Recent System-related Publications

Finland: Their System, Their Schools

Detailed notes on the Finnish schools and education system, from Ted Kolderie's visit to Finland August 20-24, 2012. Ted was part of an American delegation assembled by the National Public Education Support Fund. The meetings were arranged locally by Pasi Sahlberg from CIMO.

Pasi Sahlberg tells Minnesota about Finland, July 2012

Pasi Sahlberg had a day of conversations with Minnesotans on July 19, 2012 about the schools in Finland. An official in the Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki, Sahlberg is probably the person most involved with explaining to countries around the world about the education system that Finland developed beginning about 1970.

Innovation as the Practical Strategy for Change

Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, invited Ted Kolderie to discuss "The Role of Innovation in the Charter Movement" with the heads of state charter associations and resource centers. These are his remarks; edited to include some of the points made in the hour-long discussion that followed.

Realizing Deeper Learning: The Economics and Achievements of an Innovative Chartered School Model

An analysis of two innovative chartered schools in Minnesota, including a financial analysis which shows this innovation is possible at a net cost well below district schools of similar demographics. By Charles Kyte, a former superintendent and executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators.

Strategy for Realizing the Potential of "Digital"

Digital' carries the potential to improve learning. But, potential alone won't sell district management on bringing it into schools. New technologies are most likely to be adopted when decisions are made at the school, when schools are given autonomy.

Kolderie Talk to Knowledge Alliance, August 3rd

E|E's Ted Kolderie explains why sound policy requires true innovation, followed by “continuous improvement”. The two must exist together; we may not be able to afford a 'monoculture' in education policy.

How the Idea of ‘Charter’ Schools Came About

This short memo explains the origins of the chartering idea. In the spring of 1988, a Citizens League committee began developing a program for chartering schools. Twenty years later that idea has become law in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

Clayton Christensen Speech at ECS 2005

Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School Professor, speaks on "Disruptive Innovation" in education.

Innovation-based Systemic Reform

Policymakers, in revising ESEA, should think of strategy as a "split screen". The only realistic approach is to pursue our differing goals at the same time. K-12 education must improve both its performance and its economics. It must work concurrently for equity and for excellence. It must improve traditional school while encouraging innovation beyond traditional school.

New Minnesota Site-governed Schools Law

The 2009 Minnesota Legislature passed new "site-governed school" legislation, which provides school boards a "charter-like" option. A district board may approve "site-governed schools," which are provided significant autonomy and flexibility to develop new models of schools in exchange for greater accountability.

Shifting From "What We Spend" to "How We Spend It"

The total cost of the education system is rising at about 5 to 8 percent per year. If schools are not at the same time increasing "performance" or "productivity," their real cost to the public is increasing. This relationship is not sustainable. To reconcile this problem, schools will need to be designed differently.

Clayton Christensen Speech at Education Commission of the States (ECS) 2009

Clayton Christensen, business professor at Harvard Business School, says: Improvement requires states to make room for disruptive innovation in public education.

Why President Obama Should Speak to the States

The country has the governmental relationships upside down, with the states setting the targets for results and Washington leaning on the states, districts and schools to make it happen. President Obama should put the roles right, so that the national government is "pushing buttons that are connected to live wires".

States Will Have to Withdraw the Exclusive

Written as Minnesota was in the early stages of thinking about what would a year later become the first chartering law, this paper zeroed in on "the exclusive franchise" as the heart of the K-12 system-problem. No change, no major improvement in learning, was realistically possible, Kolderie said, until the states withdrew the guarantee of success—for the districts and for the people in them—created by the public-utility arrangement traditional in public education.

Of Innovators and School Improvement

The assignment to K-12 has changed from "access" to "achievement." Unfortunately, our schools were built to provide students the opportunity to learn, not to ensure that they did. If we insist that our schools do this different job we will have to create new school models that make that possible.

Paul Grogan on How Foundations Can Leverage Change

Notes from remarks by Paul Grogan, head in 20008 of the Boston Foundation, on the challenges of inner-city public education, and how foundations can leverage change. Early, Grogan worked for two mayors of Boston. He ran the national office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation in New York.

An Explosion of Pedagogical Agents

The charge to K-12 has shifted from "access" to "achievement." To meet this challenge, education should be open to new entrants, new authorizers of schools, and new learning programs. This paper argues for teacher-led and other innovations to better serve student needs.

Can the National Government Be Effective?

K-12 education exists in state law. It cannot be reached directly by Congressional or the President. Typically, in such policy areas, the national government tries to 'do things' by tying requirements to its grants-in-aid. This approach has failed in the past, as in the 1960s when the national government tried to take control of urban development.

Mike Smith: The Need for Innovation in the National Strategy

In a commentary included in Education Week's 15-year retrospective on standards-based systemic reform, one of the authors of that strategy noted: It made no place for innovation. Mike Smith affirms the need for an element of innovation, and looked to the charter sector to provide that.

We Cannot Get the Schools We Need by Changing the Schools We Have

We overestimate the ability of leadership to change organizations in more than incremental ways, Joe Graba told a national meeting of foundations in April 2004. The internal culture heavily constrains change. Most change comes through the creation of new organizations.

Education|Evolving

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