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20 Years On: Remembrance, Rebuilding, Refusal

September 11, 2001 at 8:40 am: I had just taken a batch of mailers promoting my new book to my local post office. Walking back to my apartment in downtown Manhattan, I knew something was wrong. I lived 17 blocks from the Twin Towers. Soon after, I watched the second hijacked-plane-turned-suicide bomber hit the South Tower. Those feelings, those sights, sounds and smells, those in-the-moment reactions are etched in my memory. I can't forget, even if I wanted to. My mailers would never reach their destinations. The next day I brought a lasagna to my local fire station. When I arrived, I was greeted by a couple of firemen who had come down to watch over the station. My entire local FDNY company had perished. On September 14, 2001 I penned this short reflection. I shared it with the leaders of the schools EduChange was working with, and posted it on our website. Today I share it again, 20 years on.

By |2021-09-12T16:47:23-07:00September 11th, 2021|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Open Learning Architecture: Curricular Resilience for a VUCA World

In the March 2021 issue of InterACT Magazine, the publication of School Rubric, I shared a summary of the learning system we pioneered using the principles of systems and design thinking. As stated in the article, "We call it Open Learning Architecture, where: open refers to a more fluid, dynamic expectation for all facets of curriculum; learning is centered as the 'why' of the classroom; and architecture provides the systems and structures that confer stability in a range of conditions." The visual included for download within this post summarizes the 10 Design Shifts that Build Open Learning Architecture. Together, these shifts have supported the development of a truly equitable, rigorous and ever-evolving model of academics that is up to the task of schooling in a VUCA world.

By |2021-09-18T10:57:36-07:00March 27th, 2021|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Spectrum Thinking: The Great Equalizer for Resilient Organizations

In the Autumn 2020 issue of Horizons Magazine, the publication of The Institute for Outdoor Learning, I wrote about spectrum thinking. The middle of a global pandemic is a fine time to employ spectrum thinking, as "many organizations face disruptions in service, loss of participants or visitors, and dwindling revenues....we must work to increase the resiliency of our organizations in dynamic social and economic environments. Spectrum thinking is a strategic planning process that taps the power of range and diversity on a variety of continua. Spectrum thinking allows designers and leaders to consider a range of times, places and purposes that enable us to learn more about, and better serve, our program participants." There are opportunities amidst the setbacks, and spectrum thinking can help you if you are brave enough to reinvent your organization--and sometimes yourself--in the moment.

By |2023-03-23T20:27:35-07:00October 10th, 2020|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Mirrors, Windows & Sliding Glass Doors: Access Points to Literacy in STEM Classrooms

In 1990 Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop offered the field of literacy education a metaphor describing the power of multicultural texts in classrooms. Books can act as self-affirming mirrors, where readers can see themselves in the characters or setting. They also serve as windows to familiar or strange new worlds. And if texts are transformative, they invite readers to pull open the sliding glass door and walk into the narrative to take part. A while ago, I wondered why this empowerment was missing from secondary science classrooms, particularly the higher up you go. This post discusses three access points to STEM literacy: tangible, cognitive and cultural. Without this access, instructional strategies are beside the point. This is the first post about the inner workings of our literacy system, the fourth discussed so far in this blog.

By |2023-10-03T18:22:35-07:00July 6th, 2020|Uncategorized|1 Comment

How Open Learning Architecture Sustains Learning—in Crisis or Calm

In times of crisis, we want everything to work the way it should. But if too much about learning is tethered to a specific physical setting, with particular materials, led by a particular adult (the teacher), in a particular way, it becomes nearly impossible to recreate outside of those conditions. While massive school closures took everyone by surprise, it should be possible to enact some forms and modes of learning that remain connected to the familiar instructional and assessment practices of in-person schooling. The value of our "open architecture" has never been more clear to us than in this current moment. This post explores how some major design maneuvers permit shifts of space & place, as well as calendar disruptions. Make sure to download the fabulous artwork of Tom Hanicak provided within the post.

By |2021-09-01T09:16:47-07:00May 5th, 2020|Uncategorized|2 Comments

Making OER Sustainable: Clear Roles

Sustainability, at its core, relates to the expenditure of resources. When we think about designing learning systems and experiences, various resources are tapped: time, expertise, information and more tangible materials such as devices or laboratory equipment. Think OER is free? Think again. Resource use always comes at a cost. This post explores a three-way partnership among designers, teachers and students that creates a Sustainable OER (SOER) model. Each partner has a role, a superpower and a site of accountability. This is how real partnerships, like the ones crafted by Mother Nature, survive. Thanks to lovely artwork from Claudio Purzlbaum (above), I'm reminded how important it really is to 'lend a hand.'

By |2023-06-27T08:22:36-07:00April 5th, 2020|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Keeping Educational Content Truly Open in an Information Age

Many schools are ditching textbooks and moving to OER, but are proceeding without well-structured learning designs in place. If schools do not situate these resources inside curricular systems and structures that improve instructional, assessment and accessibility practices, they will suffer the same disappointments as they did with poorly-planned and un-executed EdTech adoptions. This post describes how we ensconce our content within the Information Age, thereby forcing us to evolve and sustain resources for our schools. And if you're thinking that free online textbooks are a panacea, well, I invite you to read on...

By |2023-06-28T08:37:43-07:00March 11th, 2020|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Practicing Biomimicry to Prepare Students for Uncertain Futures

The practice of biomimicry is described and encouraged by author Janine Benyus. She has worked with inventors, researchers, designers, companies and artists who are trying to mimic nature's own designs. This post describes how we followed suit, using the wonders of adaptive immunity to guide the designs of our assessment system. Uncertain futures? Jobs that don't exist? Those sound exactly like the pathogenic microbes that emerge long after we are born. How does our body deal with such novelty? The answer is as captivating as it is inspiring. Let's bring biomimicry to the field of learning systems design! Nature is the best innovation mentor...

By |2021-08-29T16:32:59-07:00February 12th, 2020|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Making Competency-based Assessment Work: Coherence & Rigor

Ed reform during the first two decades of 2000 made the flawed assumption that traditionally underserved students would be best served by organizations and services that delivered more efficient, better-funded implementations of the schooling model in which their leaders (usually Ivy-league graduates) succeeded. Not only was that model designed to oppress underserved students, it also perverted authentic academic rigor. This post explores the programmatic perversions of rigor that exist in secondary schools, and how EduChange ressurected rigor through coherent, multi-year assessment designs.

By |2023-06-22T09:51:48-07:00January 4th, 2020|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Equitable Assessment Systems are Designed “to a T”

To design equitable assessment systems, we focused on range. By expanding the range of learners, the range of teachers and the range of classroom contexts we considered since Day 1, we ensure that diversity was supported through flexible structures. In this post, designing "to a T" refers to the meticulous, nuanced work involved. It also refers to three "T's" -- an expanded timeframe for assessment horizons, attention to task design, and the preservation of teaching time in classrooms. To care about equity is to act, and comprehensive, equitable, yet realistic designs don't engineer themselves. Balance and symmetry also find their way into this third post about our assessment system.

By |2023-04-09T15:10:30-07:00December 17th, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Making Competency-based Assessment Work: Macro-maneuvers

A robust competency-based assessment model is difficult to design, difficult to implement, and can be difficult to explain to parents and community members. As evidenced by the many conference presentations about competency-based assessment with titles that begin with "Lessons Learned," it seems like others feel the same way. In this post I describe the macro-maneuvers we employed to ensure we could engineer a complete, multi-year model. Read on to discover why "removal" became one of our favorite activities, and weigh in whether you believe teachers are ready for a functioning system--not a supervisor--to hold them accountable.

By |2021-10-16T12:36:36-07:00November 7th, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Designing a Functional Assessment System

Current assessment practices send terrible messages to students, and nothing teachers say or do can change that fact. Systems behave in a way that communicates their values. To design a functional, equitable, logistically reasonable assessment system, we endeavored to align the messages with our values. The mechanisms of the system--the rules, structures, processes and feedback loops--deliver those messages. It is only through the lived experiences of teachers and students that we know whether the messages got through. This post describes both the messages and the accompanying mechanisms responsible for delivering the values we want to uphold. If you've never before thought about assessment in these ways, welcome to the conversation....The lovely artwork above is by artist Naomi Gatt of Malta.

By |2023-04-15T03:35:18-07:00October 27th, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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