Anthony Cody has written an eloquent request to George Lucas, asking for help on behalf of the children and educators of America.
Lucas sold his company to Disney for $4 billion and announced that he would give much of his bounty to education.
Cody calls on him to think anew, to bring the same out-of-the-box thinking to his philanthropy that he brought to film-making.
If Lucas listened to Anthony, it would change the future of education in this country and clear the way for genuine innovation, not the stale rhetoric of testing, accountability, and choice.
It’s time for real ingenuity and creativity, not the blather of accountants and bean-counters.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope he listens, but I’ve heard he’s already on the “reform” side.
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If he is, then $ 4 billion will go a long way in destroying what’s left. On the other hand, if Edutopia is any indication, then perhaps his idea of reform is more in the realm of pedagogy and outocomes. Reforms we can all live with. One hopes that this is the case.
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If EDUTOPIA is an example of George Lucas’ educational philosophy, he should do ok spending his money to benefit public education.
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‘Bean counter reform’ -or- ‘Accountant reformers’… Both worthy labels for that whole crowd.
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Cody: Edutopia has been an amazing resource for years, sharing news and examples of project-based learning, authentic inquiry and other innovations.
Google doesn’t show earlier references to Edutopia on this blog, other than as publisher of a student activist’s writing. Now it’s a national model?
How have students been served? Courts require cost-out studies (for example, as evidence of a “thorough and efficient system” of public schools). Has Edutopia ever been cited in a cost-out study?
Has Edutopia played a role in professional development? With what results?
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As other have noted, Lucas is already a force in public education: http://www.edutopia.org/
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Diane,
What if we all started a similar letter writing campaign to Geoge Lucas? I have a feeling that we might be heard better than we were when we wrote to Obama.
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The first step would seem to be to articulate what is “genuine innovation” and how we can tell if it is effective. Perhaps this could be a discussion here?
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We begin by saying that what we have been doing for the past 20 years is not working and is not innovative.
Then we can begin to identify more successful approaches to improving education.
If the leadership continues to drive even harder in the wrong direction, it is hard to change course.
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This is again talking about what is not working. What changes will work? How will we evaluate these changes to know they are more successful.
I think these sort of changes have been discussed here, but not usually in one place. The PAR system of teacher evaluation and training, for example, has been proposed as an alternative to other teacher evaluation methods. Why not put together a package of innovative changes that will compete with the package of changes proposed by others?
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Why not put together a package of innovative changes that will compete with the package of changes proposed by others?
Or provide an annotated bibliography of what works in education.
Dr. Ravitch’s The Death and Life of the Great American School (in contrast to this blog) has surprisingly constructive suggestions. A valuable discussion might include what she got right (quite a bit) and what she missed (not much, but nonetheless tragic).
In the 1990s a consensus (from Newt Gingrich to Bill and Hillary Clinton) regarding American Competitiveness formed. (Newt spoke of “Quality As Defined By Deming” as one of “five pillars of American civilization.” Bill, Hillary, and Al Gore supported “reinventing government.”
Unfortunately, the Department of Education mediated Dr. Ravitch’s exposure to these ideas: Sec Lamar Alexander and David Kearns. Dr. Ravitch apparently (and tragically) was not exposed to Myron Tribus.
Apparently, it is no longer fashionable at any level or in any branch of government to do the work required to make smart bets with taxpayers’ funds. Sounds like an argument for privatization.
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I just checked the book at amazon.com. No references to Deming and Tribus; Baldridge (sic) appears at page 9. Thus, her book fails to acknowledge Myron Tribus’ success in bringing the Deming Prize to America as the Baldrige Award. Or its application to education, starting with hearings in the early 90s.
Looking at the lack of Baldrige Awards in education (as compared to health care) it’s hardly a surprise that health care does a much better job promoting evidence-based practice.
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Unlike medicine that has a well-developed peer review system, we have billionaires throwing money at their favorite ideological positions. Educators do not have a seat at the table, we have been usurped by econometricians and a market philosophy of education. While it is hard to tell if managed care has actually managed costs, it has done a fairly good job of destroying the patient-doctor relationship. It has been years since I have had a doctor walk in knowing my health history. That fifteen minute window they are allowed for “patient contact” doesn’t provide for a lot of time to review records. In the same manner, the time I spent collecting data, writing lessons plans in the latest format, documenting my use of best practices, writing goals on the board aligned with whatever standards are in vogue,… did not enhance my ability to reach my students.
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time I spent … did not enhance my ability to reach my students.
Assuming performance excellence in the classroom is a key goal for the district, would you characterize the central office dwellers as:
1. Servant leaders
2. Clueless bureaucrats
If your answer is 2, would it be helpful for outsiders to come into the district and inquire about how the central office supports evidence based practice and performance excellence in the classroom? Would the district school board care to review the outsiders’ assessment of central office effectiveness?
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Welcome to the world of a school that has not made AYP in years which coincidentally happens to be in a low socioeconomic, minority community with a large ESL population. Bureaucrats create paper trails of rather have everyone else create their paper trails.
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“…of rather have everyone else create their paper trails.”
“…or rather…”
Reply
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“It is the econometricians that I know that are making the argument that exam scores are not a valid way to evaluate teachers.”
Good. I believe VAM started with a couple of Harvard economists?
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It is the econometricians that I know that are making the argument that exam scores are not a valid way to evaluate teachers.
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I believe VAM started with a couple of Harvard economists?
Sanders from TN is often given credit. There is certainly some merit in ensuring that student IQs don’t reduce with school attendance. VAM for teacher evaluation is a stretch (according to Gamoran, UWisc).
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Why not put together a package of innovative changes that will compete with the package of changes proposed by others?
How about a bibliography?
The New Economics: For Industry, Government, Education, W. Edwards
Various articles by Maruice Holt, 11 to 15 years old:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/simpleSearch.jsp?_pageLabel=ERICSearchResult&_urlType=action&newSearch=true&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=au&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=%22Holt+Maurice%22
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Hey bloggers and tweeters, let’s ask Mr. Lucas to first sit down with a few supporters of and corporate investors in education, each with data and a plan for spending his money wisely, and let Mr. Lucas decide. His money can help, but if he hears all the chatter, his money could also hurt.
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There is nothing wrong with learning that involves projects, but projects do not in themselves make the learning more interesting, inspiring, or innovative. I am wary of “project-based learning” because the very term implies that the curriculum should be driven by the process, in this case the project.
I am wary of Lucas because his Edutopia champions project-based learning as if it were inherently superior to other kinds. He also promotes interdisciplinary learning (which is fine, as long as the disciplines themselves are given their due; history and literature are different fields with different demands).
Some of the most inspiring activity in school includes reading and discussing books, proving a theorem, and puzzling over a translation. That’s what Lucas fails to recognize. What’s more, such activities require little equipment. You can carry them in your mind and work on them anywhere. In addition, they last; they are not easily dated.
I wouldn’t want Lucas’s vision taking over.
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I’m with you on this one, Diane. Project based learning is a process to facilitate learning. IT IS ONE OF MANY TOOLS.
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PBL done correctly allows for those things, they are not mutually exclusive. PBL done well creates an authenticity that I increases engagement. Why is the “curriculum” so important? Is it what students know or what they know how to do that is most important?
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with project based learning. The pushback comes when a pedagogical tool is touted as THE WAY to teach. It is a way to frame learning. It is not the only way. I haven’t really examined this idea, and I may be playing a bit of devil’s advocate, but what makes some method of learning more authentic than another? I am a little bit amused by our push to teach 21st century skills, all of which were taught in the 20th as well, just using the tools of the time. In either situation, you have to have a knowledge base on which to use these tools. You can’t do without knowing. You can learn through doing. They are not mutually exclusive. I can enjoy a good book and do nothing more than think about it. Maybe I am led to read more books by the same author or on the same topic. Is what I gain from this process less authentic than if I create a blog about it, or wrote a screenplay, or created a roof garden in an urban jungle? Do you start with the project or the knowledge you your students to gain? It could be either way depending on what you are trying to accomplish. This is a much more complex discussion than it first appears.
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“…if I create a blog about it, or (write) wrote a screenplay, or (create) created a roof garden in an urban jungle?”
“…you (want) your students to gain?”
I was on a roll.
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I’m not sure your understanding of PBL is the same as mine. You’re correct that 21st Century skills are not inherently new but I would argue that they are more essential now and going forward. But you hit on one of the basic tenets is good PBL, you can’t do without knowing. Good PBL builds that knowing into the project work so students are uncovering the knowledge or content instead of the teacher covering it. Of course you can read a good book and just enjoy thinking about it but what if that reading (and what you learned from it) was part of a bigger goal? Of course, not everything has to be PBL, I’m not suggesting such, but the inquiry process that I’m assuming you have regarding said book is the basis of PBL and when you add to communication, collaboration, and critical thinking to student work you’re adding more to their education than just reading a book. I like to tell teachers if students are doing a task just because the teacher assigned it, it’s going to be on the test, or they’ll need it in the future those rarely resonate. PBL done well increases the purpose for learning and thus engagement. Why would we not design instruction in a way that increases engagement?
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I am grateful to my teachers for assigning superb books. Never did I feel that these were impositions. I was in school to learn from teachers; this did not detract from my own thinking but instead enhanced it. Why is that notion taboo today? Why the assumption that a student reading an assigned book will not be engaged, inspired and challenged–by the book itself, and the teacher’s own teaching of it?
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Lucas has already said he plans to hook up with Gates. In a story in the Modesto Bee he said he only had one or two teachers who inspired him. He thinks all teachers should have inspired him. We know students respond to vaired teaching styles.What is inspirational to one student is silly to another. Lucas is a scripted man. Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 13:15:59 +0000 To: rke25@hotmail.com
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>>Lucas has already said he plans to hook up with Gates.<<
I bet when these two were in school, EVERYONE wanted to be in on their group project team.
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Here’s the Modesto Bee article which details his plans.
http://www.modbee.com/2012/11/03/2441481/george-lucas-to-donate-money-from.html
I miss the days of donor anonymity and not knowing the politics of various businesses’ and business people. It’s hard to stay true to one’s beliefs. It kind of ruins a lot of things and experiences.
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I think we might have better luck approaching the progressives who are most likely to be concerned about real civil rights issues, such as the inequity of promoting segregated schools and the injustice of prescribing a boot-camp approach to education for low-income children of color, as inherent in so many unregulated charter schools, as well as public funding going to support charter and voucher schools that teach religious doctrine instead of science, such as in Louisiana. A list of those celebrities might include folks like Steven Spielberg, Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Barbra Streisand and George Clooney.
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“You’re correct that 21st Century skills are not inherently new but I would argue that they are more essential now and going forward.”
Why is it more essential to think critically now than it was twenty years ago? We have been problem solving collaboratively and thinking creatively for generations. The “advances” we are making now are built on the creative innovations of the past. We have always needed these skills, just in different iterations.
“I like to tell teachers if students are doing a task just because the teacher assigned it, it’s going to be on the test, or they’ll need it in the future those rarely resonate.”
You have reduced all non-project based learning to an obviously unattractive alternative. Why? Project based approaches are great. They are not the only approach. Learning requires engagement; some learning lends itself to a well crafted project. I resent the alternative picture of learning you offer. Perhaps that says you should limit your teaching to projects; it is your expertize.
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