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Public Agenda Alert -- June 28th, 2012
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 Collaborative Problem Solving in School Turnaround

In some communities in California, Texas and Louisiana, "parent trigger" laws have given parents far-reaching control over the operation of a chronically low-performing school, empowering them to fire teachers and administrators, transfer students and convert public schools to charters.  These laws add a new dimension to the approaches to school turnaround, but despite its stated aim of giving parents and communities more say in their local schools, this may not solve the problem in a sustainable way.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, leaders close schools and fundamentally reshape them with little or no community input. This strategy can yield controversy, anger and sadness among teachers, parents, students and community members. While it is essential to involve the community in turnaround decisions, parent trigger bears the threat of causing deep divisions between parents and the teachers and administrators in charge of their kids. In both cases, the result is division and the creation of slow-to-heal ruptures among district leaders, teachers and principals, parents, and community members.

 

We all want to provide the best possible education for our nation's children, and no one is satisfied when that shared goal is threatened by a consistently low-performing school.  Yet we believe there is a way to instill more authentic and productive parent and community involvement in all circumstances. Instead of a system where one group of stakeholders is always tuning out another and operating alone to drive policy decisions and change, a collaborative system of decision making will lead to sustainable policies and solutions in education reform. 

 

How can school districts and communities work together in tangible ways on solutions to persistently low-performing schools?

  • It is important that school and district leaders reach out to a broad swath of the school community early and often-teachers, parents, business leaders, community residents and leaders of community groups.
  • Education leaders should have a vision of what success looks like, but must avoid coming in with a pre-packaged plan and just pretending to get community input.
  • The standard "public hearing" format doesn't engender authentic public engagement. Thoughtfulness and a viable exchange of viewpoints come from structured dialogue that provides people with choices to weigh and consider, so that they can genuinely reflect on the inherent tradeoffs of a possible solution.

While authentic engagement takes a lot of hard work up front, it results in solutions that are much more effective and enduring. If you're interested in learning more about best practices and essential strategies for engaging communities to solve critical and complex public issues, check out our Primer on Public Engagement, which includes general advice,  and our recent communications and engagement guide, "What's Trust Got to Do With It?," which includes specific principles for engaging the community on school turnaround. 

Is Gamification Changing Engagement in Education? 

Experts have expressed concern that our education system is pumping out too many students with liberal arts degrees and not enough in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. Business leaders in particular are alarmed by this, as we saw in our recent report "Hiring and Higher Education." They not only fear a mismatch between what the system is producing and what the economy needs, but also express mounting concern that the lack of talented and employable individuals will cause the US to fall behind more competitive countries.

 

So how can we get students interested in and engaged with these subjects? Some say, let them play video games.

 

Gaming for Engagement

 

Game designers and developers have been interested in applying their game concepts and the information they have gathered about engagement to bring about dynamic change for awhile now. At the forefront is Jane McGonigal of TEDtalk fame, who presented the keynote address at the Games for Change Festival in New York last week.

 

Though there is no consensus on the formula for the best way to marry entertainment and educational value in games, they are seen as a formidable force and source of engagement for students of all ages. The trick will be how to use the engagement trends gamers have been tracking, as well as some of the pilot programs being taught today, to determine best practices for implementation.

 

Examples of the Gamification of Education

 

What does gamification mean in the classroom?

 

EdWeek described the role of computer game building in Tygarts Valley Middle and High School in Mill Creek, W.Va., where Globaloria curriculum, crafted by ed-tech nonprofit World Wide Workshop is being taught, as a way for students from low-income households to get invaluable exposure to computer systems. In the classroom, students work independently or with partners to design and develop educational games, such as the "The Lost Llama" who moves through a maze of sines, cosines and tangents. 

 

After-school programs in NYC, LA and the Bay Area have gathered teams of girls to create apps. The idea, especially targeted at girls, is designed to inspire interest in not only computer programming, but also business marketing and entrepreneurship. Also chronicled in this EdWeek article is the story of Oklahoma City-based TechJOYnt, an after-school app creation program focused on STEM education.

 

What does gamification in education mean to you? 

Join the discussion! 

Tweet us at @PublicAgenda, and use the hashtag #gamification. 

What We Are Reading


What if mayors ruled the world?
While politics at the national level is mired in gridlock, there's a lot of pragmatic problem solving happening at the city and community level. 

 

A 5 minute primer on parent trigger, including a weighing of pros and cons.

 

Confidence in public school system is at an all-time low. Only 29 percent of respondents express "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence.

Middle school girls want access to e-learning. Control and flexibility are the desirable factors of this learning experience.

Infographics We Like:
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