Being a school leader today is not for the faint of
heart. Actually, being a leader in any
enterprise in today’s changing world is difficult. Society is always shifting and changing and
attempting to keep up with these changes is a challenge. Education policymakers have responded to the
challenge with a series of policy prescriptions for education. Teacher and school leader’s evaluations tied
to student test scores; offering school vouchers to attend other schools;
creating data banks of student information that can track across district and
State lines; cyber schools; and creating a curriculum that all students in the
United States will take are policy examples that education policy elites have
created in an attempt to prepare our youth for the 21st century. I will discuss in another blog post whether these
policy prescriptions are good or bad, but today I will discuss an unintended
consequence of these policy prescriptions.
We live in a world that is breathtakingly fascinating and
complex. Change is occurring at such a
rapid rate that it seems hard to keep up.
Think about your cell phone. It
was only seven years ago that Apple introduced the first iPhone. Until that time our cell phones basically
served the function of old fashioned phones…they were a way to
communicate. Whether the communication
was voice, email, or text messaging, the phone was viewed as a communication
device. Today, our Smartphone’s are mini
computers that have “apps” that bring an unlimited amount of information to
us. This is just one example of rapid
change in our society. I believe it is interesting
that the policy prescriptions put in place to address the changing world in
which we live have had an unintended consequence. These policies have created “Compliance Zombies”.
Compliance Zombies are educators who (through no fault of
their own) spend large parts of their day figuring out how to comply with all
of the “reform” initiatives put in place by education policymakers. They have turned their brain off and robotically go through their day making sure they have met the requirements of the latest mandate from the State. A typical education leader in Pennsylvania
must deal with figuring out the requirements for the new teacher and principal
evaluation systems, entering data into the student information system (and
verifying the data), entering data into the teacher information system (and
verifying the data), align curriculum to the State tests, administer up to
fifteen state-mandated tests to their students per year, and analyze test scores
to input into State-mandated evaluation systems…an enormous undertaking
indeed. Compliance Zombies must assure
the State, their school boards and themselves that everything is being
completed to the exact specifications of the State Department of
Education. This leaves little or no time
for educational leaders to actually lead. In a world of constant change requiring
nimble, quick reactions to stimulus, our educators are stuck in a world of “command
and control” fretting over whether they will be compliant to the wishes of the
State. In other words, they are becoming
brain dead just to stay compliant. A better solution to becoming compliance
zombies is to become an “Education Imagineer”.
Education Imagineers view education through a lens of
possibility; Education Imagineers study the ways in which societal shifts are affects
learning. Going even deeper, they
anticipate shifts in the world they live and create programs and services that
will help students thrive in a new reality. Education Imagineers create organizations that
are not “command and control”. Rather,
the organizations they create foster innovation and creativity through the
input of all members of the organization.
Education Imagineers deconstruct the difference between “schooling” and “learning”
to help them understand what their students need. Education Imagineers use the mandates from
the State and imagine them in new ways. They
understand the system in which they work…i.e. there will always be mandates
from the State and Federal governments concerning their jobs. However, Education Imagineers use these
mandates as a pivot to accomplish the necessary work in their schools.
Students will benefit once education policymakers realize
that the command and control, mandate-compliant model is simply not working
well for our kids. To produce innovative, creative learning options for
students, our education systems must start to reflect systemic changes that
encourage innovation and creativity. The
current system accomplishes just the opposite.
Unleashing the creative power of educational leaders is better for our
students than encouraging an army of “Compliance Zombies”. I know that there are thousands of Education
Imagineers in the country right now. I have
interacted with hundreds in our State.
Let’s have a discussion about how our educational system can pivot to
encourage Education Imagineers.
No comments:
Post a Comment