Originally published in The Gazette
By Scott Laband
Most of us are used to the business concept of the disruptor – a company or idea that utterly changes how business is conducted, for the better. Think of how Amazon changed retailing or how Uber is transforming transportation.
We should look to embrace disruptors in our education system to rethink how education works. Too often our schools are stagnant, suffering from tight budgets and stale curriculum. Too often our kids burn out because they don’t feel connected to what they are learning or cannot see where it could take them.
At Colorado Succeeds – a coalition of business leaders committed to improving our state’s education system – we want our students to receive an education that prepares them for our workforce and provides them with the skills to help our economy thrive. We work to shine a light on disruptive innovation so it spreads to other schools. Among those successes are two Colorado school districts – Falcon 49, which fundamentally rethought the way schools operate, and St. Vrain Valley, which has transformed its approach to education.
Falcon District 49 near Colorado Springs has completely overhauled its operational management. Those of us in the business sector know that restructuring layers of management can be difficult but transformational. Traditionally districts are run by a superintendent, someone expected to be a gifted educator, a great executive and a strong leader. Falcon instead has three top executives – a chief education officer, chief business officer and chief operations officer. Layers beneath were removed; the education chief works directly with teachers.
Brett Ridgway, Falcon’s chief business officer, explains the approach as one where, “We are not telling schools what to do; they are telling us what they need. We are now their consultants, their resources.” Despite being among the lowest-funded districts in Colorado, Falcon thrives under the new system of student-based budgeting, where school leaders control how money is spent and per-pupil dollars follow children to their school of choice.
Another district worth recognizing is St. Vrain Valley, which makes education relevant to both students and local industry by connecting them in meaningful ways. The district created and hired a director of innovation, Patty Quinones, and focused education on STEM (science, engineering, technology and math). The school will also begin offering students cost-fee associate degrees through its new P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High School) program. “A student before they graduate will have the opportunity to have an (associate’s) degree within four to six years completely free,” said Quinones.
P-TECH, developed in association with IBM in New York City, came to Colorado last year and both Falcon and St. Vrain will open the state’s first P-TECH schools for the 2016-17 academic year. P-TECH brings mentoring from local businesses, industry certifications in relevant skills and internships at local firms. It’s a program that often leads to job opportunities, either before or after college, because companies and students become so connected. At St. Vrain, high school kids can earn $10 an hour working on projects for local businesses. Even kindergarteners can tour local businesses to see with their own eyes what the future might hold for them.
Too often our schools suffer from a fear of failure and fear of risk taking. But the lesson of Falcon and St. Vrain Valley is that we must innovate and disrupt the status quo to get the best outcomes for our kids. We must encourage educators not to fear failure and risk taking but to experiment with ways that help kids become better problem solvers and thinkers. Teachers can lead by example here by incorporating the design thinking process into their classrooms and challenging students to take calculated risks and embrace failure as part of the learning process.
At our recent Great Schools Are Good Business lunch, business change consultant Peter Sheahan noted that most school systems, aren’t engines of innovation. Rather, they are designed “to replicate at scale and in perpetuity consistent outcomes. And in fact they tend to reject variability.” The solution to this inherent resistance is, essentially, to implement many small changes over an extended period. “Eventually, when you look back, it looks like a radical revolution,” he said.
Scott Laband is the president of Colorado Succeeds, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of business leaders focused on improving the state’s education system. http://www.coloradosucceeds.org/