shared experience and demonstrates leaders are invested in the change.
• Centering “why” – communications about new technology should focus on why it is important and the benefits it brings to teachers and students. Leaders should also connect it to a school’s greater mission or strategic plans. 
• Create a continuation plan – learning often doesn’t stop after a single workshop or a few weeks of training. Intentionally creating a plan for ongoing training, follow-ups, and ad hoc questions provides teachers the continued support they need.

As district leaders, we have the opportunity to reimagine how we support educators with professional development through mentorship, patience and setting realistic expectations, preparing them for what’s next in K-12 education and ultimately creating equitable learning environments for our students. 

Becky Hutchinson is the Superintendent of Concord Community Schools in Concord, Michigan.
Kareem Farah is the CEO and Co-Founder of The Modern Classrooms Project, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering educators to build classrooms that respond to every student’s needs

The post 3 Ways to Reimagine Professional Development in Districts appeared first on Getting Smart.

If you’ve done any amount of innovation and redesign work you’ve inevitably had experiences with skeptics. The doubt can come in the form of snide comments about plausibility, subtle questions about data, or outright rejection of any possibilities that don’t fit into a comfortable, already-held narrative about the future. While it might be easier to just dismiss the skeptics and work with like-minded folks only, doing so is often impractical; and frankly defeats the purpose of futures thinking.

At its core, futures thinking, and true innovation, should help people make decisions today that lay the foundation for better futures. If we leave skeptics behind, we’ll end up focusing on the most naturally receptive audiences, ones who are already most likely to make forward-leaning decisions. While overcoming skepticism does make for harder work, it also makes for more rewarding work. More importantly, it often needs to be one of the goals of your futures work because motivating more people to think and take actions for the long-term will have greater impact.

The question is though, how can we productively address skepticism in our audiences?

Push People Past Their Comfort Zones

At a high level, I see my job as a “futurist” as finding the edge of my audience’s comfort zone and helping push them just past that. This means that what is provocative for one group may not be for another, and vice versa. Part of our work as futurists is to discover that comfort limit and help people cross that boundary line into more imaginative possibilities. The bigger the group and the more diverse the audience, the more complicated this task might be.

Balance Fear and Hope

On the other hand, I think there are really just two fundamental emotions pushing people towards action. One is belief or faith in an opportunity (hope), the other is recognition of risk (fear). Ironically, both can lead to inaction as well as action. For instance, techno-optimists might have hope (unfounded or not) that all of our most intractable problems will inevitably be addressed by some as-of-yet un-invented technology—giving them an excuse to not take the difficult actions they might otherwise need to do today. Likewise, too much fear can lead to fatalism or paralysis. If we’re doomed anyway, why take action?

Like yin and yang, the answer is almost always balance. Overoptimism in a future fix can be dampened with a bit of well-placed fear. Similarly, fatalism requires a healthy dose of optimism, often in the form of well-considered opportunities or pathways out of that risk. Part of the job of the futurist is to find that balance and support the best way to motivate change.

I was once working with a client to explore the future of their industry. We identified a number of possible, plausible, and probable visions of the future for them to consider. One of the senior leaders in the room, while reading one of those visions, shook her head. “I don’t like it,” she said. Curious (and a bit anxious) I asked her why. “Because in this future, we don’t exist,” she replied. That story, taken alone, could have been paralyzing—but when we combined potential pathways into the future with plausible pivots so that the company COULD exist, even in that scary future, the work transformed risk into motivation.

Tools to Motivate Skeptics

Any good futures process will focus on including skeptics on the parts of the journey that will give them the greatest sense of ownership. For some that will be the entire process—seeing how data and signals from today come together to form the basis of plausible and possible narratives of tomorrow. For others that will be stepping in to identify preferable futures or describe aspirations. The goal is to share both hope and fear with stakeholders at the moments when they can catalyze the most action. The tools we use at the Institute, when used creatively and at the right moments, can help this process along—once you better understand how to motivate those in your organization.

The futures wheel of “Draw Out Consequences” is a simple tool with immediate impact. Described simply, Draw Out Consequences plays out like a series of “if…then…” statements, helping people think through first, second, third (and beyond) order consequences of some change or disruption. With the right prompting, practice, and diversity of perspectives, it can guide teams to think about how the systems they work within are interconnected. It’s a tool that is easy for people to get into quickly, but robust enough to really help unearth provocative insights. Because of this, it can be deployed with skeptics to allow them to identify the far-ranging consequences of future change themselves—creating “aha” moments that deepen the emotional connection to the work.

Our proprietary “Ride Two Curves” tool is a nice way to systematically think through how a system can switch from one present way of working to a new way in the future—and what the implications and results for your organization might be. Companies, for instance, concerned about disruptive players in their core businesses often find this type of thinking very valuable as they consider how to shift their strategies and how quickly to do it.

Finally, adopting a robust and regular signals gathering practice—complimented by regular debate and consideration of the disruptive possibilities implied by those signals – is a core practice which provides the concrete evidence that some people need to see. It can be especially impactful to show skeptical leaders signals of competitors wading in, when innovators in analogous sectors are experimenting, or when disruptions caused contemporaries to falter.

While dealing with skeptics might not be easy, it is almost unavoidable in any futures process. Rather than seeing it as an obstacle, I’d encourage you to see it as an opportunity (see how I applied that idea of balance there?). Skeptics will drive you to design better processes, create better content, and be better focused on driving change. Putting in the time up front to understand your audiences, identify where skepticism is coming from, and applying the right tools in the right places will position you well to turn skeptics into champions.

This post was originally published on IFTF.org. You can learn future-ready skills by enrolling in an IFTF Foresight Essentials training based on 50+ years of time-tested and proven foresight tools and methods today.

Wayne Pan is a Research Director at Institute for the Future (IFTF).

The post How to Win Over Your Futures Skeptics appeared first on Getting Smart.

I never intended to start a high school.

It was in the Spring of 2015 while walking with a junior high teacher from the private Montessori school my children attended that I asked a simple question whose answer would fundamentally alter the trajectory of my professional and personal life.

“Has anyone thought about adding a high school to our school?” I asked as we walked together up a path at a local educational farm, kicking muck off our boots as we went. Behind us followed a train of junior high (grade 7-8) Montessori students who had just finished helping a group of Primary (age 3-5) students do an exploratory “swamp walk” through the farm’s marsh to experience first-hand the features of this vital ecosystem. I had joined them as a parent volunteer for the day. The teacher shrugged and said, “It’s been talked about, but it hasn’t really gone anywhere.”

“Huh,” I replied. “Well, if you want to start one, I think I’d be interested in teaching in it.”

Just a few short months later being “interested in teaching” at a Montessori high school morphed into resigning my tenured faculty position at a local university and radically altering my career path to design and launch an urban, community-centered Montessori high school.

Fast forward 5 years to August 13, 2020. On that hot August morning, I found myself standing in a parking lot outside the education wing of a church in downtown South Bend along with my co-founder, Eileen Mariani, taking the temperature of – and handing masks to – the first students to walk through the doors of River Montessori High School (RMHS). In between a couple of arrivals, I looked at her, pulled down my mask, and quietly mouthed the words, “we did it.”

But how? RMHS is an improbable aberration, right? I mean, how did a former professor and elementary teacher go from the notion of starting a school in 2015 to actually opening one in 2020 and standing next to its first graduates in 2023? It’s a question I reflect on quite a bit as I guide others through the process of launching new private schools in my current role as the Director of the Founders Program at the Drexel Fund. Every startup journey is unique, but I’ve noticed three interconnected themes that are a part of each success story.

You ask questions. Lots of them.

Asking questions – and not being afraid of where the answers lead you – is a key part of walking the road to designing and opening a new school. When we see something “not right” in the educational environments around us we can intuitively feel that things need to be different, but we have to interrogate those feelings to get at the core reality that needs to be changed.

Why are students dropping out? What is it about their current environment that seems to be holding them back? What should a graduate be able to do? Who needs this school (i.e., what does my proposed school offer that no one else is doing or not doing well?)

These are important academic model and market demand questions, but there are also a number of vital, non-academic questions to ask, especially if your motivation is to start a school to meet your own child’s needs.

What if the school I start ends up not working for my child? Am I committed to doing this even if things don’t work out for my own family? What if the school’s needs run counter to what my child needs? Am I willing to fail?

While building a school to serve one’s own child is a powerful motivation that can sustain a person through the inevitable challenges of founding a school, it is also a dangerous one. The important takeaway is that when founding a school you need to constantly be asking – and seeking answers to – questions, and not just ones about the academic model. But where do you get your answers or even figure out the questions you need to be asking?

You build a community of supporters…and skeptics.

At a very early stage we invited supporters and skeptics into our visioning and planning process. Hearing answers to our questions from just our “cheerleaders” or our own brains wasn’t enough. We needed to know the questions and concerns of others because honestly, we didn’t know what we didn’t know.

In our case, this first took the form of spending 5 months in early 2016 meeting regularly with a group of individuals who were lovingly skeptical of what was being proposed. That gave us a chance to try out different responses and explore novel ideas. It also forced us to repeatedly narrow our focus and hone in on the core identity of our school. This moved us from general notions of what we wanted the school to look like to very specific principles for how we were going to educate students. It also created a critical mass of individuals who years later would become some of the first board members and parents.

I won’t sugarcoat it though. Hearing people push back against our ideas for innovation was hard, as was making peace with the fact that there would always be people who weren’t going to see the merit in what we were doing. But I’m glad we had so many voices – both supportive and critical – as together they kept us moving forward.

But how does a launch team move from questioning and planning to actually being able to set an opening date and recruit families?

You get your big break(s).

What do I mean by a “big break?” Well, it looks different for every startup journey. It might take the form of someone overhearing you talk about your proposed school and later coming up to you saying, “Hey, I heard you are looking for a school location. I have a place you should look at which has been vacant for the last four years.” Or, maybe a friend of yours is talking with another friend about your school idea at a wedding and as a result of that conversation this “friend of a friend” ends up becoming your school’s first major donor and board president. It could even look like getting an email out of the blue from someone you haven’t talked to in more than a year saying, “Have you heard of the Drexel Fund?”

Turns out, none of the above are hypotheticals: each was one of our “big breaks” (yes, plural). None of these are things we could have scripted or planned, and one might say we were “lucky.” But to quote Seneca, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” By relentlessly asking and answering questions and continually building a community of supporters and skeptics, we positioned ourselves for these moments of opportunity. If you talk to anyone who has successfully launched a school, I’m sure they would tell you similar stories.

So…what now?

If you have a passion for bringing a new private school to your community you might be wondering what some concrete next steps might be.

One option is to attend one of the Drexel Fund’s upcoming information sessions for private school entrepreneurs. At these sessions, you will learn about the pillars of school startup and hear about how The Drexel Fund supports the launch of new private schools. You could also apply for the 2024-25 Drexel Fund Founders Program. Even just completing the application will help you clarify your proposed school model and identify what questions you need to ask during your startup process.

Whether or not you take any of the above next steps, there is one thing I encourage everyone to do who is considering launching a school: talk about it. All the time. Let people know what you are thinking. No one does this alone, and the sooner you get your idea out of your head, build your launch team, and create awareness in your community, the more likely you are to be successful.

Dr. Eric Oglesbee is the director of the Founders Program at the Drexel Fund, a venture philanthropy organization dedicated to increasing access to high-quality private education for low-income families. He is also the co-founder and board president of River Montessori High School (RMHS) in South Bend, Indiana.

The post Talk About It: Why Asking Questions and Sharing Ideas is a Core Part of Starting a School appeared first on Getting Smart.

The Portrait of a Graduate is a unique and locally tailored vision that outlines the competencies and transferable skills that support a learner’s long-term success. It serves as the guiding North Star for systemic transformation. This collective vision not only defines the essential knowledge, skills, and mindsets desired for students upon graduation but also rekindles engagement and enthusiasm among students, teachers, administrators, and community stakeholders. It provides strategic direction for a thorough redesign of the overall educational experience, ensuring the growth, adaptability, and ultimate success of every learner in our ever-evolving world.

Simultaneously, the Portrait of a System elevates this vision beyond aspiration, underscoring the need for a deliberate focus and alignment throughout the entire school district. Collaborating closely with dedicated district leaders cultivates a strategic shift by establishing new conditions, processes, and practices that promote equitable and enduring 21st-century experiences for both educators and students alike. This alignment ensures seamless integration of the vision at every level of the educational ecosystem, fostering a cohesive and purposeful transformation. Districts and schools support these with codesigned learning models, curriculum frameworks, and instructional models.

At the core of this transformative process lies the Portrait of an Educator, recognizing that educators’ competence and dedication can shape the overall learning experience for every student. By purposefully integrating rigorous academic content with 21st-century skills, mindsets, and literacies, educators play a pivotal role in bringing the vision to life. The Portrait of an Educator framework guides the identification and design of essential tools, resources, and support systems, empowering educators to effectively deliver on the district’s new vision with passion and proficiency. Leadership within this systemic design requires more than traditional management traits.

The Portrait of a Leader describes the optimal competencies required by leaders (both at the governance and administrative levels) to support educators in implementing the learning model and helping every student achieve the Portrait of a Graduate. 

This nested approach paves the way for a truly transformative path that upholds the hopes and dreams of a community. It nurtures a generation of students equipped with the essential skills and mindsets to thrive in a dynamic, ever-changing world. The intentional system-wide shift fosters an inclusive, forward-thinking, and learner-centered education, empowering students to become future-ready leaders and active contributors to a flourishing society.

Step 1: Engage with the Broader Community

As school system leaders, there is a responsibility to nurture the education and well-being of every child. To prepare students as lifelong learners and contributors, it’s critical to begin by engaging with the broader community to identify shared aspirations and address essential questions:

• What are the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of our community for its young people?
• In the face of a rapidly changing, complex world, what specific skills and mindsets do our children need to succeed?
• How can we design equitable learning experiences within our school systems, considering all relevant factors?

Step 2: Define the Portrait of a Graduate

Uniquely tailored to each district yet globally relevant, the Portrait of a Graduate acts as the guiding North Star for systemic transformation. This collective vision defines the knowledge, skills, and mindsets desired for students upon graduation, reinvigorating and re-engaging students, teachers, administrators, and community stakeholders. It provides strategic direction for redesigning the overall educational experience, ensuring every student’s growth and success.

Step 3: Align the System with the Portrait of a Graduate

Beyond merely an inspiring vision, a school district must intentionally focus on shifting and aligning the entire system to make the Portrait of a Graduate a tangible reality. Districts must work alongside dedicated school district leaders to facilitate a strategic shift, establishing new conditions, processes, and practices that foster equitable and enduring 21st-century experiences for both educators and students. This alignment ensures the vision’s seamless integration throughout all levels of the system.

Step 4: Empower Educators with the Portrait of a Educator

At the heart of this transformative journey lies the overall learning experience provided to every student. By purposefully integrating rigorous academic content with 21st-century skills, mindsets, and literacies, educators play a vital role in bringing the vision to life. The Portrait of an Educator framework guides the identification and design of essential tools, resources, and support to empower educators to deliver on the district’s new vision effectively.

Step 5: Equip Leaders with the Portrait of a Leader

A Portrait of a Leader serves as a blueprint, outlining the essential competencies and qualities necessary for leaders across different levels of the educational ecosystem. Beyond establishing clear expectations, this portrait offers guidance for navigating of the complex landscape of modern education. In this context, leadership goes beyond conventional management traits. The Portrait of a Leader empowers educational leaders to effectively inspire, guide and empower their teams, fostering a culture of innovation, adaptability, and continuous improvement. It equips leaders to champion and steer the roadmap for systemic change, ultimately leading to more equitable, learner-centered, and forward thinking educational environments.

Review, Refine, and Celebrate

As we collaborate with system leaders to align their aspirations with daily practices, it can be overwhelming to consider the multitude of shifts required. To continue growing and evolving, it is crucial to acknowledge what is working and build from there. Celebrate progress, growth, and successes within your team and beyond. Recognize systems and teachers who are open to sharing their practices, receiving feedback, and collaborating. This commitment is how networks are formed, allowing us all to learn and grow together. Embrace the transformation, continue learning, and celebrate each step of the journey as you create and implement a Graduate Learning Profile that enriches the lives of your students and prepares them for a thriving future.

The post Charting a Course for Educational Transformation: The Power of Aligned Portraits appeared first on Getting Smart.

On April 23-25, 2023, 2000 people from 47 states and 12 nations spanning five continents came together as one community at the Carnegie Summit 2023 in San Diego. This event marked the 10th anniversary of the Carnegie Summit on Improvement in Education, an annual convening of a community of improvers to connect, share work, learn, and be inspired by each other. It is a place to belong to a larger movement for continuously improving our education system to close opportunity gaps for all our nation’s young people.

The first-time Carnegie Summit attendees were welcomed into the community with open arms and told from the start: “You belong”. In the words of one of the emcees Tinkhani White, “The Summit is a homecoming, where we welcome back those who have been with us, welcome new members to our community, celebrate the community, and bring our whole authentic selves to enrich the community.” Woven throughout the three days was a celebration of joy as an expression of resistance, punctuated by the movement of activist dancers from CONTRA-TIEMPO.

The focus of this 10th Summit centered around the joining of improvement and equity. Tim Knowles, the president of the Carnegie Foundation, opened the event with these powerful words: “Improvement must be about the pursuit of economic and racial justice. Improvement without equity means that achievement gaps don’t close. Improvement with equity means that they can and do.”

Historically, the Carnegie Summit has been the place for educators passionate about improvement science. The community’s collective goals include finding better ways to learn how to improve in general and how to learn fast to achieve quality outcomes reliably at scale, centered around these six core principles of improvement:

1. Identify the specific problem we are trying to solve.
2. Specify what works, for whom, and under what set of conditions.
3. Understand how the current system produces the current outcomes.
4. Measure improvement by tracking key outcomes and processes.
5. Engage in rapid cycles to learn fast, fail fast, and improve quickly, embracing failures as opportunities to learn.
6. Embrace the wisdom of networked communities to accelerate improvements.

There were over 100 sessions and over 50 posters of schools and districts sharing their improvement journeys to engaged audiences.

In recent years, the Carnegie Summit has broadened its tent to include visionary, transformative change for the education sector. With Tim Knowles’ announcement in December about dismantling the Carnegie Unit to shift focus away from ‘seat time’ toward ‘skills’ and Carnegie’s newly announced partnership with Educational Testing Service (ETS) to radically transform assessment, it is clear that the time for a bold and ambitious transformation to our nation’s education system is now.

The XQ Institute joined the Carnegie Summit in 2022 with a vision to improve and reimagine the American high school experience. During the 2023 Summit, XQ hosted two sessions where conference-goers learned about the design journey for two XQ high schools in DC Public Schools and gained hands-on exposure to the XQ Competencies, a comprehensive collection of skills for XQ’s vision of what every American young person should demonstrate mastery of by the time they graduate from high school. The XQ Café was also a popular place to enjoy coffee and chat with other conference-goers about their shared vision for the future of our nation’s education system.

The 10th anniversary Carnegie Summit was a place where like-minded educators came together to be enriched and inspired by each other’s experiences. The education community’s journey from the Summit is toward equity, belonging, connection, joy, and improvement.

The post Carnegie Summit 2023: Improvement For All appeared first on Getting Smart.

In beautiful San Diego, at the 10th anniversary Deeper Learning Conference, attendees were welcomed with an open-air pop-up shop where student entrepreneurs sold carefully crafted goods (shoutout to Quinn’s Creations for clay earrings) and shared their varied stories of design and learning.

It was evident from the onset that this conference, hosted by High Tech High Graduate School Education, would spotlight three core elements of authentic learning: vulnerability, flexibility, community and connection.

Vulnerability

Over the course of the conference, there were several opportunities to move to the jams and demonstrate radical vulnerability with strangers from around the world. Attendees were encouraged to embrace discomfort in sessions and to lean into ways vulnerability can teach. The Inclusive Design for More Equitable Learning Environments session led by the Henry Ford Institute named discomfort as a norm as participants labeled identities core to them such as mother, educator, Latina, husband, and how these identifiers impact the development of learning spaces for adults and young people. The identities inherently will influence decisions and will often shape who is seen and who is heard.

Throughout the sessions, young people sat shoulder-to-shoulder with adult learners establishing a space of both vulnerability and power. The conversations that took place encouraged attendees to rethink their relationship with learners and to see everyone in the space as equals with something of value to share.

Using Comics to Drive Difficult Conversations about Race and History led by Stephane Manuel of TruFikton was a great opportunity to learn from colleagues. It is not uncommon for presenters to acknowledge the brilliance in the room, aside from their own. At Deeper Learning, this went beyond a canned remark at the top of the session. These facilitators allowed for voices to be heard and experiences to be shared for an inclusive learning environment.

Flexibility

Deeper Learning is built in a way that truly supports flexible and variable learning experiences. For example, a conference-goer might attend Den Talks, an informal conversation led by two hosts on a particular topic like school leadership or community support. The beauty is that no two Den Talks are the same in topic or flow.

One conversation centered around school transformation led by Kaleb Rashad, the interim Chief Executive Officer at High Tech High and Eric Chagala the founding principal from Vista Innovation & Design Academy (VIDA), kicked off by gathering questions from the audience. These questions ranged from how to galvanize around school change to what to do when the school environment is reluctant to change and innovate. The hosts shared how Liberating Structures and the Thinking Collaborative shaped their leadership as a response. Listen to their podcast episode of their Den Talk on HTH UnBoxed!

Another Den Talk featured San Diego Met alumna Karla Cruz Godoy and current San Diego Met senior, Sofia Ervin where they engaged in a conversation about the relationship between advisors and students which is a core component of the Big Picture Schools learning model. Each shared how essential and impactful advisory time is to student success. “There have been times when my advisor needed to lean on us more than we needed to lean on him,” Sofia explained to the audience members.

Deeper Learning also facilitates Deep Dives, three-hour immersive blocks to delve into a range of educational topics. Peeling the layers back in sessions related to unlocking fear through art and literacy, education as a practice of freedom, and the power podcasts provide student voices, allows ample time to forge strong bonds with colleagues that last beyond the conference.

Deeper Learning creates an environment that supports learning through freedom of space and time.

Community and Connection

At Deeper Learning, relationship is key. All participants are assigned advisory groups with the sole purpose of making new connections. This advisory time occurred throughout the conference, always with the same advisory leader who facilitates activities for collaboration such as Exquisite Corpse which requires small groups to draw a body without seeing what the precious person drew. This activity drew up flexibility and vulnerability as many participants did not self-identify as “artists.” Guards were down and laughs were up when the final results were revealed and shared.

Finally, as the sun started to set the first evening, attendees sampled food truck offerings key to the west coast from Bar-B-Que to lobster rolls to vegetarian-East African food.

A key component of Deeper Learning is time to share knowledge gained and all learners were offered the opportunity during the exhibition of learning. During this time, participants were able to witness artifacts of Deep Dives from other attendees such as dance routines, art displays, and interactive exhibits.

Transformational learning occurs when these three components are used consistently in learning spaces to inspire and cultivate genuine learning opportunities. All learning experiences can contain vulnerability, flexibility, community and connection to allow rich and meaningful learning to occur.

If you are interested in growing with an innovative and international learning community, register for the Deeper Learning 2024 conference from March 26th -28th.

The post Getting Deep at Deeper Learning appeared first on Getting Smart.

Getting Smart is proud to have partnered with American Student Assistance to create an Educating Entrepreneurs Track that explores teaching and leading entrepreneurship programs, business partnerships, economic mobility, workforce development and building talent pipelines. Sessions will be led by innovative ed leaders, educators and students. You can check out the full summit agenda here.

Check out these Educating Entrepreneurs sessions:

Cultivating Entrepreneurial Mindset in Engineers

Learn how leading engineering schools are cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset from opportunity recognition to solution design and delivering impact.

• Doug Melton, Kern Family Foundation
• Kurt Paterson, Arizona State University
• Joseph LeDoux, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Luis Perez-Breva, MIT & S1 Industries

Joining Forces for our Future:  High Schools, Community, & Entrepreneurship

By creating in-school incubators, students learn entrepreneurship, working to address real-world problems.  Within rigorous, for-credit INCubatoredu programs, teachers use best practices from Silicon Valley and provide students with a safe environment to experiment with their ideas and develop their skills. Volunteers from the business community join the school team to share their expertise.  Through this collaborative work, students experience mentorship and networking opportunities that can help them turn their ideas into successful businesses.

• Margarita Geleske, Uncharted Learning
• Dr. Mike Waldrip, Frisco ISD
• Dr. Lori Rapp, Lewisville ISD
• Isaiah Stanback, Steadfast Fitness
• Jason McCann, Vari

Authentically Teaching Entrepreneurship to Teens

“Get to failure fast” is a rallying cry among entrepreneurs, but generally not educators. The entrepreneur’s discovery process of learning from defeat is at the opposite end of traditional learning in schools.  Can the entrepreneur’s learning practices be transferred to the classroom? Hear from teachers and students who use Silicon Valley processes that ultimately teach them how to learn from failure in and out of class.  Students of INCubatoredu classes will share experiences and businesses they developed.

• Victoria Andrews, Getting Smart
• Margarita Geleske, Uncharted Learning
• Jason Cooper and Nicole Franczvai, Lewisville ISD and Lewisville HS Students
• Tommy Thompson, Frisco ISD and Centennial HS Students

Building Talent Pipelines through High School Work-based Learning

Working-to-learn experiences help students build skills employers need and provide businesses with an expanded pipeline of talent. They also help communities reduce unemployment and attract new businesses. Seems like a win-win. But when 79% of high school students say they are interested in a work-based learning experience, why have only 2% completed an internship? Awareness, access to opportunity, and know-how are at the top of the list for both learners and employers.  Hear about how to implement four ways to improve your employee pipelines including: getting involved in project-based learning through a new national pilot, EPIC; partnering with and hiring from work colleges; supporting high school pathways (P-Tech in TX), or offering a summer internship experience.

• Julie Lammers, American Student Assistance
• Kenyatta Lovett, Educate Texas
• Jason A. Tyszko, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
• Raymie Venable, Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship Academy

Employers & Entrepreneurship Educators: A Win/Win Collaboration

Over 90% of employers agree that it’s important to have an entrepreneurial mindset to prepare candidates to enter the workforce. Enter stage right: entrepreneurial education models that are actively engaging GenZ in career exploration, helping them develop transferable durable skills employers want, and setting them on a confident path for building wealth. Hear from business leaders on entrepreneurial education is connecting employers and learners and helping businesses solve real-world business problems through employer-led project-based learning and youth business plan and pitch competitions.

• J.D. LaRock, NFTE
• Corey Mohn, CAPS Network
• Tanyania Bobb, Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship Academy (IDEA) Dallas ISD

Career Exploration and Entrepreneurship in K-8 Education
Is it too soon to introduce careers in K-8 schools?  Actually, no.  Exposing and exploring connections between academics and careers helps a young student develop in many areas.  It sparks curiosity, fosters self-awareness, and encourages young people to explore possibility. With entrepreneurship’s hands-on approach, hear how students develop creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.

• Tom Vander Ark, Getting Smart
• Ed Hidalgo, Cajon Valley USD
• Julie Lammers, American Student Assistance
• Jerri LaMirand, Uncharted Learning
• Melodi Kunn, Midlothian ISD

Business Partnerships in Out-of-School Learning and Workforce Development
When thinking about the learner’s journey from school to career, so much focus is justifiably highlighting what happens in school day settings. But in the 21st-century world, skills rule the day. And much of what the workforce demands are skills built-in experiences out of the classroom. Join this conversation of business leaders and out-of-school time-doers to learn how their partnerships are meeting the needs of the workforce of tomorrow.

• Byron Sanders, Big Thought
• Antoine Joyce, All Stars Project, Inc. https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinejoyce/
• Angelica Barrera, Youth leader and Big Thought Apprentice
• Mike Lawson, Boeing
• Paul Buckley, D Custom

Economic Mobility: Managing Pathways at Scale

Dallas College and Dallas ISD have rolled out the largest Early College / PTECH strategy in the country where over 8,000 students are enrolled in associate degree programs in partnership with over a hundred industry-based partners. As the envelopes that previously held K12, higher ed, and workforce dissolve, communities require a cross-institutional approach to managing the student lifecycle. Dallas College and Dallas ISD have partnered with Economic Mobility Systems to develop the PTECH Pathway Manager where student journey maps and course-level data converge to help institutional leaders effectively manage the work at scale in Salesforce. This work is taking place in a context of a larger community plan called Dallas Thrives that proposes to double the number of adults earning a living wage in a county that educates 10% of Texas students and 1% of the nation.

• Dr. Anna Mays
• Dr. Cheryl Nevels, Dallas ISD
• Dr. Tiffany Kirksey, Dallas College
• Mark Flanagan, Economic Mobility Systems
• Dr. Eric Ban, Economic Mobility Systems

Producing a More Relevant and Innovative Workforce

Students are sitting in classrooms today with a sense of fearlessness and optimism, ready to create a brighter and more prosperous world; as such, our way of thinking and how we prepare learners must evolve and change. This workshop, through the lens of equity and diversity, will showcase creative programming to empower high school-aged learners to become adaptable, curious, and industrious. Join the Readiness Institute at Penn State and the Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamp to discuss how we can shape a future that works for everyone.

• Victoria Andrews, Getting Smart
• Justin Aglio, Readiness Institute at Penn State

The post SMU+GSV Mission Summit: On a Mission to Change the World for Good appeared first on Getting Smart.

In addition to great keynotes and valuable sessions, ASU+GSV has become the biggest edtech pitch competition. This year, the GSV Cup brought in over 900 global applicants. The Elite 200 semifinalists were evaluated by an expert panel of more than 200 judges and included almost half founders of color, half women and more than 40% international. 

The $1 million prize package was split among the three finalists: 

• Maro is making mental health an asset to student success instead of a roadblock, 
• Vinco a company empowering LATAM’s workforce through education, and 
• Luca who offers a gamified learning platform with own-made content to teachers and students) placed third in the competition.

We spoke with four startups of note 

• Transeo manages work-based learning and learner pathways. The idea emerged from D214 in Chicago (which we visited earlier this month). 

• LifeLab Studio is a growth-as-a-service platform spinout from ASU launched by Dr Sasha Barab. Focused on value creation, a sense of belonging, and personal life transformation, LifeLab is helping justice-involved youth (both detained and on parole) experience big gains in life skills. 

• Thinkist supports metasocratic peer tutoring. They train college and high school students to tutor middle-grade learners making it a valuable experience for mentors and mentees and a scalable and sustainable approach to high-dose tutoring. 

• Skillsline helps young people develop job-ready skills. After six years of leading the ASU+GSV Summit, Courtney Reilly bootstrapped Skillsline which provides learning experiences to partners including Jobs for America’s Graduates-Louisiana. 

Nonprofit Startups 

We also met three exciting new nonprofit startups at ASU+GSV: 

• Flare Education provides a 36-month program skill-building pathway that includes three internship experiences at Boston-based employers. Students receive a $20 per hour stipend for every hour engaged in the program. 

• unCommon Construction uses the build process to empower youth with the skills, network, resources, and experience to lead the workforce after high school or college.

• Data Science 4 Everyone is a campaign launched by the University of Chicago Center for RISC. They encourage the adoption of data science standards and integration of data science learning experiences across the k-12 curriculum.    

For more on for-purpose business, check out the inaugural SMU+GSV Summit in Dallas, May 22-24. Join global leaders from across investment, government, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy communities to shape the future of business.

The post High Impact Startups Spotted at ASU+GSV appeared first on Getting Smart.

On any given day articles related to teacher burnout, retention of educators, and staff dissatisfaction are overflowing on any media outlet. Rarely are solutions shared or silver linings highlighted, which is why the online Equity for Wellness Summit is essential. Over the course of three days, teachers, administrators, researchers, and practitioners shared perspectives and resources tailored to schools and their staff addressing those in the space of education and their wellness. Acknowledging the varied schedules and demands of attendees, the entire conference was online and recorded, demonstrating a true commitment to accessibility and equity. 

Origins of Equity in Wellness Summit 

Many recent efforts and initiatives connected to educator well-being were a direct result of the global pandemic, but Wellness for Educators planted its seed in 2018. A direct result of Wellness for Educators’ founder and executive director Kathryn Kennedy’s mental health and well-being journey the nonprofit organization started as a small effort by Kathryn and her sisters Mary and Liz who created short videos, podcasts, and articles for educators. When the pandemic hit, Kathryn knew the next few years would be vital for those in the education space to have resources that centered on mental health and well-being, so in December of 2020 Wellness for Educators expanded their offerings and started serving the field more intentionally. Members of the organization include licensed mental health practitioners, educators, and certified somatic and mind-body coaches and practitioners who embody diversity and champion the use of equitable wellness practices for the field of education.

Recently, Wellness for Educators hosted its first conference, the Equity in Wellness Summit, which served as a collaborative effort between organizations invested in the growth, development, and sustainability of healthy individuals who work in any capacity of education. The summit was co-sponsored by other advocates in the equity in education wellness space, including the University of Redlands’ Center for Educational Justice and Voice4Equity. 

The Equity for Wellness Summit was a three-day, virtual event that brought together inspiring educators, licensed mental health professionals, researchers, somatic professionals, and other experts who are engaging at the intersection of equity, mental health and wellbeing, and education. The summit was intentionally structured to be a collection of panel discussions, experiential wellness sessions, and community-based reflection and shared spaces. The summit also included interactive mind-body sessions, webinars, and additional informational videos for reference. All attendees were given access to recordings of each session once the summit ended.

Session Summarization/ Key Findings 

Anyone who’s attended a conference knows the keynote sets the tone. When Dr. Dena Simmons, the founder of LiberatED, embeds student voice, love, joy, and liberation in her powerful opening remarks, it’s clear the following days will contain the same notes of community, collaboration, healing, and support. Simmons launched the summit by sharing what makes her feel free and the importance of creating spaces for students to feel the same by incorporating clips of students personally expressing what makes them feel free. She then shifted to talk about social-emotional learning and wellness and even provided a caution that “If we are not careful SEL, can be white supremacy with a hug.” She reiterated that the conference focused on wellness to allow for a more inclusive definition for educators and students. Simmons concluded her message with a charge by asking participants, “How will you be an educator that fights for freedom?” 

Following the dynamic keynote from Simmons were several session offerings with themes connected to equity, community, and accountability. Defining Wellness in Equitable Ways with Shomari Jones, Dr. Rebecca Itow, Jonathan Santos Silva, and Alejandra Ramos Gomez dissected layered topics countless educators face, such as how to maintain personal values in a professional system built against them and why it’s essential to have a personal board of directors as a sense of accountability. Jones and Santos Silva reminded participants that small coalitions matter, and finding just one coconspirator is beneficial for personal wellness in the work as an educator. 

The summit continued with powerful discussions examining exactly how to create spaces for wellness. In these sessions, panelists gave perspective to the idea that wellness can be achieved by building community through courageous conversations. Vanee Smith-Matsalia, Islah Tauheed, and Sophie Teitelbaum led a thoughtful conversation about why Building Your “Homeplace” as an Educator and a Disruptor is so important to overall wellness. Sophie Teitelbaum describes the homeplace for educators through an equitable lens as being a soft place to land [stressing] “for all people, not just those that look like me.” Panelists further described how during the pandemic, people across the globe rallied to create homeplaces for their wellness. Vanee Smith-Matsalia explained how it has been soul-crushing to have done the work of humanizing [through SEL initiatives], during the pandemic, just to be erased after returning to school.

Shomari Jones, Dr. Paul Sutton, Aaron Schorn, and Dr. Kathryn Kennedy continued this discussion in a session on Building the Bridge through Courageous Conversations where panelists discussed the guidelines of how to have conversations about wellness and equity with the intention to gain wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. When teachers feel heard, understood, and respected, it can have a positive impact on their overall well-being. Aaron Schorn described how being courageous in equity conversations can look different for everyone; for him, “it is to listen more than I talk.” Panelists continued their discussion by offering examples of how to care for themselves and others in those spaces. Dr. Paul Sutton explained that the definition of care changes depending on what a person is going through and how “care is not an endpoint, it’s continual and ever-changing depending on the situation.”

Discussing equity and wellness within education can be emotionally taxing to those who are in the thick of it. This is why the creators of the summit were intentional about providing wellness breaks in between sessions. These “breaks” were still considered sessions, as they offered skills and techniques to center oneself as a way to achieve wellness. In the session Bringing Back Play with Stephanie McGary, attendees were challenged to make room for play and invited to engage in a short game. Alejandro Ramos Gomez facilitated a session on Dance Therapy where she briefly discussed its benefits and then guided attendees through 15 minutes of stretches and embodied movement of the body. Additionally, Antonia Small contributed by leading a Somatic Session of mindful movement and yoga. By design, these sessions were healing, engaging, and interactive, yet informative, leaving attendees feeling recharged and ready to dive into critical conversations. 

To dive deeper into a few of the supports mentioned, consider visiting a few of the links below: 

• The Importance of Play by Michael Forman 
• Mindfulness First – organization to support students and teachers using trauma-informed practices
• LiberatED – resources for a liberatory approach to SEL, racial justice, and healing
• The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effect of Childhood Trauma and Adversity by Nadie Burke Harris 
• Good Inside – Dr. Becky Kennedy

The post Empowering Educators: The Equity for Wellness Summit appeared first on Getting Smart.