August 13, 2022
Reinventing Schooling: Reasons for Optimism
An item from another neo-liberal… This one is an item from a business professor with little direct experience in education, but who believes free market economic principles are the answer to education’s (and pretty much all other society’s social) problems.
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Reinventing Schooling: Reasons for Optimism
Plus, a Live Conversation with Chan-Zuckerberg’s Head of Education Later Today
Aug 12 As children start to return to school in the United States, I’m keeping up the push to reinvent schooling so we can help each and every child build their passions and fulfill their human potential. There’s a lot of work to do (yes, that’s an understatement), but there are reasons for optimism.
Earlier this month, I spent a day in-person with superintendents and educators in Michigan working through the innovation theories and implications for education from my new book, From Reopen to Reinvent. Much of the conversation often fell back on what’s blocking innovation. But a central theme that emerged from the day was just how much agency superintendents in fact have to work with their communities to create a better system of schooling. For every downer someone raised, another person had an example of how they had made progress or figured out a workaround in a similar situation. When a superintendent complained about what a politician or parents were saying about their schools, another participant helped reset the conversation to see things from the point of view of the parents or politicians and present a solution that allowed everyone to make progress. I left feeling hopeful that we’ll see more innovation on behalf of students and that these superintendents are excited to act.
Curious about my new book From Reopen to Reinvent?
Get your copy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, or wherever you buy your books, then leave a review after you’re done reading. And thank you.
Along these lines, in my recent piece for the New York Sun, I argued that parents speaking with their actions, not just their words, is an opportunity, not a threat. New York City announced recently that it expects to lose another 30,000 students this school year in its traditional district schools. That’s on top of the 9 percent drop in enrollment it had already experienced since the pandemic. Meanwhile, numbers enrolling in alternative schools are also up.
Families leaning in and making conscious choices about where their children enroll in school is a positive. It creates not just an opportunity, but also a necessity, for schools to do something different and break out of their one-size-fits-all framing for what schools must look like. And if they don’t, there are plenty of education entrepreneurs creating novel schooling models that will—which is a positive for children. Check out my piece that breaks down why parents are exiting traditional district schools and how schools ought to respond here, in “The Parent Trap: Mom and Dad Are Withdrawing Their Children from Public Schools.”
John Bailey, a friend and nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (among many other roles—he also writes the incredibly helpful daily COVID-19 Policy Update newsletter)—interviewed me for his podcast “TechEnabled with John Bailey.” Check out our conversation about my new book, From Reopen to Reinvent, here: “From Reopen to Reinvent”: Ushering in Post-Pandemic Education (with Michael B. Horn). John’s been a guest multiple times on my Class Disrupted podcast with Diane Tavenner, so I was delighted to be able to join him on his and have him asking the questions this time!
Chan Zuckerberg’s Head of Education on Reinventing Learning
Sandra Liu Huang has been the Head of Education & Vice President, Product at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, one of the major philanthropic forces in U.S. education, since 2018. As schools have reopened and the challenges facing children are as glaring as ever, in this conversation we’ll talk about what’s needed to reinvent schooling, what supports do children need to thrive, and how the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is framing the work ahead. Join us for the conversation on your platform of choice Friday, August 12 at 3 pm eastern (you can also watch the conversation after the live feed at these links):
Four Answers to Critiques of Mastery-Based Learning
Despite the reasons for optimism, we shouldn’t pretend that this work will be easy.
In my book, I make a full-throated plea for more K–12 schools to adopt mastery-based learning, in which students only move on from a concept once they demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills at hand. When done well, mastery-based learning guarantees that each and every student leaves K–12 schools prepared for postsecondary education or the workforce.
But many individuals have asked some tough questions about mastery-based learning in practice. In an opinion piece for the Hechinger Report, which covers innovation and inequality in education and is a lifeline for education journalism, I offered answers to four legitimate concerns around mastery-based learning. Although I go much deeper in my new book about this topic, these questions are so vital that I hope folks on both sides of the conversation around mastery-based learning will grapple with the implications from the op-ed titled, “Still skeptical about mastery-based learning? Here’s a better way of looking at what it is and does.”
A Final Tribute
For those who know me, I’m not shy about the fact that I’m a history, tennis, and CrossFit nut. Three legends from each of these fields staged three different types of exits over the past week. I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge all three—not just because I enjoy admiring and learning from excellence in any field, but because all three have things to teach us about learning and growth.
In tennis and CrossFit, two of the greatest suggested they will be staging an “evolution” away from their sports. In CrossFit, Tia-Clair Toomey won the CrossFit Games for the sixth time in a row and is now likely to retire from individual competition. If you want to see growth, Toomey’s change in mindset—from when she was scared to admit that winning the CrossFit Games was a goal to her unbridled confidence and stoicism—is unlike anything I’ve seen in public.
Serena Williams of course announced her “evolution” away from tennis in Vogue. The 10 minutes it will take you to read the piece is well worth your time. I’ll never forget my awe at watching Serena play live at Wimbledon when I was a college student studying in London, nor the time I saw her singing karaoke in Miami. I’m looking forward to seeing all the businesses she’s going to help spawn through her venture capital firm and other pursuits.
And finally, David McCullough passed away at the age of 89. He’s well known for his books on President John Adams, President Harry Truman (my favorite of his), and more, as well as for his exhortations to read and learn history. I also recommend people read his short book, The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For, a collection of his speeches, many of which were delivered at college commencements.
As always, thank you for reading, writing, and listening.
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© 2022 Michael Horn
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