Education has long been focused on achievement, something that’s tough to square with the loss of schooling due to COVID-19. Both this achievement gap and the accelerated mental health crisis can be combatted through the utility of data and analytical practices. Unfortunately, access to big data and deep analytical methodologies is often limited in the education sector. Creating educational organizations with baseline capabilities of leveraging and analyzing big data marks a shift from being “forward-focused” — where traditional mental models underpin analyses of achievement linear to standards — to “future-focused” — where multiple measures of ability, achievement, strength, cognitive development, and social-emotional wellness are core metrics of success. This holistic shift will facilitate divergent and personalized systems. When I served as Superintendent of Schools, I sought to make these shifts a reality and was confronted with the obstacle of standardized tests. using the Anchors of Innovation Science and Excellence Loop from the Disruptive Effect Model, I was able to design a model for literacy and social-emotional outcomes.

An Interdependent Model for Social, Emotional, and Academic Acceleration

During my tenure as a Superintendent of Schools — where innovation, excellence, and transforming norms reauthored the literacy framework of instruction — I interfaced with academic data and a strength-based rating scale (i.e., Devereux Student Strengths Assessment) to lament pedagogical differentiation in my learning organization. Working with my team, I was able to create and scale Models of the Multi-Tiered System of Support. 

Expectations Gap: At the core of the model, the learning organization must have a deep understanding of every student including knowing their interests and strengths. The expectation for all stakeholders is to provide relevancy through instructional practices that are differentiated for cognitive and social-emotional growth. High-stakes discussions rooted in data from the DESSA allowed for the strengthening of both the literacy model and social-emotional development. For example, one might take linear data sets of standards achievement and interface it with key social-emotional information. This would enable more differentiated and tailored pedagogy for each student. This approach led to academic and individual practices to ensure relevancy in every student’s literacy trajectory. 

Preparation Gap: Learning organizations must unwrap both academic and social-emotional data sets to align strategies for pedagogy to close the preparation gap. In my experience, leaders and teachers held collaborative discussions aimed at fostering positive relationships. In elementary, this looked like teams unpacking data and challenging existing practices to effectively build relationships using cycled formative benchmark metrics. Additionally, social engagement strategies were employed so students could access core content at grade-level expectations. Moreover, having analytics from the DESSA created a pathology where the instructional climate facilitated the opportunity for students to take calculated risks with content that had historically been arduous to access because of rigor demands. 

Performance Gap: A current contention in the standard literacy model is the linear delivery of pedagogical methods and strategies. To reach all learners, applying analytics focused on cognitive growth will challenge the education ecosystem to move beyond mastery of standards. Thus, improving the performance of all to examine data, students, and content with the whole child in mind. The DESSA assisted with unpacking the authentic needs of students specifically with closing performance gaps from COVID-19. Unpacking cognitive abilities through data analytics will germinate culturally relevant learning experiences in each tier of the integrated MTSS framework which will enhance the performance of leadership and classroom practitioners holistically.

Access Gap: As Superintendent of Schools, an educational priority was to create a learning organization where access and opportunity were equalized in all aspects of the instructional model. Creating an iterative literacy model that focused on academic ability and social-emotional success was a paradox for many stakeholders in the learning organization. Through data-informed discussions and culturally responsive pedagogy, the barriers of access were eliminated. Classroom practitioners would target grade-level text for a shared reading activity (i.e., tier I of the MTSS Framework) with content that focused on resilience and self-management skills. This hybrid connected two phenomena – text structure and social-emotional capabilities among students.

Bridging social-emotional and academic data together for analytical analysis will exponentially raise academic outcomes in a culturally responsive manner while contextually accelerating the process of closing the gap on the loss of schooling created by COVID-19.

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Traditional functions of the industrial model in education are optimized by tightly-coupled structures. Microschools are non-linear. loosely-coupled structures where classrooms are multi-age and multi-dimensional. Classrooms in this model are focused on developing the voice of students where learning is facilitated through a co-authorship facilitation. Agility in the context of an adaptive curriculum elicits a consensus design where communities, families, and students are the core components of making learning meaningful. Below, I have applied the Creative Staircase model to take a look at the conceptual frames of microschools.

Coherence Process #1 (Micro Innovation): To achieve a serial disruptive model within a comprehensive design such as the Jeffersonian Model, there must be a combination of incremental changes that are intentional by design. These micro innovations are the initial shifts for macro-level transformations. In the context of new design or redesign within a traditional learning organization, start with curriculum modifications to root experimentation, agency, and authentic experiences through problem-based activities. An example of Coherence Process #1 of the Creative Staircase can be found at The Met School in Providence, Rhode Island. A variety of micro-innovations are noted at this Microschool. Work place learning coupled with internships and advisory are a part of this conglomerate embedded in the elements of the Microschool design. 

Coherence Process #2 (Architectural Innovation): Because of the systems change through the influences of multiple micro innovations, traditional classroom structures will need to be eliminated to cohere with the flexibility of microschools. With regard to architectural innovations in alignment to the microschool design, environments are studio-based with pathways that are customized for students. The flexibility of microschools elicits lab features and innovation hubs for hands-on discovery. Microschools are innovative learning models where environmental space is flipped for agency, exploration, and personalization. 

A best in class, specifically in alignment with architectural disruption, is NuVu Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Underpinning Coherence Process #2 in the Creative Staircase (i.e., architectural innovation), NuVu’s structure is antithetical to the Jeffersonian model design because  legacy classrooms, linear pedagogy that is content-driven, age cohorts, and letter-based grading systems are absent within the design. Multi-disciplinary projects, open structures, and experiential learning activities in conjunction with competency-based portfolios are rooted structures to elicit teaching that facilitates authentic learning experiences.

Coherence Process #3 (Serial Disruption): For serial disruption purposes in alignment to Delta 2030, microschool elements feature entrepreneurial pathways, adaptive schedules for hybrid opportunities beyond the confines of traditional school, certificate programs based on economic demands, blended experiences with artificial intelligence tools, and pedagogy that is guided by the engineer-design process. Serial disruption is integrated and multi-dimensional which is level-set in microschools. 

One Stone, a non-profit organization that leverages design thinking into their Microschool model, features a studio-based program where learning experiences are personalized by industry experts. To deepen the serial disruptive frame, makerspace labs, electorics labs, and a progressive after-school program with coding experiences are normalized in the academic day. Teachers and students act as co-constructors of the learning experience which is measured through a growth framework and transcript of each student to be future and workforce ready. 

It is known in various research studies that Generation Z and Generation Alpha demands are fundamentally different from any other in the history of humankind. Technology and artificial intelligence are contributing factors, but societal trends have reimagined the urgency for transformation. The ecosystem is experiencing creative tension because of the incongruence with current economic patterns and model articulation in education. Microschools provide innovation and creativity to develop new competencies for 2030 and beyond. Individualized pathways, multi-disciplinary projects, blended programs with flexibility, and studio-driven learning environments can be deemed as the future of schools.

Michael Conner, Ed.D., is the CEO/Founder of Agile Evolutionary Group, Corp., Senior Fellow for Getting Smart, and former Superintendent of Schools. He is the creator of the Disruptive Excellence Framework and author of Intentional, Bold, and Unapologetic: A Guide in Transforming Schools in the AC-Stage of Education.

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Despite current debates and stark policy adoption for additional resources in the ecosystem (i.e., American Rescue Plan Act of 2021), outputs merely reflect micro-improvements to the factory model of education. We must be intentional and bold to design future-focused learning organizations that prioritize skills like entrepreneurship as a core aspect of the PreK-12 pathway. Designing “Schools of the Future” in alignment to the entrepreneurial demand of society is a necessity for 2030 and beyond. How do we achieve this serial transformation with a business model anchored in factory rudiments? Below I highlight and define an entrepreneurial education model that will guarantee agency, voice, and coherence for Generation Z and Generation Alpha. 

Defining the Entrepreneurial Education Model for Generation Z and Generation Alpha

Because the education model is static by design (i.e., industrialization), creating operational structures and instructional systems rooted in entrepreneurship will accelerate readiness for the demand of Delta 2030. It will not be easy. Creating learning experiences that prominently feature opportunity and problem-solving is the antithesis of our existing education model realms – labor development. On the contrary, an entrepreneurial education model encourages a diverse agency set with students. Voice and agency empower students to understand their perspectives in-depth and exercise intrapersonal strengths to solve complexities in the global economy. Agency in the context of social and societal equity is building confidence among students to address emergent issues in our communities.

The Design and Strategy Outline to Create an Entrepreneurial Education Model in the AC-Stage of Education

An entrepreneurial education model can be contextualized as a “short cut” to synthetically develop competencies for the 22^nd century. In alignment with this evolutionary transformation of learning experiences for Generation Z and Generation Alpha, we must underpin strategic approaches to form a shared mental model in the learning organization (i.e., intentional to culture changes). In essence, the ecosystem must learn, unlearn, and relearn roles, responsibilities, and new cultural norms to implement strategies of a disruptive model rooted in entrepreneurship ideologies. Leaders must become iterative architects that create organizational constructs where adaptive learning through problem-based, problem-seeking, project-based sequences are the core threads in all integrated systems. Classroom teachers must become a hybrid of practitioners and facilitators where the universal acceptance of “we do not know” is the learning experience in lieu of binary answers rooted in static pedagogy. Core programs and curriculum will include investigation and inquiry activities where instructional practices support cycles of new learning. Yes, these shifts will enable Generation Z and Generation Alpha to be co-authors of their learning and personalize rigor for ALL. It will facilitate student competencies that do not focus on the linear business development aspects of entrepreneurship but reimagines a future that impacts society holistically. 

Agency, choice, and elevating the voice of the next two generations require innovation and creativity. Designing a new education model requires the multiple perspectives of our families and students. We have to accept being comfortably uncomfortable in the AC-Stage of Education. As a moral imperative, education must respond with vitality to leverage excellence and equity for ALL.

Michael Conner, Ed.D., is the CEO/Founder of Agile Evolutionary Group, Corp., Pathways Fellow for Getting Smart, and former Superintendent of Schools. He is the creator of the Disruptive Effect Model and author of Intentional, Bold, and Unapologetic: A Guide in Transforming Schools in the AC-Stage of Education.

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Feeling Invisible: The Implications of Eliminating Affirmative Action

Throughout American history, the scope, breadth, and meaning of Affirmative Action have taken on many definitions. On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court reversed Affirmative Action by stating it might no longer be necessary for 25 years. The structural frames of higher education in the context of Affirmative Action acted as a lever so students of color would not feel invisible at their respective institutions. The ruling by the Supreme Court explicitly imposes a new practice in higher education. A mindset consisting of a superficial lens of race blindness in America. The influence of overturning Affirmative Action exacerbates the legacy of discrimination while promulgating a statistical metric that plagues higher education – inequities with admission practices. Discrimination and racism have carried a pernicious undertone where this decision has the proxies of Black and Brown students becoming invisible in higher education. Despite future implications with regard to the negative ramifications of civil equity and collective intellectual growth, there are practices rooted in the Disruptive Excellence Framework that would evade new segregationist policies because of the ruling. Through the lens of the Excellence Loop, there are opportunities to mitigate a decision that inevitability will bring the sullied past of America to the forefront. Let’s explore strategies through the elements of the Excellence Loop to ensure Black and Brown students are not invisible at our universities. 

Intentionally, Boldly, and Unapologetically Challenging the Affirmative Action Reversal Decision

The legacy of racial exclusion and the continued effects of segregation still exist despite the myopic responses to overturn Affirmative Action. Through the Excellence Loop, we can intentionally, boldly, and unapologetically continue to strengthen the equity scope of admission policies where Black and Brown students are not invisible. We must act to ensure that representation mirrors the broader demographic in public education. You can start with the strategies below.

Expectations Gap: Universities must establish an expectation to ensure equitable percentages of racial diversity are rooted in the university’s student demographics. Also, race-based or legacy decisions at the university level must be eradicated. For example, a university could designate percentages from historically excluded student groups for admission in accordance with their equity policies. We see this practice implemented at the high school level where there is a guarantee for equitable representation in rigorous courses.

Preparation Gap: Colleges and universities should assess alternatives to root policies that eliminate discriminatory admission practices. Boards of Trustees and university officials should review alternatives on a quarterly basis that include the voices of professors, staff, and students representing the institution.

Performance Gap: Without Affirmative Action, it is believed that universities will accept students only on academic merit. To amend future discriminatory acts with admission procedures, moving beyond standardized metrics to a holistic model should be a mandate at ALL institutions. 

Access Gap: Since the Supreme Court ruling, there are theoretical claims that the representation of Black and Latino students will decrease exponentially at universities over time. Moreover, a significant decrease is forecasted at elite schools. Within any thread of the education ecosystem, specifically at the higher education level, policies, and admission trends must be interrogated by boards of trustees with a lens of access and opportunity. The ruling by the Supreme Court has an insidious opportunity to create institutional marginalization. Thus, in collaboration with boards of trustees, university officials must reevaluate admission policies with vigor and vitality. Criteria that promote holistic qualities to concertize access beyond traditional academic measures.

The Supreme Court’s ruling regarding Affirmative Action reminds us of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka of 1954. The outcomes of the 1954 ruling acknowledged the persistence of segregation in education. I am afraid the long-term implications have moved our country into the modern-era civil rights movement. However, to achieve excellence and equity for Generation Z and Generation Alpha, we cannot accept the predicted outcomes from the reversal of Affirmative Action. Our efforts will demonstrate progress.

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “We shall overcome.”

The post Feeling Invisible: A Response to the Affirmative Action Decision through the Lens of the Disruptive Excellence Framework appeared first on Getting Smart.

The shift into post-Covid has created an unprecedented opportunity for change. In my last blog, I framed the need for urgency in the post-Covid stage of Education for Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Only 15% of Black students and 21% of Latino students are enrolled in advanced courses nationally. Three core drivers are contributing to these inequities: limited offerings of advanced classes, resource disparities in urban centers, and radically diverse schools denying access to available seats. Accelerating the urgency to dismantle the current iteration of high school verticals is a necessity to reach ALL.

The question – how do we demystify and dismantle a systemic quandary that has plagued Black and Brown students historically in education? We need to define the next practices in the context of creating structures, systems, and underpinning data that create access in a model for ALL. Creating new Pathways of Prosperity will take immense perspiration and preparation; however, it can be achieved as illustrated in the examples below.

Competencies, Time, and the Excellence Loop

The Jeffersonian Model’s “compulsory laws” have codified students into a batched standardization. Examples such as grade levels by birthdays, teacher recommendations for advanced placements of students, letter grades, universal screens for homogenous grouping in content areas are systemic in the education culture, and secondary tracks that lead to siloed opportunities for readiness in college and career. The Excellence Loop challenges these notions to create and lament Pathways of Prosperity. By examining your current structures and systems through the Excellence Loop, intentional change will occur underpinning a strong stance in the context of scientific transformation that will facilitate access and opportunity for students that have been historically excluded in the education ecosystem.

In Wilder School District 133, Superintendent Dr. Jeff Dillon has created a K-12 model that eliminates time to ensure students meet criteria based on individual mastery of standards and course outcomes. Time and differentiation are foundational cultural pillars for access as learning becomes personalized, resource allocation is individualized, and the primary mode of pedagogy is consistent with practitioner facilitation. Wilder School District 133 serves a high migrant population, and the high school model features flexibility for career and work opportunities throughout the day. The day has “structure” to time, albeit non-linear for equity and access to accommodate students and families. Hence – Wilder is closing the “Access Gap” and “Expectations Gap” for students in relation to the Excellence Loop.

Another example is Equal Opportunity Schools, a non-profit organization in Seattle that supports districts with transforming structures and systems to ensure access to rigorous courses for historically excluded students. Equal Opportunity Schools underpin Insight Cards with districts to shift discussions around teacher recommendations and policies regarding advanced placement entry. Aspects of the Excellence Loop can be found in these examples, but how does this look from a systems perspective?

The Creative Staircase for Intentional Change

It is a myth that creating Pathways of Prosperity is an instant change. The Creative Staircase, as seen above, is a “whole-to-part” and “part-to-whole” process where the journey from “Micro Innovation” to “Serial Disruption” occurs systematically and strategically. When I served as Superintendent of Schools, we designed an Innovation Lab at the middle school that vertically matriculated into a high school “Aerospace and Manufacturing Pathway.” The 6-12 pathway prepared students in five different STEM verticals (middle school innovation model) coupled with an extended high school pathway experience focused on aerospace and manufacturing (demand and market alignment). Advanced certificates, using artificial intelligence to deepen learning, and creating virtual reality opportunities to deepen competencies were everyday experiences for students. We must challenge the status quo intentionally, boldly, and unapologetically.  The road will not be simplistic or linear, albeit profound outcomes will occur if the organization remains committed to achieving prosperity. We cannot stop until we have achieved prosperity for ALL.

Michael T. Conner, Ed.D., is the CEO/Founder of Agile Evolutionary Group, Corp., Pathways Fellow for Getting Smart, and former Superintendent of Schools. He is the creator of the Disruptive Excellence Framework and author of Intentional, Bold, and Unapologetic: A Guide to Transforming Schools in the AC-Stage of Education.

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As I continue to reflect upon Black History Month and how it highlights the decorated contributions of African Americans in the United States, I think about key threads within our American history. I think about Black and Latino students in education and how we must unpack structures and systems that promote inequities.

The current construct of the education model in the context of “high school pathways” exacerbate disparities that existed before COVID-19. This reminds of the landmark case of Plessy vs. Ferguson – Separate, but Equal. The decision upheld a Louisiana law that allowed separate areas for African Americans and their Angelo-Saxon counterparts. The notion of “Separate, but Equal” was leveraged in all facets of American life and profoundly reflected in the education sector. It was in 1872 where Fredrick Douglass wrote in the New National Era Newspaper that the “Negro want mixed schools because we want away with a system that exalts one class and debases another.” The contrasting chasm against this terrain of racism continued until 1954 – Brown vs. Board of Education landmark Supreme Court decision ended “separate but equal” status where “racial segregation” in schools was finally deemed unconstitutional.

Since 1954, our federal government, state, and local education agencies have adopted legislation to ensure schools in the United States are not segregated by race or ability. For this blog, I will highlight traditional pathways in education – “Before COVID-19 Pathways of Poverty” that perpetuates “separate but equal” in high school verticals of the education ecosystem.

Pathways of Poverty

The word “pathway” in education has taken the definition of preparing students for either a college or career pathology. Ed Trust in 2020 challenged the current articulation of “pathways in education” as it pertains to Black and Latino students. According to the data compiled by Ed Trust, Black and Latino students did not have equitable access to advanced courses that would prepare them for college and/or career pathways. For example, Black students account for 15% of the high population in public education, but only 9% enroll in at least one or more advanced placement courses. Latino students represent nearly a quarter of public education, but only 21% of students are enrolled in advanced placement courses. A sobering data implication for the initial stage of the AC-Stage of Education is less than 40% of Black and Brown high school students as a cumulative population are advancing through advanced courses of rigor when they represent roughly 50% of our student demographics. These interfaced and siloed data metrics underscore a harsh reality – our students are separate and not equal in the existing Jeffersonian Model of Education.

These analytical aggregates unveil the systemic barriers that are cultural tenets we must interrogate in the post pandemic era. Culture, expectations, resource allocation, and the courage to challenge the status quo. During this necessary shift you will have to be intentional, bold, and unapologetic to design for your most important customers. A new pathway for Generation Z and Generation Alpha.

Pathways of Excellence for All

The formative years after COVID-19 should present provocative discussions targeting various systems in the education sector. Based on current data trends regarding high school pathways, it would be educational malfeasance if we did not engage in divergent discussions underscoring excellence in the context of career readiness for Delta 2030. The Plessy vs. Ferguson legislative decision changed the structural frames of education despite the reversal decision of Brown vs Board of Education in 1954. Yes, there are noted policy advances since 1954, but sustained dialogue on how we can continuously be iterative is needed to change the current delineation of high school pathways. The demands are prescribed in the Excellence Loop – creating personalized access to meet the new economy for ALL.

Pathways of Prosperity: A Look through the Disruptive Excellence Framework

We learned during COVID-19 that learning organizations must become agile, iterative practices for newly designed pathways, and experimentation to scale promising systems rooted in data. Adopting this process will create Pathways of Prosperity. The word “prosperity” interjected into the educational vernacular in the context of “pathways” means systemically deconstructing historical high school structural barriers and creating new “pathways” grounded in the Disruptive Excellence Framework. Creative tension will occur within the learning organization; however, this is natural when the Disruptive Effect is being underscored. The synergy of innovation and excellence working in an analogous manner to create prosperity for ALL.

Michael T. Conner, Ed.D., is the CEO/Founder of Agile Evolutionary Group, Corp., Pathways Fellows for Getting Smart, and former Superintendent of Schools. He is the creator of the Disruptive Excellence Framework and author of Intentional, Bold, and Unapologetic: A Guide in Transforming Schools in the AC-Stage of Education.

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