This is scary...planets are aligning!

I had lunch today at Bo Loong (E. 40th and St. Clair) with three local urban educators. They too saw the present system of delivering education in urban areas as unworkable. Bill Gates called American seconday education obsolete a few year ago...at that time I thought, "Well, that might be an overstatement for effect..." Guess what...he was right. Urban districts are creating small really good schools within the system, but they are not sustainable...nor, quite honestly, that public.

Two possible new directions:

The Essential Schools movement (http://www.essentialschools.org/) have these common principles:

The Common Principles (abbrev.)
1. Learning to use one's mind well
2. Less is More, depth over coverage
3. Goals apply to all students
4. Personalization
5. Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach
6. Demonstration of mastery
7. A tone of decency and trust
8. Commitment to the entire school
9. Resources dedicated to teaching and learning
10.Democracy and equity

The Small Schools Movement have these factors as basic to a good school:

http://www.smallschoolsproject.org/

At the Small Schools Project, we define small schools as those that share a set of common characteristics:
They are small. Few effective small schools serve more than 400 students, and many serve no more than 200 students.
They are small. They are autonomous. The school community—whether it shares a building, administrator, or some co-curricular activities with other schools—retains primary authority to make decisions affecting the important aspects of the school.
They are distinctive and focused rather than comprehensive. They do not try to be all things to all people.
They are personal. Every student is known by more than one adult, and every student has an advisor/advocate who works closely with her and her family to plan a personalized program. Student-family-advisor relationships are sustained over several years.
They are committed to equity in educational achievement by eliminating achievement gaps between groups of students while increasing the achievement levels of virtually all students.
They use multiple forms of assessment to report on student accomplishment and to guide their efforts to improve their own school.
They view parents as critical allies, and find significant ways to include them in the life of the school community.
They are schools of choice for both students and teachers, except in some rural areas, and are open, without bias, to any students in a community. There are important benefits of small schools, including student achievement, personalization, cost effectiveness, safety benefits, and others.

These are just two views of a new kind of school. An analogy that was used to explain what happens when technology paradigms shift can really apply to present day educational systems...characterized as big, centralized, teacher centered (via unions), unacceptable graduation rates...on and on. When steam engines were introduced to the great sailing ships, it was very confusing to the sailors. Most steam engines were put on ships, but they kept the sails! Check out the picture above!

We are at a time now when we have to get rid of the sails and get the steam engine! Unfortunately, large urban districts think that adding sails, changing the size, color or shape of the sails is the solution...no, the solution is something so different that we may not recognize just what it will be...but whatever it will be, students will learn!