Lee Iacocca, John Dewey, and idea who's time has not quite come

I remember Lee Iacocca from commercials in the 80's saying, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." Remarkably, he managed to convince the American public that the K-car was the answer, which kept Chrysler afloat until they could invent the minivan segment - which was, after all, a K-car underneath. He also said in those commercials, "Either lead, follow, or get out of the way."

For now, at least, I'm choosing the latter, and putting both Innovation Maine and the project that it grew out of it, Maine Enterprise Schools, on hiatus. For more than two years (or, depending on how you count, 18) I've worked assiduously on both local and state levels with the fundamental assumption that Maine's public schools would be better off leading innovation than having it forced upon them.

Since that day, our approach has depended on negotiating agreements with existing public school districts. We have not accomplished that, despite coming close many times. No agreements for the 2009 school year, for the 2010 school year, or for the 2011 school year. And while we've had credible offers to fund pilots programs as private schools, I've held firm that the work we do must situate these schools as viable options for any student in any community in which we work. As John Dewey wrote nearly 100 years ago, "What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy."

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The more things change...?

I had no idea the blog had gone quiet for two whole weeks - the number of words I type on a daily basis has certainly increased, not decreased...but they've nearly all been in the service of trying to line up a first site for a Maine Enterprise School.

InnovationMaine started in June as part of a consulting and advocacy contract with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools that ran it's course Dec. 31. I do intend to keep writing; how frequently I can post we'll have to see. But with the last bit of proposal writing done for now, I find myself with a few minutes to reflect: what has changed in the six months since I started writing, what's the same, and what might the future hold?

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5-year High School Program

Bill Nemitz' column in this morning's PPH quotes Governor LePage saying, "I believe we need to create a five-year high school program in Maine where students can graduate with an associate's degree as a heads-up in going into the workforce or as credit toward a four-year degree at the university or college level." After yesterday's announcement that he intends to make it as hard as possible for both documented and undocumented immigrants and refugees to feel at home in Maine, I was relieved to see something both positive and substantial.

Having worked briefly an Early College High School start-up at Lorraine County Technical College in Ohio, I can attest to the potential - and the challenges - of such approaches. We've learned a lot since then, and the governor and Mr. Fitzsimmons of the Community College system are wise to build on the work of North Carolina, which has gone the farthest and had the most success with this model.

Mr. Fitzsimmons points out that the NC implementation "began with a $21 million grant from the Gates Foundation and each year the legislature allocates $19 million for those new 'early colleges.'" Mr. Nemitz concludes by saying, "'good luck with your base when they realize what it takes, alas, to turn a good-but-complicated idea into simple reality. It's called 'state spending.'"

I'm not so sure - at least not at the levels of North Carolina. I not only think we can do something "good-but-complicated" for far less money, but do so more effectively. Though I was unaware of the 5-year high school design team formed by Mr. Fitzsimmons, it sounds like they're largely on the right track. The question, as Mr. Nemitz points out, is how we get there and how we pay for it.

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Private vs. Public

An email from a Maine school superintendent: "John, can you in a few sentences tell me how a private charter school is funded and governed differently that a public charter school?" I think so...depends on what is meant by a "few sentences" and by "private charter school."

A private school is a private school: parents pay tuition, the school selects which kids are accepted and which are not. Hyde School, North Yarmouth Academy, The Center for Teaching and Learning. A public school is, in theory at least, open to any child who lives in the area which that public school serves - and that applies to public charter schools as well. No examples in Maine, 4,936 examples in 40 other states.

Public charter schools are, according to National Alliance for Public Charter Schools:

"independent public schools that are allowed the freedom to be more innovative, while being held accountable for improved student achievement.

• tuition-free and open to every student who wishes to enroll

• non-sectarian, and do not discriminate on any basis

• publicly funded by local, state and federal tax dollars based on enrollment, like other public schools

• held accountable to state and federal academic standards"

While that should be straightforward, it is not.

Some states allow schools that have previously operated as private schools

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Questions about Rural Charters

Nancy from New Sweden, Maine writes with some wonderfully thoughtful questions. Click here to find out where New Sweden is, and it'll give you some idea of the challenges rural schools face.

Here's what I could cobble together for context: New Sweden is part of the four town School Administrative Unit 122 that consists of two K-8 schools; Woodland's serves 132 kids and and New Sweden's serves 82, both including pre-K. The schools are 8 miles apart.

Though it's not clear from the website, I'm assuming students in grades 9-12 attend either Caribou High School or the K-12 Limestone Community School, both roughly 10 miles away and part of Eastern Aroostook RSU, a recently consolidated district that also includes two primary schools, one serving pre-K through 2nd grade and another serving grades 3-5, a middle school and a high school. The schools "serve over 1600 students and employ 250 professionals," or one adult for every 6.5 kids.

An interesting side note is that Limestone shares it's facility with the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, an application-only magnet school serving 130 students grades 10-12 from across Maine. MSSM is publicly financed, but is independent from any individual school district.

On to Nancy's questions:

How would it be determined if the schools produce "quality opportunities and results"? How long would they be given to show those results? And compared to what (if only as they're relevant to kids and families in town, then why are we looking at state/national results now?)

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Rural Charter Schools work!

This story from Oregon gives lots of hope for those in small communities in Maine that may, or in some cases already have, seen their schools close.

"With dwindling enrollment and a state funding crisis, Hughes told community members the 130-student K-12 school -- split between two buildings -- would likely have to close its doors within two to three years. Now, nearly three years later, Elkton has new computers, new curriculum and materials and nearly 80 new students.

What changed? Elkton became a charter school."

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Charter schools suddenly 'relevant'

The charter school meeting hosted by the Maine Association of Charter Schools did indeed make clear that charters are relevant and that they are likely to happen. The 50 or so folks gathered on Thursday represented a very broad spectrum - legislators, school superintendents and potential charter school operators.

What was most exciting about the meeting is the degree to which folks who might not be seen as allies on most issues were able to find genuine common ground on the need to innovate. I spoke with a newly elected Republican legislator and a long-time liberal activist who were agreeing word for word with each other on how a well-structured charter law could help meet the needs of the young people in their very similar towns.

What continues to be discouraging is the lack of sophistication of some of the public debate surrounding charters, which came through quite loudly in the Portland Press Herald's article. My problem here is not with Mr. Stone's reporting - he has to report what is being said, and did a much better job of highlighting some of the many variables, rather than just perpetuating the myths.

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Charter Forum in Augusta this Thursday

On Thursday, the Maine Association of Charter Schools is sponsoring a forum at the Augusta Civic Center to "1) share the key components of MACS' Charter School Bill as it is currently proposed; 2) solicit feedback from participants before the final language is drafted; and 3) provide a networking opportunity with people from across Maine and beyond interested in supporting a high-quality public charter school sector in Maine." Lots of statewide stakeholders will be there, as well as Todd Ziebarth of the National Association of Public Charter Schools, which created the national model charter law which I've referred to here several times.

Judith Jones and Roger Brainerd of MACS have flown the charter school flag in Maine for over 15 years now, coming quite close to passage several times. Joined recently by Dorothy Havey in the run-up to the election, MACS has written and re-written the proposed legislation many times. MACS has also built a coalition of legislators, parent advocates, and educators - all of whom see some promise in a law that enables PUBLIC school choice in Maine.

As with any coalition, folks come from a wide variety of perspectives and experiences - in my case, teaching in three Maine high schools (Noble, Freeport, and Poland); playing a variety of roles in several major school reinvention initiatives in Maine (CSRD, Great Schools Project); being part of the founding of two start-up public schools in Maine - Casco Bay High School in Portland and Poland Regional High School. My advocacy for PUBLIC charters is also informed by first-hand experience with charter schools in several states (Massachusetts, Ohio, and New York quite deeply, others less so). In addition, as a parent I've had my kids in three public schools systems (Brunswick, AOS 93, and Portland) one private school (the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb) and one public/private academy (Lincoln).

My overall critique, then, is meant in that context - NOT as a theoretical or ideological stance, but as a deeply practical one. Maine CAN educate more kids well with a combination of charters and traditional public schools. But, as we've seen in other states, a charter law can UNINTENTIONALLY create schools that, rather than serving the students MOST in need of options, do the opposite. Good intentions are rarely enough in the world of school reform. So here are my specific concerns, which I've shared with the folks at MACS and I have confidence we'll be able to work out as the bill makes it way into law.

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Response to MidCoast mom

First, thanks to Midcoast mom for writing - she articulates many of the questions many PARENTS have about charter schools and choice in general. Second, apologies for the more than week-long delay in responding - some irony in the fact that the work that has kept me from the blog for the past week is putting together a proposal for the very district in which she lives. So here goes - her writing in italics.

Hello – I’m a Mom in the Mid-coast area. I’ve been following this blog. I do feel that it would be nice for parents of children with special needs to have an option for their children in your school. I purchased my home in Woolwich specifically because we had high school choice, which we have since lost. We are now part of RSU 1.

Loss of school choice was one of the many deeply felt losses in the consolidation process - in fact, many communities essentially refused to combine unless the state approved a continuation of choice. AOS 93 and SVRSU 12, just up the coast from Woolwich, are two such districts.

For my children, I want a traditional education (grammar taught as a “subject”, traditional letter grades, standard math algorithms, traditional 45-50 minute high school classes, etc). My administration disagrees with me and tells me that “traditional education” doesn’t work in the 21st century. I don’t agree.

The beauty of true PUBLIC school choice is that families can, from among available options, send their kids to the school that works best for them. (That can also be a danger - more about that later.)

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Equity and fairness Maine's publicly chartered schools

The "chartered" with a "d" is deliberate for two reasons: for the first, see my earlier post, Charter as Verb: Innovation and Autonomy. The second reason is that it enables us to examine our existing system of schools as "publicly chartered" as well, and to ask the question: is the "charter" that our current schools negotiated with the towns they serve (in the case of our public/private academies 150 or more years ago) adequate? If not, might we consider a process of chartering new schools that might match up better with today's realities? Those realities are the ones our legislature will need to wrestle with, as this last group of Rep. Steve Lovejoy's questions makes clear.

Should we require that charter schools take a truly representative population that gives it the same demographics as the public schools they draw from? Should it include special education If not, aren't we creating an unequal field in terms of comparisons of the results of the schools?

Yes, we ABSOLUTELY should require that publicly chartered schools serve a truly representative population, including students with special needs. A less than carefully constructed charter law would exacerbate, rather than ameliorate, the class divisions in American K-12 schooling - where the gulf between what those of means and privilege have access to, is from birth on, ever-widening. A carefully constructed charter law can give public school students access to the types of approaches once thought to be the province only of private schools.

Each of the 6 or so Gates Foundation-linked start-ups I had some working experience with, including Casco Bay HS, built into its agreement with the host district or charter authorizer some version of the phrase, "replicates the demographics of the sending area."

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If we can't teach them, then neither can you.

Yesterday's post explored a potential chartered school bill in the context of Maine's recent consolidation initiative - and made the case that start-up small PUBLIC schools need to be a vital part of any next round. In addition to taking a another swipe or two at the black vs. white/public vs. charter argument, I also tried to shift the focus to the situation school districts find themselves in. Understanding that can help us rethink whether the schools we have are the schools we need. For instance, one of the situations that now presents something of a challenge but that could present an opportunity is the thriving but highly idiosyncratic landscape of school choice in Maine.

But before we delve into school choice, we should make clear the role played by some other choices we make, or don't. Not only is the real cost per student in most Maine systems SUBSTANTIALLY higher than in other states, but when you factor in the many dollars that are disbursed for the benefit of children through the social services and health care systems, every child who becomes WELL-educated at a publicly chartered school is a long-term bargain (or investment) for the state of Maine.

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Response to Rep. Steve Lovejoy

Apologies to Steve Lovejoy, State Representative for District 115 in Portland, for taking more than a week to respond. He wrote in response to the first of three entries I posted last week about what a LePage administration might mean for school reform.

His questions are the VERY questions the legislature is going to have to wrestle with. They required some time (and as you’ll see, some length) to address, time that disappeared during what became a very busy and exciting week for Maine Enterprise Schools. In each case, I've tried to link the theoretical to an actual Maine example. Rep. Lovejoy's word in italics.

While I appreciate your email, and still like the idea of charter schools, I have a real problem with how we can make it work. I'll look forward to the next three pieces. In terms of how to make that work, I would like to see you address several issues that concern me.

With ever shrinking enrollments in many areas of Maine, especially Northern Maine, will charter schools make the public schools even smaller and less financially feasible. Will it drive further school closures and consolidation? Will the shifting of funds make this inevitable?

Given that the current promoters say give it five year and if it doesn't work the charters will close, what schools will the students go back to if we have had to close more schools?

Should we require that charter schools take a truly representative population that gives it the same demographics as the public schools they draw from? Should it include special education? If not, aren't we creating an unequal field in terms of comparisons of the results of the schools?

The first question itself, "with ever shrinking enrollments in many areas of Maine, especially Northern Maine, will charter schools make the public schools even smaller and less financially feasible?" highlights a myth/misunderstanding that is at the core of Maine's inability to innovate. While the consolidation initiative in Maine largely accepted this as gospel, and while lots of folks, like the Maine Education Association, repeat this over and over, "making the public schools smaller" and "less financially feasible” are NOT cause and effect links.

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Harold Shaw

A response to Mr. Shaw's questions/comments: (Mr. Shaw in italics) 1. What tools do you propose to use for measurement? Do they more accurately measure the educational achievement that we all want to see, better than the present use of questionable assessments, that are being used today for that purpose. Or do you recommend the status quo on this important issue. We propose some very specific, "best-practice" standards-based assessment models. These neither accept the status quo nor reinvent the wheel. As to the "questionable assessments" (and from where I sit, every assessment is "questionable" - questioning is a good thing, right?) the various methods are all valuable - but more in how they inform instruction than in any translation to alphanumeric grading systems. Maine Enterprise Schools students will move from middle level to early high school to pre-college upon meeting standards, not age or seat-time, in three significant ways: standardized tests, online portfolio, and performance.

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Response to Comments

The article in Portland Press Herald this Saturday drew my attention to my work with Maine Enterprise Schools...just now getting a chance to reply to comments on last weeks. 3-part "What will Paul LePage's win mean for school reform in Maine?"

Will try to tackle Nancy's comment today (in italics below), the comments of Mr. Shaw tomorrow, and some superb questions from Portland legislator Steve Lovejoy on Thursday.

Not being part of any organization now, but formerly employed by MEA, I would strongly urge a different model than a single face-to-face summit. Maine is a large state (by eastern standards) and too many people who care about issues are left out of discussions because of travel concerns (weather, time, etc). A virtual summit that could be kept active and moderated for a relatively long period of time would be either a valuable (1) alternative or (2) addition.

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Time to Address Child Poverty and High Dropout Rates in Maine

From Brunswick Times Record, and superbly made case for looking not at educational and social costs differently - and for letting the brain science of the 21st century, rather than that of the 19th, inform our social and educational policies:

I have often wondered why, as a society, we find it so difficult to address crucial problems like child poverty, child neglect, high dropout rates and student underachievement. Instead, we grind and rattle our way down the road until the wheels fall off the cart. We are now at the breakdown point with regard to our at-risk kids, and the costs of doing business as usual are bankrupting us. Consider the following:

• On average 21 students in Maine drop out of school each day, with the class of 2009 estimated to have lost 3,800 kids.

• The societal cost for each high-school dropout is approximately $292,000, due to reduced wages and taxes, welfare and high health-care costs, and--as is all to often the case--the costs of incarceration.

• Dropouts are 3 1/2 times more likely to wind up in jail than non-dropouts.

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From words to action

As promised, a proposal for a process that can create healthy, effective, and swift progress creating an innovation infrastructure for Maine's schools. I'm sure I'll miss a few things - this is meant to be specific enough to be a real plan, but drafty enough to be adaptable and flexible (for instance, I learned yesterday that the Maine Association for Charter Schools plans to convene folks around charter schools, likely on Dec. 16....an event like that could easily fit into or be combined with the plan below.)

1) The Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education should convene an education summit – and should do so before the end of this year. The MCEE has cross-sector representation and includes most key constituencies. More importantly, we can start with the work already underway - Prepare Maine.

2) The purpose of the Summit would NOT be to further argue over what needs to be done – but to gain consensus – now that the political landscape has changed in way that makes new approaches possible – on how those new approaches can do the most good and the least damage.

3) The Process: MCEE should agree to delegate to three different - but overlapping sub-groups - the tasks of drafting three pieces of legislation.

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Three lists - criteria for education innovation

Yesterday’s post promised three lists that I think can function as the design parameters for Maine’s opportunity to re-invent our schools systems in ways that better serve our communities and students. I use the word re-invent deliberately but cautiously, knowing that we’ll hear lots of “we don’t need to re-invent the wheel.” That metaphor is too limiting. It might be better to ask – “is wheeled transportation the only mode at our disposal?”

25 years, 5 presidents, and over a billion dollars of foundation-funded school reform initiatives, and the federal No Child Left Behind initiatives have not produced uniformly better schools for all students. Some even argue that we're worse off than where we were when we began, though I don't agree.

What we need is innovation, and innovation that is explicitly designed for Maine’s culture, demographics and economy. The reason Maine has fallen behind in educational outcomes and innovation are many, but a very simple one is that we’ve not had a set of structures, policies and funding mechanisms to do so. That is the opportunity we have now.

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What will Paul LePage's election mean for Maine education?

I've made no bones about the fact that neither of the two major party candidates were my choice for governor. Eliot Cutler, who I endorsed and voted for, had what I considered a plan and a talented team to carry it out, and Shawn Moody had the strongest understanding of what many of Maine's young people and micro-businesses needed.

But the days since the election have been fascinating…a conversation with a close friend livid at both Libby Mitchell and Eliot Cutler for not joining forces to beat LePage. A respected colleague in Wisconsin (who may have helped vote a principled politician I revere and once worked for, Russ Feingold, out of office) asking, “How’s it feel to wake up in a red state?” A conversation with my “throw the bums out” father, who finds lots to admire in LePage, daring me to find something positive in this outcome.

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Independence and Innovation for Governor

Those who know me know the depth and breadth of my commitment to public schools. The economic health of many Maine communities - and the quality of life of countless individual students and their families - depends on the degree to which our public educational system works. And while we can agree that right now it works well for some kids, we should be able to admit that it's not working for many others.

Like Dick Barnes, whose well reasoned letter I'm forwarding, I've been advising Eliot Cutler's education policy. As some of you know, I've also been writing extensively about the kinds of policies that will help Maine regain the mantle of innovation and leadership we had under former Governor Angus King and Commissioner Duke Albanese.

The policies Eliot proposes are not political - they are based on best practices and adapted for Maine's particular assets and challenges. Unfortunately, the positions of the two major party candidates simply do not address what is working (a great deal) and is not working (also a great deal) in Maine. Instead, these positions reflect the interests of those who seek to get their candidates elected by distorting and confusing voters.

Former Governor King, in his endoresement of Eliot yesterday, wrote:

"The partisanship that has taken hold of our political system has put us in deadlock, and now more than ever, we need to coalesce around common goals and shared purpose.

While Eliot Cutler has been the focus of an unprecedented campaign of negativity and slander, he has not responded in kind. Instead he has focused on solutions to the pressing issues facing Maine. This speaks volumes about Eliot's character and the kind of Governor he will be."

One of the solutions Governor King refers to is Eliot's "no excuses" education policy. Yes, the PUBLIC charter schools Eliot supports will require some of the money currently going to public schools to be spent differently. To say that it will "take money from public schools," though, is the kind of sound -bite distortion that has made so many of us so sick of politics. The real challenge is make the money we ARE spending produce the results we seek - and to give EVERY child in Maine a fair chance in the bargain. Our money is not doing that now.

As the Expeditionary Learning Schools "school designer" who led the Casco Bay High School project in Portland, I spent a year countering arguments from both the right (it will cost more) and the left (it will take money from existing schools). Over time, the argument we started with - better results for the same money - won the day.

And it's a good thing, too. If you talk to the parents whose children have been "saved" by Casco Bay High School, you'd want such a choice - fully public, open to any student in your community - for your child. Right now, a very small percentage of Mainers do have such choice - limited by a quirky set of grandfathered local funding and governance structures. Is this really the best we can do?

Tomorrow, you have a choice. Do you want a governor who sticks with the party line - Republican, Democratic, or Tea? Or might some independence be better for Maine?

Hi,

As most of you know, I have been working as a volunteer educational policy advisor to Eliot Cutler for the past nine months. We are now down to the wire on the race for Governor. It is clear that Paul LePage will be the next Governor if the advocates for a strong public education system in Maine, from pre-school to graduate school, continue to split their votes between Libby Mitchell and Eliot Cutler. The leadership of the Maine Education Assn has gone out of its way to distort the policy positions of Eliot since day one of his candidacy, portraying him as pro-”merit pay,” for “vouchers to private schools,” for teacher accountability and evaluation systems that are based primarily on test scores, and that his cost reductions would force layoffs for “6000-7000 teachers.”

Eliot has positions on each of these topics. And although they are not in line with the positions of the MEA leadership and Libby Mitchell, they are thoughtful positions that hold some promise for creating breakthroughs that can lead to making progress in student achievement throughout the entire public education system. Maine has been devoid of any forward-thinking leadership for the last five or more years. At the state level we’ve lost our way. Teachers, school leaders, community college and university personnel are ready for real leadership.

I am attaching a 3 minute video clip by Eliot and a one-page statement outlining his educational positions. Please take three minutes to view it. And if you have not yet voted, please vote for Eliot Cutler! He is the only candidate with a realistic chance of beating Paul LePage on November 3rd!

Thank you,
Dick

http://www.cutler2010.com/teachers/

Sir Kenneth Robinson's Changing Paradigms in Education

If you can find 11 minutes in the next day or two, I urge you to find time to listen to/watch Ken Robinson's animated dissection of the degree to which our current system of education is profoundly unsuited for our times and our children.

http://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg

Many of you have heard me or others say many of the same things - that batch processing kids deadens their motivation, that natural curiosity gets labeled ADHD, and that we make a false and damaging distinction between academic learning and hands-on learning. My favorite part, if were not so sad, would be when he shares the study that demonstrates the degree to which, over time, our schools greatly reduce the natural capacity for divergent thinking that almost every child is a "genius" at.

I'll be showing this video everywhere I can from here on out - Sir Kenneth elucidates the intellectual underpinnings of what we're trying to do with Maine Enterprise Schools better than I ever could - and it makes me that much more eager to be part of the creation of a new system, were the beauty of an education driven by deep, lived experience with the arts, ecosystems, and the real work of humans (and their machines) is available to every single child, regardless of place or parentage.