WHEN Tony Wagner, the Harvard education specialist, describes his job today, he says he\u2019s \u201ca translator between two hostile tribes\u201d \u2014 the education world and the business world, the people who teach our kids and the people who give them jobs. Wagner\u2019s argument in his book \u201cCreating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World\u201d is that our K-12 and college tracks are not consistently \u201cadding the value and teaching the skills that matter most in the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is dangerous at a time when there is increasingly no such thing as a high-wage, middle-skilled job \u2014 the thing that sustained the middle class in the last generation. Now there is only a high-wage, high-skilled job. Every middle-class job today is being pulled up, out or down faster than ever. That is, it either requires more skill or can be done by more people around the world or is being buried \u2014 made obsolete \u2014 faster than ever. Which is why the goal of education today, argues Wagner, should not be to make every child \u201ccollege ready\u201d but \u201cinnovation ready\u201d \u2014 ready to add value to whatever they do.<\/p>\n
That is a tall task. I tracked Wagner down and asked him to elaborate. \u201cToday,\u201d he said via e-mail, \u201cbecause knowledge is available on every Internet-connected device, what you know matters far less than what you can do with what you know. The capacity to innovate \u2014 the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life \u2014 and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than academic knowledge. As one executive told me, \u2018We can teach new hires the content, and we will have to because it continues to change, but we can\u2019t teach them how to think \u2014 to ask the right questions \u2014 and to take initiative.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
My generation had it easy. We got to \u201cfind\u201d a job. But, more than ever, our kids will have to \u201cinvent\u201d a job. (Fortunately, in today\u2019s world, that\u2019s easier and cheaper than ever before.) Sure, the lucky ones will find their first job, but, given the pace of change today, even they will have to reinvent, re-engineer and reimagine that job much more often than their parents if they want to advance in it. If that\u2019s true, I asked Wagner, what do young people need to know today?<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery young person will continue to need basic knowledge, of course,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they will need skills and motivation even more. Of these three education goals, motivation is the most critical. Young people who are intrinsically motivated \u2014 curious, persistent, and willing to take risks \u2014 will learn new knowledge and skills continuously. They will be able to find new opportunities or create their own \u2014 a disposition that will be increasingly important as many traditional careers disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what should be the focus of education reform today?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe teach and test things most students have no interest in and will never need, and facts that they can Google and will forget as soon as the test is over,\u201d said Wagner.\u00a0\u201cBecause of this, the longer kids are in school, the less motivated they become. Gallup\u2019s recent survey showed student engagement going from 80 percent in fifth grade to 40 percent in high school. More than a century ago, we \u2018reinvented\u2019 the one-room schoolhouse and created factory schools for the industrial economy. Reimagining schools for the 21st-century must be our highest priority. We need to focus more on teaching the skill and will to learn and to make a difference and bring the three most powerful ingredients of intrinsic motivation into the classroom: play, passion and purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
What does that mean for teachers and principals?<\/p>\n
\u201cTeachers,\u201d he said, \u201cneed to coach students to performance excellence, and principals must be instructional leaders who create the culture of collaboration required to innovate. But what gets tested is what gets taught, and so we need \u2018Accountability 2.0.\u2019 All students should have digital portfolios to show evidence of mastery of skills like critical thinking and communication, which they build up right through K-12 and postsecondary. Selective use of high-quality tests, like the College and Work Readiness Assessment, is important. Finally, teachers should be judged on evidence of improvement in students\u2019 work through the year \u2014 instead of a score on a bubble test in May. We need lab schools where students earn a high school diploma by completing a series of skill-based \u2018merit badges\u2019 in things like entrepreneurship. And schools of education where all new teachers have \u2018residencies\u2019 with master teachers and performance standards \u2014 not content standards \u2014 must become the new normal throughout the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who is doing it right?<\/p>\n
\u201cFinland is one of the most innovative economies in the world,\u201d he said, \u201cand it is the only country where students leave high school \u2018innovation-ready.\u2019\u00a0 They learn concepts and creativity more than facts, and have a choice of many electives \u2014 all with a shorter school day, little homework, and almost no testing.\u00a0In the U.S., 500 K-12 schools affiliated with Hewlett Foundation\u2019s Deeper Learning Initiative and a consortium of 100 school districts called EdLeader21 are developing new approaches to teaching 21st-century skills.\u00a0There are also a growing number of \u2018reinvented\u2019 colleges like the Olin College of Engineering, the M.I.T. Media Lab and the \u2018D-school\u2019 at Stanford where students learn to innovate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is your school stuck in the world of content? \u00a0Is their a conversation happening amongst teachers to align school standards with skill-building?<\/em><\/p>\n _________________<\/p>\n