Too many notes...

One of the criticisms (or concerns might be a better word) most often raised about my written work is that it’s just too long. I’m constantly reminded that we are living in a “fast twitch” society, that people have short attention spans, and that no one will actually take actually the time to read something if, well, it has too many words. My response to that is to keep producing works of unacceptable length and to keep using no fewer words than I think necessary to make the point.

When thinking about this, the quagmire of too many words, I am sometimes reminded of one of my favorite scenes from the movie Amadeus. Joseph II, the Emperor of Austria (who, by the way, was not nearly as idiotic in real life) has commissioned Amadeus—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—to write an opera. Amadeus eagerly accepts the commission and produces the opera Seraglio.

The scene occurs on the stage of the opera house, just after the first performance is over.

JOSEPH

Well, Herr Mozart! A good effort.
Decidedly that. An excellent effort!
You've shown us something quite new today.

Mozart bows frantically: he is over-excited.

MOZART
It is new, it is, isn't it, Sire?

JOSEPH

Yes, indeed.

MOZART
And German?

JOSEPH
Oh, yes. Absolutely. German.
Unquestionably!

MOZART
So then you like it? You really like it, Your Majesty?

JOSEPH
Of course I do. It's very good. Of course now and then - just now and then - it gets a touch elaborate.
MOZART
What do you mean, Sire?

JOSEPH
Well, I mean occasionally it seems to have, how shall one say (he stops in difficulty; to Orsini- Ronberg) How shall one say, Director?

ORSINI-ROSENBERG
Too many notes, Your Majesty?

JOSEPH
Exactly. Very well put. Too many notes.

MOZART
I don't understand. There are just as many notes, Majesty, as are required. Neither more nor less.

JOSEPH
My dear fellow, there are in fact only so many notes the ear can hear in the course of an evening. I think I'm right in saying that, aren't I, Court Composer?

SALIERI
Yes! yes! er, on the whole, yes, Majesty

MOZART
(to Salieri)
But this is absurd!

JOSEPH
My dear, young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Cut a few and it will be perfect.

MOZART
Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?

I LOVE this scene!

Now don’t get me wrong, I certainly think there is a time and a place to be quick and concise. Our company has a marketing department, for example, and their job is to try and say a lot as quickly and as viscerally as they can. Not an easy job. To successfully convey any sort of message with a punch line and a few images is pretty tricky. It takes skill. I think some of the best and most compelling "art" in media today can be found in television commercials. (Think about it, a good commercial really is a mini 30-second film). And is it just me or are movie trailers often far better the movies themselves?

So I certainly respect the ability to convey a compelling message in sound bite sized chunks.

But—

Maybe I’m just being old school here, maybe I’m just thinking like a crusty, out-of-date pc loving, VCR owning Digital Immigrant, but I still think there is no more compelling and powerful a method of communication than the written word—even in our fast paced, multimedia age. Talk is cheap. When you say something, it can too often be lost, forgotten or misinterpreted. But when you take the time to write it down, it elevates the discourse; it facilitates thought, it has deeper meaning, it shows that you’ve taken the time to actually think about what you have to say and that you have the courage and depth of conviction to throw it out there.

In his blog, “Web 2.0 is the Future of Education” Steve Hargadon once wrote: “The answer to information overload is to produce more information.”

Yes Steve, it is.

So go ahead---write it down.

Throw it out there.

Produce more content—just produce better content.

And if you have to, use too many words.

It's not about the products--it's about the plan and the process

“Learning cannot be designed. Learning happens, design or no design. And yet there are few more urgent tasks than to design social infrastructures that foster learning. Those who can understand the informal, yet structured, experiential yet social, character of learning—and can translate their insight into designs in the service of learning—will be the architects of tomorrow.”

Etienne Wenger
Communities of Practice

I firmly believe that the integration of technology into the processes that support teaching and learning is critical to the future of our schools. Learner-centered classrooms, better engaged and more motivated students, differentiated instruction, increased home/school connections, closed achievement gaps and significantly improved learning outcomes by students at every level in virtually any school are all documented outcomes from technology-rich schools and school districts.

But...

But before we go too far, before we embrace technology as the next new panacea that will cure all of the real or perceived deficiencies with our schools, we must first remember one basic fact: technology is a tool and a tool is only valuable to the extent that a human being organizes its use in a productive way. What this means relative to the use of technology in our schools is this—technology, in and of itself, does not improve test scores, grade point averages or student achievement. Yes, the promise of technology is real—but this promise depends on three things. First, there must be a shared vision for why technology is being used in the classroom. Second, there must be a comprehensive plan for how technology will be integrated into the learning environment. Third, the use of technology must be tied to a clear educational purpose; to performance-based standards and the educational needs, objectives and goals of a school and its students.

So we do something different. We do not focus on the tools. We focus on the teaching. We will not push products. Instead, we are creating a process.

A Smart Solution.

The Smart Solution is not a program. It is a learning architecture. Our goal is to design and support the platforms that support the environments that foster better teaching and learning.

The following is a brief video introduction to what we do, or hope to do, for schools and school districts--design, educate, innovate. But this is an organic process. Like our students, we are continually learning. So your input, observations, comments and thoughts as we share our Smart Solution with you are welcome and truly appreciated.

An Investment in Education--The Ultimate Stimulus Plan (Part II)

They just don't get it!!

Leave it to our elected officials, elected ostensibly to do the will of the people, to then ignore the needs of the people, of John and Jane Q. Public, in the endless and utterly counterproductive debate about liberal vs. conservative fiscal policy and ideology. Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bold and brave economic recovery bill that allocated billions of much-needed dollars to improve and modernize our schools and foster "21st century learning environments." The bill then goes to the Senate, the political wrangling continues, and what gets cut? Much of the funding for education.

I guess an investment in education isn't "stimulating" enough.

Again, I am not an economist so I leave it to people smarter than me to determine where and how stimulus money should be spent. And I certainly acknowledge and respect our collective and individual right to agree and agree to disagree on political issues. But in one man's humble opinion, and I may be baying into the wind, I firmly believe that if we don't invest in schools and in our children, then no amount of money we spend now will save us from an economic and human catastrophe that will make the current crisis look fairly mild by comparison.

Don't the Senators who cut these education dollars understand that, by some estimates, almost 1 million children each year are dropping out of school? Don't they understand that right now less than 35% of our public school 12th grade students are proficient in reading, science and math? Don't they understand that those students who do graduate assess well behind students from other countries in virtually every statistical category? Don't they understand that in a recent study conducted by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, high school graduates were deemed "deficient" in every one of the 21st century skills deemed necessary for 21st century success?"

If a company like Microsoft is laying off highly skilled employees, what chance does a high school drop out have? In an increasingly global economy where our children are no longer competing with each other but are competing with kids from Korea, China, India and Japan, what chance will they have in learning environments that are antiquated and outdated; where teachers and students are using essentially the same tools that I used when I graduated from high school over 25 years ago? I would challenge any one of the senators who cut the education funding to quit their jobs, forgo their senate salaries, and try and build a business--any business--using only the tools found in most inner city public school classrooms. I suspect most would look at me and think, "Are you insane? We won't have the tools."

Exactly.

Neither do they.

Bottom line, an investment in education is the ultimate stimulus package. It is an investment in our present and our future. It is an investment that can reap dividends for generations. It is an investment in our children that should not, that must not, be compromised.

Lessons from my son

There is much we can learn from our children. Their world is a world of simple and unadorned truths, uncomplicated by the legion of complexities and competing considerations that too often define and dictate our lives as adults. And so it goes with education. By any objective measure, our schools and our students are underperforming. But how we fix our schools has been an ongoing source of national (and international) debate for decades. Learning theories abound. Instructional designs abound. School turn around plans abound. Google "school reform" and you'll pull up over 20,000,000 hits. The volume of time, energy and work placed into answering the question "How do we fix our schools?" is simply astounding.

But there is one simple truth about education that I have learned from my 6 year old son.

Every weekday morning, the alarm goes off at 6:30am and I gently nudge him to wake him up. He looks at me, groans, and often says....."Dad, do I have to go to school today?" I smile, tell him "yes," and turn on the television so he can get his morning fix of Spongebob Squarepants. Getting him dressed can be an ordeal; sometimes, depending on his mood, my son will stage a Ghandi-like sit down protest, but I manage to get him out the door, in the car and into the school.

His mood is generally glum.

Then I pick him up. He is renewed; changed. He comes bouncing out of the school door, smiling, happy, excited. I ask him, "How was your day?" He always replies "good." Then he tears into his bookbag and papers go flying as he eagerly shows me what he's learned today. This is not manufactured. This is genuine enthusiam. For him.....this isn't work. This is actually, dare I say it, fun.

Wow.

So what is the lesson from my son?

It is simply this--that school should be fun. That learning should magical. That the process of discovery should be exciting. If we understand that, if we start there, then, perhaps, we have locked onto one simple truth that will allow us, at long last, to improve our schools and to create social infrastructures (because if you think of it, that's really what school is) that truly facilitate better teaching and learning.

An Investment in Education--The Ultimate Stimulus Plan

I note with some interest the ongoing debate about what should or should not be contained in a “stimulus” package. I am not an economist, so I leave it to people far smarter than me to determine what investments will or will not create jobs and stimulate our economy. But this much I know. If we don’t improve our schools, if we don’t prepare our young people to compete and succeed in the 21st century, none of this matters. We can appropriate a trillion dollars, two trillion dollars, three trillion dollars, we can improve our infrastructure, we can create tax incentives, we can spend, spend, spend…….but if we don’t adequately invest in education, the America that we know will be lost.

We will lose our status as the world leading global superpower.

Our universities will no longer be the global centers of research and innovation.

Our companies will no longer produce the goods and services that fuel the global economy.

And we will be in very real danger of creating a permanent underclass.

On what we’re now referring to as “Bloody Monday,” over 71,000 more job cuts were announced. This brings the total number of announced job cuts to over 200,000 this year. This is a stunning number. A tragic number. These are 200,000 lives that have been, or will be, irrevocably changed.

And yet…

Each year, approximately 1 million children drop out of high school. Right now, 1 child drops out of school every 26 seconds. Right now, the graduation rate in our 50 largest urban centers hovers around 50%.

Right now, there are more African-American men going to jail than to college.

What about these children? Who is fighting for them? Where will they go? If Microsoft is laying off 5000 highly skilled people, where will the young men and women who don’t even have a high school diploma work? How will they ever participate fully in the American Dream? What’s to become of them?

This is not just a problem. This is a national crisis. And yet, there doesn’t seem to be the sense of urgency about addressing these horrendous educational outcomes as there seems to be about fixing other areas of our economy. But the strength of our economy depends on the strength of our businesses, large and small, and the strength of our businesses depends, to a large extent, on the state of our schools.

Baby-boomers are retiring, taking their skills and knowledge with them. The result is a widening gap between the skills required by businesses today and the skills of new entrants in the workforce.

A recent report by The American Diploma Project states: “The [high school] diploma has lost its value because what it takes to earn one is disconnected from what it takes for graduates to compete successfully beyond high school—either in the classroom or in the workplace. Re-establishing the value of the diploma will require the creation of an inextricable link between high school exit expectations and the intellectual challenges that graduates invariably will face in credit bearing college courses or in high-performance, high-growth jobs.”

Employers echo this sentiment. The Conference Board, the Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the Society for Human Resource Management conducted an in-depth study of the corporate perspective on the readiness of new entrants into the U.S. workforce by level of educational attainment. The study includes results from both an in-depth survey conducted during April and May 2006 and interviews with a sampling of a dozen HR and other senior executives. Respondents were asked to identify the skills they considered “very important” to success in the workplace. The skills rated as “very important” were: (1) professionalism/work ethic; (2) oral and written communications; (3) teamwork/collaboration; (4) critical thinking/problem solving; (5) reading comprehension; (6) English language (spoken); (7) ethics and social responsibility and (8) information technology application. The respondents were then asked to rate the skill level of new entrants by grade level. New entrants’ skill level could be rated as “excellent,” “adequate” or “deficient.”

Four year college graduates were deemed “deficient” in written communications, writing in English and leadership. Two year college graduates and technical school graduates were deemed “deficient” in written communications, writing in English, lifelong learning/self direction, creativity/innovation, critical thinking/problem solving, oral communications, ethics and social responsibility. However, high school graduates were deemed “deficient” in every one of the “very important” skills necessary for workforce success.

The implications are obvious. As important as job creation is, improving our schools and ensuring that current and future generations of students are prepared to compete and succeed in the global economy is just as important. So politics aside, President Obama is to be commended for making increased funding to education a part of the stimulus package. An investment in education is not one of those “good ideas” that has a laudable purpose, but should wait. Urgent action is needed now. Because if our schools fail, and many of them are failing, then our country will fail.

The stimulus package passed the house and is now before the Senate. The political debate is heating up about what should be in and what should be cut from the package. But we must fight for our children, for our future and for our schools. Don’t be silent. We must let our politicians and policymakers know that the money earmarked for education must not be cut. In fact, dedicated funding for modernizing our schools and creating 21st century learning environments for all of our students should be made a permanent part of our economic recovery plan.

Because an investment in education is the ultimate stimulus plan.

Arnie Duncan it is--but a few thoughts about education and accountability

I wrote this just after President Obama announced his choice for education secretary. But I think the questions about accountability remain relevant and timely. Enjoy....

President-elect Obama has made his choice.

I think it is safe to say that after jump-starting our faltering economy, the next domestic crisis looming over the Obama administration is what to do about our public schools. The enormity of this task is fully evidenced by the fact that Obama has already made his selection for virtually every other cabinet position of note, but just announced his choice for education secretary. The stakes were high as this choice quietly, but pointedly, was simmering into what was (fairly or not) being characterized as an ideological “war.”

In one corner, we purportedly had the teachers and teachers unions. As Libby Quaid from the Associated Press reported (“Obama’s education pick sparks conflict”), teachers wanted someone who would be a strong advocate for their concerns; such as Obama advisor Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor, or Inez Tenenbaum, the former state schools chief in South Carolina.

In the other corner we had the so-called “reformers.” As Quaid wrote, “Reform advocates want someone like New York schools chancellor Joel Klein, who wants teachers and schools held accountable for the performance of students.” Arne Duncan, the current CEO of Chicago Public Schools and an Obama confidant, was also a popular choice.

And now we know it is to be Duncan.

Duncan is certainly a thoughtful and pragmatic choice and this selection is receiving generally positive reviews. But there are still concerns, particularly among teachers and teacher unions. At the root of the problem is the proverbial 800-pound elephant in the room when talking about education reform and policy. It can be summed up in one word—

Accountability.

Accountability is, of course, a good thing. In the value-driven private sector, accountability and employability generally go hand-in-hand. You are deemed responsible for the product you create. So when we have an educational system where 1 child drops out of high school every 26 seconds; where the graduation rate in our 50 largest urban centers hovers around 50% and where American students are falling behind students from other industrialized countries in virtually every statistical category, it certainly seems reasonable, at first glance, to hold our teachers and schools accountable for the performance of our students.

But I think we are missing something. Though it seems logical to point to our teachers and schools when confronted with student outcomes like these, if we peel back the layers a bit, something about this seems just a bit unfair. Yes, there are some bad teachers who certainly need to pursue a different line of work. Yes, there are some chronically underperforming schools that probably need to be closed. But the problems go deeper than that. Much deeper.

One analogy keeps coming to mind. Before joining the chorus of voices laying blame squarely at the feet our teachers or our schools, I can’t help but think about this—I find myself mentally juxtaposing our approach towards funding education to our approach towards funding and fighting a war.

When we go to war, we spare no expense because lives are on the line. (The war in Iraq, for example, will cost American taxpayers more than $3 Trillion dollars). We make sure that our fighting men and women have the latest and most advanced equipment, so we spend billions more on research and development. We do this because of the value that we place on human life—each and every human life. To send a solider to war without the tools necessary to save lives and to win the war would be more than an outrage; it would be a crime.

But our teachers are soldiers.

Shouldn’t our teachers be afforded the same right? They are soldiers as well; soldiers on the front line of the most important battle that we as a nation have or will ever fight. No, it is not a battle fought with bullets and guns. This is a battle for the hearts and minds of our children. This is a battle for the future of our nation.

And it is a battle we cannot lose.

But what are the tools that we give them? Worn and recycled textbooks? Overhead projectors? Schools, as noted by David Thornburg, “predominantly driven by the awesome power of a sheet of slate and a stick of chalk?” Classrooms where you might see a few computers scattered in the back of the room, largely unused, while the technology that is so ubiquitous in every other facet of our society is relegated, literally, to the back of the educational bus?

We give our teachers this and then we tell them to leave no child behind or we’ll hold them accountable, hold back their kids or close their schools.

Does that seem fair to you?

I would challenge any of the private sector pundits or talking heads on television to try to open a business, any business, using only the tools you find in most inner-city middle or high school classrooms. I suspect most would walk into the classroom, turn to me with a look of pure panic and say, “I don’t have the tools.”

Exactly.

So it seems to me that it doesn’t really matter who we appoint as education secretary unless we first ask ourselves this—Do our teachers and schools really have the tools they need in order to excite our students, to engage our students and to prepare our students to compete and succeed in the 21st century? If we don’t answer that question correctly, I don’t know if the appointment of Arne Duncan, or anyone else for that matter, will really make a difference.

Charter schools--A choice or a change?

Change.

A word that is both a lightening rod and a litmus test.

We hear a lot of about “change” in education. But we need to pause, reflect and be careful. All too often, the minute something is trumpeted as the next new CHANGE in education, we jump on that bandwagon, start retrofitting our schools, change their names, slap on some new paint, invest a lot of money, wait, hold our breath, cross our fingers, hope……and nothing really changes. Then the finger pointing begins, the blame game starts and in the meantime another generation of children, children who depend on the quality of our schools for their future, have been left behind or lost.

So when we talk about “change” in education, we need to be very clear about a few things.

First, what are we changing from?

Second, what are we changing to?

Third, though we’ve changed the school name, the school structure or the focus of the curriculum, have we fundamentally changed what’s going on in the classroom?

Right now, charter schools are all the rage. But before we jump on the metaphorical charter school bandwagon, perhaps we should ask ourselves this—are the pedagogical practices in charter schools are really any different? What is the "base" curriculum? How are modern, interactive tools being integrated into the curriculum and are these tools being used to promote 21st century skills? Are the documented student outcomes from charter schools significantly different than student outcomes from well-funded, well-staffed and well-resourced public schools? Is classroom instruction primarily lecture-based or student-driven?

Is it more of the same, just done better?

I want to be clear here. I am not against charter schools. I am, in fact, personally aware of a number of charter schools that are doing some outstanding and commendable work, especially with at risk children. But we need to be careful about embracing charter schools as a panacea. Could it be that much of the success of charter schools can and should be attributed to smaller classroom sizes, increased accountability and a significantly more motivated and energetic teaching staff? Is the "better" produced by charter schools really better? Though test scores and graduation rates are generally higher, which certainly creates the appearance of progress, are we simply providing these kids more of what they should not be getting in the first place; an education that fails to adequately equip students to compete and succeed in the 21st century because it is still based primarily on pedagogical practices from the 19th century?

There is, in the end, a fundamental difference between a choice and a change.

My question to you is this—what do charter schools represent?

A choice?

Or a change?