Comments on: Philanthropy – Evaluation of Education grantmaking http://thecivicfabric.org/2008/10/28/philanthropy-evaluation-of-education-grantmaking/ Thoughts From the Stair Stepper Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:18:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: John Mullaney http://thecivicfabric.org/2008/10/28/philanthropy-evaluation-of-education-grantmaking/#comment-100 John Mullaney Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:17:31 +0000 http://www.thecivicfabric.org/?p=132#comment-100 Oh Jeff, How I wish you were on our OGF task force because your questions are right on the mark! I think there is opportunity to put some flesh on the concept of Innovation Zone. It is my hope that the governor or perhaps OGF will open up a blog to invite contributions such as yours. The notions of Innovation district should absolutely include a region. I think the inital thought of a district (and I should mention districts because the idea from my understanding is to have more than one), is to start small and as you mention drive down to see what works then, based on shared experience, bring it to scale. The purpose of lifting restrictions on these zones was to enable teachers to "act" rather than "think" outside the box without thought of rebuke from a superintendent or principle if it did not seem to fit the recepie from "State". I remain convinced that the current system keeps teachers from acting as the Professionals they are and should be, and relegates them to cogs in some wheel. Under that system they can think all the nice thoughts they want, but acting.....well, better pass it by the superior or .....god forbid....the union reps. It is my hope these zones will be places where creative and great teachers will be able to shine for the professionals they are! Lets see what we can do to open this discussion to the wider teaching public. Oh Jeff, How I wish you were on our OGF task force because your questions are right on the mark! I think there is opportunity to put some flesh on the concept of Innovation Zone. It is my hope that the governor or perhaps OGF will open up a blog to invite contributions such as yours. The notions of Innovation district should absolutely include a region. I think the inital thought of a district (and I should mention districts because the idea from my understanding is to have more than one), is to start small and as you mention drive down to see what works then, based on shared experience, bring it to scale. The purpose of lifting restrictions on these zones was to enable teachers to “act” rather than “think” outside the box without thought of rebuke from a superintendent or principle if it did not seem to fit the recepie from “State”. I remain convinced that the current system keeps teachers from acting as the Professionals they are and should be, and relegates them to cogs in some wheel. Under that system they can think all the nice thoughts they want, but acting…..well, better pass it by the superior or …..god forbid….the union reps. It is my hope these zones will be places where creative and great teachers will be able to shine for the professionals they are!

Lets see what we can do to open this discussion to the wider teaching public.

]]> By: Jeff Jaroscak http://thecivicfabric.org/2008/10/28/philanthropy-evaluation-of-education-grantmaking/#comment-99 Jeff Jaroscak Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:09:43 +0000 http://www.thecivicfabric.org/?p=132#comment-99 John: I think that counties make ideal entities for "Innovation Zones." I have been re-reading the Gund report on effective schools in Cleveland. I think that the key to a report like that is to identify what Peter Schwartz (The Art of the Long View) calls "drivers." Those practices that are, without question, linked to school improvement. The Gund Report uses, collaboration, distributed leadership, and others. In finding the locations to spotlight, it is important to add a layer of evaluation in terms of what Douglas Reeves calls "Antecedents of Excellence." In my view, in order to be spotlighted a school/district has to go beyond success. They must have a rational explanation for why the strategy works. If they have made no attempt to measure the impact of the strategy, then there is little that can be learned from them. I think that your point in the initial post is well-taken, that it is difficult to create deep change without leveraging all available resources and that a focused funding effort will stand a better chance of success. With the role of the P-16 still developing, I think that there is an opportunity to view that body as a "spotlighting agency." They are uniquely positioned to focus attention of programming that is innovative and successful. A couple of questions: To what extent do innovation zones require that schools think beyond the traditional notion of "district" and begin to think in terms of "region?" Does the success of innovation zones depend on schools and districts that can not only "think" out of the box, but "act" out of the box as well? John:

I think that counties make ideal entities for “Innovation Zones.” I have been re-reading the Gund report on effective schools in Cleveland. I think that the key to a report like that is to identify what Peter Schwartz (The Art of the Long View) calls “drivers.” Those practices that are, without question, linked to school improvement. The Gund Report uses, collaboration, distributed leadership, and others. In finding the locations to spotlight, it is important to add a layer of evaluation in terms of what Douglas Reeves calls “Antecedents of Excellence.” In my view, in order to be spotlighted a school/district has to go beyond success. They must have a rational explanation for why the strategy works. If they have made no attempt to measure the impact of the strategy, then there is little that can be learned from them.

I think that your point in the initial post is well-taken, that it is difficult to create deep change without leveraging all available resources and that a focused funding effort will stand a better chance of success.

With the role of the P-16 still developing, I think that there is an opportunity to view that body as a “spotlighting agency.” They are uniquely positioned to focus attention of programming that is innovative and successful.

A couple of questions:

To what extent do innovation zones require that schools think beyond the traditional notion of “district” and begin to think in terms of “region?”

Does the success of innovation zones depend on schools and districts that can not only “think” out of the box, but “act” out of the box as well?

]]> By: John http://thecivicfabric.org/2008/10/28/philanthropy-evaluation-of-education-grantmaking/#comment-98 John Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:44:10 +0000 http://www.thecivicfabric.org/?p=132#comment-98 Jeff Thanks so much for the post. I have not seen the video but ordered it from ABC News. The disucssion about Innovation Zones sounds good but in my opinion lacks a little meat. Your critique is very well received and might be that substance for what an Innovation Zone could look like. When the OGF Group discussed the zones, the purpose was to create places that lift the typical controls, managment styles in favor of less outside intervention. It is my opinion that if the state were to establish Distributive Innovation Groups supporting Entreprenurial Innovation Groups, the creativity coming out of the rapid prototyping can be brought to scale with greater facility. If this model were done on a national level, we could really get somewhere in improving education. Please let me know if I have captured the rapid prototype issue correctly. John Jeff
Thanks so much for the post. I have not seen the video but ordered it from ABC News. The disucssion about Innovation Zones sounds good but in my opinion lacks a little meat. Your critique is very well received and might be that substance for what an Innovation Zone could look like. When the OGF Group discussed the zones, the purpose was to create places that lift the typical controls, managment styles in favor of less outside intervention. It is my opinion that if the state were to establish Distributive Innovation Groups supporting Entreprenurial Innovation Groups, the creativity coming out of the rapid prototyping can be brought to scale with greater facility. If this model were done on a national level, we could really get somewhere in improving education.

Please let me know if I have captured the rapid prototype issue correctly.

John

]]> By: Jeff Jaroscak http://thecivicfabric.org/2008/10/28/philanthropy-evaluation-of-education-grantmaking/#comment-101 Jeff Jaroscak Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:35:00 +0000 http://www.thecivicfabric.org/?p=132#comment-101 I respectfully challenge the thinking underlying creating an "Island of Excellence." My experience the past five years has revealed one core idea that characterizes all school improvement efforts--the notion that there is one way to improve schools and that replicating the efforts of successful schools is a viable strategy for all schools. At the Center, we believe that school improvement can come only from a relentless focus upon, and pursuit of, the desired results. The notion that we currently suffer from a plethora of new ideas and a scattergun approach to improvement does not reflect my experience. My experience has been totally different. We don't have too many ideas, we have many variations of the same idea. An ABC News special, entitled The Deep Dive, chronicles a project undertaken by the design firm Ideo. A component of the Deep Dive is "rapid prototyping." At Ideo they reject the notion that there is one way to solve every problem. By independently developing five to seven rapid prototypes, teams at Ideo have a number of different designs from which to develop the final product. I submit that this "rapid prototyping" is what has been lacking in the school improvement effort. Instead, we have replaced it with control, management, and intervention. I respectfully challenge the thinking underlying creating an “Island of Excellence.” My experience the past five years has revealed one core idea that characterizes all school improvement efforts–the notion that there is one way to improve schools and that replicating the efforts of successful schools is a viable strategy for all schools.

At the Center, we believe that school improvement can come only from a relentless focus upon, and pursuit of, the desired results.

The notion that we currently suffer from a plethora of new ideas and a scattergun approach to improvement does not reflect my experience. My experience has been totally different. We don’t have too many ideas, we have many variations of the same idea.

An ABC News special, entitled The Deep Dive, chronicles a project undertaken by the design firm Ideo. A component of the Deep Dive is “rapid prototyping.” At Ideo they reject the notion that there is one way to solve every problem. By independently developing five to seven rapid prototypes, teams at Ideo have a number of different designs from which to develop the final product.

I submit that this “rapid prototyping” is what has been lacking in the school improvement effort. Instead, we have replaced it with control, management, and intervention.

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