By Ari Pinkus and Emily Porter
The new “rock star” K-12 schools continuously innovate with
an eye toward improvement. In striving to grapple with the knowledge explosion,
these schools shift focus to developing critical skills, including how to think,
analyze, synthesize, research, and adapt for constant change. No longer is the curriculum
one-size-fits-all but instead is customized to fit what best meets students’
particular needs and prepares them for this different future. Students gain
agency over their learning experience, and teachers are in a position to help
students make the best choices for their learning.
Those were the key takeaways in the session “Dreamworks: How
Four Rock Star Women Are Leading Their School Systems.” Moderator Katherine
Bradley, president of CityBridge Foundation, led a panel discussion with Dr.
Barbara Byrd-Bennett, CEO of Chicago Public Schools; Cami Anderson, superintendent
of Newark Schools; Kaya Henderson, chancellor of DC Public Schools; and Diane
Tavenner, founder and CEO of Summit Public Schools in California.
Tavenner spoke of the continuous innovation happening in the
charter schools she leads. “A couple of years ago as we were iterating, we gave
kids choice of how they could learn math,” she said. They could work with
peers, online, and in seminars. A seminar started with 30 students and over a
nine-week period, the satisfaction rate for the seminar was continually low
until the seminar had dwindled to two students. The satisfaction rate shot way
up at that point. The students said, “I’m the only one there and they’re tutoring
me.” In the midst of these weeklong innovation cycles, the teacher decided that
instead of a seminar, there would be a sign for tutoring. The “tutoring bar”
ended up being packed. "Now, we have tutoring bars in all schools and no more
lectures," she said. There’s a worry that with technology, we’ll lose the
human relationships and human formations that we’ve relied on, but by making
students the centerpiece of the process, learning becomes much more relevant
and human as students' needs can be met more than ever before.
Anderson noted that from a systems standpoint, a one-size
curriculum does not fit all for all kids. She’s been trained in the Montessori
method and appreciates the value of choice, but also understands that for a lot
of students, choice would be overwhelming. Good technology and curriculum are
similar: they can be tailored to the individual student and should enhance
the relationship between student and teacher. “We can’t people proof education
but we can give teachers the same technology tools that sectors from retail to
banking use,” she said. Otherwise, a digital divide will hold poor kids back as
much as the inability to read.
Henderson described the challenge of scaling, with lots of
schools and students with different needs. “We put a relentless focus on human
capital. It’s how the technology helps humans build relationships.”
Rock star schools see social emotional learning as important
as academic aptitude. “Those who have the biggest challenges have the most to
teach us,” Anderson said. We need to be
aiming for:
1. Relationships – students’ connection to adults
regardless of whether they mess up;
2. Relevance – the ability to connect curriculum to
the world of work and real-life; and
3. Rigor – keeping standards high for all students.
A teacher becomes a diagnostician in the new school model. Byrd-Bennett
described a new teacher evaluation system redefining what it means to teach.
Teachers are coming together to learn from one another in a safe space with a
dynamic principal leader who supports and understands the value of human
capital.
The views expressed on this post are ours and do not necessarily reflect the views of NAIS.