The Future of Education

Posted on January 07, 2016 by Janet Curcio Wilson, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

“Learning Through Self-Paced Arts Integrated Modules”
The mission of The K12 Next Generation Academy Model is to create a world-class virtual/hybrid charter school prototype via a Universally Designed Curriculum delivered in and through the arts via STEAM -
(STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics).

Figure 1: New Hampshire K12 Next Generation Academy’s design
for successful education through technology.

“By acknowledging that different students learn at different rates and attending
to those differences as part of the educational endeavor, we can ensure equal opportunity by
customizing appropriately without sacrificing high expectations.”

– Nicholas C. Donohue, President and CEO, Nellie Mae Education Foundation

I. Description of Problem:
At one time, our educational system was effective in preparing students for the industrial age. During that time, graduates had the skills necessary to make the United States a leader in the world economy. Schools were not focused on teaching to the “child” but rather the group. It was expected that all students be on the same page, to learn the same way. Yet, those that weren’t able to keep up were either placed in special programs or, as they became older, would drop out. Sir Ken Robinson’s visual presentation “Changing Educational Paradigm” (2006) is a stunning example of the need to redesign instructional delivery to meet the needs of our changing society.

In 1977, the passage of PL 94-142: The Education for All Handicapped Children Act began a wave of movements designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Subsequently, the continued and increasingly poor performance of students not addressed by the law, led to the passage of “No Child Left Behind.” Passing laws does not necessarily lead to quality education unless supported by adequate resources and an effort is made to understand the current generation of learners. Educational expectations have sky rocked with the exponential growth of science and technology. The educational requirements have changed, the learning styles of students have changed, but the instructional delivery remains the same. Textbook-centered content delivery is less effective in teaching the media-driven students of the “Next Generation. Many of these students will be seeking jobs in professions and fields that currently don’t exist and will no doubt be technology dependent. Our students know this; they feel that they are not being trained for the future. You can listen to what they have to say in the following videos: No Future Left Behind: or as on this PBS video: North Carolina Engages Tech Generation with Digital Video Tools.

Students feel we are holding them back from learning. They are technology natives, comfortable and skilled at learning using Internet resources. Yet, when they come to school, we have them turn off their learning devices and go back to using materials familiar to our generation. As a result, more and more students are disenfranchised; the system no longer has meaning to them. As Sasha Barab and others (2010) succinctly state in reference to the classroom environment, “students have opportunities to remember and record decontextualized disciplinary information in ways that all too often contribute to inert understandings.” As educators of 21st Century students, it is our responsibility to “(1) legitimizing the key disciplinary content to be learned; (2) positioning the person as an individual with an intention to transform the content; and (3) designing the learning environment as a context in which actions are consequential.”

As a result of our tenacity in holding on to out-dated educational delivery, our students are falling further and further behind other students throughout the world, and the United States is slipping from its place as an academic and economic leader.

Each year these challenges increase. Demands placed on our educational system continue to rise while financial resources and the number of trained faculty either remain at current levels or are reduced. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told school officials on November 17, 2010 to look at saving money in their districts by increasing productivity. Duncan spoke at an American Enterprise Institute event called “Bang for the Buck in Schooling,” and he warned that schools will “have to face the challenge of doing more with less.” The K12 Next Generation Academy has assembled a global educational team committed to creating an immersive, interactively engaging competency-based virtual curriculum which is universally designed to meet the current and future educational demands of all students. Our customized curriculum will be focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. We believe this will make New Hampshire a leader in spearheading worldwide education reform.

II. Universally Designed, STEAM Modules:
The K12 Next Generation Academy’s modular curriculum design will go beyond STEM into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) to include the arts; dance, theatre, music and visual arts – and will incorporate Universal Design in Learning to ensure all students the opportunity to demonstrate mastery learning. The Arts are therefore vehicle through which our curricular modules will be delivered. They will be graphically engaging and fun as students navigate through a virtual world, following customized pathways and lessons. Designed for 21st Century technology natives, these modules will embed hands-on project- and problem-based learning challenges integrating the arts.1 One might wonder how we expect to create a hands-on arts integrated curriculum delivered via computer? An example of how this might be accomplished through music is Eric Whiteacre’s 2.0 A Virtual Choir 2000 Voices Strong

Many companies, such as Boston have what they call, “Media and Interactive Development Studios” as well as “K12 Resources” for this type of learning. We are very fortunate to have ATEN Intelligence Systems. In addition to having anywhere anytime access for students, there will be regular face-to-face workshops in community locations where students will gather for group hands-on arts infused projects, Artist-in-Residence Workshops, performances and presentations/exhibitions. In this way, our arts integrated modules will allow students a chance to become engaged in visual arts, presentations and simulations. We will also have many opportunities to create virtual field trips to world class museums, arts exhibitions.

Knowing that in order to fully understand arts integration, it is important to differentiate its many levels of implementation, The K12 Next Generation Academy will design modules that are both arts-infused and integrated. The difference between these models is best defined by The Integrated Arts Continuum, which was developed as a part of New Hampshire’s Integrated Learning Project.

The K12 Next Generation Academy’s vision for arts integration is to infuse the arts into our modules, ensuring that the “concepts of knowledge integration” is addressed at the 6th level as described in the Varieties of Arts Integration (VAI) framework, developed by the Arts for Academic Achievement Project at the University of Minnesota. This means that at this level, “knowledge is invented through integrated study.” This also means the student is called upon to exercise their right-hemisphere creative abilities within a given academic subject.

“At a time when the world is increasingly moving from a text-based culture to one that is saturated in images (Freedman 2001) it appears there is a growing need to consider students’ visual education. The increasingly multimedia nature of our world has made it much harder to make a distinction between words and pictures in terms of how they contribute to comprehension and understanding or meaning (Dresang 1999, cited in Unsworth 2008, p.4). Unsworth (2008, p.4) comments: ‘the increasingly multimodal nature of our textual habitat has made it necessary to reconceptualize the nature of literacy and literacy pedagogy.’” (Alter, Dr. Frances, 2010).

“The growing recognition of a link between arts learning and achievement creates an emergent critical question for research, one that presses beyond questions of whether the arts impact student learning and moves into deeper explorations of how the arts might facilitate student growth. If learning in and through the arts is correlated with higher achievement and other evidence of learning, what special qualities or processes of arts education might be supporting students’ growth? (DeMoss, and Morris 2011).

In a cross-section of student writing responses studied (see chart below), Morris and DeMoss stated that, “arts have been found in national samples of students to be associated with a smaller achievement gap.” (Catterall, Chapleau, & Iwanaga, 1999).

Percentage of Student Writing Responses Reflecting Analytic Interpretations
of the Importance of the Subject Studied, By Type of Unit and
By Student General Achievement Level.

*As identified by teachers when asked to select students who represented
a range of competencies as traditionally measured in academic subjects

• Statistically significant difference at < .01, one-tailed t-test.

Finally, “collaborative research that provides connections between the arts, sciences, and education would provide a powerful platform for instituting radical reforms that may change the culture of schools so that they establish the conditions for creative growth.” (Alter, Dr. Frances, 2010) The K12 Next Generation Academy’s UDL + STEAM approach will be researched by an objective evaluator.

III. Overview of the Organization
As previously mentioned, our school is competency-based, meaning there are no grades. Instead, students move through curriculum modules at their own rate of learning. In this way, The K12 Next Generation Academy builds upon students’ innate curiosity, using strength-, problem- and project-based instruction, while assisting each student to become career- or college-ready (President Obama, Feb., 2010).

The K12 Next Generation Academy is mastery-based (instead of adequacy-based). We do not group students by age or by grade levels. The K12 Next Generation Academy is a seamless, contiguous, modular curriculum, which is personalized, hands-on and student-centered (customized). Students move at their own pace along learning objectives aligned to common core standard pathways. Our partner, ATEN Inc. will develop quest-based arts integrated electronic modules, which are complemented with Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) (Student Success through Extended Learning Opportunities). For those working through the high school modules, apprenticeships within their communities and Real-World Learning opportunities are made available. Students move through the curriculum through demonstrating mastery by applying concepts to real-life situations. To this end, we use approved NH Apprenticeships.

Embedded in content modules are progressive methods of assessment designed to drive student engagement and mastery of critical content and competencies. For self-assessment, students are taught how they learn best and are provided with continuous data showing the degree of mastery obtained for each learning objective (Metacognitive Strategies). This data is used to pinpoint learning progressions while assessing readiness to transition to the next level (Formative Assessments). Each cognitive level builds upon mastering all those that precede it. Additionally, analysis of data collected will provide empirical insights into how each student learns, his/her learning styles, and how to best design future modules. All of this will be built into our ATEN modules. This will enable us to support students’ sense of purpose as individuals, in order to better define their post-secondary goals for the transition to the world of career or college.

IV. Evaluation:
President Obama has asked educators and the USDoE to have high school students college-ready and career-ready by 2020. In order to do this, our educational delivery system must make major changes, and now with the increasing advances in technology, we can move toward common standards that embrace individual competency learning, and away from measuring student progress by how much time a student is sitting through one grade level to the next. This can be accomplished by creating on-going formative and summative assessments for students as they master one module to the next.

A. The K12 Next Generation Academy will be measured as successful when we meet or exceed The Six Critical Conditions (listed below) as outlined by the CCSO and iNACOL: When Failure is Not an Option: Designing Competency Based Pathways for Next Generation Learning. (November 2010; Chris Sturgis, Metrgis, Susan Patrick, iNACOL) by the following evidence of success:

1. Personalized Learning calls for a data-driven framework to set goals, assess progress, and ensure students receive the academic and developmental support they need.

2. Comprehensive Systems of Supports address physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development along a continuum of services, availing opportunities for success to all students.

3. World-class knowledge and skills require achievement goals to sufficiently encompass the content, knowledge and skills required.

4. Performance-based Learning puts students at the center of the learning process by enabling the f mastery based on high, clear, and commonly shared expectations.

5. Anytime, Everywhere Opportunities provide constructive learning experiences in all aspects of a child’s life, through both the geographic and the Internet-connected community.

6. Authentic Student Voice is the deep engagement of students in directing and owning their individual learning and shaping the nature of the education experience among their peers.
Students are able to self-assess, accurately participating in creating their personalized learning plans, charting progress, and honestly assessing themselves along the way.
With guidance from our Curriculum Council and consultants, students will have opportunities to be involved in developing “quests”2 to share with fellow students. They will present solutions on local and national issues.
As the Academy develops, a student government will be formed that will work with the Board of Trustees to further meet the needs of the student body.

V. Curricular Design:
We are a group of national and international educators (Table 1), designing competency-based pathways for next generation learning. Our curriculum follows the Universal Design principles that address all students based upon their learning styles and personal interests. The curriculum will contain dynamic modules with content covering New Hampshire and National (e.g. NSTA) common-core standards. Through arts integrated virtual gaming and field trips, transformational play, Project and Problem learning, digital media presentations, collaborative exercises, and interactive problem solving, each module will incorporate different modalities of input with progress monitoring through each level of competency until they have mastered the content and have the ability to move on. The learning modules will engage students’ critical thinking skills such that a level of mastery, will be met.