Patrick F. Bassett, NAIS Presidentbassett@nais.org

INNOVATIONNAIS Annual Conference

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

NAIS’s First 50 Years… and

The Next 50 YearsAnnual Conference, Thursday, March 1st, 2012

Seattle, Washington

Patrick F. Bassett, NAIS Presidentbassett@nais.org

What It Means To Be Fifty

What institutions are really “built to last”?

• Over 300 years old: NAIS-member schools founded in 1600s: 7 (vs. 0 Fortune 500 companies)

• Over 200 years old: NAIS-member schools founded in 1700s or earlier: 37 (vs. 3 Fortune 500 companies)

• Over 100 years old: NAIS-member schools founded in 1800s or earlier: 315 (vs. 157 Fortune 500 companies)

• Over 50 years old: NAIS-member schools founded 1961 or before: 695 (vs. 294 Fortune 500 companies).

The Good News : If you make it to 50….you have a great shot at making 100 years

Innovation: Prep for the Big Shifts MacArthur Foundation, 21st. C. Learning)

The Big Shifts

Knowing……………..Doing (Project-based Learning)

Teacher-centered…… Student-centered

The Individual……….The Team

Consumption of Info…Construction of Meaning

Schools……………….Networks (online peers & experts)

Single Sourcing………Crowd Sourcing

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High Stakes Testing….High Value Demonstrations

What School & Class Have Looked Like for 1000 years

What independent schools and class are starting to look like in “schools of the future”….

Continuity + Vision: A Plan for the FutureWilliam Penn Charter Strategic Vision

Approaching its 325th Anniversary, the school’s strategic vision:

Core Values: Excellence. Innovation. Collaboration. Goals around…

• Quaker Values: Invest in character -“Let your life speak”• Faculty Growth: Invest in professionalizing the profession• Innovation: Re-imagine time & re-purpose space• Re-engineering Teaching & Program: meaningful engagement,

project-based approaches, and differentiated instruction• Achieving Financial Sustainability

Teacher as Innovator: Cushing Academy’s iClass Table

Design to make science more engaging, inquiry-based, and accessible.

Obsolete Schools & Classroom Design

Bertschi School, WA“A river runs through it”

Beyond sustainability to generation•Net zero use of water & energy•Garden to table•Living wall cleans H2O•Building building change in kids•Empowering kids to choose green•Lawrenceville’s dining room = inconspicuous classroom

School Architects as Innovators

Falmouth Academy’s Submersible Robot

Creativity, Robotics, Teaming and STEM

Return

Return 2

20/20 Fay School Entrepreneurship:Global Problem: Water DeficitsGlobal Solution: WaterWalker

Fay School (MA) 8th graders

Challenge 20/20: Montessori School of Denver

Return

What’s your PS-12 curriculum map for critical thinking?Your problem-solving/project-based learning map?

How do you document “demonstrations of learning”? How would your preschoolers tackle moving a 35-pound pumpkin from the parking lot into the pre-school classroom and up onto a table?

Return

The Film (1:40, 7:40, 9:40)

U-MD Medical & Space Centers: Simulating Weightlessness & Emergency Care

Hands on “learning by doing” (internships and apprenticeships and “city center immersions”) rooted in problem-solving that is real…

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129914162

Gaming X-box & iPad Apps

Project-Based Learning (Edutopia)

Run

Return

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8czhIrPSlio

Run

Return

Future of Schools – Parish Profile

Top 10 Promising Innovations

1. Adopting backward design & mapping of curriculum around skills rather than subjects (“The 6 Cs”: character, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, and cosmopolitanism/cross-cultural competency)

2. Documenting student outcomes via formative assessments & “demonstrations of learning” (captured in PS-12 schools over 13 years via digital portfolios)

3. Connecting appreciative inquiry, the strengths approach, and growth mindsets -- all subsets of the positivist psychology movement (for strategic planning, diversity training, learning differences strategy, problem-solving, etc.)

4. Globalizing Independent Schools (recruiting international students for day schools, NAIS Challenge 20/20 partnerships, sister schools & satellite campuses overseas, etc.)

5. Stage II greening of independent schools (net zero energy and water, LEED-certified school buildings and school-wide carbon footprint competitions)

Top 10 Promising Innovations6. STEM & beyond signature programming (robotics, Rube Goldberg

& inventors competitions, mock primaries/elections, student slam poetry & one-act play symposia, videotaping oral histories of the locale, ISEEN expeditionary learning, etc.)

7. Professionalizing the profession (rotating schedules to free groups of faculty/researchers; online PLCs like ISEnet for the research-based topics within a large network of colleagues; creating the conditions for a culture of innovation within the faculty to emerge)

8. Public Purpose of Private Education Initiatives (The Global Student News Network; Green Cup Challenge; Solar Car Challenge; PSPP - Private Schools with Public Purpose network; etc.)

9. Online Learning Consortia for Independent School-branded Courses (Online School for Girls; Global Online Academy; e-School at Tower Hill)

10. Design Thinking (incorporating MIT & Stanford Design Labs – complete with 3-D fabricators – to transform the means, tools, and approaches to learning)

A Framework for Discussions & Strategy on Big Shifts in Education

Four Essential Questions for Schools of the Future:

“What should we teach?” (The content/skills/ canon/curriculum/standards question)

“How should we teach?” (The pedagogy question: teacher-centric or student-centric?)

“How should we assess?” (The performance / outcomes / demonstrations question).

How should we embed the vision? (The leadership question.)