PS 21

Public Schools for the 21st Century

A special report from Reaching Heights

Summary of Presentations and Key Issues

About PS21

In January of 1996 Reaching Heights, leaders of the Cleveland Heights -University Heights Board of Education and administration, the Cleveland Heights Teachers Union and Council of PTAs launched the Public Schools for the 21st Century project. The project was designed to give residents and educators in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district the opportunity to engage in informed and thoughtful deliberation about how to shape public education for the new realities of the 21st century.
      A grant to Reaching Heights from the Cleveland Foundation made it possible to hold five public forums featuring nationally known experts to raise awareness of the need for change.
      Between January, 1996 and May of 1997 audiences of between 100 and 300 residents and educators attended PS21 forums featuring demographer Harold Hodgkinson, technology and education specialist Alan November, journalist Hedrick Smith, teacher educator Linda Darling-Hammond, and policy maker Cong. Major Owens. During this period about 150 residents and educators participated in small group conversations about education.  This document reports key ideas presented by the PS21 speakers so their views can inform and stimulate greater deliberation as we plan for the near and long-term future of public education in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District.

Common Themes

Together the speakers offered a consistent message about the need for change, a sense of urgency and opportunity, and the priorities for direction. Briefly:

• Public Schools in the 21^st Century need to do something they were not designed to do: provide to all children high levels of learning.
   
• We must think "outside of the box" when looking for solutions.
   
• Differences in age, income, race, and nation of orign, access to technology, and information threaten to divide and fragment our society.
   
• We can and must reshape public schools to meet the needs ofour changing world.
   
• We already know many of the changes that will produce results if we want to use them.
   

 
About the authors: Susie Kaeser is the Executive Director of Reaching Heights and a parent of two students in the Heights schools. Greg Peckham, a graduate student in non-profit management at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University and a graduate of the Heights schools worked on this project while an intern at Reaching Heights.

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Reshaping Public Education

Public schools have their roots in the information and disciplines, social and economic conditions, and organizational practices of the late 19^th century. Despite modifications over the last 100 years, in many ways they continue to reflect their industrial revolution roots.
      While pubic education has remained relatively constant our country and communities have been affected by dramatic demographic changes, an information explosion and technological revolution, altered workplaces and family structures, and a shrinking world and global economy.
      As we end the 20^th century, public education is at a turning point. Social, economic, demographic, and technological changes invite reassessment of public education. How do these changes affect the purpose of schooling, what an educated citizen must know and be able to do, who attends school, the kind of personal and community support children experience, public commitment to education, what takes place in the classroom, and how educators approach teaching and learning?
      These were the driving questions behind the creation of the PS21 project. These speakers helped bring the need into focus. Our community can now consider how these larger changes play out locally and decide what changes we want to make in the way we go about education so that children are effectively and appropriated educated for life in the 21^st century.
      In the fall of 1997 representatives of each of the PS21 sponsors reviewed the videotapes of the five presenters and summarized their key ideas. This document includes those summaries, and common themes that the authors identified as we reflected on their presentations.

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Common Themes

While each speaker had their own perspective, together they offered a clear and consistent message about the need for change, a sense of urgency and opportunity, and priorities for direction. Briefly, they made it clear that:

1. Public schools in the 21^st Century need to do something they were not designed to do: provide to all children high levels of learning. 

The 19th century school was designed to prepare the majority of students for highly structured and low skill jobs while giving between 10 and 20% of the students a rigorous curriculum that emphasized critical thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. This was appropriate to the industrial age when 90% of jobs were unskilled. It is no longer adequate.
      All of the speakers emphasized the importance of a new set of skills for the new world of work: the capacity to frame and solve problems, design one's own work, work in teams, and take a problem from beginning to end. These are skills that are important to the workplace and to effective citizenship.
      The traditional industrial revolution school was not designed to develop these skills in all students. The challenge is to restructure schools so they are able to extend to all children an education that goes beyond basic skills and encourages creativity, responsibility and cooperation. Schools must devise and implement strategies that encourage people with varied backgrounds and learning styles to succeed. We must rethink how to support the healthy development of children and how to reshape public schools to achieve these results.
      This redesign is needed to support individual success, and to contribute to the overall well being of our democracy and communities. The future of our society continues to be inextricably bound up in the successful education of our young people.

2. We must "think outside of the box."

Changes in work, families, social differences and learning, are going to continue. A constructive response requires acknowledging the magnitude of these changes, and searching for solutions/responses that are fundamental. As Hedrick Smith explained, corporate leaders who are reinventing their work places for the 21^st century have changed from asking , "are we doing things right," to "are we doing the right things." Just as industry has begun to reinvent itself, we must be willing to reinvent and redesign the roles, relationships, structures, and outcomes that define public education.

3. Differences in age, income, race and nation of origin, access to technology and information threaten to divide and fragment our society.

These divisions increase the need for schools to be a resource for social cohesion. They also make it more difficult to extend higher level learning to all children. They affect who comes to school and what they need, and public will to support education.

4. We can and must reshape public schools to meet the needs of our changing world.

This is the critical moment to grapple with restructuring public education. Each speaker was optimistic that public schools are a vital resource that can be reshaped. As Linda Darling-Hammond observed, "we are the generation that gets to reshape our schools for the future."
      Each speaker suggested changes that can improve outcomes for children: equitable and adequate funding, improved governance, highly skilled teachers and education leaders, small schools that maximize personal relationships, engaging work that fully uses and challenges the minds of children, and using technology as a tool for solving real problems while encouraging children to build on their own experiences and interact with the world.

5. We already know many of the changes that can produce results, if we want to use them.

Public schools have the potential to bring people together, provide equitable access to knowledge and skills, and offer truly engaging learning experiences that develop the skills and motivation needed for success in our society. Do we want to invest the time and effort to create schools that meet the needs of our children, community and society?

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Key Questions

The speakers created a clear picture of a changing world, the need to reshape public education, and the essential role of citizens in contributing to the healthy development of children and making schools work for public purposes. Their comments generated some key questions to help frame our deliberations:

• What is it that children need from their education in order to be prepared for adult roles in the 21^st century?
• Who are the children that schools will serve? Do they have the support at home and in the community that they need to succeed?
• How do we reshape our public schools so they provide children what they need?
• Is there adequate community will and financial support for schools to do their jobs well?
• How do we build support and mobilize our community to create the schools we need?
• How do we secure public commitment to children and education of the highest quality?

Summary of PS21 Presentations

Demographer Harold Hodgkinson identified significant changes and challenges:

1. The U.S. is becoming increasingly diverse. A new wave of migration from Asia and South America is making us a nation of nations; diversity is no longer black and white. While race and income persists in most communities. An on going challenge is to create opportunities that value and build on our diversity.
    
2. The white population in Ohio and the Heights is aging and a larger share of the minority population is young. This difference can make it more difficult to guarantee public funding for education when the taxpayers do not identify with the children who are attending the schools.
    
3. Increasingly we are living in a society of "haves" and "have nots." The proportion of people who are poor is increasing and has a disproportionate impact on children in part because of the increase in single female headed households and births to unwed mothers. In Ohio one in five children (21%) lives in poverty compared to 10% of the elderly. Wealth is being concentrated in fewer hands, increasing the difference between rich and poor. Another division of haves and have nots is created by access to technology.
    
4. SAT Test scores reflect the household income of those taking the tests more than the quality of their schooling. More children are poor at a time when higher achievement is needed.
    
5. Women's lives have changed. The proportion of women in the work force is nearly equal to men, making child care a must. Between 1930 and 1965 women went to school, married, raised their children and then entered the work force. Today, women leave school, enter the work force, then marry and have children.
    
6. In Cleveland Heights about 25% of the school age population is enrolled in private/parochial schools (nonpublic) compared to 11% nationally.
    
7. The federal government is shrinking while local government is growing rapidly.
    
8. The fate of metropolitan areas is directly affected by the fate of central cities.
    

Technology and education expert Alan November talked about technology and its impact on the work place, society and education. Some of his key ideas:

1. The information highway, like the interstates of the past, will continue to isolate, polarize, and marginalize segments of our society.
    
2. Work as we know it is rapidly disappearing and people need completely different skills for the new work environment. The highly our population is multicultural, segregation by structured industrial age era work place with its top down control and repetitive low skill jobs are no longer the norm. More people will work from home, and people will be called upon to generate their own work and solve poorly defined problems.
    
3. If we are to adapt to changes in work, technology and schools we must think "outside the box."
    
4. One threat to public schools is the expected exodus of nine million students to home schooling.
    
5. Computer technology is a great resource for education if it is used for information and communication. It allows for students to solve real problems in real time. By working on real problems, students can be engaged, feel ownership for their learning and self worth, and can develop the skills needed for the future work place.
    

Journalist Hedrick Smith described the impact of the global economy and the changing workplace on work and education for work. He observed:

1. While U.S. industries once dominated the world economy and specific sectors of the economy, this is no longer true. This has a negative effect on job security and wages. Downsizing and job insecurity have become the norm along with a decline in real wages. Many workers who have been displaced by downsizing find themselves employed in lower paying jobs. One result is increased inequality in the distribution of wealth.
    
2. The only fixed asset to a country is its people and their skills. To compete, the people in the middle of our society- those who have made up the middle class labor force - must be as skilled as their counterparts in the rest of the world. Today's students who are the "mid-kids" - and will make up the core of tomorrow's nonprofessional workforce, are not competitive with their peers in other developed countries.
    
3. The U.S. has a "production line mentality" toward education. As in industry, we push the product through and don't attempt to fix problems until the end of the line. By contrast, if a defect is spotted during production in Japan, the line is stopped and the glitch is fixed so that it doesn't end up in all future models. We need to rethink how to address quality problems in industry and education so we prevent problems by altering how the system works rather than responding at the end of the process.
    
4. We need do refashion work and education to meet the challenges of this global marketplace. We need a paradigm shift that changes from asking "are we doing things right?" to "are we doing the right things?" By changing this mind set we can rethink and reshape our notions of work and education.
    
5. We must find a way to more fully enlist the minds of workers and students. Top down control and problem solving in education and business are outdated. Education must focus on developing the minds of students so they are able to function in a society and work place that needs them to take responsibility and solve problems. We need a system that truly values the minds of its students and workers.
    
6. Our current educational infrastructure is focused on sending kids to college, however 70% of students do not finish four-year college. At the same time 70% of jobs do not require a college education, yet a significant share of workers enter the work force without the technical skills that are needed. We must get rid of educational experiences that don't offer real knowledge and skills and that don't push kids to their limits.
    
7. We need to reorient our education system so the "average student" or "mid-kids" who are not college bound and don't need to be college educated have a chance to develop the skills for a competitive global economy: the ability to solve problems that are not clear cut and organized, to think for themselves, to work in teams, and to track problems from beginning to end.
   
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   Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, April 4, 1997
   Redesigning Schools to Focus on Student and Teacher Learning

   Education researcher and teacher educator Linda Darling-Hammond explored the root causes of the demand for school restructuring and some of the key elements of school restructuring that would bring higherlevel learning to more students. She explained:

   1. Schools were designed for the industrial revolution work place where 90% of jobs were unskilled. Basic skills and a willingness to follow directions were adequate for access to high wages. High wages for low skill jobs are disappearing. The changed workplace requires higher skills for a descent wage and access to middle class life. The workplace of today and the future is "knowledge work," and requires people to frame and solve problems, design their own work, work in teams, and take a problem from the beginning to the end.
       
   2. About half of student success in school is affected by personal factors (income, education of parents, parenting) and half by the school. Key education variables that we can control which make the most difference to student success are the size of the school and the quality of teachers.
       
   3. If schools are to prepare students for today's workplace and the future, they need to provide to all students, not just the top 10-20%, teaching for understanding (students are able to apply knowledge to new situations). This is more complicated because over the last 30 years the schools have included a much more diverse set of learners. Now high level learning must be available for this diverse set of learners.
       
   4. Restructured schools can lead to higher level learning for more children. Smaller schools with highly educated and trained teachers can make a difference. An emphasis on relationships, powerful learning activities and authentic work, and authentic assessment that allows students to demonstrate their knowledge is needed to produce higher level learning.
       
   5. Schools can be restructured to create powerful learning experiences. Education for powerful learning has these qualities:
      1. it builds on student knowledge (teaching is listening and learning is talking);
      2. it provides students many pathways to get access to the content of the curriculum;
      3. it is reciprocal and is not just coverage;
      4. it is performance oriented but doesn't lose basics;
      5. it encourages revision.
      
       
   6. Restructuring takes a lot of time and effort but is essential to producing the kind of learning that is needed to assure students succeed at high levels. She suggested that those trying to make change:
      1. develop a shared vision for the school as a work place for students and teachers. A collective perspective is needed.
      2. be willing to risk on individual and organizational levels.
      3. learn how to do shared decision making and then use it. Err in favor of democracy.
      4. provide on-going opportunities for knowledge and skill building.
      5. make sure there is a keeper of the vision.
      6. build from strengths and celebrate successes.
      7. collect and analyze information on how kids are doing.
      8. reduce fragmentation. Create continuity in relationships wherever you can.
      9. find time for collaboration.
      10. think BIG and take small concrete steps along the path.
      
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   Cong. Major Owens, April 22, 1997
   The Education Emergency in Public Schools; The Need for a Total Opportunity to Learn

   Congressman Owens offered a political perspective from his role as a member of the education committee of the U.S. Congress.

   1. We have a window of opportunity to increase federal commitment to education. Grass roots effort is needed to make sure something happens.
       
   2. If we are to compete in a global economy we must maximize education for all people and provide a "value added" education to all people not just the top 20%. Education elitism- offering a truly challenging education to the easiest to educate- is no longer acceptable, yet schools are opting out of educating everyone.
       
   3. Equitable funding among districts is essential to bringing equal opportunity for learning.
       
   4. The current effort to improve student outcomes by holding students accountable is not enough. We must also hold states and communities accountable for providing all students with the resources and conditions needed for learning. To do this we need to establish "opportunity to learn standards."
       
   5. Public support for education is slipping. This is due in part to unreasonable expectations for what education can accomplish and governance problems. Governance can be improved by increasing administrator qualifications and providing continuous professional development.
       
   6. There is an increasing need to rally support around the public schools.
       

   Discussion Questions

   The PS21 project was designed to stimulate and facilitate informed and thoughtful community deliberation about the future of our public schools. The following set of questions is offered to stimulate public discussion of the PS21 speakers' ideas in order to further our community's effort to move our schools forward.
         The questions address core values and beliefs, specific considerations that can shape our vision for our schools, and the changes needed to make them a highly valued resource for children and society in the 21^st century.

   Thinking Outside the Box

   Given the revolutionary changes of the 20^th century, how do we free our own thinking in order to entertain new possibilities for teaching, learning, students and education? What are some of the visions for our community and schools that we can look toward when unrestricted by these conventional frameworks?

   Who Will Our Schools Serve

   Who will go to our schools in the next 20 years? What are their economic, family, racial/ethnic characteristics? How mobile will they be? What is the diversity of our community? How do we demonstrate that we value diversity and that we value each child? What is the impact of the increasing number of children in poverty, women in the workplace, and segregation on student learning, our schools and community, and society?

   Social Cohesion

   Do we value education as a cornerstone of democracy and a resource for social cohesion? Are equal attempts made to be sure that students in all communities and all students in each community are learning? What kind of education do we provide kids in the middle? Do we believe they could do more? How could we strengthen public schools as a resource for a cohesive community and society? What education policies and practices divide people?

   Education and Work

   A traditional purpose of education has been to prepare students for work. What are some other purposes? Do we consider the skills needed for work when we design education and set educational goals? What changes in the work place do we agree are real and important to address? What do our children need to know and be able to do? How do we go about creating schools that develop these new skills?

   Support for Education and Learning

   Where does support for our schools come from? What are we doing to generate support for public education? How can we sustain support in light of changing demographics and a predicted increase in home schooling? What steps can we take to bring younger minority families and older white families closer together, and develop a greater sense of shared self-interest? How do we assure adequate funding, effective leadership, and necessary conditions for learning? Who is responsible for creating strong public schools? Are we tapping into all of our resources to create a vision for what our schools should look like? What role does the community, government, other agencies play in supporting children and their families to assure healthy child development and educational success? How can we increase support for children?

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   Focus for 1998 PS21 Forums

   High Level Learning for All Children: It Can Be Done

   The first five PS21 speakers made it clear that efforts to reshape public education for the 21st Century must focus on changes that will deliver high levels of learning to all children.
         Educators, schools, and communities all over the country are engaged in efforts to meet this need. The next round of Public Schools for the 21st Century speakers will share their experiences making it happen. Please join us for future forums with these experienced change agents and more:

   • Dr. Victor Young, director of the Learning Communities Network, an urban school reform initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation, will speak in October. He has extensive experience facilitating active community involvement in shaping public education, promoting excellence in teaching and equity in results, and changing structures to make sure the needs of children are at the center of education policy and practice. He is a resident of Cleveland Heights.
      
   • Dr. Lorraine Monroe, founder of the highly successful Frederick Douglass Academy, a public school in Harlam known for transforming the lives of inner-city students, will speak on December 9. She is currently the director of a leadership academy for principals in the New York City Schools. Leadership is an essential ingredient to creating schools that engage students, regardless of their background, in high levels of learning. The author of Nothing's Impossible, Dr. Monroe is an international consultant, master teacher and effective leader of school change that benefits students.
     
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