The 21k12 Model School: What it is Serious About

Jonathan MartinSeptember 14, 2009

Drawn from Wagner, Hersh, the Partnership for 21st c. Skills, High Tech High, and New Technology High School

Sources

Many, including:

Tony Wagner: The Global Achievement Gap.

Richard Hersh: A Well Rounded Education for a Flat World.

The Partnership for 21st century Skills.

My own research, shadowing students at 21 high schools, including most particularly High Tech High, New Technology High School, and Center for Advanced Research and Technology

Serious About Skills and Content

Sometimes the new movement appears to de-emphasize Content, and this is a frequent, the most frequent, target of criticism.   It appears this way because of the corresponding High emphasis on Skills, and because of its Intent to React against what is perceived to be an Over-emphasis on Content

But Content is Still Essential.  None of these schools or writers are throwing out content, not at all. 

Hersh is emphatic on this point.  educating for a flat world “is not a question of content vs. skills– it’s about creating challenging, profoundly engaging, and authentic educational experiences that produce life-long learners…. The issue of either skills or content is a false dichotomy, one that we need to transcend if we are going to make significant progress.”

Serious About Skills

This has received the most attention. 

P-21 is almost Entirely Focused on Skills Wagner clearly mostly interested in skills:"All students need new skills to thrive in a global knowledge economy." "In the age of internet, using new information to solve new problems matters more than recalling old information.  Students today must be prepared to apply what they have learned to new situations and challenges, rather then merely recite what they have memorized."

Which Skills?

Different Lists Abound. 

Common to all of them are •Critical Thinking, •Creativity and Innovation, •Communications Written and Oral, and,

(what I think is the Queen of Skills,)•authentic, complex problem solving. 

Leadership appears on some lists, not all.

Also: collaboration, resilience, adaptability, initiative, accessing and analyzing information, global sophistication, technology. 

Serious About Engagement

Students need to Learn by Doing Brain research strongly supports memory retention and skill-building happens best by the active use of what we are learning.  Content learning, then happens better in more engaging learning environments.

Hersh: Education needs to involve students in a process of purposeful reflection: research, writing, speaking, and being simultaneously intellectually and emotionally connected with what they are doing. 

Serious about Authenticity

For motivation and engagement, best to connect closely learning to real-world issues and concerns. 

Hersh, again: students need to be emotionally connected with what they are doing

Wagner: at schools that work, opportunities abound for students to explore their questions and interests as a driving force for learning.

Serious about Technology

Some exceptions. 

But at most, students are empowered with contemporary, powerful digital tools to enhance their ability to research, to communicate, to collaborate, and to publish their learning. 

this is best with technology in students' hands:  laptops, smartphones, calculators, etc.

Drives kids to greater learning, and engages them more, gives them more fun.

Serious about Motivation

We must recognize kids are different today; they are used to connectedness to web, used to gaming, used to constant feedback, used to being creative communicators and publishers.  

Motivation cannot be an after-thought, only intended for the underachievers, it needs to be proactive and for all. 

Wagner recommends: Close teacher-student relationships (advisory groups); opportunities for students to explore their questions; and that learning be more hands-on and more personalized.

Serious about Problem-Based LearningAlso known as Case study learning. 

Hersh: Teaching for these new outcomes involves more than asking students to passively receive information.   Consider, for example, problem-based or case study teaching, in which students are asked to apply historical, scientific, and cultural knowledge to address real problems. 

 If problem-solving is the "queen" of contemporary crucial skills, this only makes sense. 

Serious about Exhibiting Student WorkStudent work is published, posted, and celebrated.  

Wagner: students produce public products that reflect who they are-- what they believe and care about.   

Student Work Displayed reinforces the value placed on learning, creates new real audiences for student work, and gives everyone more information about how students are progressing.

Serious about Assessment & FeedbackResearch demonstrates powerfully the value of regular, quality, frequent feedback. 

Hersh: Because feedback during learning is crucial, we must rethink the importance and role of assessment. 

Rubrics. Formative assessment. Quality reporting of student learning. 

Serious about Results

Data driven decisionmaking, measurement dashboard, but the right kinds of results. 

SAT scores important, but only a part of the equation. AP tests eliminated or seriously downplayed.

Wagner: Holding ourselves accountable for quality student work and student success in college and beyond.  Schools should look to measures of what students can achieve in the real world as the ultimate assessment of effectiveness, and use this information to refine academic program.

Wagner recommends CWRA, PISA, iSkills. 

[St. Gregory has already signed up for CWRA, (1st in AZ), and HSSSE. We are planning alumni surveys; We are looking at PISA and iSkills.]

Serious about Teacher DevelopmentWagner explains that at all three schools: teachers work in study groups to reflect on practice, collaborate, focus on results, and give feedback.  Attention is given to evidence-- How do we know we are being effective for student learning? 

Time is provided, structured weekly or more, for regular such collaboration. 

Contemporary teacher development is best executed via Professional learning communities/Critical Friends Groups. 

Serious about Evidence-Based Instruction

Not highly apparent in Wagner or Hersh.

More apparent at HTH and NTHS

Marzano the key figure here.

Also, Research for Better Teaching.

Criticisms of this New Model 

Some from the left argue that 21st century schools and the new skills movement are narrowly focused on economic competition and workforce preparation, and are not teaching students to study the humanities, seek the meaning of life, or become truly independent, critical minded adults. 

Criticisms continued

From the right, the biggest arguments are that these new model schools wrongly de-emphasize content, and that the new skills are too difficult to measure in standardized ways. 

From the center, some argue that these teaching methods-- project based, engaging, digital-- are just too hard for most teachers, and will create distractions, disruptions, even chaos in classrooms. 

There is also the AP problem: this new model either eliminates AP curricula, or strongly de-emphasizes it, and some think that this limits college eligibility, and that some parents are too attached to AP programs to choose otherwise.