Transcript Transformational Education

Dr. Philip E. Kovacs
Assistant Professor
Dept. 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/)
It will be helpful for us to turn
education on its head...
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...
sorry....
“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 risktaking, 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 riskadverse 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 HighPerformance 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.
Swimming 2.0
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
1.
2.
3.
Persistence: persevering when the solution to a problem is
not immediately apparent
Decreasing impulsiveness
Listening to others - with understanding and empathy
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Flexibility in thinking
Metacognition: awareness of our own thinking
Checking for accuracy and precision
Questioning and problem posing
Precision of language and thought
9.
10.
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 soiltopped 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
1. We debate the merits and demerits of all
four projects.
2. You graciously help UAH and Huntsville City
Schools realize each of the four.
3. This is not simply a fiscal issue! We need
your experience and guidance to realize
each idea presented today.