The 10 Questions Every Superintendent Needs to Answer

Superintendents can do more to change the way a community thinks about itself, its children, and the future than any other position.  But it’s an enormously difficult and complex challenge—it’s actually four full time jobs including facilitating the leadership of an elected board, leading an improvement agenda, administering a complex organization, and building community. There are (at least) ten questions that every superintendent needs to answer to maximize their contribution.

1. What should graduates know and be able to do?

• State standards (particularly Common Core) are a great start but your school board should have a full expression of college and career readiness reflected in goals, graduation requirements, and policies; see Beyond the Core: What About Other Important Outcomes?
• I appreciate goals that attend to learner experience; see Good Schools Start With Good Goals and Deeper Learning for Every Student Every Day.

2. How to build public support?

• Every superintendent (whether they know it or not) is running a campaign to build support for public education—there may be a near term election involved or just the future of the community at stake.
• A broad dashboard of indicators (e.g., academic, financial, safety, and satisfaction) should form the basis of a regular report to the community.
• A campaign strategy must be multifaceted,  formal and informal, and incorporate a lot of listening as well as pushing targeted messages to specific audiences.  In addition to internal school audiences, I found the Chamber of Commerce useful, Rotary necessary, and faith congregations generally skeptical but important.
• Social media is a must, see 25 Smart #SocialMedia Tips For #EdLeaders and To Tweet Or Not To Tweet: There Really is No Question.

3. What kind of schools does the community want/deserve?

• This is the question Paul Hill posed in It Takes a City.  This question should animate community outreach.
• Start by auditing what kinds of schools are available from what zip codes. Do affluent families have more and better options than low income families? Location, transportation, and enrollment policies all impact access.
• Superintendents should focus on emerging job clusters and with community college leaders, consider ways to give students valuable work-based learning experiences and schools connected to employment pathways.

4. How do schools improve?

• Superintendents should have a well-developed (research/experience-based) view on how schools improve and how adults learn and develop. They should be fluent in assessment strategies and the use of data to drive improvement.
• School results (primarily performance and growth) should define their relationship with the central office in a system of differentiated supports (i.e., high performers get autonomy, low performers get prescriptive guidance).
• High performing schools should be encouraged (and rewarded) for expanding and supporting struggling schools.

5. What’s the innovation agenda?

• Improvement strategies alone probably won’t close the gaps and make the step-function improvement necessary—it will require an innovation agenda.
• Finding the right balance between improvement (i.e., consistently high execution) and innovation (i.e., developing/adapting new approaches) is a key role of the superintendent. Working in phases can help make a challenging agenda doable and affordable.
• Superintendents should remain abreast of the blended learning opportunity set including new tools and school models (see Blended Learning Universe and NGLC Profiles).
• In a district of any size, new school development should be part of the innovation agenda (see 10 reasons every district should open flex schools).
• Blended learning strategies and improved student access to technology should be infused into the improvement agenda.

6. How do systems improve?

• Superintendents should be well versed in district governance options, organizational design and change theory, and alternative improvement strategies.
• Based on community conversations (and answers to the first five questions), superintendent should decide on a unified systemic approach (what I call an enterprise strategy like Mooresville) or a portfolio strategy where schools and networks develop/adopt different school models (see the  Blended Learning Implementation Guide) and multiple operators are encouraged.
• A portfolio approach requires a system of managed choice to ensure equitable access to options (see a recent post by Andy Smarick on The Urban School System of the Future).

7. How to develop leadership?

• Superintendents need a well-developed view of and active role in talent development.
• Teachers and leadership should benefit from a competency-based sequence of learning opportunities and work experiences.  Like students, they should demonstrate mastery before progressing. See Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning.
• Teacher leaders should be identified and utilized to help drive and support improvement and innovation efforts.
• A community leadership development program can also help build community support.  Our local community program, Advancing Leadership, not only trains emerging community leaders but student leaders.

8. Who makes what decision ?

• The superintendent should facilitate a productive relationship with the school board with common goals and clear roles.  I’m a fan of John Carver’s Policy Governance model.  The Center for Reform of School Systems is a great resource.  For charter boards, see Charter Board Partners (where I’m a director).
• Sound governance and a clear strategy allows a superintendent to create goals and role clarity for teachers and leaders (i.e., what am I supposed to accomplish, what latitude do I have and what support can I expect?).

9. How to provide great support services?

• Teachers and school leaders deserve world-class support services.  Students and families deserve great information services, responsiveness, and links to community services.
• Districts may want to use a mixture of inside and outside services to meet these demands.  Depending on the answer to #6, there may be mandatory services (like busing) and what is optional services (like office supplies).

10. Who is helping you drive this agenda?

• Superintendents need to build a talented mission-aligned district management team.
• An aggressive improvement agenda requires strong project management capacity.  I’ve had good success using teacher on special assignment in this role (and as a leadership development experience).

Building community support (#2) and facilitating sound governance (#8) adds to the superintendents bank account of political capital.  Difficult work can require withdrawals from this account.  When you’re out of political capital, you’re usually looking for work.  A good superintendent is always trying to figure out where to push and how hard.

The innovation opportunity set (#5) is improving rapidly but that creates leadership challenges for superintendents.  The transition to personal digital learning suggests that superintendents should be community conversation leaders–facilitator of temporary agreements that provide goal and role clarity for a year or two.

12 Features of the Next-Gen Platform

EdTech 10: Put An Apple On It

Originally posted on GettingSmart Blog

Blended Schools & Tools

1. Next-gen learning. The Next Generation Learning Challenge (@NextGenLC) is a great framework for blended and personalized learning.  The national grant program that supports new and redesigned schools just announced 21 new Planning Grant and 16 new Launch Grant recipients winners. The NGLC recipients signal 10 trends and are worth watching.

2. Speaking of Grant Winners. 7 Chicago schools will get $100K technology grants from the Chicago Public Education Fund in partnership with LEAPinnovations, the first round of regional grants based on the NGLC framework. There is a lot of exciting EdTech momentum in Chicago–see our latest #SmartCities update, Smart Cities: Chicago Develops In “Leaps” and Bounds.
3. More Google in the “Classroom.” In honor of Teacher Appreciation Day, Google (@GoogleEdu) announced the launch of their new LMS, Classroom, that will lay over Google Apps for Education, making it easier for teachers and students to use the suite of collaborative apps as a full learning management system.

Smart Cities

4. Ask and You Shall Receive.  When you are lucky enough to have such a deeply talented PLN coupled with an equally as deep generous spirit the request to share their expertise by authoring a post is answered in spades. Last week, we started running the guest pieces covering so many issues affecting our cities today on both EdWeek and Getting Smart. Alex Hernandez (@thinkschools) details the essentials for growing innovative ecosystems while Phyllis Lockett illustrates why Our Kids Can’t Wait in Chicago and through the country.

For The Core

5. Blogging to the Core (#CoreMatters). The Alliance for Excellent Education (@all4ed) launched a new blog seriesilluminating best practices for implementation of the Common Core State Standards for struggling students, particularly. Starting next month, new content will be published on the first and third Tuesday of every month. The Alliance will use the series to bring attention to the methods for delivering on the promise and potential of the standards for all students, especially those who have been historically underserved by the education system.  Like the Alliance, we think the Common Core is a big platform for equity & innovation.

Digital Developments

6. Socrates Has A Point. Although the central goal of teaching and learning has never changed, our methods are transforming basically before our eyes. Slate’s post this week, What Would Socrates Think About MOOCs  discusses how modern technology allows for never before experienced interactivity and connection, allowing for communities of learners to form on a global scale. Also, the speed and capacity of computers to process information means that we can now “replicate and improve upon fundamental processes of learning.” Very interesting.

7. New Additions for Fuel Education. Although new itself, FuelED (@FuelEducation) is already announcing the newest additions to their course catalog– including multiple middle and high school math courses and career-building electives. Please see FuelEd Press Room for more information. Read Fueling a Personalized Learning Revolution to know more about how blended learning can provide high quality learning opportunities for secondary students.

STEM Gems

8. Robotics is All the Rage. 12,000+ students traveled to St. Louis, Missouri this past week for the FIRST Championship at the Edward Jones Dome. With almost 70,000 students competing in regional and district competitions– this culminating event was a huge celebration of STEM learning for thousands of enthusiastic and engaged students. We caught the Robotics fever too when teacher blogger, Dave Guymon, reviewed the new Sphero Curriculum (@gosphero) this week.

Teachers & Tech

9. Assembling the Dream Team. With 4,000 applications for 200 spots, LearnZillion(@LearnZillion) has been able to gather some of the most talented Math and English Language Arts teachers from across the globe. The team will come to New Orleans from June 4-7 to participate in Teachfest and kick off their summer long collaboration- where they will return to their hometowns and continue to work together online to create quality formative assessment tools aligned to the common core.

10. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We know teachers are some of the busiest people we know. So we just want to be sure you didn’t miss the launch of our paper we wrote with Karen Cator (@kcator) of Digital Promise (@DigitalPromise) focused on how we go about preparing our teachers to innovate and inspire deeper learning for all students. Read Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning and check out the infographic on competency-based teacher prep.

What your Starbucks order says about you

The iconic soft drink of every state in America

Soda is as integral a part of American history as the hamburger or Nicolas Cage’s repeated attempts to thwart it, and while most soft drinks under the sun are now owned and bottled by one of three major companies, there’s still a rich tapestry of “hand-crafted”, mom-and-pop soda companies out there doing what they’ve been doing for the last hundred years or so — and doing it damn well.

Each state might call these products something different (soda, pop, tonic, fizzy yum-yum juice), but there’s no disputing that Americans love their soft drinks. And with so many folks brewing them across so many states, there’re bound to be some that rise above the rest. This map is an homage to sodas with intimate ties (not that kind of intimate) to different places; some are made exclusively in that state, some are loved the hardest in that state, and some are just the Dakotas, and make us confused. So here are the iconic soft drinks of every state in America (and you can click here for a blown-up version of the above image). Disagreements/comments/$.05 deposits (except in Michigan) can be made in the section below:

ALABAMA – GRAPICO
Grapico was founded in Louisiana in 1914, but moved to Alabama in 1917 — and there it has stayed, both physically and in the hearts of Alabamians.

ALASKA – PEPSI
Alaska doesn’t have as big of a soda culture as other states, but there is a Pepsi bottling plant there. So it’s got that going for it, which is nice.

ARIZONA – CACTUS COOLER
This orange-pineapple drink has a big presence in the Southwest, where it’s moderately preferable to actual cacti.

ARKANSAS – GRAPETTE
Grapette, once a grape soda titan of Arkansas, is now a Sam’s Club soda, but that doesn’t diminish its years of dominance in the Southern market.

CALIFORNIA – A&W
A&W was founded in California back in 1919, and their root beer remains a huge hit there to this day.

COLORADO – IZZE
These carbonated fruit drinks exploded onto the market back in 2002, and even though they were bought by PepsiCo in 2006, they remain a Colorado invention.

CONNECTICUT – FOXON PARK
It’s impossible to find a pizzeria in New Haven that doesn’t stock Foxon Park, a Connecticut-bred soda company that’s been around since 1922.

DELAWARE – OLD DOMINION ROOT BEER
Dominion, also a brewery, makes a heck of a root beer — it’s sweetened with honey & sugar, and it’s made right in Dover.

FLORIDA – ANY FOUNTAIN SODA OUT OF A 7-ELEVEN BIG GULP
Self-explanatory.

GEORGIA – COCA-COLA
The headquarters of the world’s favorite soda is located here. They’ve got a museum. RC Cola may have a strong foothold here, but this is Coke country.

HAWAII – HAWAIIAN SUN
OK, so it’s not technically a real soft-drink since it’s not carbonated. But ask any Hawaiian what their favorite beverage is, and they’ll tell you it’s Pass-O-Guava (or POG) nectar. And Hawaiian Sun makes the best.

IDAHO – IRON PORT
This one’s not a brand, but rather a style of drink sold at soda fountains throughout Idaho — Iron Port is kinda like root beer with a spicier kick.


ILLINOIS – GREEN RIVER
Originally the product of a brewery facing restrictive Prohibition policies, Green River grew to be Illinois’ favorite soft drink, and has been produced by a multitude of bottlers over the years.

INDIANA – TRIPLE XXX
Although it was founded in Texas, Triple XXX is now an Indiana institution that’s famous for its root beer, and for the fact that only one of two remaining eponymous restaurants is located there.

IOWA – SIOUX CITY SARSAPARILLA
Named after the Iowa city, Sioux City Sarsaparilla is widely regarded as one of the best sarsaparillas out there and was even mentioned in The Big Lebowski. Damn, dude.

KANSAS – LOST TRAIL ROOT BEER
A tried-and-true Kansan brew, Lost Trail’s root beer has been made in-state since the frontier days.

KENTUCKY – ALE-8-ONE
Around its production center in Winchester, Kentucky, Ale-8-One is a supremely popular ginger-and-citrus soda. It’s also the only soda invented in Kentucky to still be in existence. So there’s that, too.

LOUISIANA – DELAWARE PUNCH
Despite its name, this drink isn’t affiliated with Delaware (it’s actually named after a grape variety), rather it’s a Southern fruit soda with a grape kick that’s found in select stores in the Louisiana area.

MAINE – MOXIE
Even though it was originally invented and produced in Massachusetts, no state is more nuts for the weird flavor of Moxie than Maine, which has even gone so far as to name it the official state soft drink.

MARYLAND – SHASTA
Shasta’s first soft drink was a ginger ale produced in 1931, and, despite being named after a spring in California, was distributed (and beloved) locally, in Maryland.

MASSACHUSETTS – POLAR
Bay Staters are crazy for Polar, which’s got a huge number of varieties (try the Orange Dry!) available all over the state, and which are bottled in Worcester.

MICHIGAN – FAYGO
Faygo is perhaps best known nationally for being appropriated by Insane Clown Posse, but this refreshing Michigan soda’s wildly popular in its home state for its multitude of flavors and relatively low cost. This could’ve gone to Vernor’s as well, but Faygo is more ubiquitous throughout the state and is still made in Detroit, so it comes out on top.

MINNESOTA – SUN DROP
This citrus soda may’ve been introduced in Missouri, but it’s got a strong foothold in Minnesota and the upper Midwest.

MISSISSIPPI – BARQ’S ROOT BEER
Barq’s was invented in Louisiana, but first sold in Biloxi, Mississippi, when its founder moved there in 1897. That’s some old-timey root beer.

MISSOURI – IBC ROOT BEER
Once Missouri’s most famous soda company, IBC is now owned by Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, but that doesn’t make its eponymous root beer any less delicious.

MONTANA – FLATHEAD LAKE
This one’s pretty niche, but Flathead Lake produces “gourmet” sodas out of Montana in flavors like huckleberry and sour cherry.

NEBRASKA – KOOL-AID
Kool-Aid is Nebraska’s official state soft drink (one of only two states to have one) and was invented there in 1927.

NEVADA – RED BULL
More a postulation than anything, we’re just assuming that everyone in Nevada needs Red Bull to keep going.

NEW HAMPSHIRE – SQUAMSCOT
Brewed and bottled in New Hampshire, Squamscot comes in flavors like birch beer, strawberry, and the mysterious “half & half”.

NEW JERSEY – BOYLAN’S
Bottled in various locations all over New Jersey since its founding in 1891, Boylan’s now makes a hell of a black-cherry soda, and all of their offerings come in retro-style bottles.

NEW MEXICO – BLUE SKY
Blue Sky’s a natural soft drink producer founded in Santa Fe in 1980. It doesn’t operate out of there anymore, but we kinda had to pick it due to its inherent Breaking Bad parallels.

NEW YORK – DR. BROWN’S

No New York deli would be complete without a case full of Dr. Brown’s, which comes in an array of flavors that include cream, black cherry, and… celery.

NORTH CAROLINA – CHEERWINE

There’s no disputing — North Carolinians love their Cheerwine.

NORTH DAKOTA – COCA-COLA
DAMMIT, WE COULDN’T FIND ANYTHING FOR NORTH DAKOTA. So we just made their soda Coke. Get your act together, North Dakota!

OHIO – CHERIKEE RED
Rarely found outside Ohio, Cherikee Red is a cherry-flavored drink that was first produced there back in 1969.

OKLAHOMA – DUBLIN DR. PEPPER
A variety of Dr. Pepper that uses cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup, Dublin Dr. Pepper was discontinued back in 2012… but you can still find it in soda fountains all over Oklahoma. You go, Oklahoma!

OREGON – THOMAS KEMPER
Thomas Kemper was founded in Washington, but popularized in Portland when it was bought by a local company in 2006, and is now a local icon. They’re the purveyors of fine, old-fashioned HFCS-less sodas.

PENNSYLVANIA – A-TREAT
A-Treat started in 1918 in Allentown and continues to be the hometown favorite of many a wayward Philadelphian. Their birch beer is a must.

RHODE ISLAND – YACHT CLUB SODA
Yacht Club is one of Rhode Island’s beverage companies (and may well be one of its only companies, period), and they brew a wide variety of sodas, from birch beer to grape to peach seltzer.

SOUTH CAROLINA – BLENHEIM GINGER ALE
Since 1903, Blenheim has been producing some of the country’s finest ginger ales in Hamer, South Carolina — in mild, hot, and diet varieties.

SOUTH DAKOTA – COCA-COLA
The Dakotas have really got to ramp up their soda game, because South Dakota, too, was impossible to find any soda for. Pretty safe to say they like Coke there, though.

TENNESSEE – RC COLA
Famous in the South due to its status as one half of a working man’s lunch (the other being a Moon Pie), RC Cola’s made in Georgia, but it’s pretty beloved in Tennessee, as well.

TEXAS – DR. PEPPER
If you ask a Texan what kind of Coke they want, chances are their answer will be “Dr. Pepper.” (Sorry, Big Red.) Granted, “Coke” is their word for soda, but it’s still pretty telling.

UTAH – SPRITE
Utah’s huge Mormon population can’t consume caffeine, so they’ve gotta drink a lot of Sprite.

VERMONT – SWEET WATER
Vermont’s Sweet Water Bottling Company produces nine all-natural soft drinks in the spirit of the state (namely, Maple Soda).

VIRGINIA – CHEERWINE
Yeah, I know we already put Cheerwine as North Carolina’s favorite soft drink, but it’s definitely Virginia’s, too. You’ll have to share, North Carolina.

WASHINGTON – JONES SODA
Jones Soda’s famous nationally for making some über-weird soda varieties of dubious repute, but their standard flavors (some of which are still pretty out there, like blue bubble gum) are quite refreshing.

WEST VIRGINIA – MOUNTAIN DEW
Data doesn’t lie — West Virginians are nuts for Mountain Dew. Even moreso than the rest of America. It’s almost to the point of being detrimental.

WISCONSIN – SPRECHER ROOT BEER
Sprecher is a pretty standard brewery in that it makes beer, but it’s a little more well known for its sodas — particularly its root beer, which has Wisconsinites foaming at the mouth in more ways than one.

WYOMING – JACKSON HOLE SODA

Advertising itself as “the best dang old-fashioned soda in the whole dang country”, Jackson Hole is very much a Wyoming creation. Their Snake River Sarsaparilla is a must while viewing some Grand Tetons.

Infographic: 3D Printing, One Step Closer to a Star Trek Future?

Leveraging the Core Budget to Change America’s Schools

Across Reynoldsburg City School District (RCS), personalization of learning is increasingly achieved at the classroom and individual student level through the shift to blended learning. Blended learning requires a fundamental redesign of instructional and organizational models, transforming the core elements of teaching and learning–changing roles, structures, schedules, staffing, and core budgets.

Following on the heels of their new investment program , the district’s latest move provides greater school budget autonomy to principals. The increased autonomy is meant to inspire a rethinking of what teachers, students, and schools do, and how they are organized and optimized to do it for greater results. Starting the 2014-15 school year RCS principals will have direct control over an estimated 90% of their budgets–the most to date.

Directly benefiting the achievement of students . With expanded budget autonomy, the central administration allows the schools themselves to make decisions as to how to spend the budget, letting those who know their students, staff, and community best direct the resources and take actions that most benefit their children.

Greater autonomy helps free principals and their staffs to pursue new approaches to school management, instruction, staffing, and supports so they can respond more nimbly and effectively to unique and often changing student needs. Provided that principals have the capacity to occupy the significant space created by the greater autonomy with actions that will actually improve student learning, kids stand to benefit the most.

Cultivating ownership. Principals’ greater budget autonomy further shifts the orientation of the central administration, from one of directing schools vis-a-vis funds, to supporting their capacity to do things well on their own. However, simply loosening the purse strings won’t do anything to alter the capacity of principals to make effective or norm-breaking decisions. Part of the goal of the shift is to help principals understand – and foster more ownership – for staffing decisions by flowing the expenditures for their staff through their building budgets. The shift in policy, along with support from the district, could help principals more fully consider their students’ total needs and priorities. District time spent making decisions for principals regarding budgets will be reallocated to providing more support for effective decision-making.

The budget before… Historically, materials, supplies, professional development and other non-staff expenses have been covered by school-level budgets under the direct control of the principal. The district occasionally pitched in for major, essential purchases, like updating hardware for PARCC compliance. Although staffing was a district expense, Reynoldsburg’s central office has been making “trades” with principals for the last few years. In one case, a principal made a decision to forego her “share” of the district’s art, music and physical education staff, and instead apply the equivalent dollars to one FTE certified teacher for her Innovation Station (which blends basic technology instruction, art standards, a dramatic inquiry approach to deciphering complex texts (Shakespeare), and design challenges for all students), one part-time wellness paraprofessional and a contract with an outside vendor for music experiences (by the way, all programs delivered good results). The new policy encourages all principals to act on this kind of creative, independent thinking.

The budget now… High performance remains the goal, but now district management will more uniformly and aggressively seed and cultivate the potential of its leaders. While many of the details for the new budget are still being worked out, essentially each principal will still be provided funds to cover materials, supplies, software, etc. but they will now direct staffing budgets. Currently custodians, cooks, etc. are not included in the budget but teachers, paraprofessionals, administrative assistants, social workers, and guidance counselors are included. The district will allocate funds to schools based on student enrollment. They are still contemplating how to address special education given its more complex rules. The central office expects that the policy will evolve as principals work through the process.

A difficult shift. This is a difficult shift because some things must remain outside of the principal’s control and will be inequitable across the buildings. Special education is a primary example. There are many state requirements to meet and principals don’t control which students show up for an education. At the district level, there can be some efficiencies in deploying specialized staff and following student need… but at the building level there could be vast disparities among students who must be served. That’s why the approach to special education staffing is still under consideration.

It is also true that the district office can sometimes coordinate and deliver services and purchases — things like software or devices– more efficiently and less expensively than schools can on their own. The additional work of investigating products and services, testing them in isolation from other schools, and negotiating the price and terms of offer can place a very costly administrative burden on each school. Most districts centralized these tasks long ago to ensure that experienced professionals made these decisions thoughtfully in a way that wasn’t too expensive. Of course centralized procurement also has its challenges. The district is now rethinking new, more principal-owned, networked structures to support these functions and will still own centralized functions where they make the most sense. Principals will need to guard their time and the new dollars–now in their direct control–from simply going to overhead within the school instead of elsewhere.

Evaluating and supporting performance. Districts using portfolio management don’t directly manage all schools; in the case of RCS they grant school leadership teams the responsibility and authority for determining how to meet their goals. Since providing a failing school or a faltering principal with more autonomy would be a very bad idea–the central office still plays a vital role–it focuses on evaluating school performance and leadership. Setting clear, non-negotiable goals for student achievement and well-being, closely monitoring those goals, and cultivating the conditions, capacity and board support to achieve the goals is precisely what could make this new equation work.

Whether? A learning agenda. The adoption of a new policy is only a starting point. It will be important to observe how this new policy is carried out or even whether it’s carried out by principals. Only time will tell if principals will assume the role of change agent, or opt not to do anything significantly different from that of traditional school principals without budget autonomy. What will they do with the freedom? How will this change really affect principals, change their roles and the full scope of their responsibilities? What core competencies are needed to make this policy a success? Will school leadership teams leverage their autonomy to go much further? Or will the extra autonomy feel like extra calories?

RCS principals already have a package of autonomies and support for risk-taking. Now the work of knowing how to challenge convention and transform their organizations begins anew. When Reynoldsburg principals look around themselves, however, they see almost all of their peers outside of the city limits conducting business as usual. History tells us, however, that these same principals tackled curriculum questions, hiring decisions, and school designs that all initially involved vision or skills that some didn’t have at the start.

It’s not enough for a district to have great models of blended learning classrooms– they need tocreate system conditions where schools will thrive. Reynoldsburg is taking multiple actions in order to overcome the tremendous gravitational pull of business-as-usual. In the end, performance won’t have anything to do with the actual budget dollars–it’s not about money. It will be about the vision and skills of the principal to leverage this new opportunity, the team they lead, and just how much they “get it.”

Dr. Lisa Duty is a Partner at The Learning Accelerator where she leads
design work with RCS in addition to TLA’s state strategy, partnerships and investments. Follow Lisa on twitter @LisaDuty1.

Smart Cities: Chicago Develops in “Leaps” and Bounds

Symbolic of the new digital learning opportunity set, the director of New Schools For Chicago, Phyllis Lockett, spun out a new data analytics shop, LEAPinnovation, earlier this month and took the helm. For the last fifteen years, the best intervention was new school development; going forward, new tools that power new learning models is the emerging opportunity. “Tech innovation can empower teachers to pinpoint student needs, accelerate remediation, and help every student reach their fullest potential,” said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, CEO of Chicago Public Schools. This fall the LEAP Pilot Network will sponsor short cycle trials of four literacy products for grades 3-5 to pilot in six schools.

Chicago, not New York, is the second city for education innovation according to EdTech leader Christopher Nyren, “For over a generation, Chicago has served as the epicenter of for-profit, technology-enabled education entrepreneurship and investment.” Chicago has an impressive list of established companies, respected investors, and a big crop of promising startups.

President Obama and Secretary Duncan’s belief in the importance of early learning is homegrown. “Chicago is the leader in early childhood education–no contest,” said Ryan Blitstein, Change Illinois. Ounce of Prevention Fundadvocates locally and supports Educare centers nationwide. First Five Years Fund is a new breed of data-driven advocates for integrated early learning services for low income children backed by Buffett, Gates, Harris, Kaiser, and Pritzker.  McCormick Foundation advocates for public policy that improves birth to three learning opportunities in Illinois.

Backstory. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) serves more than 400,000 students in 681 schools. Led by veteran school chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett, Chicago was an early member of the Portfolio School District Network. After a period of uncertainty, Mayor Emanuel made clear a commitment to innovation.

Arne Duncan took over from Paul Vallas as CEO of CPS in 2001. By 2003, Duncan had crafted a coherent effort to support struggling schools and to close and replace failing schools (similar to Joel Klein’s Children First in NYC). In 2004, Duncan, the mayor and the business community launched new school campaign Renaissance 2010 which resulted in 13 charter networks, 70 new schools, and laid the groundwork for the next-gen models work New Schools for Chicago is currently supporting.

Margot Rogers, then a Deputy Director at the Gates Foundation, spent four years shuttling to Chicago to support new school development and secondary school improvement.  “Few places–perhaps no city–have the deep private and philanthropic support that Chicago does,” said Rogers. “There’s lots of support for innovation, trying new things, and thinking in new ways.” She went on to serve as Secretary Duncan’s chief of staff during his first 18 months in office.

Ron Huberman followed Duncan and spent a year as CEO.  He launched extended learning time pilots utilizing 1-to-1 devices and laid the groundwork for almost 60 schools with 1-to-1 iPads. Huberman is now an operating executive atChicago Growth Partners and Prairie Capital.

Bright Spots. Tim Knowles created the best example of a university-based school improvement engine, under the umbrella of the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI), with a research arm, a talent development shop, four charter schools, and a school improvement engine (see full Getting Smart profile). UEI is working in 55 cities and 23 states.  Knowles said, “We have some very cool new tools and diagnostics in pipeline–all aim to focus schools and public on things we know matter most.” UEI has been hiring recently and was just awarded a $10 million grant from the Kersten family for college readiness.

In 2007, they discovered the importance of the ‘freshman on track’ indicator–a better predictor of high school graduation than race, income, neighborhood, and prior test scores–combined. A consistent focus on this indicator has moved the percentage of ‘freshman on track’ to graduate from 57% in 2007 to 82% in 2013, according to the new On-Track website that details the process and the research. “The fact the numbers have moved so far — despite two mayors, strike, school closures, 5 superintendents in 7 years — suggests all cities in America could move their hs graduation rates by 20 points, quickly,” concludes Knowles.

Five Early College STEM schools were opened in 2013 in partnership with IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, Motorola, and Verizon. Dual enrollment opportunities were expanded in 17 high schools. CPS will support International Baccalaureate (IB) programs in 10 existing high schools.

AUSL turns around the Chicago Public Schools’ lowest performing schools and trains teachers using an urban teacher residency model. AUSL managed 25 CPS schools serving over 14,000 students.

The Chicago Math Initiative launched by MIND Research Institute in 2009 resulted in 11 point increases in the percentage of proficient students in the 23 schools implementing the blended learning ST Math program.

A foundation executive said, “The mayor is very powerful, loves anything having to do with innovation or technology and has made education his number one priority.”  The CEO recently appointed Jack J. Elsey Jr. Chief Innovation Officer.  Elsey said, “Embracing innovation and technology–two very likely drivers of progress–will be critical for the success of our city’s schools.”

Charters. “Early on, Chicago was known to be one of the best charter authorizers, winning kudos from third party evaluators and others for the strength of their review process,” said Margot Rogers.  “As a result, a number of high quality networks have flourished.”

There are 44 approved charters operating on 130 campuses in Chicago and serving 55,000 students–about 13% of the student population.

Noble Network had 9 of 10 top performing non-selective high schools in the city–nothing innovative, just top talent and great execution. Chicago International is a mini-portfolio of 16 neighborhood schools including game-basedChicagoQuest. Perspectives operates five high performing 6-12 schools.

Chicago Virtual Charter School was named one of Chicago’s best high schools by Chicago Magazine in their September issue. K12 Passport, another K12 supported school, is designed to assist students who have dropped out of high school recapture credit and earn their diplomas. K12 also supports the High School Diploma Program which provides computer-based high school classes for credit to inmates.

The three KIPP schools in Chicago have converted to blended learning. The 975 students from low income families are served by three blended learning models on four campuses (see feature). Executive Director April Goble found that actionable data, professional development, and strong classroom management is key to ensuring success of instructional technology. KIPP Create, a middle school opened in 2012, employs a large, flexible lab model. KIPP plans six K-8 schools serving 5,000 students by the end of the decade.

Foundations College Prep, a new 6­–12 school opening 2014, combines a rotational blended model with a teacher residency program.  Intrinsic Schools is also a new 6-12 blended model combining adaptive learning and expert teaching. CEO Melissa Zaikos is a star with deep CPS experience as a Broad resident. Both Foundations and Intrinsic are NGLC grantees (see profiles).

Charters in Illinois are support by an association headed by a talented attorney, Andrew Broy, recruited away from the Georgia superintendent’s office.  To my list of great charters, Andrew added LEARN Charter School Network, UNO schools, and some great single campus charters: Rowe Elementary; Locke Elementary; Polaris Charter Academy; Institution Career Academy; and Chicago Math and Science.

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers is based in Chicago. NACSA launched an aggressive quality improvement effort urging authorizers to non-renew low performing charter schools.

Growth in charter enrollment means lots of empty or below-capacity district schools–more than 150 according to some facilities experts. Chicago illustrates the need to separate school operations from provisioning facilities.

Foundations. The Chicago Public Education Fund, run by former TFA exec Heather Anichini, is investing in talented principals and enabling effective educator teams to reinvent classroom learning. Last year their Summer Design Program enabled a cohort 16 principal-led district and charter teams to work with experts to confront specific instructional and engagement challenges (see video). The goal is to create up to 75 citywide proof points. The Fund supported the blended math program Teach to One in two CPS schools (see feature).

Chicago is home to a number of foundations with education focused missions:

• MacArthur Foundation has been a leader in the study of youth and digital media.  Their Digital Media and Learning Competition has awarded mostly out of school options for youth.
• SCE focuses on digital learning, including gaps in resources, information and infrastructure. Winners of the Digital Learning Challenge  and the Social and Emotional Learning Challenge have provided novel solutions to otherwise intractable problems.
• Joyce Foundation supports early reading and teacher quality in Chicago and around the midwest.
• Spencer Foundation supports education research.
• A Better Chicago is a venture philanthropy supporting charter schools and education initiatives.

Impact Partners.  Pat Ryan launched the Inner-City Teaching Corps in 1991 and the Alain Locke Charter School in 1998.  He launched a leadership development program in 2011 and rolled them all together this year. Rob Birdsell joined The Alain Locke Initiative as its first Chief Executive Officer in December 2012 after leading the urban Catholic high school network Cristo Rey.

Chicago is also a huge after-school market. After School Matters is a non-profit organization that offers Chicago high school teens innovative out-of-school activities. Orion’s Mind is the active after-school tutoring program. One of the largest Girl Scout Troops in the US has a cool digital learning space.  Innovative young youth development orgs includeFree Spirit Media and the Chicago Youth Voices Network.

Josh Anderson leads TFA Chicago which has 500 active corps, 1786 alumni including 109 school administrators. New Leaders has trained 200 leaders over the last decade.

Education Pioneers’ Chicago and Midwest site developed over 40 Graduate School Fellowship projects with most of the regions top impact players. This year EP will expand into local and state policy partnerships.

Social emotional learning “teaches the skills we all need to handle ourselves, our relationships, and our work, effectively and ethically,” says Chicago-based Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (See feature.)

Other youth resources include:

• YOUMedia is a teen learning space housed at the downtown Chicago Public Library.
• Hive Chicago is a group of museums, libraries, theaters, and other organizations in the City of Chicago that are developing programs for youth.
• TEC Center at Erikson Institute supports informed decision making about early learning technology and was launched with support from Boeing.
• Chicago Children’s Museum serves about 660,000 annually from Navy Pier.
• American Center for Children & Media leads a dialog about kids and digital media.
• Smart Chicago Collaborative seeks to improve lives in Chicago through technology.
• Chicago Allies for Youth Success is an out-of-school partnership for expanded opportunity.

“We are having a big conversation in the city about how we do diffusion between school and not-school. The arts folks already did this. STEM folks trying to figure it out,” said Kemi Jona, a prof at Northwestern and fellow iNACOL board member.  Jona said the active conversation is, “What is the role of out-of-school? To be an incubator for innovation or to babysit kids?”

Jona adds, “Don’t forget our world class universities: Northwestern, University of Chicago, UIC, NU, Depaul, Rush, IIT, and Loyola.”

The Illinois drag. Some cities benefit from productive state policy, not Chicago. Illinois perpetuates inequitable funding–kids in affluent district get about $1000 more than kids in poverty. Digital Learning Now gave Illinois an Fgrade for education policy given the lack of student access to online and blended learning including a moratorium on virtual schools (see page 13 of Keeping Pace for a visual image of how bad online opportunity is in Illinois). A national policy insider said that Illinois has a “real lack of leadership on EdReform generally much less digital learning.”  Illinois does get some credit for leadership on early learning.

Illinois Pathways, funded through Race to the Top, is a state-led STEM education initiative designed to support college and career readiness. Illinois Pathways hosts Learning Exchanges in ten industry clusters and the Illinois Shared Learning Exchange (ISLE) is a promising planned build out on top of Shared Learning Collaborative.  All of these big collaborations sound promising but complicated.

With the shift to personal digital learning, Chicago kids would benefit from coherent state policies aimed at equity, options, and innovation.

Education Industry.  Chicago has a long history of learning innovation. DeVry launched career schools more than 75 years ago and was one of the first to serve returning vets under the GI bill. Chicago is also home to Career Education Corporation which serves 90,000 students from 90 worldwide campuses and online.  The University of Illinois developed PLATO system, the first computer assisted instruction system about 50 years ago.

“Chicago is a leader in the ‘profitable-but-boring’ category in the education sector,” as one local observer said. Those boring companies have been fetching 5x revenue in 2012 transactions. Chicago is the home of the School as a Service business model with nearly all of the leading players in this segment (excluding 2U). Two Chicago-based big higher education services firms were acquired in October.  Wiley bought Deltak, a higher ed services firm, for $220 million.Pearson purchased EmbanetCompass for $650 million. A more targeted partnership model,  All Campus, spun out from its former parent in October 2012 and has since added a dozen new university partners. Everspring, providing full-service, customized online educational solutions, is yet another example.

In the ‘speaking softly’ category, when you hear Follett you may think library, but the $3 billion private company provides universities, schools and libraries a wide range of tools and services from content to e-commerce. Last June Follett launched a $50 million venture fund, managed by Atrium Capital.

In the ‘wow, are they still around?’ category, Encyclopaedia Britannica and World Book are both headquartered in Chicago and both of are experiencing strong traction selling curriculum and research products to school districts and libraries.

Start-Ups.  Chicago is home to a diverse range of companies leading the shift to digital:

• PrepMe (now a part of Ascend Learning) provides adaptive learning across K-12, while its founder Karan Goel is now launching his new venture GetSet
• BenchPrep provides mobile B2C test prep solutions that are moving toward BTB
• VLinks provides the corporate learning solution LearnCore
• MentorMob supports development of learning playlists
• MediaChaperone is a parent engagement platform
• Youtopia a student engagement platform that provides gamification tools
• Better.at supports interest networks
• DigEdu enables teachers to design and delivered personalized learning on any device
• eSpark Learning makes sense out of elementary iPad learning
• Wowzers is a game-based elementary math solution from the Brain Hurricane team
• Collaborative Learning helps teachers align instruction and curriculum standards
• SchoolTown is a social learning platform
• ThinkCerca supports Common Core aligned literacy instruction
• SkateKids produces elementary reading and thinking games
• Starter League will teach you how to code and market web apps
• WyzAnt will help you find a tutor and, with a whopping $21 million in funding from Accel, is going global and mobile.

Investors and Bankers.  “Chicago-based funds have completed over 15 venture investments,” according toChristopher Nyren, “in the education market and represent over $2 billion in combined assets under management.”

Leading venture investors and some of their current education investments include:

• OCA Ventures: EdMap, Campus Explorer and previously 3 others
• First Analysis: AdvancePath, Community Education Centers, Learning.com, University Now and previouslySmartPros, etc.
• MK Capital: Apex Learning, eSpark, and TopSchool
• Baird Ventures: InsideTrack
• Lightbank: TakeLessons (which bought Chicago-based Betterfly in February), Udemy, and BenchPrep

Additionally, Chicago is home to one of the leading education super angel investors, Deborah Quazzo, who has separately invested in more than 25 EdTech startups including Clever, Degreed, DreamBox,

ImagineK12, Lightside, MasteryConnect, NoRedInk, NovoEd, Parchment, and Presence Learning.

“Chicago private equity funds have also completed over 30 separate platform investments in the education market and those funds still focused on this sector represent over $6 billion in assets under management.” said Nyren, “No city features more such experienced investors as right here with Sterling, Chicago Growth, HCP, Concentric, Maxim, Prairie,Prospect, and more.”

Chicago is home to talented advisors and merchant bankers including GSV Advisors and Christopher Nyren ofEducated Ventures (who, in addition to his advisory work, has also invested in local Chicago education start-ups All Campus, MentorMob, Get Set, and Wellspring Higher Education).

“Overall tech space is getting hotter with the creation of TechStars Chicago and 1871, and the impact investing/angel investing is scene is growing centered around The Impact Engine,” said Ryan Blitstein.

Chicago has great universities and generous foundations supporting innovation in early learning and afterschool. UC’s Urban Education Initiative is driving improvement locally and nationally. There are great charter networks and a few bright spots at Chicago Public Schools. Phyllis Lockett’s move from schools to tools is symbolic of the EdTech explosion in Chicago which rivals New York and may be second to the Bay Area in EdTech startups and funders. Lockett will help connect teachers to the tech sector while advancing short cycle trials and iterative development. Keep an eye on Chicagoland.

This post contributes to the #SmartCities Series- for more information on the upcoming book, see here.

Thanks to Tim Knowles and Cornelia Gruman, Phyllis Lockett, Christopher Nyren, Ryan Blitstein and other contributors.

A Graphic That Itemizes The Educational Value Of Video Games

“As the debate continues whether or not video games are good or bad for us, we must pause and truly analyze the components of a video game. Video games offer players rich data displays, forcing players to process information and statistics quickly. They also offer intriguing and creative storylines to help spark interest and inspire players to create their own stories. Finally, video gameplay now offers the opportunity for collaboration to solve problems—a skill necessary for the future workforce. This wonderful graphic produced by www.bestmastersineducation.com and presented at TeachThought offers readers ways video games help players develop essential skills, and experience a truly immerisive and engaging media type.”

Now Teachers Encourage Computer Games in Class

Many teachers are beginning to repurpose video games into valuable learning tools. Whether it is Minecraft for an architecture class or Angry Birds to teach physics, students are using games to explore educational content in an interactive manner. Video games of today also teach what is referred to as ‘soft skills’ which would prove ‘hard’ for students that do not develop these skills in the digital age. Read this article from Stephanie Banchero to hear from some insightful teachers and their stories of digital game integration into instruction.”

via The Wall Street Journal

A growing number of education experts, school districts and companies are applying what young people love about games and gaming to new tools for teaching core subjects. But do they work? WSJ’s Jason Bellini has the Short Answer.

At a private school in Houston, eighth-graders slingshot angry red birds across a video screen for a lesson on Newton’s law of motion. High-school students in Los Angeles create the “Zombie Apocalypse” computer game to master character development. And elementary students in Hampstead, N.C., build a virtual city to understand spatial reasoning.

These seemingly playful adventures represent a new frontier in education: videogames as teaching tools. Though it’s still a budding movement, scores of teachers nationwide are using games such as “Angry Birds,” “Minecraft,” “SimCity” and “World of Warcraft” to teach math, science, writing, teamwork and even compassion. In Chicago and New York, entire schools have been created that use the principles of game design in curriculum development.

The movement is driven by a generation of young teachers who grew up with computer games, a national push for innovative teaching methods in K-12 classrooms and a need to reach children whose obsession with videogames sometimes desensitizes them to the traditional, slower-paced classroom lectures.

Proponents say videogames can be powerful classroom instruments that prod students to think creatively to solve complex problems. They provide rapid feedback that forces students to rethink and alter strategies. And they can empower students to work together to conquer specific tasks.

Fail and Try Again

Joey J. Lee, an assistant professor who runs the Games Research Lab at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York, says videogames allow students to explore, be curious and persist through negative outcomes. “In many of these games, the best way to learn is to continually fail and then reassess and try again,” he says. “This creates a positive relationship with failure, especially because the stakes are so low.”

Minecraft: A medieval village created in “Minecraft” by Rocky Point high-schoolers for elementary-school kids to use.

Geovany Villasenor, a senior at East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy, says he liked building virtual cities in “Minecraft” during his after-school club because it let his “imagination go wild.” He adds that the game, which his teacher now uses in his architecture course, “taught me how to work in a community to get things done.”

The use of games in school isn’t without its critics. Opponents say games are addictive and violent. Some parents worry that children already spend too much time in front of glowing screens, while others argue that the games are based on rewards, corrupting the idea of learning.

Teachers have long used computerized games designed specifically for education. But the new wave of innovation takes popular videogames and transforms them into learning tools, often creating lessons around the Common Core math and language-arts academic standards adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. Some companies are even experimenting with building assessments directly into video games.

Shari Hiltbrand, a 49-year-old middle-school physics teacher at the private Kinkaid School in Houston, began using “Angry Birds” in her classroom two years ago. For the uninitiated, the game, a product of Finland’s Rovio Entertainment Ltd., prods players to slingshot feathery critters of various sizes onto wood, rock or glass towers where pigs hide. To knock out the pigs—and move to the next level—players must get the birds’ trajectories just right.

Ms. Hiltbrand, an avid “Angry Birds” player, researched the physics behind the game and spent a few months creating a lesson plan. Today, her students spend a week playing the game and writing blog posts about the birds’ arc through the air, their descent and collision in terms of Newton’s law of motion, force, mass, speed and velocity.

In past years, Ms. Hiltbrand, a 27-year teaching veteran, had students learn these topics by crashing balls into each other on the floor or timing cars as they passed markers. But in the “Angry Birds” lesson, students are far more enthused and write blogs with “such amazing clarity and precision, I see a deeper understanding of physics,” she says. “I want my kids to be informed, scientific thinkers, and I saw I had hooked them.”

How Young Is Too Young for Tech?

How young is too young to be using an iPad or other touch-screen media device? What should parents do if they can’t get their children off the tablet? WSJ’s Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer Image: Associated Press. Data from Statista.com

Lauren Rubenstein, 15, says she had trouble understanding the difference between potential and kinetic energy—until the “Angry Birds” lesson. “It made sense to me because I could see it,” she says.

No one can say exactly how many teachers are using games in classrooms, but to give some idea, hundreds like Ms. Hiltbrand are discussing ideas in weekly webinars and Twitter chats and are posting videogame-related lesson plans on such sites as Educade.org, an online database for innovative lesson plans. Organizations like the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have pumped millions into research and the practice of gaming in schools. Since 2010, students have competed in the National STEM Video Game Challenge, a contest that promotes skills in science, technology, engineering and math by inspiring students to create videogames. Amplify, the education subsidiary of News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, has more than 30 educational videogames it will begin selling next year.

Soft and Hard Skills

Many teachers say they use videogames to develop students’ “soft skills,” such as self-control, persistence, self-confidence and ability to work in a group. A growing body of research has shown these traits are critical to success in later life.

D.L. Anderson for The Wall Street Journal: Students at Cape Fear Middle School in Rocky Point, N.C., play “Guild Wars 2.”

The Pender County Schools in coastal North Carolina use a games curriculum in 12 schools to develop hard and soft skills. Elementary-school students work together in “Minecraft” to build virtual villages and conquer such tasks as crafting a fishing pole to catch 10 fish, saddling and riding a pig, or building a mine cart and putting down rails to ride it on. Middle- and high-school students play “Guild Wars 2″ and go on quests to retrieve stolen relics.

Zeelie Scruggs, 13, an eighth-grader at Cape Fear Middle School in Rocky Point, N.C., says she looks forward to language arts class all week because she gets to play “Guild Wars 2.” “I like it because we learn how to work with each other to overcome challenges,” she says. “And we can keep trying something until we figure out the best way to do it.”

Lucas Gillispie, the district’s technology coordinator and architect of its gamification, smiles when his students talk about the classes and notes that they rarely mention the learning.

In the “Guild Wars 2″ class, students will analyze the mission statements of Avon Products Inc. and Nike Inc. before writing their own mission statement prior to the quest. They’ll write short stories about their character and they’ll read Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and talk about choices in the virtual—and the real—world.

Mr. Gillispie calls it “ninja teaching.”

“The academic stuff is there,” he says, “but it is so subtly woven into the fun and engagement that they don’t realize they are learning.”

Ms. Banchero is the national education reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Email:stephanie.banchero@wsj.com.