Re: Why Educational Change is Hard

Chris Lehmann posted a challenge to the edublogosphere to "leverage their tools do something positive." He posed a number of vital questions that arose from his reading of Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody" . I'll definitely be adding that to my reading list this summer (Which is now posted in the sidebar for those interested).

I wanted to just comment on his blog in response to them, but the more I wrote the more I thought I was just being long winded and didn't want to monopolize space on his comment thread. I instead posted a shorter response there. His post really struck a nerve with me as I have recently been struggling to get my school to adopt these tools. Below are my responses.

"Why is it that schools are so hard to transform using these tools when commerce (for instance) has been so easy to change?"

Schools are slower to adopt to expensive changes because success will only mean that the industry is doing its job. Success in commerce means tangible profits for the shareholders. Who are the shareholders in schools? Citizen parents? Taxpayers? What tangible profit do schools return from success? A more educated citizenry does not really resemble the cash-in-hand profits seen in commerce. Failure in commerce means a loss of investment on the part of shareholder investors who know the risks of investment beforehand. However, failure in education means not only a waste of tax revenue but also a less enfranchised, less empowered citizenry. As a failing system progresses into such a downward spiral the problems mount and become exponential.

"what has to happen within the community of folks -- loose as it may be -- who care about the notion of 21st Century schools."

We must fix education now. Before it is too late. The sooner we unite a citizenry with empowering education the sooner we will fear our competitors (China and India)less. It is a hard sell to market these intangible profits as worth investment when the price of failure is so high. Hard sell or not, we have to lobby for it. But we need tangible goals, objectives, and measuring tools to assess it with. Multiple choice assessments don't have to remain the sole viable measure of success, but standardized assessment is here to stay. NCLB has done one thing right, it has cast higher attention (and criticism) on to what goes on in our nation's schools. It has, however, also failed to offer support to remedy these problems; it has, instead, created the means to punish those that fail to meet their standards.Activism is the most available tool for our community and if that's the road we choose to go then you can depend on my support. I'm in. Are you leading?

"The big problem is that we never, ever have a low cost of failure. When schools fail, kids lose."

That is exactly why we must succeed.

"what is going to happen as charter schools fail?"

As a charter teacher I can say I have seen some of what happens. While our school has just been awarded a five year renewal on its charter, some of our brethren in the bay have not been so lucky. Charters have an even tougher road ahead of them and the costs of failure are much the same as they are with most non-profit organizations and private sector industries: they are shut down.In business this means employees must find new jobs and investors (or foundations) do not see a return on their investments. In education this means much the same; teachers and administrators will move to new schools in need of staff, but as Chris asks"What [are] the educational / emotional costs for the kids who go to schools that get closed down after five years?"

What I have seen so far is it means even lower chances of success. Students are shifted from school to school, transcripts can and are lost, and and if they did graduate before the charter was revoked what is the value of their diploma? The risks of such investment are hefted on the consumer(students) not just the investor (taxpayers). It's lose-lose. That simplistic appraisal is, I must assume, at the heart of resistance to change. The costs are, well, too costly.

Chris writes,

"One of the things that Shirkey writes about is how the new social tools and the powerline graph of user use / success / downloads / etc... has meant that there is no longer a high cost of failure. He uses SourceForge and MeetUp as two examples where if a software project or a meeting fails, there's no real loss, because there is no institutional infrastructure that is lost along with it."

I think the resistance (inability) to adopt these tools in my particular setting stems from a different reason all together. Were the risk only in software investment the risk would be effectively zero. As we all know, the tools we are using are freely distributed and offer such great hope for exactly that reason.The cost of investment, for us, is not in the software but rather in the hardware.

Our school has limited space for a computer lab let alone desktops computers in the classroom. The district is required to lease us a facility, but not necessarily one of adequate size for our student body and in our case we must share a campus. A campus of a school, I might add, that resents our presence. Our funds are limited for investment in costly laptops or a 1:1 program. With resources having a history of theft in our schools such portable valuables also pose a problem for adoption.

Let's not also forget the facility issue. Did I mention how old it is? The school is hardwired for a network and I've heard rumor of a spotty wireless connection as well. So laptops have that hurdle to jump over as well.

Finally, much of our staff have enough technical difficulties dealing with attendance and grading software let alone teaching students,who do not have a computer or internet access at home, to use social networking tools. I am doing all I can to show them how easy it is and lead by example, but slow adoption is even more pronounced in the summer off-season. I'm teaching summer school and I see the need for these tools daily, but most of those making the decisions for next year and those that would be affected by them won't see each other again until mid August.

Meanwhile, I cross my fingers and toes hoping I can at least get a few classroom computers for my kids and resign myself to extending my work day to include lengthy office hours so my students will have at least the opportunity to engage in learning outside of the classroom.

The social networking model IS inquiry based learning in its most accessible form. We have to acknowledge that as a field and recognize that as the future of education. The sooner we do that, the sooner we will have enough leverage to make someone support our needs financially and legislatively.