On a chilly Saturday morning this March, a sold-out crowd of more than 250 educators got up early and drove from towns all over Western Pennsylvania to gather in a primary school gymnasium at the Ehrman Crest Elementary School in the Seneca Valley School District north of Pittsburgh. The educators celebrated the teachings of Fred Rogers as part of frED Camp. The Ehrman Crest Elementary School is a 2022 Time Magazine award-winning building that is a living example of how “the Fred Method” is based on intentional learning. 

The “Fred” of this day-long workshop’s title is Fred Rogers, creator and host of the groundbreaking television series “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Though many adults remember Rogers as a kindly presence on their childhood TV screens, his legacy includes extensive research into child development and a commitment to leveraging the technology of his day in groundbreaking ways. Beyond entertaining America’s kids, Rogers left behind a body of work that a growing community of educators are now using to improve the ways they teach and mentor children. 

“There’s a growing recognition that we see among teachers that this person they grew up loving for all sorts of different reasons — but mostly because he made them feel good when they were kids — is now someone who can guide them to become better at their jobs as educators and even as parents. It’s a really joyful thing,” says Ryan Rydzewski, co-author of When You Wonder, You’re Learning: Mister Rogers’ Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids. 

The book, co-authored with Gregg Behr, was the inspiration for frED Camp. Since its release in 2021, teachers around the world have been applying “The Fred Method” in their classrooms, using technology — and findings from the science of learning and child development — to spark joyful, welcoming learning experiences. “We’ve been talking to teachers for three years now, and they’re always showing us their incredible work, saying ‘Oh, here’s the Fred-like thing I’m doing in my classroom,’” Behr says. “So we thought, ‘Why don’t we bring some of these folks together and see what happens?’”

The program started with an opening plenary session highlighting how “Environment Drives Behavior” led by Anne Fullencamp from the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and Lauri Pendred, the principal at Ehrman Crest Elementary. They explained how every part of the building was designed to engage learners. Hallways become extensions of the classrooms. Even the playground incorporates space themes so play becomes an intentional activity. The center of the building, a spiraling staircase from the first to second floor showcases student artwork and provides opportunities for student voice. The staircase is also an example of how students were incorporated into the design process. It was the students who made the case for the pathway. 

The majority of the morning educators interacted with presenters at educator-led workshops. The educators shared great examples of the Fred Method in action throughout the Pittsburgh region. Anna Blake, a STEAM teacher for the Elizabeth Forward School District, and Melissa Unger, a STEAM teacher for the South Fayette School District, conducted a workshop “Capturing Creativity: Leveraging Engagement and Deepening Reflection through STEAM Learning.” According to Anna, “We are so honored to present at frED CAMP! I felt inspired as I walked in the door at the doors of Seneca Valley. So many chances to wonder and collaborate with Mr. Rogers in mind. So excited to connect and share learning! PD like this IS what fills up my bucket of love for teaching.”

“It’s refreshing because it’s not, ‘here’s one more thing you have to do,’” says Rydzewski. “Instead, it’s ‘here’s the value in what you already love to do.’ If you can do that in front of your kids, it’s going to elevate their learning. We know from science that when kids get swept up in the vortex of a teacher’s interest, then they get excited about learning all kinds of other things, too.”

It’s a lesson Fred Rogers knew well. For more than 30 years in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, he introduced viewers to countless guest stars: think Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Julia Child, and beyond. “Whoever it happened to be, we remember their visits because we saw their passion for what they do,” says Behr. “Fred didn’t focus on their accomplishments or awards. Instead, he focused on the things that lit them up, and that light created the joyful learning atmosphere that still resonates a half-century later.” 

“What we’ve tried to do is make Fred’s lessons and his blueprints more accessible,” Behr says. “But it’s the practitioners who are going to make this stuff matter — and they are. They’re running with it. And their students are running right along with them.”

Jennifer Wachs, a media teacher for the South Allegheny School District, reinforced the impact of the day for practitioners, “What an absolute privilege it was to attend this year’s frED Camp! There was a tremendous amount of warmth and sense of community from the participants. We were all united by a profound love of children, and of course, Mr. Rogers. It was inspiring to witness the collective passion and dedication as presenters shared a host of innovative ideas for sparking curiosity and joy, and participants engaged in hands-on activities and meaningful discussions.  frED Camp reinforced the importance of creating a warm, inclusive, and stimulating learning environment that nurtures children’s social and emotional well-being. The day recharged my batteries and reaffirmed my belief in the transformative power of education.”

Next year’s frED Camp will be held at another venue that embodies its namesake’s legacy: Theperfy Fred Rogers Institute in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Open to educators of all kinds — including teachers, early learning educators, librarians, parent leaders, afterschool directors, coaches, mentors, and more — frED Camp is set for March 15, 2025.

Norton Gusky is an educational technology broker and uses technology to empower kids, educators and communities. You can find him on Twitter at @ngusky.

The post frED Camp: The Legacy of Fred Rogers appeared first on Getting Smart.

Visiting One Stone in Boise taught me that school could be about leading and difference making. I learned that young people could be invited into work and roles that matter (to them and their community) and that consequential experiences turbocharge leadership and problem solving (perhaps the two most important skill sets). 

Teresa Poppen launched One Stone 15 years ago as a free afterschool program for Boise high school students. She explained the origin of the studio model: 

Our innovative initiatives grew out of the desire to help students use their voice to change the world. At the starting line for One Stone is Project Good, an experiential service program that mobilizes the power of passionate students to bring real-world solutions to complex issues. Next came Two Birds, our student-led and directed creative services studio. Then we doubled down on entrepreneurship through the launch of Solution Lab, a business incubator for high school students. In each of these platforms we teach and use design thinking—ensuring we are relevant, innovative, and focused on our end user for real results.

Students are “active participants in the governance and direction of the organization” and make up two-thirds of the board of directors. (The featured image is of a One Stone board meeting where Teresa is sitting in back listening to student leaders.)

In the fall of 2016, with support from Albertson Foundation, One Stone opened Lab51, a high school based on the unique student-led culture, rooted in empathy and powered by design thinking.

Lab51 students co-author lab and studio experiences inspired by a beautiful outcome framework. They demonstrate and track progress on a Growth Transcript. Students explore their passions and develop a sense of purpose through Living in Beta, a personal wayfinding program.

One Stone studio learning experiences invite student leadership and value creation. 

Poppen explains, “We are forging an army of good, for good.”

This Boise program and school is a place alive with possibility. It inspired my book Difference Making at the Heart of Learning. It convinced me that inviting learners into work that matters could more than a capstone experience, it could be central to the mission of education.

In November, Teresa Poppen retired as the Executive Director and Ultimate Difference Maker at One Stone. She’s made a big difference in Boise and created a model that inspires educators nationally. I’ve learned something on every visit. 

For more on One Stone see: 

• Not Your Typical Back-to-School Days at Learner-Centered Sites (8/23)
• One Stone Students Serve Up the Glass Half Full (6/21)
• On Building a Network of Schools Using the One Stone Growth Transcript (4/21) 
• The Power of the Pivot (3/20)
• Why Difference Making is the New Superpower (4/20)
• Living in Beta: One Stone’s Pilot Results Are In (8/21) 
• Living in Beta: New Advisory Program Helps Teens Learn With Purpose (10/20)

The post One Stone: Forging An Army of Good  appeared first on Getting Smart.

At a conference in Malaysia in the spring of 2023, I heard keynote speaker Todd Shy, author of Teaching Life: Life Lessons for Aspiring (and Inspiring) Teachers (2021) and head of upper school at Avenues in New York, refer to education as a “human event” that changes lives for the better. He shared beautiful stories about students impacted permanently and positively by an adult who saw them, who “claimed them,” as Shy put it, and who lifted them to be their best selves and pursue a life they perhaps hadn’t envisioned for themselves before. He invited us to remember who those people were for us as children, and it took me back to those educators who really saw me, adults who extended kindness and grace when I stumbled, who challenged me to work harder and supported my whole self even as I figured out who that was. It was a beautiful way to start the conference.

But I can’t shake the questions Todd’s words raised for me. Seeking to have a positive impact on our students is what we educate for, no question, and I highly recommend his book, which I found deeply poetic and moving. But what about those moments of accidental harm an educator can create as well, moments when students feel seen only for their deficits, or are held back from their aspirations because an adult suggests their goals somehow don’t make sense? We all have memories of those teachers, too—and the use of “accidental” is me giving educators the benefit of the doubt, as I certainly hope it’s never intentional. Sadly, there are still teachers out there who revel in how many students fail their classes, who enjoy wielding power over young people and may even cause intentional harm. But I believe they are few, and that most cases of harm are in fact unintentional.

In The Landscape Model of Learning (2022), my coauthor Kapono Ciotti and I share stories of such harm: Astronaut Mae Jemison being told by a kindergarten teacher that she should become a nurse instead of a doctor; my hija de corazón feeling seen only for her deficits for five years of her education, who gave up on higher education partly because a teacher made her feel like a hard luck case to get into college; the boy in a special education program who didn’t think he had any gifts until he was a senior in high school. Many of us have these stories from our childhoods as well, and some of us teach to erase the accidental harm once done to us by opening doors and avoiding such harm for our own students. 

Mine was a humanities teacher I had for 4^th through 6^th grade. I loved the humanities and still do, but this teacher could easily have pushed me away from my future as a writer and thinker. I have no memory of what preceded her comment, only that this teacher told me I needed to learn to think before I spoke. My parents had chosen an alternative school for me, a place where every child was supposed to feel seen, a place where I fit in because we were all a little outside the box. And most of the time I did. But on this day, an educator turned my mind into my enemy, and she broke something in me that I spent years trying to repair.

I remember bits of the aftermath. Honestly, I was confused at first, and maybe a little angry. Surely I did think before I spoke—I was always thinking. But I rarely saw anything the way other people did. Did she mean I should think before saying something different than what she was looking for? Did she mean I needed to learn to filter my thoughts differently, censor myself instead of being forthright about my ideas? I struggle to remember what I said that precipitated the comment, but I remember how it sealed my lips for months. This encounter was the moment I began to lose confidence in my ideas, and to question my right to share them. And I’ve had to fight those demons my entire life.

While accidental harm may be impossible to avoid completely, there are myriad strategies we can use to help prevent acts of accidental harm and to restore wellbeing after harm occurs in our classrooms and schoolhouses. 

Establish a classroom culture that is safe and encouraging for every child.

 I often invite teachers to create a Y chart on this topic before they start their school year: If we have built a classroom space where every individual can thrive and no harm should occur, what should we see, hear and feel? A safe and encouraging culture isn’t just a place where students don’t hurt each other physically; it’s a place that encourages intellectual risk taking, honest self reflection, and all the messy complexity of growth, without fear of judgement or failure. It can be a chaotic space, too, but it’s a sort of productive chaos anyone can recognize when it’s happening—the classroom comes alive with a buzz of activity, curiosity, and collaboration. It’s not a space where there are no disagreements; it’s a space where disagreements are an opportunity to understand each other better. And it’s not a space where we avoid frustration; instead, it’s a space where we work our way through our frustrations and learn from them. This requires effort on the part of both educators and students, to ensure that frustrations and challenges don’t explode into accidental harm, instead offering opportunities for growth and safe connection.

Build asset-based relationships with every student. 

There’s plenty of science to support the importance of every student having at least one “trusted adult” in school. But it has to be the right sort of relationship to be considered one that leans on assets and supports learning. In our research for The Landscape Model of Learning, Kapono and I encountered research (Victoria Theisen-Homer, 2022) that found a prevalence of instrumentally focused relationships with students among educators in low-income schools (a one-way relationship designed to ensure a specific outcome, usually student compliance), and a tendency for reciprocally focused relationships among educators in more affluent schools (an affirming, two-way relationship designed to encourage students to think for themselves). Impulsed by implicit bias, instrumentally focused relationships are a clear source of accidental harm for students in low-income contexts, as they do not encourage the growth of students’ whole selves so much as compliance with the demands of the teacher. 

Having the right sort of relationship with students is essential to avoiding accidental harm, and asset-based relationships are essential to students feeling seen and honored for who they are and what they’re good at. When we stop focusing on quiet, compliant classrooms and start focusing on showing every child that we see their talents and interests, and believe in them as learners and humans, we can motivate growth in their areas of need as well.

Use different forms of self reflection regularly to help students explore their identities and understand themselves. 

Students’ self knowledge doesn’t develop because of an activity or two; identity develops and coalesces over years through the consistent practice of self reflection. Unfortunately, classroom teachers often feel they don’t have time to pause and let students reflect, which isn’t suprising given the demands of the classroom. But the science is clear: self reflection and metacognition are essential to human growth and wellbeing, and the better students know themselves, the more comfortably they will self advocate if an accidental harm occurs. Similarly, educators who create space for safe self reflection in class get to know their students far better, which helps reduce the likelihood of accidental harm and increase the likelihood that they will help spark students’ growth and nurture their wellbeing. I strongly recommend that at least some forms of reflection be private if students choose, as a private journal can motivate deeper, more honest self knowledge than one students know will be read by the teacher. 

Offer thoughtful feedback that encourages and even sparks growth. 

We have all received less-than-helpful feedback at some point in our lives, and we know how easily it can stop growth rather than catalyzing it. I learned early in my teaching career to start from compliments and then offer constructive feedback, what my friend and colleague Jill Ackers always calls “growth-producing feedback.” By starting with compliments, we show every student that we do see what they’re doing well, that we know they are capable of excellence and growth. And when students know that their teachers believe in them, in their ability to grow from where they are to where they could be, they are more able to learn from and apply the feedback received, less likely to get defensive or just give up. In my opinion, the whole point of feedback is not judgement or grading—it’s about nurturing our students and encouraging their growth. Whereas judgemental feedback can make students feel incapable of improvement, thoughtful and supportive feedback makes students feel good about themselves and capable of incredible growth.

Apologize and repair when an accident occurs. 

Sometimes, accidents do occur; no educator is perfect, and bad things can happen when we’re undertrained, overstressed, or rushing to meet expectations. In my experience, teachers can also get nervous about regulations and restrictions on what they’re allowed to say or do to support students, which is a recipe for a whole lot of anxiety and even more accidental harm. So part of the solution is simply to notice when harm has occurred, as quickly as possible, and to respond immediately in ways that help to restore wellbeing for the student. That might look like something as simple and personal as a sincere apology, or something as complex and collaborative as a restorative circle or other restorative practices. And yes, admitting our mistakes is hard for most people, but if we never take the time to say we are sorry, our students may carry that accidental harm in their hearts for days, months, or even years.

I reflect often that what my teacher saw in me at 10 turned out to be my superpower, not my downfall. People read my work today because of my frank honesty and unfiltered perspectives. I always think before I speak, and I say what I mean; I make a living by being direct and unapologetic while nurturing change. What might it look like if educators were to help students recognize that their most core tendencies, even those that challenge others, might actually be their superpowers? What sort of “human event” might we create if we help students hone those assets and talents into even more effective skills? I believe it is possible for educators not just to avoid accidental harm, but to teach intentionally toward the needs and identities of every child, and to help students recognize and hone their superpowers not just for a good life, but for a better world.

Jennifer D. Klein is a product of experiential project-based education herself, and she lives and breathes the student-centered pedagogies used to educate her. She is a former head of school with extensive international experience and over thirty years in education, including nineteen in the classroom.

The post Avoiding Accidental Harm: Fostering Positive Impact on Students’ Lives appeared first on Getting Smart.

As we think about kids heading back to school, our minds are often filled with images of brown bag lunches tucked into oversized backpacks, individual desks neatly arranged in rows, and teachers setting the tone for how they’ll keep order in a room full of 25 (or more) kids. But in learner-centered sites across the country, back-to-school is a time filled with adventure and exploration—from neighborhood scavenger hunts and NBA-style introductions to overnight cabin trips and campus-wide cookouts. In these environments, self-discovery, trust-building and interest exploration are the starting points of learning.

Learner-centered leaders recognize the need to help young people lean into their personal development as a critical part of their learning and do so in community with the peers and adults in their environments. By design, this approach helps foster fulfilled human beings with the skills needed for life and career. While each site approaches learning in a way that works for their young people and community, Education Reimagined has identified five elements that can be found at sites that demonstrate the full breadth of learner-centered education. These elements are learner-agency; socially embedded; personalized, relevant and contextualized; open-walled; and competency-based. As sites welcome learners, many choose to make these quantities evident from day one. Here, interests are explored and curiosity abounds.

Lab51

If you’ve ever thought about starting your school year with the cheers and applause of an NBA-style announcement welcome, look no further than One Stone’s Lab51 school. Located in Boise, ID, Lab51 is an independent high school focused on growth, not grades. Coaches—their term for educators—guide learners through their various programs to discover themes that are of interest to them. Learners can choose the duration of time they spend on a particular area, ranging from week-long “deep dives” to 12-week “immersions” to choose-your-own-adventure day-long “cannonballs.” Young people can explore topics from skateboard design and mechanics to agriculture and environmental science.

Learners who are new to Lab51 are welcomed back early for a Reboot Week. They’re paired with returning “trail guides” who engage in four days of team and culture-building activities. The autonomy young people experience in a learner-centered environment is often a big (but empowering) shift from their conventional schools, so this time is important to help them rediscover their voice and identify what sparks their interest.  

Once all of the learners have returned, the group engages in two weeks of welcome activities. The focus is on establishing strong foundations of personal understanding, vulnerability, and curiosity so that coaches and learners can build on these relationships as they move throughout the year. These welcome activities include experiential service projects in the community, the sharing of one-minute life stories, an introduction to Lab51’s Bold Learning Objectives, a community read discussion, and short and long-term goal setting. The group even takes an overnight cabin trip to Payette Lake in McCall, ID. Talk about building relationships and community from day one!

Embark Education

For learners at Embark Education, a micro-middle school in Denver, CO, learning happens in and around their peaceful yet vibrant neighborhood. With a strong emphasis on building community and radical trust, Embark learners start the year with a whole-school scavenger hunt where learners lead themselves through the neighborhood to better orient themselves with the places and people that matter to their learning. They’re also given cash to explore local lunch spots or other businesses. (Given their extensive candy selection, Ace Hardware is a popular choice.) Not only does this help learners build bonds with each other and explore their community, but primarily, it is an exercise in trust and responsibility. For many learners who are new to Embark, nothing says “learner autonomy“ quite like an unsupervised group trip around the neighborhood with money at their disposal.

In the following days, learners will meet with staff at Pinwheel Coffee and Framework Cycles, local businesses that are core to Embark’s education model. Staff at these shops, who are educators within the Embark community, will work with the young people throughout the year to learn a variety of skills including marketing, mechanics, business management, and yes, even coffee-making.These young people have opportunities to learn from each member of their community and build mentorship opportunities along the way. And speaking of community, to start the school year, the learners collaborate on a team project. At Embark, learners are always empowered to choose from multiple learning experiences that are sparked by authentic needs. This year, learners chose between rehabilitating one of their outdoor learning spaces or designing the first-ever Embark swag.

The SD Met

The SD Met, located on the San Diego Mesa College campus, is a high school that follows the Big Picture Learning model. While each Big Picture school has its own unique qualities, each follows a philosophy of student-led, adult-supported learning. The year begins with a New Family Mixer, a one-hour meet-and-greet for learners and families to get acquainted with fellow learners, advisors, and facilities on campus. At The Met, advisories are cohorts of about 16 learners and one advisor who remain together for all four years of high school.

Because relationships are an important part of learning at the Met, the first few days have a heavy emphasis on building community and connection. Freshmen are also introduced to personalized learning plans, a keystone feature that will help drive each young person’s learning journey and make meaning out of each experience. These plans are developed between each learner and their advisor to address competencies including knowing how to learn, personal qualities, quantitative reasoning, empirical reasoning, social reasoning, and communication. Through off-campus internships, classes at the community college, and instruction within advisories, learners will create goals and map them against their learning plans. To top off a week of introductions and relationship building, the entire Met community comes together for a campus-wide luncheon where learners are encouraged to sit with new people, share their experiences, and explore the campus.

While many teachers in conventional schools are doing the hard work of prepping their classrooms for students and designing a curriculum to meet state requirements, remember that back-to-school doesn’t look the same everywhere. In learner-centered environments, they continue on with learning, because learning can and does take place all around us. Returning to a learning environment can be a time of exploration, connection, understanding, and growth when it’s centered around the needs of each learner.

 Jason Krobatsch is the Communications Manager at Education Reimagined, an organization focused on advancing learner-centered education at a national level.

The post Not Your Typical Back-to-School Days at Learner-Centered Sites appeared first on Getting Smart.

Updated: The Missouri State Board of Education voted unanimously Aug. 15 to approve ‘innovation waivers’ for the 20-school Success-Ready Students Network.

A network of 20 Missouri school districts is asking the state to implement a more responsive assessment system in order to personalize student learning.

The state Board of Education is considering the districts’ proposal to change testing at its Aug. 15 meeting. If approved, it would be the inception of a shift in Missouri’s education system that will “resurrect student engagement,” district leaders say.

The group of schools, part of the Success-Ready Students Network, wants to move away from the state’s annual standardized testing to assessments that would be administered multiple times a year. The coalition consists of public school districts and one St. Louis charter school, and includes a mix of rural and urban campuses with a wide range of student performance scores and poverty rates, according to state demographic and assessment data. 

During a June state board meeting, district leaders argued that the current system doesn’t provide results in time to be effectively used in the classroom. 

The schools want to instead take advantage of a new pilot waiver program created last year that offers exemptions for districts to bypass specific education laws for up to three years. These “innovation waivers” are intended to boost student performance and benefit educators by giving schools the room to implement unique strategies, said Lisa Sireno, assistant commissioner with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. 

“The state legislature enacted a statute that allowed the school innovation waivers in 2022 and so we’ve been working on what that process might look like,” Sireno told The 74. “The group with our very first innovation waiver request — the Success-Ready Students Network — kind of grew out of a (state) work group that was looking at competency-based education.”

While 20 school districts in the Success-Ready Students Network have agreed to launch new assessments if approved, other schools will join in the future, said Mike Fulton, one of the network’s facilitators. The plan is for a new cohort of districts to use the innovation waivers each school year until the entire state is involved.

If approved, districts will be able to administer multiple interim tests, but will still have to give the normal annual standardized test until a federal waiver is approved to get rid of it. Fulton said the Success-Ready Students Network will be working on a federal waiver later this year.

Fulton said the state’s innovation waivers are key to competency-based learning, which allows students to move through education at their own pace as they demonstrate a full understanding of the material.

“The whole proposal is designed to support the participating districts in using personalized, competency-based approaches in their learning design,” Fulton told The 74. “The assessment system was designed to provide feedback to both students, teachers, parents and every stakeholder, on how individual students are progressing, how classrooms and schools are doing and how districts are doing as a whole.”

Jenny Ulrich, superintendent of the Lonedell School District, part of the Success-Ready Students Network, said her teachers are always asking for feedback on what they are doing in the classroom, but assessment results are returned too late to make an effective change for individual students.

“We are alone out there trying to figure out how we get real-world learning to our kids,” Ulrich told the state board in June. “This work supports educators. It gives them a platform, an opportunity and the data they need to make good instructional design and decisions for their kids.”

Besides lagging results, standardized tests have been criticized around the U.S. for sucking up too much time, being culturally biased and doing little to improve students’ academic outcomes.

Ulrich said instead of the one-time tests, schools will administer tests several times a year and keep results updated online on a district dashboard for teachers to use in real time. The dashboards, which will go live in November, will show a student’s progress in becoming “high school ready” or “college, career and workforce ready.”

“By the end of the 2025-26 school year, it is our aim — our lofty goal — that 100% of our graduates would have an individualized plan,” Ulrich said. “As we reach these goals, all students will be able to declare, ‘I am truly college, career and workplace ready.’”

Fulton said districts will be transitioning to competency-based learning even if the state innovation waivers aren’t approved. Students will progress on evidence of mastery of skills based on state standards, meaning they might move through the K-12 education system faster or slower than their peers.

“That scares people a bit and I understand that,” Fulton said. “That’s a big shift.”

Sireno, the assistant state education commissioner, said the desire to switch Missouri schools to competency-based learning emerged from the learning loss caused by the pandemic. Earlier this year, more than a 100 Missouri districts experienced a drop in their student assessment scores to levels that would typically threaten their state accreditation.

“This will allow students to move at the appropriate pace. So, if some students finish mastery of the content a little bit quicker, if some students take a little bit longer, that’s OK,” Sireno said. “It’s a heavy lift, but it’s important work, and (districts) realize that it can have a real positive impact on student learning.”

Other schools around the nation have been tackling competency-based education as a way to help students recover ground in learning. Idaho, South Carolina, Kansas and Utah are among those that have successfully created competency-based learning systems, according to a 2021 state education department report.

Some states haven’t done as well implementing competency-based education. In 2018, Maine’s Department of Education had to scrap its competency-based learning model several years after it went into effect. The system lacked specifics in things like proficiency and grading, which also sparked parent backlash.

This is a common failure in putting the approach into practice, according to the Missouri Education Department’s 2021 report. 

“Researchers attribute negative outcomes to schools that implemented (competency-based learning) without clear definitions and expectations, as well as uneven implementation,” the report says. 

When Missouri’s innovation waiver plan was unveiled in June, the entire State Board of Education voiced support for it.

“It is a gift to the students, the parents and families in Missouri, and I would say nationwide,” said Charles Shields, board president. “Others will learn from us nationwide.”

Vice President Carol Hallquist said she believed it will “change the face of education” in Missouri.

Fulton, of the Success-Ready Students Network, said he hasn’t heard from any stakeholders warning against the use of innovation waivers or the switch to competency-based learning, but there is some wariness from the state department about using a model that hasn’t been tested. 

“I think we’re all going at this cautiously. Research is going to sit at the core of this,” he said. “But you have to be willing to be entrepreneurial and innovative and that’s what I think these districts are being asked to do. We need more of that in public education.”

Lauren Wagner covers education for the Omaha World-Herald and is a contributor to The 74.

This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.

The post Why 20 Missouri School Districts Are Seeking New ‘Innovation Waivers’ to Rethink the Way They Test Students appeared first on Getting Smart.

The single narrative education system is no longer working. Its main limitation is its inability to honor young people as the dynamic individuals that they are. New models of teaching and learning need to be designed to center on the student, not the teacher.

In Dr. Benjamin Freud’s article, The Metaverse will make schools places of becoming, Chapter I asks, “Why do I need to learn from you?”.

This question is an invitation to us as educational professionals to create systems that allow students to personalize their learning. Again from Dr. Freud, “Kids know that they can learn anything they’re curious about and that there is so much more out there than the curriculum they are fed.” Education 3.0 has an important role to address this directly.

Immersive technology via the metaverse can support students’ curiosity about topics that interest them. Blockchain technology can help document, certify, and facilitate these learning experiences in a trustless way. Token-based systems have the potential to provide students with access to resources that can help grow and regenerate these learning experiences. 

Dr. Freud summarizes these points well by stating, “Learning is liberated when we are released from our physical constraints when the physical world subsumes the imaginary world and we can access anything, anyone, anytime.”

It’s our responsibility as educators to pay close attention to how these immersive worlds are designed and implemented as we transition out of the physical world and into a new one. If students lose agency in these immersive worlds there is the potential to continue the corporate-owned and data-driven models of identity extrapolation.

Learning benefits when it is personalized. Immersive technology creates personalization that goes beyond the surface level that is discussed in education circles.

Is it regenerative? 

The concept of regeneration (and regenerate, regenerative, and regeneration) has been borrowed from biology and has begun to spread across a variety of well-known industries–from agriculture, energy, finance, and education. The definition changes slightly with context, but we can extract a generalized definition of regenerative to mean “to regrow or be renewed or restored.”

The sustainability of an immersive learning system depends on its ability to continuously grow itself anew. Educator Daniel C. Wall relates this concept to education in his Medium article titled Education and Regenerative Cultures (Version 0.0) the following way:

“Education for regenerative cultures is about the life-long process of enabling and building the capacity of everyone to express their unique potential to serve their community and the planet and in the process serve themselves.” 

This circular relationship between building the capacity of the individual to serve the community, serving the planet, and then in return serving the individual must be a foundational principle of the metaverse. Without this grounding in regeneration, immersive learning becomes a novelty that replaces outdated learning models but doesn’t add any value.

The strong interest in virtual, augmented, and immersive technologies put us in a dangerous position. We are “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face” if we don’t lean into the innovative pedagogy that researcher Justin Reich described in his book.  Essentially cutting off in-person learning to spite its monotony.

We can examine how regeneration can support innovative pedagogy in immersive learning environments by digging a little deeper. Author Carol Sanford developed “The Regenerative Paradigm for Education” which consists of 7 First Principles of Living Systems. These are described in a series of articles titled The Regenerative Education System and Practice.

There are characteristics found within these principles that contribute to regenerative learning:

• Learners are agents of their learning
• Learners are whole individuals made up of mind and body
• Learners possess the ability to teach themselves
• Learning happens through both participation and observation
• Learning happens in small nodal communities

Educators can maximize the effectiveness of immersive technology by infusing these characteristics of regenerative learning into their instruction. The metaverse will be another technology that “fails to disrupt”) to borrow from the title of Reich’s book) if we don’t

Does it allow for learning to happen non-linearly, at any time and any place?

Decentralization has taken on a new meaning in the context of web3 and blockchain. The World Bank has identified different forms of decentralization to help communicate what it means in different industries. 

For schools I’ll use the definition of decentralization coined by education innovator Mike Peck in his article Schools in an Era of Decentralized Learning Networks, “educational systems that operate both inside and outside of the traditional school structure, using a variety of methods, sources, and technologies to facilitate teaching and learning.”

Why is this traditional school structure that is limited by the physical space of the school building and the time of the school schedule no longer viable? There are two main reasons, one is the inequality of this structure, and the second is the changes in how our society is structured.

Let’s break down each of these two to understand them better.

A major reason for the inequality in our public school spaces stems from funding models in the United States that are based on income from property taxes. The type of educational experience and learning opportunities, as well as the facilities and resources that young people have access to, are impacted by where they live. There is an even greater disparity happening in countries with emerging economies and more dislocated school systems.

The structure of our school day and the school year is extremely limiting as well. The design of the school calendar is out of date and based on societal needs from centuries ago. In terms of the in-day schedule, this Atlantic article examines adjustments to disrupt the common 8 am-3 pm model.

It also is time to rethink the structure that limits learning between eight or nine in the morning to three or four in the afternoon from August/September through May/June. We need to move towards “just in time” learning models that allow learning to happen at any time and anywhere. If a student learns best during the summer months from 2 pm to 9 pm we should be able to offer learning that honors that. Same for a student who prefers 5 am to noon.

Immersive technologies have the ability to facilitate learning that is accessible across space and time. This will help create this future in which educational systems are operating as Dr. Peck says, “both inside and outside of the traditional school structure.” The metaverse will be a key technology as these systems are built.

Non-linear learning will help incorporate two learning strategies that have been proven to improve learning efficacy, the jigsaw method and self-efficacy. The jigsaw method empowers students to become content experts and disseminate this knowledge to their peers. And self-efficacy is defined by John Hattie as “The confidence or strength of belief that we have in ourselves that we can make our learning happen.”

Shifts in the architecture of our schools and effective pedagogy combined with immersive technology are the ingredients for how we can reimagine education for the next generation of learners.

Concluding Thoughts

Education is particularly ripe for change, but many transformative technologies have not been invited into our learning spaces. Legacy systems are resistant to embracing things that will make their structures and rules irrelevant.

Immersive technologies are one of these technologies. Instead of pushing them away, we need to invite them into our schools to help facilitate new learning opportunities. The “Ready Player One Test” is a framework that educators can use to guide their decision-making around immersive technology because not all implementations of this technology are beneficial.

When the opportunity arises to implement learning that uses immersive technology ask yourself if the learning you are designing passes the Ready Player One Test: 

1. Does it allow learners to immerse themselves in environments that would be too expensive or dangerous to experience otherwise?
2. Can the learning be personalized by the student?
3. Is it regenerative?
4. Does it allow for learning to happen non-linearly, at any time and place?

Dagan Bernstein is an educator from Hawai’i who believes in empowering deep learning through relationships and joy. Follow him on Twitter at @DaganBernstein.

The post The Ready Player One Test: Systems for Personalized Learning appeared first on Getting Smart.

This culture can then set the conditions for learners to understand that stress can be reframed as part of the learning process, an opportunity for growth, and a chance to push one’s boundaries. Embracing a growth mindset in the face of stress empowers individuals to approach challenges (and new learning) with resilience and adaptability, leading to enhanced learning outcomes and improved performance.

Equipping learners with a solid understanding of learning science empowers them to appreciate the importance of conditions, context, and thriving in their educational journey. Thoughtful feedback practices further enrich this transformative culture. By embracing these fundamental concepts, both educators and parents embark on a journey of transformation, redefining their view of productive struggle and embracing fresh learning experiences.

However, the real impact of growth mindset work comes to life when it seamlessly integrates into daily life, supported by systemic approaches that align with this vision. To genuinely cultivate a growth mindset culture, educators must avoid underestimating their learners’ potential and courageously address the harmful impact of systemic racial inequities in education. This unwavering belief in the capacity of historically underrepresented students to engage with challenging content is a cornerstone of fostering inclusivity. 

Educators create a learning environment that empowers every student, regardless of their background by recognizing and confronting these inequities head-on. This means breaking down barriers, providing targeted support, and nurturing a truly inclusive atmosphere that amplifies the voices of underrepresented students. By applying the strategies and tools provided below, learners gain a sense of empowerment in their learning journey and their ability to shape their own growth.

Implementation Progressions around a Growth Mindset Learning Culture:

• Fostering a Safe & Supportive Learning Environment
• Decoding How We Learn And the Power of Mindsets
• Embracing Feedback And Harnessing Self-Talk

Educators optimize their professional learning best when they are part of the co-designing and refinement and provide deliberate feedback. These progressions can also be integrated as educator competencies or included in a comprehensive Portrait of an Educator. For more details on these stages and their origin, we invite you to explore these articles Five Steps to Embed Growth Mindset Practices and Growth Mindset is More than a Bulletin Board.

SAFE & SUPPORTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT PRACTICES 

• Value and Acknowledge Learners: Prioritize recognizing and appreciating learners’ value when designing learning experiences. When learners feel valued and heard, it cultivates an environment that fosters recognition and enhances their readiness to learn. Validating and affirming their contributions is essential, as it acknowledges their unique perspectives and actively encourages their involvement in the learning process. Stephanie Malia Krause shares free resources from her latest book, Whole Child, Whole Life, 10 Ways to Help Kids Live, Learn, & Thrive. Tips for building connections and competencies. 
• Building Trust and a Safe Place: Establish an environment of trust by prioritizing relationship building. Begin by focusing on building relational trust through activities such as “Building Relational Trust” from Liberatory Design Implementation Cards, which feature design mindsets used at the Stanford d.school. NEA shared a recorded webinar titled “Building Trust in Indigenous Communities” and MDRC and The Education Trust have a helpful brief on “The Importance of Strong Relationships.” Design learning spaces for learners to take risks, ask questions, and freely share their thoughts, fostering an atmosphere where learning can flourish. 
• Cultivate Respect and Prioritize Learner Ideas: Create a learning environment that values and respects learner ideas. When learners feel that their thoughts and perspectives are respected and valued, they are more likely to share and express themselves without fear of judgment. This inclusive approach fosters psychological safety, enabling learners to engage in discussions and express their creativity confidently and without negative consequences.

HOW WE LEARN & MINDSETS PRACTICES

• Reflect for Self-Awareness: Promote reflection to gain insights into learners’ feelings about themselves and their learning experiences. By providing opportunities for learners to reflect on moments of success and challenges throughout the day, educators bridge the gap between experiences and understanding of optimal learning methods. This reflective practice encourages metacognition, self-awareness, and a deeper comprehension of individual learning preferences.
• Embrace Learning Science: Explicitly teach the dynamic nature of the brain, emphasizing that it evolves and grows throughout life. Adopt a phased approach to teach learning science, highlighting the concepts around neuroplasticity. 
• Supplement Curriculum: Engage learners by sharing and reviewing videos that illuminate the intricate workings of the brain. Consider integrating resources like the MindUP  Curriculum, which offers K-8 materials, including videos tailored to specific grade levels (e.g., grades 3-5). Turnaround for Children, now the Center for Whole Child Education at ASU Teachers College, offers resources around brain development (Stress and the Brain) for teachers. 

• Empower Parents & Families: Provide valuable resources for families and caregivers to enhance their understanding of brain development. MindsetWorks offers useful tools such as Brainology and Growing Early Mindsets (GEM). The Mindset Continuum chart helps identify mixed mindsets and offers insights into fostering growth.
• Address Misconceptions. Stay abreast of recent articles that challenge common misconceptions about learning cultures. By staying informed and up-to-date on the latest research and insights educators can foster an environment that nurtures understanding and growth.  

FEEDBACK AND SELF-TALK PRACTICES

• Encourage Feedback: Recognize the significance of feedback as a powerful tool for growth and development. Emphasize the importance of delivering feedback constructively and thoughtfully to provide valuable insights into learners’ progress and areas for improvement.
  • Consider adopting a coaching approach when providing feedback, paying attention to tone and quality. Edutopia offers strategies in their article for enhancing the coaching approach. 
  • Expand or create a feedback toolkit by exploring suggested sentence stems, such as the ones provided by Mindset Works. Review and adapt these phrases to suit your style and practice incorporating them into your feedback repertoire. 
  • Utilize the School Reform Initiative organization, which shares a protocol chart for identifying warm, cool, and hard perspectives.  
• Nurturing Positive Self-Talk: Teach self-talk and self-awareness through modeling. As both a teacher and a learner, share your thoughts with students when receiving feedback, especially if it comes from them after a learning experience.
  • Co-generate a class list with learners by collecting examples of nonproductive self-talk and brainstorming alternative approaches. Classmates can then practice this with a trusted partner, or as trust and the culture grows this list can be posted for peers to support one another.
  • Develop mindful observations of learners akin to running records rather than quick assumptions. Refer to Kristine Mraz and Christine Hertz Hausman’s book, A Mindset for Learning,” which offers a chart of observable behaviors of learners and the examples of self-talk that may be occurring.
  • Engage in “think alouds” is a simple yet powerful technique that allows for exemplary modeling of self-talk practices. 
  • Digital Promise also provides some positive self-talk resources and strategies on their Literacy 7-12 site.

To genuinely cultivate a growth mindset culture, avoid underestimating learners’ potential and bravely confront the harmful effects of systemic racial inequities in education. This unwavering belief in every student’s capacity to engage with challenging content is at the core of fostering inclusivity and empowerment. By embracing these principles, educators, and parents become powerful agents of change, enabling learners to thrive, succeed, and embrace a lifelong journey of learning and growth.

The post Creating an Inclusive Learning Culture Through Trust, Feedback Cycles, and Positive Self-Talk appeared first on Getting Smart.

For the last few years, we’ve been making the case that purpose and contribution are the core outputs of a society. Because of that, there are skills and habits that young people need to strengthen and flex with regularity in a learning setting. This will result in generations of difference makers and solutionaries, people who spot problems (inherited or otherwise) and respond rapidly and systematically toward a future that works better for all. We must not continue to perpetuate a world where our long-term outcomes are purely economic or academic. 

Powerful technology like AI increases the complexity given the challenge of bias in AI models, the susceptibility of humans towards influence, and the propensity for false narratives and information generated from AI sources. These challenges add a layer of increased urgency to the work of embedding purpose and imagination in our communities and schools. 

In a recent interview on the People I (Mostly) Admire Podcast, guest Kevin Kelly shares “Part of my critique about the A.I. folks who are concerned about the end of the world is that they overestimate the value of intelligence. There are a lot of intelligent guys who think intelligence trumps everything, but most of the great things in the world are happening not by the smartest people in the room. They’re happening with people who have enthusiasm, who have imagination. Smartness and intelligence is one component, but if you put a man and a lion in a cage, it’s not the smartest one that’s going to win. It’s only one part of what we need to make things happen in the world. And the key thing of that is imagination. Imagining what could be, what we’d want, an alternative way of doing things. And that’s not just I.Q.”

As we continue to think about the role that AI will play in society, we must also consider what the core variables are that must be kept alongside exponential information to better drive decision-making and lead to a better world. For now, we will call the dream of a better world ‘purpose’. In an equation where information is merely one variable in a combination of factors toward a better world, what are the other variables? How might we preserve, promote and proliferate those variables while also using smart tools? To some, this may be viewed as “What makes us human?” To others, this may be viewed as “What constitutes a community?” And to others, “How does an ecosystem function, sustain and grow?”

A Proposed Formula

With purpose as an extended goal, supported by meaningful income and access to information, we propose a clear formula as a North Star for living and learning in an AI-influenced world.

(Skills + Reported Knowledge + Observed Phenomena) x Purpose = A Better World

Skills. Durable or transferable skills are a critical element and will be at a premium for those emerging into the workplace. Creating the systems and opportunities for learners to practice and show proficiency in these skills will move the needle toward a purpose-driven future. Fundamental building blocks tools such as those in the core skill set (literacy in language and mathematics) and technical skill set (relevant technical skills that change over time) support the application of durable skills. For now, AI is capable of many mental skills, however, without the aid of robotics and other technological advancements, it does not yet possess the ability to fully occupy and affect the physical world.

Reported Knowledge. Reported knowledge is the accumulated set of digital information (seeing as most information has been digitized or originated digitally). This reported knowledge can be loose in validity but due to insufficient truth systems and exponential dissemination technologies, it propagates as fact quickly. With AI scraping and building from this reported knowledge, information will continue to be useful, but only under close scrutiny. The “hallucinations” of early AI tools such as ChatGPT indicate occasional unpredictable results and very confident false results. AI tools are not thinking tools, but intelligence augmentation tools.

Observed Phenomena. With the proliferation of reported knowledge, we, as a species, will rapidly become distant from first-hand accounts of actual phenomena. These superpowers, the ability to observe the world, communicate directly with other humans and verify proclaimed data will be increasingly difficult and must be explicitly taught in education systems. Place-based approaches can support these efforts.

Purpose. We multiply the sum of all by ‘purpose’ which is a key multiplier towards a better world. A purpose-less pursuit regularly results in growth for growth-sake and while purpose can be variable, when we say it we mean that it is aligned to “the benefit of all life” and is at least reflective of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. While shared values may be harder to come by in an increasingly complex world, some, like empathy, safety, kindness and mutuality (working together towards common goals) may transcend divisiveness and increase belonging. 

What happens if we ignore a variable in our educational systems? What happens if the multiplier (purpose) is not accounted for?

As stated in a recent article by Tom Vander Ark, “This change won’t be easy but this new era means young people can do more than ever–more than we dreamed possible even a few months ago. It’s time to invite them, especially learners furthest from opportunity, into a future of possibility, into work that matters. Their potential just got bigger and better.” 

In many cases, AI is a boon to the variables above rather than a threat, however, without a carefully calibrated purpose, the end result gets a whole lot murkier. Augmenting a design of the future with AI can certainly amplify purposeful futures for young people, but without careful evaluation of each element of the equation, future generations may end up falling into the trap of a highly developed AI world that misses the mark, or worse. 

The post Is Knowledge Power? What the AI Conversation is Missing appeared first on Getting Smart.

Here are seven that are great to get started with:

1. AIClub: An online platform that offers a K-12 curriculum covering AI, but it also has a range of AI-related resources and activities for students. There are interactive lessons, coding challenges, and AI project ideas. Middle school students and younger learners can explore the AI Club Gym and try some activities to develop an understanding of AI and how it works. 

2. AI World School: Offers AI modules for learners as young as 7 and has courses available for older students to learn about virtual driverless cars and ethics. There are fun activities for students to explore that gives them a chance to understand how AI works and the potential benefits and concerns. 

3. Code.org: Provides many resources for coding and STEM and now has videos and resources for teachers to bring AI to all classrooms for grades K-12. 
4. Google Quick Draw: An AI-powered game that challenges students to draw objects while the AI attempts to guess what they are drawing. Students are given a set of 6 words to draw within 20 seconds. They learn about how the neural network begins to eliminate objects, based on what the student is drawing. A fun way to explore AI for everyone!
5. ISTE Hands-On Guide: Available for different grade bands, teachers can find lessons specific to a content area that are ready to run. Each lesson includes key definitions, lesson objectives, standards and detailed plans for implementing each lesson in the classroom. 

6. Scribble Diffusion: Students can turn a sketch into an AI-generated image by adding in text with descriptive words. The AI then generates a new image. A fun activity to try with all students and can be helpful for boosting creativity!

7. Semantris: A word association game powered by AI. Students can play solo or collaboratively, challenging their vocabulary and critical thinking skills as they try to come up with words that are related to terms provided on their screen. As they play, they develop an understanding of how quickly the information and data are sorted to come up with an answer.

As with all new technologies, it is important that we provide opportunities to explore new tools. Don’t be afraid to explore these tools so we can guide students to better understand the technologies that may become a big part of their future.

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This instructional approach revolves around three key stages: setting desired outcomes from the start, devising a plan to evaluate and achieve the outcomes, and formulating a strategic learning approach. The emphasis is placed on the process and tailoring the starting point for appropriateness (find out more about this on the ASCD website). Learning systems undergoing instructional shifts often prioritize strengthening instructional practices, and Backward Planning by Design serves as a foundational practice for personalized learning. 

A Collaborative Tool: Implementation Progressions 

The continuum below is a guide for educators to revisit Backward Planning and foster a systemic approach in classrooms and learning systems. It originated in Colorado through a collaboration involving K-12 educators, leaders, and stakeholders in Mesa County Valley School District 51. While it has been refined over time, the core purpose has not changed. Educators optimize learning and refine instruction through co-design and deliberate feedback. These progressions can also be integrated as educator competencies or included in a comprehensive Portrait of an Educator.

• Identify Learning Outcomes 
• Determine Acceptable Evidence
• Design Learning

In personalized learning frameworks, learner agency and co-designing elements are essential, empowering learners to contribute to their educational journey. To support this, there is an additional row for learner agency, followed by a section that emphasizes aligned instructional strategies. 

IDENTIFY LEARNING OUTCOMES PRACTICES

Learning outcomes can pull from competencies or standards. They may also be referred to as learning goals, Essential Understandings, Essential Questions, and Knowledge and Skills 

• Consider the learning outcomes. Questions to consider:
  • What are the essential concepts for students to understand?
  • What essential questions will students keep considering?
  • What knowledge and skills will students acquire?
  • What established outcomes are targeted?
• Review the depth of knowledge identified to know the learning outcomes. Set clear, achievable, and measurable learning goals and share them with learners. Prioritize collaborative, learner-centered learning. Determine how the design of learning contributes to a learner’s success and how the assessment process will impact the final mark (reassessment opportunities). 

DETERMINE ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE PRACTICES

Assessment design incorporates assessment literacy and learning science principles to effectively utilize formative, summative, and performance assessments.

• Consider the assessments and performance tasks learners will complete in order to demonstrate evidence of understanding and learning. How will I know if students have achieved the desired results? What will I accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency?
• Choose the types of assessments to gather evidence that will be used for designing. Considering Summative,  the culminating assessment activity at the end of the unit or a version of a formative assessment, that measures learners’ understanding along the way, such as quizzes, reflections, peer feedback, conferring, performance tasks, or practice work. 
• Access Prior Knowledge & Gather Feedback. This can occur through a pre-assessment, a type of diagnostic assessment to check students’ existing knowledge (which may not be needed in learning systems where the data is not averaged or archived) and/or formative check-ins (most common: KWL organizers, pre-tests, skill checks, and interest surveys (start of year/course). Timely, specific, and descriptive feedback that invites and allows student improvement
• Self & Peer Assessment. A key component of effective formative assessment is the involvement of learners in the process. This process Impacts the brain’s executive functions, ability to focus attention, monitor actions, and use feedback to make adjustments when necessary
• Performance Assessment. The authentic application of learning, the ultimate transfer of learning. Learners show what they know – not just for their teachers, but for themselves.

DESIGN LEARNING PRACTICES

Backward Planning from selected assessments and outcomes should incorporate instructional strategies and activities. Instructional strategies and learning activities are evaluated and considered for learning design. 

• Questions to consider:
  • What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, principles) and skills (processes, procedures, strategies) will learners need in order to achieve desired results?
  • What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills?
  • What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals?
  • How will course material and learning experiences be organized?
• Instructional strategies are the teaching methods used to present new information. Methods can include teacher-centered approaches like demonstrations or lectures or student-centered approaches like peer discussion and inquiry-based learning. Instructional activities are the specific ways in which students interact with the course content. These activities run the gamut of watching educational videos, creating posters or presentations, completing a group project, or playing learning-based games 

These implementation progressions serve as a reflective tool for educators and PLC teams to self-assess their understanding and application of the Backward Planning stages. These tools foster a culture of reflection and growth, leading to ongoing improvements in instructional practices and enhancing learner achievement. 

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