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Explore the shift in the educational paradigm from disconnected subjects to a connected and hands-on approach. Encourage innovation, engagement, and robust human development. Take part in inter-city competitions and support project development to transform schooling. Reward and retain great teachers to improve future education.
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Dr. Philip E. KovacsAssistant ProfessorDept. of Ed., UAH • A’s, B’s then C’s • Meany...A’s again • High School English Teacher • Teacher Teacher • Foot in mouth master...practitioner of transcendental violence... • Against standards, accountability, rigor, and performance
definitions... • Standards: sameness (your child?) • Accountability: to whom and for what? • Rigor: 1. strictness, severity, or harshness, as in dealing with people. 2. the full or extreme severity of laws, rules, etc. 3. severity of living conditions; hardship; austerity 4. a severe or harsh act, circumstance, etc. 5. scrupulous or inflexible accuracy or adherence: the logical rigor of mathematics 9. Obsolete; stiffness or rigidity • Performance: seals, clowns and cars (I think we could be thinking bigger)
alternatives... • Innovation: a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation • Responsibility: the social force that binds you to the courses of action demanded by that force • Engagement: to occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons) • Robust human development: Who are you? Where are you going? How are you going to get there? How can we help? Why should we? (http://www.essentialschools.org/)
Transformational Education From Knowing to Doing
The educational paradigm has shifted • We rely on a model from the late 1800s, where subjects are disconnected, and children are removed from the very world we seek to prepare them for. • You can blame Harvard. • Imagine if doctors practiced the same way they did 120 years ago...
“Educated” • To be able to identify, access, and utilize information from various knowledge systems in order to effect change in a given space over a given amount of time. • Importantly: If you don’t know, you know where to go to find out, ultimately solidifying community ties. An educated person is a connected person...
understood this way... An educated individual is a producer: of ideas, of goods, of art, of _______... rather than a consumer or a spectator.
This is not a change that will occur overnight • ...but we live in a city that helped put a man on the moon... • ...so we certainly live in a city capable of transforming schooling from knowing to doing... • ...to do so we’ll need to encourage the risk-taking, ingenuity, and innovation that has kept this country great.
From the Fairly Straightforward to the Very Ambitious • Inter-city Competition • Swimming 2.0 • Project Developers • Go Green
Inter-city Competition • Federal legislation has created a risk-adverse environment for many teachers. • We can’t do much about the legislation, but we can provide incentives for teachers and schools that want to “do” outside of the box.
Inter-city Competition • The Chamber can and should hold an annual competition for elementary, middle and high school classes. • The challenge: create an interdisciplinary project that transforms life for Huntsville’s residents. • The Chamber will fund the project of the three winners (up to X amount of dollars). • Ideally UAH’s faculty and students could help with implementation.
Examples • First-aid-kits for the elderly • Biofuels for school busses • Windmills or waterwheels • Water-quality testing • Art murals for underpasses • “Urban Students Build the First High-Performance Hybrid Car” (These “at risk” students beat MIT...http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/stories/?storyId=10385)
The K-1 Attack will do 0-60 in 4 seconds and gets 60 miles to the gallon.
Outcomes beyond 2b-4a=12 • This type of learning connects students to their communities and teaches them that they are change agents, not just spectators. • Citizens disinclined to support our schools see the immediate benefits of doing so. • We can reward good teachers and good teaching, and we can send a larger message to the community: change is possible; now lend us a hand.
We can reward and keep great teachers while at the same time improving future teachers. • Identify the city’s best teachers by asking admins, peers, students, and parents. • Provide them a $1,500 stipend to work with secondary methods students for 40 hours. (30 hours learning and 10 hours teaching under their supervision)
Why is this a good idea? • Pam Patrick says so... • Students get instruction from master teachers, learning to swim via experience rather than from books alone. • According to one recent international study, the top school systems in the world find the right people to teach and help them develop once there. (www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/socialsector/resources/pdf/Worlds_School_Systems_Final.pdf) • We reward master teachers, and we keep them doing what they are great at doing...
Project Developers • Our project developers are tutors, coaches, and mentors. • Unfortunately, these words can have a negative connotation with parents and students.
They shouldn’t... • Alexander The Great had a tutor. • Tiger Woods has a swing coach. • There isn’t a single person sitting here who made it without the help of a mentor.
My students were all three and then some. • I asked my students to act as project developers for eight “at risk” students at Butler High School. • They helped Butler students design projects according to their interests, as called for by cognitive scientist Eric Jensen and long supported by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. (http://www.jensenlearning.com) (http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19970701-000042.html)
Initial outcomes: • One of those eight dropped out of school the first week, but his mom called us to see if he could still participate. • Two more students “fell out” within three weeks. • One student was expelled. • Four are successes, but my students aren’t satisfied...which is what makes my students great future teachers...
Success defined: • What we saw with our pilot program was 50% success with the most challenging students when they were given a significant voice in developing customized, learner-oriented projects. • Not only do the students get a significant voice in what they are doing, they get consistent, reliable, positive attention and feedback. • As a result, they began showing signs of “intelligent behavior.”
Intelligent Behavior • Persistence: persevering when the solution to a problem is not immediately apparent • Decreasing impulsiveness • Listening to others - with understanding and empathy • Flexibility in thinking • Metacognition: awareness of our own thinking • Checking for accuracy and precision • Questioning and problem posing • Precision of language and thought • Ingenuity, originality, insightfulness: creativity • Wonderment, inquisitiveness, curiosity, and the enjoyment of problem solving - a sense of efficacy as a thinker (http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC18/Costa.htm)
Staying in School • If we make school relevant and rewarding, these students will stay in school. • If we continue to make demands without clear connections to the lived experiences of these young adults, they will not.
Why does this matter? • A black male student entering 9th grade in an urban high school has a 50-50 chance of getting a diploma four years later. • In one New York state prison, 79% of convicted male felons are high school dropouts. • In 1999, 52 percent of African American male high school dropouts had prison records by their early thirties (age 30-34).
Fiscal issues... • On average, a high school dropout received $5,300 more in cash and in-kind transfers from the federal and state government than he or she paid in federal and state income and payroll taxes in 2002 and 2004. • In sharp contrast, the average high school graduate with no completed years of post-secondary schooling paid $2,125 more in taxes than he or she received in transfers, a net fiscal benefit to the government. • The fiscal benefits to the state increase substantially for those groups with post-secondary schooling, rising to $5,450 for those adults completing one to three years of college, $13,620 for Bachelor degree recipients, and nearly $20,000 for those with a Master’s or higher degree. (www.bostonpic.com/youth/youth_pdfs/CLMS_Dropout_Fiscal_Cost_16P.pdf)
Growing the project • We seek funding to grow the project from 20 undergraduates next year, to 60 by year three. • Ideally, ninth grade “at risk” students will have tutors, coaches, and mentors with them until they graduate. • UAH students will keep portfolios with the Butler students, and these can be passed from one UAH student to the next and ultimately developed into a website or a dossier for college entrance or employment.
Number 9? Shouldn’t we be number 1?
We could start with a green school. A) A rainwater harvesting system collects water for reuse in toilets and landscaping. B) Students can grow plants on the soil-topped roof, which provides extra insulation and absorbs pollution. C) Man-made wetlands cleanse wastewater as effectively as mechanical filters. D) Extensive glare-proof windows reduce reliance on electric lighting and can be used for illumination. E) Solar panels take advantage of a renewable energy source. F) Composting bins provide material for the green roof and a lesson in ecology. G) The geothermal system heats and cools the building safely and efficiently.
Benefits • Even though this school will have a high initial cost compared to current schools, its environmental impact and future savings will more than make up for it. • Full solar power = 36 years • Wind power = 6 – 15 years • Geothermal Heat Pumps = 3 – 5 years • Green Roofs = 13 - 18 years • LEDs = 6 – 7 years • Biodiesal=? • This school can help train a future generation in these new energy saving areas. Students would, in fact, run the school, understanding the STEM innovations undergirding the building.
I asked UAH students if they could design such a school... It was a silly question.
Project spces: • Hold 200 students • Have a large library with fountain • Cafeteria that can feed 240 people per day • Auditorium that would hold 250 people • Solar panels • Skylights • A gym and a playground
Next Steps • We debate the merits and demerits of all four projects. • You graciously help UAH and Huntsville City Schools realize each of the four. • This is not simply a fiscal issue! We need your experience and guidance to realize each idea presented today.
