Demonstrationg Creativity and Innovation

http://www.allbusiness.com/management/123090-1.html

Book on Growing up Creative

The thesis that "creativity can and should be a part of the daily life of all children and adults" is illustrated with charm and conviction here. Amabile, a professor at Brandeis University, emphasizes that motivation rather than talent is the crucial element in creativity, and the home environment can either crush or spark a child's urge to be creative. She provides samples of creativity, e.g.: as Christmas presents one child gives services, such as car washings; a 10-year-old has established a public library in his underserved neighborhood. Research, observations of her own child, interviews with parents and teachers, and with novelist John Irving, are the foundation for Amabile's innovative, multi-faceted approach to an encompassing concept of creativity in the development of children. Suggestions, example and practical techniques make this study an ex cellent resource for parents and teachers of young children.

http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Creative-Nurturing-Creativity/dp/093022289X

ACA Research Resources

http://www.acacamps.org/research/bib/

New York Camp Events

http://www.acacamps.org/campfair/search.pl?Abbrev=NY&Display=y&order_by=DATE&order=abc

Camp Fairs

New York

Summer Program Expo-Just For Teens Thursday, November 29 2007, 7pm - 9pmy Great Neck North High School 35 Polo Road Great Neck, New York 11023 Marla Leader Phone: 516-625-9500 marla@campexperts.com http://www.campexperts.com/

Just for Teens Thursday, November 29 2007, 7am - 9pmy Great Neck North High School 35 Polo Road Great Neck, New York 11020 Marla Leader Phone: 516-625-9500 marla@campexperts.com http://www.campexperts.com/

Tips on Trips and Camps Wednesday, December 5 2007, 11am - 2pmy Horace Mann School 231 West 246th St. Riverdale, New York Barbara Stern Phone: 917-492-7039 barbaras@tipsontripsandcamps.com http://www.acacamps.org/campfair/barbaras@tipsontripsandcamps.com

Summer Program Expo-Just For Teens Thursday, December 6 2007, 7pm - 9pmy Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School 50 Kennedy Drive Plainview, New York 11803 Marla Leader Phone: 516-625-9500 marla@campexperts.com http://www.campexperts.com/

Just for Teens Thursday, December 6 2007, 7pm - 9pmy Plainview-Old Bethpage High School 50 Kennedy Drive Plainview, New York 11803 Marla Leader Phone: 516-625-9500 marla@campexperts.com http://www.campexperts.com/

Summer Opportunities Fair Sunday, December 9 2007, 12pm - 3pmy Ethical Culture Fieldston School 33 Central Park West (63rd St.) New York, New York 10023 Lea Arnold-Rice Phone: 718-319-8635 summer@ecfs.org http://www.ecfs.org/

Just for Teens Tuesday, January 8 2008, 7pm - 9pmy Tenafly High School Columbus Drive Tenafly, New Jersey 07670 Debbie Alfonso Phone: 201-391-6165 debbie@campexperts.com http://www.campexperts.com/

Summer Camp and Teen Programs Fair Sunday, January 13 2008, 1pm - 4pmy Rye Country Day School Cedar Street Rye, New York 10580 Ann Kramer Fuchs Phone: 914-939-5338 Ann@tipsontripsandcamps.com http://www.tipsontripsandcamps.com/

Tips on Trips and Camps Thursday, January 17 2008, 4pm - 6:30pmy Chapin School 100 East End Avenue New York, New York 10028 Barbara Stern Phone: 917-492-7039 barbaras@tipsontripsandcamps.com http://www.tipsontripsandcamps.com/

Special Camp Fair 2008 Saturday, January 26 2008, 11am - 3pmy Church of St. Paul the Apostle Columbus Ave. and W. 60th St. NYC New York City, New York 10019 Gary Shulman Phone: 212 -677 - 4650 gshulman@resourcesnyc.org http://www.resourcesnyc.org/

Tips on Trips and Camps Tuesday, February 5 2008, 4pm - 6:30pmy Dalton School 109 East 89th Street New York, New York 10128 Barbara Stern Phone: 917-492-7039 barbaras@tipsontripsandcamps.com http://www.tipsontripsandcamps.com/

design camp video

http://www.ncsu.edu/featured-stories/engaging-society/aug-2007/design-camp/index.php

UNIS Goes Green

This could be a great partnership:

http://www.unis.org/News%5C07-08/green.asp

On Monday, November 12th, we will launch UNIS Goes Green, the school's multi-faceted campaign for sustainability, developed last year in response to our students' awareness and concerns for the environmental impact of our campus. Based upon the principles of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink, this campaign focuses on raising awareness and effecting change in many different areas, including energy, water, the environmentally-responsible management of resources such as paper and plastic, and the actual school building and mechanical systems.

Online Access to Research in the Environment

http://www.oaresciences.org/en/

I THINK this maybe the greatest resource we will ever use in the future. it is a super wealth of INFO!

Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE), an international public-private consortium coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Yale University, and leading science and technology publishers, enables developing countries to gain access to one of the world's largest collections of environmental science research.

Over 1,300 peer reviewed titles owned and published by over 340 prestigious publishing houses and scholarly societies are now available in more than 100 low income countries. Research is provided in a wide range of disciplines, including Biology; Biotechnology, Genetics & Genetically Modified Species; Botany & Plant Biodiversity; Climatology, Climate Change & Meteorology; Ecology & Wildlife Conservation; Energy Conservation & Renewable Energy; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental & Natural Resource Economics; Environmental Engineering; Environmental Law, Policy & Planning; Fish & Fisheries; Forests & Forestry; Geography, Population Studies & Migration; Geology & Earth Sciences; Natural Environmental Disasters; Oceanography & Marine Biology; Pollution & Environmental Toxicology; Satellite & Remote Sensing Technologies; Soil Sciences and Desertification; Waste Management; Water, Hydrology & Wetlands; and Zoology & Animal Biodiversity.

New York’s High School for Environmental Studies

Hey all, so what if we partnered up with this school?

http://www.unep.org/dec/onlinemanual/Enforcement/InstitutionalFrameworks/PublicAwarenessEducation/Resource/tabid/1138/Default.aspx

The High School for Environmental Studies (HSES) is a public high school in New York City. It was established to provide high school students (generally ages 13-18) with hands-on-experiences and education aimed at encouraging youth to connect to their environment. HSES programmes foster and build upon the children’s natural interest in the outdoors. This is particularly challenging, though, in an urban context. As such, HSES is a potential model for comprehensive urban environmental education. The HSES programme not only fosters environmental awareness and eventual professional development, but it also allows urban youth to engage with their natural surroundings.

One Laptop Per Child (XO laptop) - pilot education programs wiki

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educational_activity_guidelines

This first entry is really good, since it discusses many of the Core Ideas of the education program:

The Activity
The Journal
Communication and Collaboration
Creative Expression

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_Teachers
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Learning_Vision

Academy for Sustainable Community

Home - http://www.ascskills.org.uk

3 Video's
1. What makes a community sustainable?
2. What skills are important for delivering sustainable communities?
3. What needs to be done?
http://www.ascskills.org.uk/pages/sustainable-communities/videos

Award Show
http://www.futurevisionaward.com/welcome.htm

Sustainability Educatin Handbook

Resource Guide for K-12 Teachers

http://www.urbanoptions.org/SustainEdHandbook/ScienceRealWorld.htm

Ecological Design & Building Schools - Book

ISBN: 978-0-9766054-1-6
features an annotated listing of schools and educational centers offering top programs in ecological building design and construction. The guide also offers a comprehensive 20-year review of sustainable design education and discussion of current educational offerings, plus extensive tables comparing school programs, listings of curricular resources, related organizations, and individual instructors.

Author Sandra Leibowitz Earley

http://www.newvillagepress.net/pub_EcoDesignSchools.html

Sustainability Education Video

HIGHLY RECCOMMENDED
http://www.walkingthetalk.bc.ca/dialogue_2007

Metropolismag.com

http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/

global issues gateway

interesting reference website for a variety of topics including education courtesy of fairleigh dickinson university

http://www.gig.org/

Schools of the Future design programme...

...of the UK Govt's Education Dept

www.open.gov.uk

Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School

aims to inform and mobilize Governments, communities and individuals to ensure that disaster risk reduction is fully integrated into school curricula in high risk countries and that school buildings are built or retrofitted to withstand natural hazards. The Campaign’s key partners include UNESCO, UNICE, ActionAid International, the IFRC, and the ISDR’s thematic cluster on knowledge and education.

http://www.unisdr.org/eng/public_aware/world_camp/2006-2007/pdf/WDRC-2006-2007-English-fullversion.pdf

To facilitate the Campaign, UN/ISDR secretariat produced an information kit. The Thematic Platform on Knowledge and Education and its partners launched the publication entitled "Let Our Children Teach Us! - A review of the Role of Education and Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction”.

from the webpage:
http://www.unisdr.org/eng/public_aware/world_camp/2006-2007/iddr/2007-iddr.htm

DM Thesis Topic Worksheet

Thesis Topic Worksheet

Descriptive Statement
In a few sentences, state your research question and the purpose of your research (consistent with the research guidelines provided in the Capstone Course Description). Justify why your question is important. Why are you writing this paper?

Research Question
How can we educate secondary and post-secodary students in America to be better poised for the global challenges of the future and to lead through positive change? How can design play a greater role in inspiring and creating this change?

Challenges include: global warming and environmental degradation, resource scarcity, poverty, health, sustainable development. These challenges are local, national, and international.

Justify why your question is important
Innovation is now the new baseline for global competition and is considered by many countries as the hallmark of national success. Long considered the global economic leader, the United State's capacity for innovation is eroding, and our global preeminence is at threat. The UN Millenium goals provide a solid guideline for much needed areas of global leadership, and American citizens must step up to every challenge. If we do not collectively commit to fostering well-educated and well-rounded talent, the United States will face troubling times in future generations (increased economic competition, decreasing resources, growing national security concerns, etc.).

Why are you writing this paper
Changing actions requires changed mindsets, and the epicenter of intellectual development is in the classroom. Through design leadership, we want to encourage, inspire, and empower the youth of America to become proactive about innovation and change. We believe creativity and empowerment is at the heart of change.

What are you bringing to the table that is new and innovative
The use of design/creative resources to create a strategic and sustainable advantage. As well as a system that takes into account holistic values and creative process.

Analysis of Topic and Method
Decompose your topic into manageable research elements. These should form the key word searches you will use in your literature review. It will also be the base for your outline and ultimately your table of contents. How will you study this topic? test hypothesis? address research question?

Hypothesis
Design thinking and creative problem-solving can help reinvent the way we educate our children, increase access to quality education, and rejuvenate America's innovation engine.

Keywords
design and creative problem-solving skills in education
geographic and financial barriers to education
lack of student empowerment and accountability
access to good education
sustainability education
lack of entrepreneurship and capacity to innovate in education

How will you study this topic
Depending on the course of action with we take. We could focus on the applications of pedagogic minutiae and its relations to triple bottom line business functions.

Discussions/Conclusions
Anticipated results? Possible outcomes? Policy recommendations
Create a dynamic charter school.
Develop a 'creative sustainable management awareness program'.
Design a sustainability report card.
Create a nation-wide ‘Odyssey of the Mind’-type competition and scholarship program
Consultancy business for sustainable design and innovation in high schools and universities

References
Sources of information (path, search terms, databases, specific journals, etc.)

Selection criteria for references (study population, year of publication, legislation, etc.)

Other sources (interviews, surveys, media, professional organizations)

Re-engineering Engineering at Olin College

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/magazine/30OLIN-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

IT ISN'T EASY TO BUILD a college from scratch, although, to listen to Miller, it’s a lot of fun. Miller recruited a leadership team, and the school invited 30 students (out of more than 600 applicants) to come in 2001 for a “partner year” in which they would help develop and test the curriculum. They helped come up with Olin’s DNA: project-based learning.

Alison Lee, a recent graduate now in South Korea on a Fulbright scholarship, said the process of solving seemingly insurmountable problems is an Olin rite of passage, like the project that was given to her and her fellow students: build a robot that can climb a wall. When it worked, she said, “it was the moment of realization that I could do anything.” (In a field where female students are traditionally scarce, more than 40 percent of Olin’s students are women.) The problem-based process is good preparation for the real world, said another student, Meenakshi Vembusubramanian. “You’re not going to go into a job and get a thermodynamics problem set,” she said. “You’re going to have a problem that’s badly defined.”

His classes have an art-school feel: students, dressed in T-shirts and jeans, shorts or pajama bottoms, are up and down and walking around the room, clustering around their projects and discussing them, cutting blue foam with a hot-wire cutter to make models. Linder told me he pushes his students not to just follow instructions. “Engineering,” he says, “has traditionally been focused on doing it right, but not on what’s the right thing to do.” That means designing products that are environmentally friendly and that respond to the needs of the people using them and not just to what the purchasing department wants. He urges his students to be more than team players. The goal, Linder said with utter earnestness, was to teach fledgling engineers “how to be bold.”

In some companies, he says, the freethinking products of Olin might have trouble fitting in. “Does industry want people like that? I think that’s a very good question, but I think this goes beyond what industry wants,” he said. “This is the right thing to do — this is what industry needs. If the country had more people like this, we’d be in a much better situation.”

Innovation Nation, by John Kao

http://www.forbes.com/books/2007/10/04/book-excerpt-innovation-oped-books-cx_jka_1005innovation.html
The following is an excerpt from the book Innovation Nation by John Kao, Simon & Schuster (320 pp., $26.)

Only yesterday, we Americans could afford to feel smug about our preeminence. Destiny, it seems, had appointed us the world's permanent pioneers, forever striding beyond the farthest cutting edge. From the Declaration of Independence to the Creative Commons, from the movies to Internet media, from air travel to integrated circuits, from the Mac to MySpace, we led the way to the new. We owned the future. Other countries would have to settle for being followers, mere customers or imitators of our fabulous creations.

That was yesterday. Today, things are vastly different. Innovation has become the new currency of global competition as one country after another races toward a new high ground where the capacity for innovation is viewed as a hallmark of national success. These competitors are beginning to seriously challenge us as magnets for venture capital, R & D and talent, and as the hot spots of innovation from which future streams of opportunity will emerge.

You know the world has changed when the Chinese politburo--historical bastion of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thought--puts innovation squarely in the middle of its next five-year plan, as it did in 2006, by setting the goal of building "an innovative country," on a "rich talent base," to drive economic and social development.

Meanwhile, our own national capacity for innovation is eroding, with deeply troubling implications for our future. We live in a country in which more money is now spent on astrology than astronomy, one in which our handling of such fundamental issues as education, science, and investment in basic research seems increasingly at odds with a new set of global best practices pioneered by others.

Though we still enjoy the lead position, other parts of the world are moving ahead at a rapid pace. Indeed, my work has shown me that innovation is fast becoming a guiding force for public policy in one country after another--but not our own. Other countries are ramping up innovation efforts and spending serious amounts of money to devise new kinds of incentives, to nurture talent, and actively sponsor large-scale innovation initiatives. My desk is piled high with innovation strategies and white papers from Sweden, China, Australia, Canada and Singapore.

Most people are unaware of just how rapidly such strategies, driven by a new global economic calculus, are reshaping the competitive landscape. By 2010, for example, experts estimate that Beijing will have the world's largest nanotechnology research infrastructure, with 10 times as many researchers in one location as any comparable U.S. facility. The second-largest by then? Shanghai. And while America retains its lead in the life sciences, countries from China to Hungary are striving to become world-class players and realize world-class economic payoffs. And they are succeeding. Countries we don't even acknowledge as serious competitors are beginning to outpace us in some vital areas as we squander our long-held advantage.

It is a crucial moment in time, a historic tipping point perhaps. Just as we are beginning to slack off, others are stepping on the gas. And, at some point--sooner than we might think--the curves of our decline and the world's ascent will cross. In tomorrow's world, even more than today's, innovation will be the engine of progress. So unless we move to rectify this dismal situation, the United States cannot hope to remain a leader. What's at stake is nothing less than the future prosperity and security of our nation.

There is no single answer or remedy. What is required is nothing less than a major commitment of America's resources, human and financial, to rejuvenate our innovation engine. And the obvious first step is simply to acknowledge the challenges we face at a national level. After which, we must develop a compelling vision and a blueprint for action that will reinvent the way we educate our children, marshal resources, pursue our research projects, communicate and share our discoveries, and conduct ourselves in the world community. Incrementalism will not take us where we need to go; we are at what biologists call a "punctuated equilibrium" moment in which a rapidly altering context demands an equally rapid evolution of our ability to adapt.

Thesis Proposal Round 2

Disclaimer: Please note that we have not yet chosen the particular thesis format for this project. Possible options include: business plan (program or consultancy), research with recommendations or walk-about.

Group:
Maren Maier, Ben Knight, Tiffany Feeney, Danielle Penn, Maya Schindler

Vision:
To develop students as change agents in high schools and colleges who will help the United States transition and lead through the new global challenges of the 21st Century.

Mission:
To create a holistic and incentive based program that uses existing sustainability education and measurement vehicles to apply sustainable education practices to help foster innovation and entrepreneurship at the secondary and post secondary levels.

List of specific objectives:
To democratize invention and show that everyone has the capacity to create change
To broaden the definition and understanding of design in the new economy
To broaden the definition and understanding of sustainability and draw attention to the UN Millennium Goals
To facilitate an implicit understanding that everyone is a designer
To blur the boundaries between design, science, technology, and humanities
To create strong partnerships between high schools, universities, and corporations
To provide support, infrastructure, and confidence in young inventors

Troubling Trends:
•Slipping educational performance in international rankings, particularly in reading, math, and science
•Below average performance in public school system, particularly in low-income areas
•Increased fixation on performance testing and measurement
•Lack of sustainability education and operations within school systems
•Decreased numbers of foreign students studying at American higher education institutions
•Preparing students for the challenges that the new economy will provide
•11th Hour bombed at the box office proving that most of America does not care enough about Global Warming to do something about it.
Therefore, as Bruce Mau stated in the movie, it will be the responsibility of designers to bring sustainable development to the people.
•Lack of sustainability education and operations within the school systems
•Students lacking guidance in transition to employment
•Students lacking support for incubating and realizing ideas
•Rising costs associated with post-secondary enrollment
•Privatization in of the student loan industry

Opportunities and Trends:
•Charter Schools
•Increased interest in Sustainability Education
•Increased acknowledgement for education policy reform and higher national performance
•Democratization of the web and increased connectivity
•Increased need for innovative and creative thinking in American corporations and the knowledge economy
•Increased interest from corporation in start-ups and university R & D partnerships
•DM mentorship program

The "program" teaches students about sustainability, responsibility, and personal accountability: Addressing the collegiate level, the program will set appropriate curriculum and incentives to motivate the educational sector and businesses and continue to encourage partnerships between the two. Preliminary models consist of contests, national ranking, sustainability certification for education, and student mentorship programs that extend beyond parent, teacher, and community boundaries.

The most significant incentive for students in this program is the opportunity to help offset college tuition costs with the funding the program will generate as well as inspire creative problem solving based on today's needs and challenges. Incentives for participants schools can include reputation building, increased funding, tax breaks, recognition as sustainable entity's, and credit toward the creation of/invention of products, services or new programs. The key incentive for corporations/government include building a stronger and more prepared work force to face the new design economy.

Design and Methodology or Research Plan:
EXPLORATORY RESEARCH PHASE:
*Talk to people in education, business (expert interviews – head of board of education in NYC, principal of charter school in Harlem, Dalton school staff)
*Interview parents, teachers, and kids (focus group)
*One-on-one interview
*Experience surveys
*Secondary research, online search engines, case studies

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH PHASE:
*surveys, diaries, panels, self-administered research, tracking studies, concept testing

Start with exploratory phase, then go into descriptive phase and at the end of that phase identify the quantitative and qualitative research methods.

QUANTITATIVE/QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PHASE:
-Focus panels
-Pilot test (usage test)
-Play sessions
-Idea generation
-Motivations/preferences/habits (qualitative)
-Measurement, progress tracking (quantitative)
(*needs to be done within first 6 months)

Designers and Agents

http://www.designersandagents.com/english/main.html

Designers and Agents is an independen, international alternative marketplace for over 1000 collections and thousands of retailers who define the cutting edge in fashion and lifestyle. D & A Goes Green marks a natural progression of D&A's interest in sustainability issues. In true D&A style, our commitment to green product innovation mixes commerce with creativity...

Pratt Incubator

http://incubator.pratt.edu/about.html

The Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation is a vibrant and energetic atmosphere supporting the entrepreneurial talents of designers, artists and architects selected from the Pratt community who share a common goal: linking the social entrepreneur with the business of design. The Incubator sponsors environmental, social and cultural initiatives and benefits from a growing network of legal, business, engineering and manufacturing experts.
The Incubator provides the following:
• Start-up support for Pratt entrepreneurs
• Design consulting services on a project basis
• Workshop and seminar organization
• Mentorship Network coordination
• Resource Center for design entrepreneurs

The Incubator provides ambitious students, alumni and faculty with a safe and stimulating place to launch businesses, providing office space, support and access to shop facilities.

The Case Foundation

http://www.casefoundation.org/home

Our mission is to achieve sustainable solutions to complex social problems by investing in collaboration, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

Educating, Empowering, and Energizing Youth

Inhabitat

Inhabitat.com is a weblog devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future.

www.inhabitat.com

Design 21 Social Design Network

http://www.design21sdn.com/

DESIGN 21: Social Design Network’s mission is to inspire social consciousness through design. We connect people who want to explore ways that design can positively impact our communities – ways that are thoughtful, informed, creative and responsible.

About Competitions
The DESIGN 21 series challenges designers of all disciplines to find solutions to social and global issues. It’s guided by UNESCO’s premise that education, science, technology, culture and communication are tools to spread knowledge and information, build awareness and foster dialogue.

United Social Themes
Partnering with UNESCO means being an active contributor to the goals of the United Nations. To help us do that, we’ve adopted UNESCO’s social themes to better define areas we can aid through social design. Think about how your causes or your projects fit into the following:

EDUCATION: literacy, educational resources, education for all
AID: emergency relief, medical and humanitarian aid
POVERTY: extreme poverty, urban poverty, homeless
COMMUNITY: gender and race equality, community development and welfare, sports
ENVIRONMENT: habitats, sustainable development, biodiversity, water, climate change, natural disaster reduction
COMMUNICATION: freedom of expression, access and understanding of media and the internet, media development
ARTS & CULTURE: protection of cultural diversity, art as empowerment
PEACE: human rights, genocide, conflict resolution
WELL-BEING: health, disease, disability

How can we do it? Together
In the end, good design is the result of good decisions. Fueling informed choices by fostering relationships and conversation is what the Social Design Network is all about. So engage with the power of design and connect to create change.

The Condition of Education

A Congressionally Mandated report produced by Mark Schneider's National Center for Education Statistics, the data-gathering arm of the Department of Education
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/

Contexts of Post-Secondary Education
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/list/i5.asp

Non-Traditional Undergraduates
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2002/analyses/nontraditional/index.asp


SITE MAP
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/map/index.asp

Magnet Schools of America MSA

MSAP is the only federal program solely addressing desegregation and diversity in public elementary and secondary schools. The Association encourages passage of national and state legislation promoting school desegregation, theme-based/specialty education, and public schools of choice.
http://www.magnet.edu/modules/content/index.php?id=1

Magnet Schools Assistance
Federal Grant projects that "Projects support the development and design of innovative education methods and practices that promote diversity and increase choices in public education programs." http://www.ed.gov/programs/magnet/index.html

New York Magnet Schools
http://www.publicschoolreview.com/state_magnets/stateid/NY

AUDI Design Foundation

Aim is to encourage and empower designers by supporting and promoting designs that create a positive change in people's lives. The Foundation offers a wide range of opportunities to enable designers to progress innovative design and has awarded over £650,000 in grants. Not involved in car design

http://195.92.138.177/

Green Financial Products and Services- Book

http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/greenprods_01.pdf

U.N. Calls For Education In Corporate Responsibility

http://www.forbes.com/leadership/2007/07/06/un-responsibility-education-lead-citizen-cx_sm_0706bized.html

Inspiring Excerpts from Design for the Other 90%

In general, the word design is defined and based on how an object or concept balances three attributes: aesthetics, function, and cost…although the word design is visible everywhere – to describe the latest furniture, fashions and accessories, or as the current panacea for generating consumer interest and increasing corporate bottom lines, most design object are barely visible or discussed in our daily lives. Pg 5-6.

This book represents a chorus of singular voices of designers who are using their creativity, experience, and knowledge to transform the means by which millions of people live. These pages pay tribute to the designers – whether professionals or self-trained, global or regional, students or professors, individuals or teams – who, rather than just adding another object or concept to our consumer culture, are looking around the world, identifying true problems and needs, and working with users to design solutions to meet them. Pg. 8

What I found as I began my research was a groundswell of work being done by a dedicated group of designer, engineers, architects, and entrepreneurs around the world to create sustainable solutions for improving people’s lives. A movement is growing within the professional design community and the design, engineering, and architecture schools to direct our practices toward socially responsible, sustainable, humanitarian design. This represents a sea change, as the focus has shifted to underserved populations. Pg 16

So where did I find the international designers who are working to design for the 90% of the world who traditionally cannot afford ‘designed’ work? I found them at universities and at small non-profits….may these stories inspire young designers, established professionals, educators, journalists, and each of us to make a difference and help bring an end to poverty and the rise of sustainability in all of its forms. Pg 17

Schools Deemed the "marketplace of ideas" as per court ruling according to the 1st amendment

The Court also has recognized that schools function as a "marketplace of ideas" and that the "robust exchange of ideas is a special concern of the First Amendment" (Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589, 87 S. Ct. 675, 17 L. Ed. 2d 629 [1967]).
http://law.jrank.org/pages/6348/Education-Law-Student-Speech-First-Amendment.html

NYC Bloomberg Educaton Survey Results

Survey Reveals Student Attitudes, Parental Goals and Teacher Mistrust
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/nyregion/07schools.html?ex=1190001600&en=0a7b398a00b40d7e&ei=5070

Article about increase in Masters Degree enrollment/cost

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/education/12masters.html?ref=education

Wireless Generation Education

They pioneered the adaptation of mobile technologies, including handheld computers and digital pens, for use in managing and improving teaching and learning in grades pre-K-12. The company�s commitment to listening to educators and gaining a deep understanding of their challenges has lead to the development of offerings that optimally combine mobile tools, Internet technology, and in-person services to help improve student achievement in reading and math. Wireless Generation�s mCLASS� products and services streamline collection of data about student learning needs and school operations, facilitate data analysis and interpretation, and build educators� capacity to implement data-driven instructional programs that deliver better outcomes for children. State and district school systems across the country and overseas now rely upon these offerings to achieve and sustain growth in their classrooms.


http://www.wirelessgeneration.com/

Right Brain, Left Brain: The Home offices of Design

The importance of the quality of the environment within which students learn and how better respect for our right brain and left brain needs would potentially promote a more successful, complete learning experience.

http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/oct02/wallace.htm

Maren's Thoughts on Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Vision
To develop students as change agents in high schools, colleges, and universities who will help the United States transition and lead through the new challenges of the 21st Century.

Mission
To ignite entrepreneurial spirit and innovation amongst students across the country by creating a national platform for sustainable design challenges, competitions, and financial incentives (scholarships, funding) within schools at the secondary and post-secondary level.

Objectives
To democratize invention and show that everyone has the capacity to create change
To broaden the definition and understanding of design in the new economy
To broaden the definition and understanding of sustainability and draw attention to the UN Millenium Goals
To facilitate an implicit understanding that everyone is a designer
To blur the boundaries between design, science, technology, and humanities
To create strong partnerships between high schools, universities, and corporations
To provide support, infrastructure, and confidence in young inventors

Current Problems in Education:
Overall Performance
•Slipping educational performance in international rankings, particularly in reading, math, and science
•Below average performance in public school system, particularly in low-income areas
•Increased fixation on performance testing and measurement
•Lack of sustainability education and operations within school systems
•Decreased numbers of foreign students studying at American higher education institutions

Guidance
•Students lacking guidance in transition to employment
•Students lacking support for incubating and realizing ideas

Cost
•Rising costs associated with post-secondary enrollment
•Privatization in of the student loan industry

Opportunities and Trends
•Charter Schools
•Increased interest in Sustainability Education
•Increased acknowledgement for education policy reform and higher national performance
•Democratization of the web and increased connectivity
•Increased need for innovative and creative thinking in American corporations and the knowledge economy
•Increased interest from corporation in start-ups and university R & D partnerships

Programs to Look At
Odyssey of the Mind
Boys and Girls Scouts of America
Pratt Incubator
WPA

Net Impact Student Guide to Graduate Business Programs

As per our discussion, here is truncated version from the page regarding the Net Impact, CSR guide to schools:

Thinking of applying to business school? Want to see what students say about how their programs address social and environmental issues?

Check out the second annual Net Impact Student Guide to Graduate Business Programs.

Established last year in response to numerous inquiries from business school applicants who wanted to know about programs with a social and environmental focus. Second, we heard from many of our chapter leaders that they would like a chance to share the student perspective on how their program addresses these issues. Finally, we believed that the information included in the Guide will be a useful tool for business schools to compare themselves against their peers and develop more robust social impact curricula, career services, and support for student activities.

http://www.netimpact.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=1020

http://www.netimpact.org/displayemailforms.cfm?emailformnbr=56454

North American Association for Environmental Education

http://www.naaee.org/

This is another organizational network of teachers that focuses on environmental education curricula. K-12

Samples of Sustainability Thesi ..... (sexy)

"Campus Sustainability: Sustainability Assessment Framework at the University of Waterloo" by Crystal Legacy (great name) Fall 2003-Winter 2004
http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infowast/watgreen/projects/library/w04sustframework.pdf

"Campus Ecology: Bridging the Gap Between Campus Sustainability Efforts and Urban Ecology" by Suzanne Savanick March 2004
http://sci.cfans.umn.edu/StudProj/Savanick2004.pdf

"Sustainability Assessment and Reporting for the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor Campus" by Sandra I. Rodriguez, Matthew S. Roman, Samantha C. Sturhahn, Elizabeth H. Terry April, 2002
http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/CSS02-04.pdf

CAMPUS ASSESSMENTS, AUDITS, SURVEYS AND REPORTS

Listed by ULSF = University Leaders for a Sustainable Future
Whose purpose is to: is to make sustainability a major focus of teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities worldwide. ULSF pursues this mission through advocacy, education, research, assessment, membership support, and international partnerships to advance education for sustainability

http://www.ulsf.org/cgi-bin/searchresults.cfm?catID=1&subcatID=2

Campus Sustainability Assessment Project

Here is the link to the campus sustainability assessment project begun http://csap.envs.wmich.edu/

Also here is another link I just found but haven't thoroughly gone thru
http://syc-cjs.org/sustainable/Campus+Sustainability+Assessment+Framework&bl

LEAP - Learning Through the Expanded Arts Program

http://www.leapnyc.org/
Leap is a non-profit organization committed to improving the quality of public education through a hands-on, arts-based approach to teaching the academic curriculum. Leap empowers students to reach their full potential.

METHODOLOGY:
Auditory, tactile, visual and interactive methods to teach academic subjects
Hands-on experiences and the arts to stimulate curiosity and foster creativity
Non-traditional approaches in classrooms to enliven learning

BENEFITS:
Exposes diverse students to a wide range of cultural experiences
Helps at-risk students become literate, motivated and successful learners
Promotes cognitive, social, emotional and physical development in all students

SOLTIONS:
Creative Programs
Develops and delivers workshops, residencies and performances for schools, cultural institutions and community-based organizations
Innovative Materials
Promotes effective learning with its engaging, easy-to-use materials
Customized Services
Designs and oversees individualized solutions to challenging educational problems
Leap Specialists
Brings teaching artists and experts from architects to zoologists into the classroom to work with teachers and students

RESULTS:
96% of students demonstrated a better understanding of subjects
95% of students improved their creative thinking skills
98% of students gained a sense of pride in their work and in themselves
87% of teachers have repeated the Leap program on their own

Books about teaching Design and Technology in Primary and Secondaary schools

http://www.amazon.com/Primary-Design-Technology-Future-Citizenship/dp/1853467383/ref=sip_rech_dp_3/105-0150166-2914076

http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Design-Technology-Secondary-Schools/dp/0415260736/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product/105-0150166-2914076

Design Schools: Please Start Teaching Design Again

Excerpt: What we're going to end up with is a generation of "innovators" who are MBAs in MFAs' clothing, who can neither create or run businesses like entrepreneurs can, nor design products and services like designers can. It's the worst of both worlds.

http://www.core77.com/blog/education/design_schools_please_start_teaching_design_again_5799.asp

World Business Council for Sustainable Development Report

http://www.wbcsd.org/web/publications/biz4dev.pdf

Bruce Mau believes children and education

are the keys to greening our cities. Mau says if we can design ways for children to connect directly with living things and living systems and then integrate that experience into the way we educate the next generation, they will view green cities as a starting point rather than merely a possibility.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005785.html

KIPP schools

http://www.kipp.org/

A network of free schools in under served neighborhoods throughout the United States.

College Ratings Race Roars On Despite Concerns

College Ratings Race Roars On Despite Concerns

By ALAN FINDER
Published: August 17, 2007
Richard J. Cook, the president of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, will not say precisely how he used to rate his college’s competitors when the annual U.S. News & World Report peer review questionnaire showed up in his mailbox. What he will say is, “I filled it out more honestly this year than I did in the past.”

“I checked ‘don’t know’ for every college except Allegheny,” Dr. Cook said, adding that he gave his own institution an outstanding rating.

U.S. News & World Report releases its annual rankings of America’s top colleges today, under attack as never before by college officials who accuse it of using dubious statistics to stoke the intense, even crazed, competition among colleges and universities for students and prestige.

Still there is little sign that the rankings race is diminishing. While more than 60 presidents of liberal arts colleges signed a letter over the last few months pledging to stop participating in the most heavily weighted component of the magazine’s rankings — the survey of colleges’ reputations — virtually none of the most select and highly ranked colleges signed on.

Indeed, the rankings are so influential, two decades after they were started, that one clause in the contract of Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State University, promises a $10,000 bonus if he can raise its standing. Frustrated college officials and high school guidance counselors say the magazine is not only reporting on how colleges perform, but is also changing their behavior as they try to devise gambits to scurry into the top ranks.

Take admissions. A college’s acceptance rate, or the proportion of applicants it admits, counts towards its rank, and the more selective the college is, the better.

So some colleges try to increase the number of applicants they receive — and turn down — by waiving fees and dropping requirements. Some send out applications by e-mail, with most of the student’s personal information already filled in. Others send out persistent e-mail appeals to high school sophomores, with breathless subject lines like “Time is running out.”

“It’s pumping up the numbers, it’s making colleges look more selective, and it’s contributing to the frenzy,” said Robert J. Massa, vice president for enrollment at Dickinson College. “What if we become ridiculous and just go out to a shopping mall and hand out applications?”

Then there is that survey that asks college officials to rate other colleges and universities. The survey, which counts for 25 percent of a college’s overall ranking, is the most heavily weighted factor.

That has spurred colleges to send glossy promotional brochures and updates on new programs to high-ranking officials at other colleges around survey time in hopes of impressing them. Despite such efforts, college officials say they suspect that some in their ranks deliberately downgrade their competitors to try to drive down their showing.

“I see where the temptation comes,” Dr. Cook said. “So rather than be tempted to game the system, I think it’s better to drop out.”

The magazine’s editors say that the rankings provide a valuable service and that rather than blame the magazine when colleges manipulate their numbers, people in higher education ought to look in the mirror.

“We get blamed for a lot of things that are demonstrably not our responsibility,” Brian Kelly, the editor of U.S. News, said in a interview. “I find it a little shocking, given the problems in the higher education world these days, that this is the thing, U.S. News, that these presidents choose to focus on.”

Editors at U.S. News acknowledge anecdotal evidence that some colleges try to affect the rankings, but they insist it is not widespread. The editors say they have added myriad safeguards over the years from specific definitions of what counts as an application to adding questions that can sniff out fudging.

Some colleges used to drop athletes’ SAT scores from their computation of incoming students’ scores in order to increase their averages and make their institutions look more selective, Mr. Kelly said.

In response, U.S. News helped to create common definitions with organizations like the College Board so that data reporting would be standardized and harder to fudge.

Still, critics say that the magazine, which does not verify information submitted by the colleges, bears some responsibility for the litany of tactics that colleges employ.

James M. Sumner, dean of admission and financial aid at Grinnell College, said a counterpart from a well-regarded institution told him that when computing average SAT scores he excluded the SAT’s of students accepted as “development cases,” whose grades and test scores are often below average but whose families are likely to make major donations. Mr. Sumner declined to identify the university.

U.S. News reports the proportion of a university’s alumni who contribute money each year, as a way of measuring consumer satisfaction. Michael Beseda, vice president for enrollment at St. Mary’s College of California, said he knew someone whose college sent him a $5 bill, asking him simply to send it back so it would count as a donation. Several colleges have admitted taking a single donation and spreading it over two, three or five years, to raise their annual numbers.

Many of the tactics used by colleges involve admissions because they have more control over it than they do over other factors in the rankings, like endowments or reputation.

One gambit involves the so-called “snap-app” or “fast-app,” an application sent by e-mail to high school seniors in which their personal information is already filled in by the college. The University of Portland in Oregon, Ursinus College in Pennsylvania and the University of Vermont are among those to use this kind of application.

Washington & Jefferson College, a liberal arts college outside Pittsburgh, began five years ago to seek more applicants by dropping fees and some requirements, and searching for high school students relentlessly through an e-mail effort. The college switched to a two-part application; the first part can take as little as five minutes to fill out, and in some cases is counted as a completed application.

About 1,100 students applied in 2002 to Washington & Jefferson. This year, nearly 7,400 did. The acceptance rate plummeted, almost in half.

College officials acknowledge that they wanted to go up in the rankings but also say that increasing the pool of applicants was part of an overall strategy, along with building new dormitories and a fitness center and adding academic programs, to help Washington & Jefferson enroll better and more diverse students and to grow to 1,550 students from 1,100.

“It’s worked,” said Alton E. Newell, the vice president for enrollment. “My institution is a better place, a healthier place, a more vibrant place.”

But to many college and university officials, Washington & Jefferson and other colleges that have engineered huge increases in applicant pools in recent years, are recruiting vast numbers of students primarily to reject them.

The gambits enable an institution to appear more selective, but it is unclear that they can significantly affect a ranking. The U.S. News editors argue that a college’s acceptance rate counts for only 1.5 percent of the overall evaluation. Washington & Jefferson, for instance, has generally stayed in the same ranking range in the 90s and low 100s among liberal arts colleges. Last year it shared 104th place on the list with several other campuses.

Then again, does all this really measure an education? Mr. Beseda of St. Mary’s said, “I think what the rankings do is to poison the sense of what a genuine education is. False gods get worshiped.”


Next Article in Education (5 of 11) »

Microsoft's Class Action

Across the country, talent-hungry corporations are trying to save our struggling public schools. Are they creating smarter kids--or a fleet of drones?

From: Issue 118 | September 2007 | Page 86 | By: Elizabeth Svoboda
Kathy Lee, a 20-year veteran of Philadelphia's public schools, may be armed with a handheld mike and interactive whiteboard these days, but she knows high-school kids haven't changed. "Is there a group that's ready to present impact statements?" she demands. "I'm going to count to 10, and someone's got to step up to the plate. Remember, your stuff doesn't have to be perfect today. It's a work in progress."

Twenty-five members of Lee's ninth-grade class hunch in their seats, avoiding her gaze. Finally, a small, lithe girl named Quetta Fairy steps forward, accompanied by three group members, to take the microphone. When she jacks her laptop into the classroom's digital projector, a Microsoft Publisher document pops up on the screen. "Our group is the Community Redevelopment Group, and this is our Action Plan," she says tentatively, as if intimidated by her own amplified voice. "Our goal is to make sure that community members can be included in the revitalization process in West Philadelphia."

"Too many conversational sidebars!" Lee interjects, trying to quiet the other students. "Quetta, can you show us the surveys you put together for the community meeting you're holding?"

"These are the questions we're going to put in the surveys," Fairy responds, clicking over to another document. "Are you aware of the revitalization effort? What businesses and factories were here when you were growing up, and do you know what happened to them? Are you willing to attend meetings to discuss what is happening in our community?"

"Thank you, Quetta. Once again, there are too many sidebars." Lee turns to the rest of the class. "I need you all to pay attention, because we're addressing the competencies you need for the 21st century. You're not going to work for the same company for 50 years, you know. The factory days are gone."

On the face of it, Philadelphia's High School of the Future, a collaboration between Microsoft and the city's public-school district, seems like the kind of out-in-left-field experiment guaranteed to inspire dissent. Yet the school opened last September to almost universal acclaim. Breathless press reports read like an old Jetsons script: Interactive whiteboards! Combination-free lockers! A laptop for every student! An NPR feature titled "In Philly 'Future' School, Books Are So 20th Century" went all gooey over the school's universal Wi-Fi and student-ID smartcards, glossing over just how these bells and whistles were supposed to revolutionize education.

But the news reports captured only part of the project and, in many ways, the least-important part. The School of the Future is not just a high-tech overlay on the traditional curriculum--it represents a wholesale tearing apart of that traditional curriculum. The three Rs are gone; science, English, math, writing, and the rest are being taught not as separate "disciplines," but as a set of interdependent tools for understanding real-world problems. And while the School of the Future may occupy a relatively radical position on the spectrum, corporate involvement in the education system is becoming commonplace, a role that has stirred plenty of controversy.

"Lockheed Martin needs engineers, and they know what the standards are for producing people who can go on to engineering school and become successful," says Paul Vallas, until recently the "CEO" of the School District of Philadelphia. He goes on, ticking off other business partners that have opened their own public schools in Philadelphia: "Sunoco hires students from the city. They know what they need in potential employees." But it is precisely that utilitarian approach that has some parents and teachers concerned. They've long acknowledged--insisted, even--that schools need to prepare kids for the modern working world. But many still want them to do something more, something more subtle. That's why they like to see their kids reading Moby-Dick rather than The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Still, says Mary Cullinane, director of Microsoft's U.S. Partners in Learning program, the old mode of instruction--what she derides as the "stand and deliver" method--simply has to evolve. "We push all the kids into this big funnel," she says, "and then we're surprised when it doesn't work." Cullinane has been trying for years to drive educational strategy forward. Back in 1997, when she was the technology administrator of Union Catholic Regional High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey (and nearly a decade before the phrase "One laptop per child" even entered the vernacular), she saw to it that every student in her school was armed with a wireless-equipped notebook computer. Three years later, she joined Microsoft, where she now acts as point person for the School of the Future project. With Microsoft behind her, Cullinane's quest seems considerably more plausible. But it is also relentlessly pragmatic: "Microsoft's interest in education is very much a vested interest," she says. "More and more companies are getting worried that they're not going to be able to find enough good employees in the future, and we're one of them."

Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, has admitted to being "terrified for our workforce of tomorrow." And company brass had dreamed for years of building a kind of technology-saturated edutopia at their home base in Redmond, Washington. It made sense enough: The company's campus already boasted a Home of the Future and an Office of the Future; a Classroom of the Future would be a natural brand extension. The thought was that it would further Gates's ambition to use technology as a catalyst for educational reform, and that the classroom would emerge as an archetype for educators and districts across the country.

That was the plan, anyway--until Vallas entered the picture. When the former Chicago city-budget guru inherited the Philadelphia school district in 2002, it was a monkey on his back. Fewer than half the students were passing basic competency tests, and more than a third dropped out before graduation. In his Sisyphean push to reverse those numbers, Vallas had one thin reed to cling to: corporate partnerships. Successful businesses' ideas about maximizing results and solving problems creatively, he thought, might help transform the failing district. "We've been seeking corporate partners all along to help us design schools and, ultimately, to help us run schools," he says. "Our approach has been to partner with everyone we can." (This summer, Vallas took the job of superintendent of the New Orleans system, which should be every bit as challenging as Philly's.)

When Anthony Salcito, Microsoft's general manager for U.S. education, offhandedly mentioned the languishing Classroom of the Future concept in a meeting the Philadelphia district arranged with potential corporate partners, Vallas decided to go for broke. "I said to Anthony, 'Look, we're building a new high school in West Philadelphia from the ground up. Wouldn't it be great if Microsoft helped us with everything from soup to nuts?'" The $65 million for the school's construction, Vallas assured Salcito, would come directly from the district's own coffers. Microsoft's role would be to dole out not money, but knowledge and insight.

Vallas's and Salcito's timing couldn't have been better. "I sent a draft up the management chain, and Bill Gates signed off on it in about a week and a half," Salcito says. The swift decision came as a shock to many, not least Vallas himself. But from Redmond's perspective, the idea was basically idiot proof: On PR grounds alone--"Microsoft helps urban kids make good"--it would have paid for itself. Still, Microsoft went beyond a cookie-cutter school tricked out with a high-tech veneer. Instead, Salcito, Cullinane, and their colleagues took Vallas's "from the ground up" directive literally, agreeing that every aspect of the school--from curriculum to grading rubrics to staff development--would be reexamined. And to ensure the experiment's universal replicability, the first class of 170 students would be chosen by lottery, not by academic merit. Three-quarters of them would hail from the West Philadelphia neighborhood in which the school was to be built.

It's no secret that the U.S. public-school system is in splinters. A surprisingly young institution--American children were mostly taught at home or in private schools until the mid-1800s, when reformers such as Horace Mann lobbied for free public education--it now often looks like an experiment gone wrong. Scarcely two-thirds of government-educated students graduate from high school, and in poor inner-city districts, such as in Cleveland, Memphis, and Milwaukee, graduation rates have fallen below 50%.

Mann argued that public schooling would eradicate poverty and crime, and build a nation of informed citizens. But factory owners--eager for a steady supply of taxpayer-educated worker bees--quickly jumped on the idea for their own purposes, leading to curricula organized according to what modern-day educators call the "factory model." Students were trained to absorb and regurgitate information, fill out worksheets, and meet baseline competency levels in writing and math--skills that would serve them well as future foremen or assembly-line employees. According to Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, author of The Right to Learn, this "batch processing" model of education--characterized by large class sizes and little interactivity--has persisted despite its glaring obsolescence.

In recent decades, a number of schools, many of them private, have tried tinkering with this outmoded system (the open classroom being one of the better-known attempts). But the push from within corporate America began when Sanford Weill, who would later become CEO of Citigroup, began applying modern business practices and know-how to public education in the early 1980s. A rising star in Manhattan's securities brokerage industry, Weill had watched two parallel trends play out: Company after company was fleeing New York, citing a lack of incoming talent, and city kids were languishing in the public schools. "You saw young people playing in the street without having a clue of what life was about and how they could become part of the system," Weill told the House Ways and Means Committee years later. "That was the beginning of the idea that the private sector should get together with the public sector and see if we could create a high-school-level program that could expose young people to a career in the financial-services industry." Such a partnership, as Weill saw it, would be win-win: Students would receive focused career training in addition to their academic course loads, and companies would benefit from a fresh infusion of qualified candidates into the entry-level worker pool.

Weill's first Academy of Finance, sponsored by American Express, opened in 1982 at Brooklyn's John Dewey High School with 35 students. Over the following two decades, 600 public academies opened in 40 states, each with its own career-focused specialty: finance, hospitality and tourism, or information technology. At every stage, new business partners joined the conga line. To date, AT&T, Citigroup, Lucent, Oracle, and Verizon have all bankrolled their own academies under the auspices of Weill's nonprofit National Academy Foundation. The foundation plans to open 160 new academies within the next five years, bringing dozens of corporate partners on board along the way. One of its most tireless supporters has been Gates, who presented Weill with a $5 million grant from the Gates Foundation in 2006.

Other companies have followed Weill, looking to shore up their supply of human capital. Since its inception in 1994, IBM's Reinventing Education initiative has dispersed $75 million to more than 20 school districts across the country, so they can reinvent their classroom offerings according to the company's "Learning Village" guidelines. Google inaugurated the Google Teacher Academy earlier this year, which invites educators to learn how to incorporate Google into their lesson plans and become "technology evangelists." In May, Ernst & Young published a white paper titled "Best in Class: How Top Corporations Can Help Transform Public Education," a list of recommendations to other companies hoping to overhaul local public-school systems.

Science, English, math, and the rest are not taught as separate disciplines. The three Rs are gone. The school tears apart the traditional curriculum.
Self-interested corporate funding has prompted some cynicism. But that reaction misses an essential point--Weill's experiment failed in one critical respect: He had conceived of the academies as feeders for firms like Citigroup and American Express, but that pipeline never materialized. Of the 45,000 students who currently attend the academies, says J.D. Hoye, the foundation's current president, "only a small fraction" end up working for sponsoring companies. Yet in the big picture, Weill's efforts were a smash. More than 90% of National Academy Foundation students graduate from high school, compared to sub-50% to 70% in the struggling urban districts where most academies are located, and 80% eventually obtain two- or four-year college degrees. Five to 10 years after graduation, 85% of alumni continue to work in white-collar jobs.

Cullinane is based in New York, where she helps manage Microsoft's Partners in Learning education-reform program, but one week a month, she leaves her desk and returns to Philadelphia. Known to the kids affectionately as "Miz Mary," Cullinane is an evangelist. She sees the School of the Future as part of a much broader and more complex bid to change American education. Around the time Vallas and Salcito were first planning the school in West Philly, Microsoft helped found an advocacy group called the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills, which encourages schools nationwide to adopt their own curriculum reforms. The partnership's members run from Apple and Adobe to AT&T, Cisco, Dell, Intel, and dozens of other corporate giants who agree that public education is in dire shape. Part of Cullinane's role is turning the School of the Future concept into a replicable meme, one personal encounter at a time.

On the day of my visit, Cullinane leads a tour beginning in the School of the Future's Interactive Learning Center, a student library showcasing bizzspirational tomes such as Who Moved My Cheese? One of the first PowerPoint slides she shows to the dozens of educators features a boldfaced caveat: "This is not a prescription, only an example." "People think we have the answer here. I don't believe that," Cullinane says, projecting from her diaphragm to make sure the people in the back row can hear. "People ask us, 'Why haven't you discovered the silver bullet?' But there is no silver bullet. We're going to show you our innards, and you can decide if any of that is going to support your development."

Cullinane describes a Bertelsmann-commissioned study comparing the effectiveness of two distinct teaching styles: standing in front of the class and lecturing, or a more free-form manner, using dynamic digital aids and encouraging direct student participation. "Now, which group did better?" she asks. "Raise your hand if you think it was stand-and-deliver." Thinking they see the answer coming, no one moves.

"You sure?" Cullinane says, grinning as though preparing to pull a scarf from her sleeve. "Actually, you would be wrong--in fact, there was no difference in the groups' scores when they were tested on the material directly afterward. But, when the groups were tested again one year later, the students in the traditional group could remember almost nothing, and the other group was expanding their detailed knowledge of the topic to other subject areas. As teachers, what kind of legacy do we want, kids from the first group or kids from the second group? And as a Microsoft person, which kid do I want to hire?"

Those data are at the center of the School of the Future's curriculum--and the heart of its revolutionary potential. For all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds corporate-ed projects, many just piggyback career-related classes onto traditional scholastic fare. At Weill's Academies of Information Technology, for example, students take classes such as Digital Media, Advanced Web Tools, and Introduction to the Internet, but also slog through freshman English and sophomore-year social studies.

The Philadelphia school district and Microsoft, by contrast, have opted to dynamite the stand-and-deliver approach and rebuild from scratch. Under George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind policy, the educational focus in America has been squarely on coaxing students to perform to preset standards--on teaching to state tests, which is essentially the factory model with a fresh coat of paint. From the School of the Future's perspective, that strategy is nonsensical. Teaching the three Rs in a vacuum, with no attention to practical skills and application, is like handing a kid a golf club, without explanation, and expecting him to become Tiger Woods.

Cullinane's position is that a more interactive, integrative classroom environment helps kids retain knowledge better and engage more actively in learning--and an intimidating array of research backs her up. In addition to the Bertelsmann study, she cites the Jasper-Woodbury experiments conducted at Vanderbilt University in the 1990s, in which researchers challenged teenage students with real-world problems that demand cross-disciplinary thinking. (In one scenario, a hiker finds an injured eagle in a remote mountain pass that can be reached only by personal aircraft; students work in teams to figure out the best way to retrieve it, given a fixed wind speed and fuel capacity.) Compared with students in traditional math classes, the Jasper-trained pupils performed better on tests of math and science knowledge; they also had stronger general problem-solving skills. In a separate trial of the Jasper method, students scored higher on measures of creativity as well.

Inspired by such results, Salcito, Cullinane, and the Philadelphia Board of Education swept aside the old "silo learning" model and replaced it with one in which subjects are subsumed into open-ended topics: "How are our identities constructed?" or "Should the U.S. be concerned about bird flu?" Traditional disciplines are applied in the course of exploring these broader questions, exercising students' writing, calculating, and analytical skills concurrently, as well as the career-oriented skills on Microsoft's "education competency wheel," including organizing and planning, motivating others, dealing with ambiguity, and working in a team setting. In Kathy Lee's "learning sessions," for instance (School of the Future denizens steer clear of talking about "classes"), students like Quetta Fairy are investigating the growing pains associated with Philadelphia's urban renewal. Every aspect of this real-world transition lends itself to an instructional opportunity. Eminent-domain laws that allow the city to raze buildings and homes are grounds for an in-depth online investigation into how legislative systems operate--and for discussions about how to create an open forum for residents of affected neighborhoods. The question of how new buildings should be designed serves as a springboard for polishing kids' trigonometry skills. In another lesson, kids did Internet research to pinpoint areas in the city that they felt were not receiving their share of social services. And a study of slavery prompted laptop-driven examinations of the students' own family trees. "I asked my mom for the last names of our relatives, and I researched my entire family back into slave times," says Tyler Wilson, one of Lee's students. "It was really cool."

In developing those lesson plans, School of the Future teachers have the option of pulling down prototypes from the Microsoft Web site, which the company has collected over the years. All of them have three common core elements: They're geared toward molding students into more-critical thinkers, more-confident communicators and presenters, and more-experienced users of Microsoft software--theoretically, all characteristics of the ultimate 21st-century employee. (Predictably enough, many of the plans, available for free on Microsoft's Web site, carry tag lines such as "Software required: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel.")

Microsoft likes to describe the school's environment as "continuous, relevant, and adaptive," but it's clear that "relevant" is the program's real linchpin. Shirley Grover, the school's principal (aka, chief learner) until she resigned in July, says that many teachers bristle when students ask them the time-honored question, Why do we need to know this? But from her point of view, if a teacher can't answer that one, the lesson plan is underdeveloped.

One year into the experiment, it's way too early to assess just how well the School of the Future is doing. Certainly, it is beset by the same problems plaguing most urban schools ("Too many sidebars"), and many students still read and write below grade level. Their advancement as a group will not be tracked until they take their first state-administered tests in 11th grade, more than a year from now. And because School of the Future students still must meet the proficiency levels in traditional subjects mandated by No Child Left Behind, they also have access to individually paced online courses and other resources to make sure they stay up to grade level in crucial areas such as algebra and reading. Still, these kids already come across as seasoned presenters and communicators. "Before, I wasn't excited about learning," says Wilson, an open-faced teen with a ready smile who wears a different college sweatshirt every day to remind herself of where she's headed. "Going to school on Saturday to work on a project? Yeah, right. But this school really makes us all want to participate and be heard." Last spring, Wilson won an award in Philadelphia's National History Day contest for a digital documentary she and other students created on the city's involvement in the Underground Railroad.

For her part, Grover loves to talk about how the kids' new practical knowledge has upped their prospects on the job market. She brings up Black History Month, when the students wrote interpretations of Langston Hughes poems and presented them--in PowerPoint, naturally--to residents of a local senior-citizen center. "One kid used Microsoft Movie Maker to weave the other kids' PowerPoint presentations into a movie, with music," she says. "An employee at the center was so impressed that he said, 'I'll pay you to make another movie for me.'"

"How well do you conduct yourself in front of a group? How well do you use these computer applications? That's the pace of business," says Amy Guerin, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia school district. "We are constantly selling and pitching for our jobs--that's how the world operates. Any one of these kids could pitch a toy, pitch a story, pitch an initiative at City Hall."

Not all parents and educators are convinced that the purpose of public education is to build a nation of pitchmen. And since Microsoft is open about the fact that it isn't just in this for the good karma, it's worth asking whether these students will receive a balanced, broad-based education. Is this work missionary--or mercenary?

"When the scoreboard at a high-school football stadium is branded with the name of a soft-drink corporation or a local business, we don't spend much time worrying about the motivations," says Christian Long, a school planning consultant and former president of DesignShare, an online global forum that addresses the future of education. "On the other hand, when we talk about partnerships that bring together corporate and educational leaders to help shift learning for entire systems and societies, we should raise the bar of conversation."

"I don't like this idea that if you're not preparing kids for the high-tech world, they're not worth anything," says Susan Ohanian, a former teacher and the author of Why Is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools? "These companies seem to be devaluing a lot of other skills that are very necessary." Jim Horn, an education professor at New Jersey's Monmouth University, is still more direct. "The efficiency experts have been hard at their message, which is that we need to streamline these schools and make them operate like successful businesses. But schools should not be work-preparation centers. They should be places where children are nurtured and receive multifaceted educations."

Cullinane insists that preparing kids to be all-around thoughtful, productive human beings and equipping them to meet the demands of the workplace are not mutually exclusive goals. "The tools we're giving them are going to be applicable regardless of their life choices," she says. "Whether you're a scientist, an accountant, or a stay-at-home mom, your ability to effectively communicate ideas and learn on the fly will directly correlate with your success. Imagine a mechanic who needs to learn the changes from one model year to the next, or a new recruit who, all of a sudden, receives an opportunity to present her ideas to the group vice president. These scenarios happen every day, and School of the Future learners will be well equipped to handle them."

It's easy to make a straw man of the School of the Future, to presume that Microsoft is chiefly out to create a future generation of Redmond cubicle warmers. But that assumption overshoots the mark. After all, the Philadelphia school district is the final arbiter of what makes it into the school's curriculum. And if filling its own future ranks had been Microsoft's primary aim, it could have just opened a private School of the Future near corporate headquarters, built a tunnel between the two, and handed the kids a stack of programming manuals. "I'm not sure the kids are particularly affected by the Microsoft name on the door," Long concedes. "They are affected--positively, I think--by the access to human capital, ideas, and resources. As for being mini-Microsofties, it's doubtful."

What isn't in doubt is that something has to give in the American education system. Barring a sudden onset of political courage, change will more likely come not from Washington but from the hundreds of companies, including Microsoft, that are taking it upon themselves to invest in the talent supply. "Does being involved in the schools give us a competitive edge?" Cullinane asks. "Well, we would be thrilled to see companies around the world devoting time and resources to improving education. Our economies would all benefit from such an investment, as would our communities, and, most important, our children."

In some ways, the question of whether or not mini-Microsofties, Sunoco-ites, and Citigroupians will throng tomorrow's schoolyards is a distraction from the more critical issue of who will oversee how these corporations are granted access to the system--and what they will do once they get it. One ominous sign, according to Eva Gold, principal of Philadelphia-based educational nonprofit Research for Action, is that when public-private partnerships start to multiply, the public side of the equation can atrophy. After the state took over the Philadelphia school district, for example, it disbanded the existing Board of Education; now most decision making about the district's future happens behind closed doors. "When the district engages with outside providers or partners, these are not publicly discussed decisions," Gold says. "There are weekly meetings of the school-reform commission, but you have to submit in writing what you're going to say beforehand, and you have three minutes to talk about it. It's not a time for dialogue." Monmouth University's Horn agrees: "A system run by bean counters instead of a democratically elected school board leads to a breakdown of the democratic process," he says. "The purpose of education should be defined by the community where the school sits, by the parents and teachers."

Yet considering the level of desperation poor urban districts have reached, it's easy to see why improving student performance might eclipse consensus building on the priority list, at least temporarily. Certainly the parents and teachers in West Philadelphia seem largely in favor of this particular oligarchy and its potential for delivering swift and dramatic results. What's more, talk to a group of these students and you come away believing that they are among the most curious and articulate 14- and 15-year-olds around. They're determined to build meaningful lives--and, more important, actually believe they can.

Few if any of those plans, it's worth noting, seem to include Microsoft. Tyler Wilson wants to be a doctor or a psychologist; Ryan Wheeler, inspired by a learning unit on forensics, wants to be a criminologist. Almost all of the students see the school's small classes, nurturing staff, and achievement-oriented culture as their ticket out: "My sister tells me every day, 'I want to be like you. I'm getting there--just watch,'" Wheeler says. "But she already got knifed."

Public-private partnerships can be capricious, and it's hard to predict how this one will evolve. Given the sheer number of companies getting involved in school reform, we could be heading toward a bewildering hodgepodge of curricula and philosophies in schools across the country. Whether this corporate patchwork constitutes a utopian vision or an Orwellian one will be for administrators, parents, and students to decide.

"What I'm curious about is whether Microsoft will continue to develop authentic relationships with the school's staff, students, and local community in the years to come," Long says. "Starting a school is one thing. Sticking it out as a key partner as the school faces normal growth challenges, acquires new leaders and programs, and embraces the ongoing realities of urban education is another."

For now, Microsoft seems determined to stick it out, helping develop new curricula, integrating new Microsoft technology into classrooms, and burnishing the project's public image. After Cullinane finishes fielding questions from our tour group, it's on to the next task: preparing for the arrival of a group of educators from Kuwait. A few students who have been using Rosetta Stone programs (not a Microsoft product) to teach themselves Arabic will step in as assistant tour guides; more-seasoned translators will help ensure that the Microsoft message passes through the language barrier intact.

"This school provides proof positive of what can be done," Cullinane says. "Our goal now is to share it as widely as possible. We don't want to limit it to the parameters of 'If a company like Microsoft and a school district like Philadelphia decided to build the School of the Future, what would it look like?' Now the question can be, 'If a country like the United States and industries like technology, manufacturing, and service decided to make education their number-one priority, what would it look like?'"

The presidential candidates' positions on education

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Hillary_Clinton_Education.htm
http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Barack_Obama_Education.htm
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/John_Edwards_Education.htm
http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Rudy_Giuliani_Education.htm
http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Mitt_Romney_Education.htm

New York Times: City to Reward Poor for Doing the Right Thing

New York Times (NY)
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

March 30, 2007
Section: B
City to Reward Poor for Doing Right Thing


DIANE CARDWELL; Elisabeth Malkin contributed reporting from Mexico City.

Seeking new solutions to New York's vexingly high poverty rates, the city is moving ahead with an ambitious experiment that will pay poor families up to $5,000 a year to meet goals like attending parent-teacher conferences, going for a medical checkup or holding down a full-time job, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday.

Under the program, which is based on a similar effort in Mexico, parents would receive payments every two months for family members meeting any of a series of criteria. The payments could range from $25 for exemplary attendance in elementary school to $300 for a high score on an important exam, city officials said.

The officials said the program was the first of its kind in the country.

The project, first announced in the fall. was scheduled to begin as a pilot program in September with 2,500 randomly selected families whose progress will be tracked against another 2,500 randomly selected families who will not get the rewards. Officials planned to draw the families from six of the poorest communities in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

To be eligible, families must have at least one child entering fourth, seventh or ninth grade and a household income of 130 percent or less of the federal poverty level, which equals roughly $20,000 for a single parent with two children.

The city has already raised $42 million of the $50 million needed to cover the initial program's cost from private sources, including Mr. Bloomberg. If it proves successful, the mayor said, the city will attempt to create a permanent program financed by the government.

Likening the payments, known as conditional cash transfers, to tax incentives that steer people of greater means toward property ownership, Mr. Bloomberg said that the approach was intended to help struggling families who often focus on basic daily survival make better long-term decisions and break generational cycles of poverty and dependence.

''In the private sector, financial incentives encourage actions that are good for the company: working harder, hitting sales targets or landing more clients,'' the mayor said in an announcement at a health services center in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

''In the public sector, we believe that financial incentives will encourage actions that are good for the city and its families: higher attendance in schools, more parental involvement in education and better career skills.''

Since Mr. Bloomberg outlined the plan last fall, reaction among antipoverty experts and advocates has been mixed, with some hailing it as an innovative approach that could become a powerful model for the rest of the country and ultimately win the support of the federal government.

Indeed, the program is being financed by several high-profile organizations, including the Rockefeller, Starr and Robin Hood Foundations, as well as the Open Society Institute and the insurance and financial firm American International Group.

The Rockefeller and Starr Foundations are donating $10 million each, while the Open Society Institute is giving $5 million and A.I.G. is donating $2 million. A spokeswoman for the Robin Hood Foundation did not return calls or an e-mail message, and Mr. Bloomberg's spokesman, Stu Loeser, declined to say how much the mayor contributed.

Some antipoverty advocates have bristled at what they see as the condescending notion that poor people need to be told how to raise their families. Others have focused on the broader economic issues at play.

''It is encouraging that the mayor believes there's a public role for addressing intergenerational poverty, inequality and economic mobility,'' said Margy Waller, a former Clinton administration adviser who is a co-founder of Inclusion, a research and policy group based in Washington.

''What is troubling is the focus on personal behavior as the solution to what is at least in part a problem of the economy,'' she said. ''Given what we know about the growth of low-wage jobs and the shrinking of the middle class, it will be, in fact, impossible to bring more people into the middle class unless we improve the labor market as well.''

A similar concern seems to have emerged with Mexico's program, known as Oportunidades, which is now 10 years old, has a budget of more than $3 billion a year and covers nearly one-fourth of all Mexicans.

Intended to replace the food subsidies that had dominated much of Mexico's antipoverty efforts, the program offers cash stipends to families to keep their children in school and take them for regular checkups. Parents must also attend regular talks on issues including health, nutrition and family planning.

Outside evaluations have found that the program has been successful in raising school attendance and nutrition levels and that the percentage of Mexicans living in extreme poverty has fallen.

Still, there are questions about how much more effective the program can be in lifting large numbers of people permanently out of poverty, in part because jobs are lacking.

In January, Santiago Levy, one of the program's creators and a former undersecretary of finance in Mexico, said at the Brookings Institution in Washington that even if the program were 100 percent effective, it alone could not solve the problem.

''Now's he's out with a high school degree, a healthy man: Is he going to get a job or migrate to the U.S.?'' he said.

But others see cause for optimism in the results of Mexico's program and similar ones in other Latin American countries. In Nicaragua, for example, primary school enrollment rates grew to 90 percent from 68 percent; in Colombia, secondary school enrollment in urban areas rose to 78 percent from 64 percent, said Laura Rawlings, a World Bank specialist who has studied the programs, which she said are active or being created in nearly 20 countries.

The idea to try the program in New York has its roots in the broad attack on poverty that Mr. Bloomberg has made a high-profile cause for his second term. Roughly one in five New Yorkers lives in poverty, according to the Community Service Society of New York.

In keeping with the administration's emphasis on outcomes, city officials say they will closely monitor the test group's progress against that of the control group with the help of M.D.R.C., a nonprofit policy research organization involved in the program's design.

All 5,000 families will be asked to agree to participate in the program before knowing which group they are in, said Gordon Berlin, the president of M.D.R.C., and those not receiving benefits will be paid a nominal fee to submit to monitoring and surveys, he said.

Officials expect that some of the control families will inevitably drop out, but Mr. Berlin said that in conducting similar experiments in the past, he had found that most were willing to participate even without the benefits because they were informed that it would help guide a government policy decision in which they had a stake.

The families receiving the benefits will be given a list of goals they are expected to meet, as well as the values assigned to them. They will also get a ''passport'' for documenting the completion of tasks that are not automatically reported elsewhere, said Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor overseeing the effort.

The city is working with state and federal officials, Ms. Gibbs said, to make sure that families do not lose other benefits because of the grants.

ref dm ed blog apa link