Redesigning schools for 21 century

Kentucky Goes Flat:Redesigning

Schools for 21st Century Learning

ThinkLink PresentationDecember 6, 2005

Tom Welch

Friedman’s Brief History of the 21st century

• Globalization 1.0

• 1492 – 1800

• Shrank world from a size Large to a Medium

• Was about countries and muscle

• The “Old” World

• Globalization 2.0

• 1800 – 2000

• Shrank the world from medium to small

• Multinational companies

• The “New” World

• Globalization 3.0

• 2000 –

• Size small to a size tiny

• individuals collaborating and

competing globally

• The “Next” World

• What will a changing world mean in the schools and districts with whom you work?

• Will you continue as if your responsibility for student learning is continuous improvement for a 2.0 world?

• OR

• Will you see that your responsibility is for each student in those schools and districts to be successful in a 3.0 world?

• In terms of learning, the Kentucky Department of Education and the State Board of Education are responding to the challenges through a variety of initiatives . . .

Current KDE initiatives

• Refocusing Secondary Timeline

• Proposed Graduation Requirements

• What are ThinkLink member reactions to those initiatives and proposed requirements?

“[The proposed Kentucky Graduation Requirements are] a steep hill for many to climb . . .

And woefully inadequate for the world economy.”

Willard Daggett – Oct. 25, 2006

“Do you think our kids are genetically inferior to the kids in China?”

-- Willard Daggett on the soft bigotry of low expectations. October 25, 2005

The economic vitality of your communities and schools is dependent on your ability to rise to the demands of the 21st century.

“Kentucky’s economic well-being is inextricably linked to the education and skills of its citizens.”

-- The Business Forum on Kentucky Education (2005)

The ability of individual students to collaborate and compete will directly affect the quality of your schools, and your districts, not to mention the very life and health of your individual communities.

• Three aspects to consider

1. Low educational attainment = lost personal opportunities in life

2. Lost earnings = lost tax revenue

3. Loss of opportunity is a problem that not only threatens the welfare of the individual, it threatens the welfare of the entire country.

• Each of these elements has a direct relationship not only to the quality of our schools, but to the very life and health of our individual communities.

• How does low educational attainment influence area economies?

• Keep in mind that the average lifetime earning difference between a person with a high school diploma and a person with a BA is approximately $1,000,000 ...

• Even figuring a working life of 40 years, that’s approximately $25,000 a year difference in taxable income.

• Think what it would mean for local communities and this state if the entire state were just AT the national averages for adults over 25 with at least a BA . . .

• Instead of 453,469 in Kentucky with a BA or higher, there would have been 645,720, or an additional 192,251 people

• 192,251 x $250 = $48,062,750 – in annual local revenue

• 192,251 x $1000 = $192,251,000 – in annual state revenue

• While education attainment levels are crucial to Kentucky communities,

• Globalization 3.0 is bringing other shifts to our schools and communities . . .

• So I ask . . .

• As ThinkLink members, how are you preparing for, and handling the shift?

• How do you see your responsibilities to your constituent groups?

This is a challenging shift for everyone in education

• As if all this weren’t enough . . .

Larger changes are on the horizon and

headed our way. . .

• Citizens of Kentucky must come to understand that they are part of a world economy, and the world is changing faster than ever before.

• Huge shifts are taking place now that will be felt for many decades.

• “The only sustainable competitive advantage is the ability to be able to learn faster than your competition.”

--Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

• How might YOU anticipate and support coming changes?

• Implement Performance-based credit policy

• Implement policies regarding EOCAs

• Join the Successful Practices Alliance

• Become a State Scholars District

• Implement proposed Graduation requirements

• Expand opportunities for dual credit

• Why wouldn’t you want your students prepared at the highest levels being targeted for students in other states and countries?

By the way, keep in mind that between 200 and 300 million Chinese are learning English in China

There are a maximum of 50,000 in the US who are learning Chinese.

Start thinking about the future of education in your districts

Because . . .

• There is a tsunami coming to public education

• The three factors that are changing the future of education . . .

• The identification of standards

-- agreement on the “product”

• The use of Common End of Course Assessments

--the first ever introduction of a quality guarantee

• Technology

– Even the education world is going to go “flat”

• Are your ThinkLink “customers” making plans or forming policies for the learning opportunities available with $100 laptops??

• Technology will continue to drive outsourcing in public education.

• Why would we think that public education will forever remain immune to outsourcing?

As educational monopolies are broken up, results, and proof of results, will become the coin of the realm.

Web sites turn parents into savvy school shoppersCalifornia parents and educators seeking information on how a school, district or region is performing can easily check several Web sites that provide school profiles and performance data. Bill Jackson and Jim Lanich, who run GreatSchools.net and Just for the Kids California, respectively, believe the figures give an accurate feel for schools' learning environments.  Sacramento Bee (Calif.), The (12/1)

--Source: ASCD Smart Brief Dec 5, 2005

• Talk about the reallocation of resources . . .• 2.0

3.0

• Think of the decisions for allocating resources when the goal is individual student achievement at high levels, and outsourcing is possible.

• Are you anticipating change “at the speed of blur” by thinking of policy changes today?

What will

Rigor

Relevance

and Relationships

look like in your districts in the 21st century?

• “When the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is in sight.”

• -- Jack Welch, CEO General Electric

What are the implications for you

as ThinkLink members?

How do you go from facilitating powerful teaching, (the 20th century option . . .)

to leading organizations focused on great learning, the 21st century need?

• How can our varied organizations work together in a 3.0 world to increase the success of our Kentucky students – our CommonWealth?

Changing the Essential Questions

– We used to ask – “How do we change our schools to make them better?”

– Now we must ask – “How can our institutions provide the best learning opportunities for each individual student in the schools and districts we serve?”

Remember Rex?

If you don’t know how to do something . . .

START!

We can do it!