Don’t stifle Florida’s education innovation
Posted by michael_horn | Under Non-consumption, Online learning Thursday Apr 16, 2009As readers of this blog will know, we are fans of the Florida Virtual School (FLVS) as it represents one of the more noteworthy policy innovations by a state legislature across several dimensions. There are some foolhardy and misguided attempts currently floating around the Florida legislature, however, that threaten to unravel much of the FLVS innovation.
We wrote about one part of this misadventure in an April 15th op-ed on the Huffington Post and recommend it to our readers.
Suffice to say we hope that Florida does not reverse 13 years of innovative policymaking over the next few weeks by striking at the very areas that made FLVS a welcome disruption—and a potentially transformative force to move public education one step closer toward a student-centric learning system.
FLVS has a wonderful reputation. The educational system of not only Florida but also the United States would suffer if FLVS is limited in any way.
http;//www.lessontech.blogspot.com
Interesting how innovation in education comes under fire, when it should be lauded for what it is, an attempt to offer a new way to accomplish our objectives. Perhaps that is what is missing: common objectives.
Over 30 years ago an “Alternative School” was created within the public school system of Sharon, MA. It has changed in response to standardized testing in recent years, and gotten much smaller than the K-12 it started as (due at first to less parent willingness to contribute 2.5 hours in the classroom per month), but it still holds true to the students determining what they want to learn and how and the teachers being held responsible to create curriculum on the fly to respond to those requests. My two children went through the alternative school and I see today as the first leaves college that they learned how to be independent thinkers, self-sufficient, responsible, life-long learners because of the first 6 years of public education in a nurturing environment. And yet, the Alternative School is constantly fighting for survival, threatened by both the School Board and the Superintendent. Parents claim that the AS is favored, has too much money, is not supporting the rest of the school system, etc. All ignoring the results. The success of the outcomes speaks for itself. Instead of fighting such a progressive program, this should be studied and the lessons incorporated into the rest of the school system.
Such is the challenge that FLVS faces. When the state, nay - the world, should be seeing the progress and success of innovation as something to understand and evaluate for incorporation elsewhere the response is instead defensive and territorial. As if progress is not the objective. As if high dropout rates and other indications of poor ROI is what school administrators and state legislators want.
Here is the first challenge to ed reform: make sure everyone at the table wants to improve the end product!
[...] Don’t stifle Florida’s education innovation from Clayton Christense [...]
Just wrote a blog post after finishing your excellent book. Whilst virtual and online educational capabilities are certainly important, we cannot overlook the need for change within the public and offline environment. We must focus on organisation and structure to change public education to accommodate each student within the public school system.
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