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What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers across America
An inspiring account of ordinary teachers who are doing extraordinary things that could transform education
What School Could Be offers an inspiring vision of what our teachers and students can accomplish if trusted with the challenge of developing the skills and ways of thinking needed to thrive in a world of dizzying technological change.
Innovation expert Ted Dintersmith took an unprecedented trip across America, visiting all fifty states in a single school year. He originally set out to raise awareness about the urgent need to reimagine education to prepare students for a world marked by innovation--but America's teachers one-upped him. All across the country, he met teachers in ordinary settings doing extraordinary things, creating innovative classrooms where children learn deeply and joyously as they gain purpose, agency, essential skillsets and mindsets, and real knowledge. Together, these new ways of teaching and learning offer a vision of what school could be—and a model for transforming schools throughout the United States and beyond. Better yet, teachers and parents don't have to wait for the revolution to come from above. They can readily implement small changes that can make a big difference.
America's clock is ticking. Our archaic model of education trains our kids for a world that no longer exists, and accelerating advances in technology are eliminating millions of jobs. But the trailblazing of many American educators gives us reasons for hope.
Capturing bold ideas from teachers and classrooms across America, What School Could Be provides a realistic and profoundly optimistic roadmap for creating cultures of innovation and real learning in all our schools.
253 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 10, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 180 reviews
August 8, 2018
I will be writing a thorough review of this book for my blog, 'Teacher in a Strange Land,' at Education Week. But in the meantime, I need to say that I was planning not to like this book--it's hard for me to read books about education by those who are not--have never been--educators.
Ted Dintersmith sailed right over those reservations in two chapters, and then kept surprising me, again and again, with his ability to cut through educational bullshit (something that takes a lot of skill and savvy) and not lose his optimism.
If I could recommend one book, especially for the general public, wringing its hands over the 'failure' of public education, it would be this one. Get it. Read it. Let's talk.
Ted Dintersmith sailed right over those reservations in two chapters, and then kept surprising me, again and again, with his ability to cut through educational bullshit (something that takes a lot of skill and savvy) and not lose his optimism.
If I could recommend one book, especially for the general public, wringing its hands over the 'failure' of public education, it would be this one. Get it. Read it. Let's talk.
March 4, 2019
I didn’t like this book at all which is a shame because I believe the author is really knowledgeable and legit but doesn’t demonstrate any of that with this book.
What would do you get: his field notes and self congratulatory comments as he traverses the country showing his documentary. There are different sections to this book but honestly the organization of the sections weren't really clearly split in a way that made sense for his narrative. Each section contained some notes of a particular school (how the schools were chosen were not clear) and how that school operates. Then Dintersmith may or may not comment on it. These comments are usually quite meaningless.
The big tldr of the entire book is that education at the pre college level is broken because schools are too focused on standardized testing. It seems like ALL the teachers he talks to knows about this yet can’t fix it due to 1) funding 2) politics 3) the fact you can’t just go fuck tests and still expect to get into college (even though there was one example that argued for this but I felt like the examples and proofs were very biased/skewed). Obviously it would be amazing to encourage students to study and learn because of interests, but we live in a world where "we have to be able to measure [progress or success]" (216). I don't think anyone is arguing against that, but it's just very, very hard to do from the bottom up as he depicted. Kind of a depressing book to be honest.
Also, a nitpick, but I hate how he alternates between serif and san serif font for different sections. San serif is hard to read especially if he puts an image of the state behind the text. Which designer let this slide??
What would do you get: his field notes and self congratulatory comments as he traverses the country showing his documentary. There are different sections to this book but honestly the organization of the sections weren't really clearly split in a way that made sense for his narrative. Each section contained some notes of a particular school (how the schools were chosen were not clear) and how that school operates. Then Dintersmith may or may not comment on it. These comments are usually quite meaningless.
The big tldr of the entire book is that education at the pre college level is broken because schools are too focused on standardized testing. It seems like ALL the teachers he talks to knows about this yet can’t fix it due to 1) funding 2) politics 3) the fact you can’t just go fuck tests and still expect to get into college (even though there was one example that argued for this but I felt like the examples and proofs were very biased/skewed). Obviously it would be amazing to encourage students to study and learn because of interests, but we live in a world where "we have to be able to measure [progress or success]" (216). I don't think anyone is arguing against that, but it's just very, very hard to do from the bottom up as he depicted. Kind of a depressing book to be honest.
Also, a nitpick, but I hate how he alternates between serif and san serif font for different sections. San serif is hard to read especially if he puts an image of the state behind the text. Which designer let this slide??
July 23, 2019
This book repeated the same stories or examples throughout. For teachers the information given is not new but what many teachers face as reality working in a classroom.
March 2, 2019
Ted Dintersmith has written a serious, thoughtful, education-focused Innocents Abroad rendition. But instead of traveling by boat and camel around Europe and the Middle East, Dintersmith drove and flew to all fifty U.S. states to find where education innovation and progress is being made.
His What School Could Be is a pointed education manifesto from someone who's taken the time to think deeply about what works, and what doesn't work, in today's digital age. Dintersmith, more than many education reformers and thinkers, appreciates the maelstrom of change and risk wrought by 21st century technological advances. He understands that in a world of rapidly improving machine intelligence, automation, and winner-take-all markets, education models from 19th century Prussia will not keep the U.S. workforce competitive, much less happy and fulfilled.
Such a powerful component of the book is the set of stories and examples culled from across the country. People often think of the Bay Area, New York, and Boston as centers for education innovation and investment. Those cities do matter, but ideas and action are percolating up from classrooms, schools, non-profits, and even sometimes city and state halls across the nation. Dintersmith talks about dozens of them. Some of my favorites included ideas from the Fieldston School (replacing AP biology with Skype calls with biologists; EdLeader 21 (focused on identifying 21st century skills); Acton Academy ("one-room schoolhouses for the 21st century); Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG) (helping people stay in school and find entry level jobs); Coalition for Access and mastery.org (reinventing the HS / transcript); the Coalition of Essential Schools (personalized, engaging schools); and School Retool ("hacking" school culture).
Dintersmith's vision for tomorrow's schools represent a major shift in approach, which would require dramatic changes in how policy-makers structure the experience of school. It is hard to argue with his mandate for more project-based, real-world learning, for more Socratic method, for enjoyable, engaging content, for more ownership of education by kids. His framework is PEAK: purpose (why learn what we learn), essentials (core skills and mindsets we need), agency (ownership and intrinsic motivation), and knowledge (deep learning of what they need to know).
Education is the most important investment we make in the next generation. Dintersmith's prescription offers a new and different approach: "doing better things" vs. "doing things better." It's well-worth the read for people interested in education innovation and the future of work.
(I originally discovered the book at ASU+GSV in San Diego in 2018. Dintersmith was signing copies of the book, and when I heard he's traveled the U.S. visiting every state, I knew I had to get his book. I had also recently finished visiting all 50 states within a confined period - in my case 5 years - although without the same noble goal of identifying education innovations...see http://americanflagvest.com)
His What School Could Be is a pointed education manifesto from someone who's taken the time to think deeply about what works, and what doesn't work, in today's digital age. Dintersmith, more than many education reformers and thinkers, appreciates the maelstrom of change and risk wrought by 21st century technological advances. He understands that in a world of rapidly improving machine intelligence, automation, and winner-take-all markets, education models from 19th century Prussia will not keep the U.S. workforce competitive, much less happy and fulfilled.
Such a powerful component of the book is the set of stories and examples culled from across the country. People often think of the Bay Area, New York, and Boston as centers for education innovation and investment. Those cities do matter, but ideas and action are percolating up from classrooms, schools, non-profits, and even sometimes city and state halls across the nation. Dintersmith talks about dozens of them. Some of my favorites included ideas from the Fieldston School (replacing AP biology with Skype calls with biologists; EdLeader 21 (focused on identifying 21st century skills); Acton Academy ("one-room schoolhouses for the 21st century); Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG) (helping people stay in school and find entry level jobs); Coalition for Access and mastery.org (reinventing the HS / transcript); the Coalition of Essential Schools (personalized, engaging schools); and School Retool ("hacking" school culture).
Dintersmith's vision for tomorrow's schools represent a major shift in approach, which would require dramatic changes in how policy-makers structure the experience of school. It is hard to argue with his mandate for more project-based, real-world learning, for more Socratic method, for enjoyable, engaging content, for more ownership of education by kids. His framework is PEAK: purpose (why learn what we learn), essentials (core skills and mindsets we need), agency (ownership and intrinsic motivation), and knowledge (deep learning of what they need to know).
Education is the most important investment we make in the next generation. Dintersmith's prescription offers a new and different approach: "doing better things" vs. "doing things better." It's well-worth the read for people interested in education innovation and the future of work.
(I originally discovered the book at ASU+GSV in San Diego in 2018. Dintersmith was signing copies of the book, and when I heard he's traveled the U.S. visiting every state, I knew I had to get his book. I had also recently finished visiting all 50 states within a confined period - in my case 5 years - although without the same noble goal of identifying education innovations...see http://americanflagvest.com)
March 28, 2019
I 100% agree with his educational philosophy. The non-examples gave me anxiety. The other anecdotes were cool but he was preaching to the choir. And speaking of preaching, he did come across somewhat condescending fairly often. So with the anxiety and preaching and really not adding anything new for me, I ended up skimming quite a bit, but it was good.
April 14, 2025
On the one hand, this very clearly points out every single thing that is wrong with education in America today. In that sense it gets a brilliant 5 stars. On the other hand (and I say this as someone who thinks we should completely dismantle the entire education system) some of the solutions seem to be rooted in anti-diversity efforts, pushing certain kids away from college (which is valid in some cases), and a devaluation of arts and overvaluing of STEM. This is a complicated book. I wanted it to be great. It’s not too radical but there is something very strange about the author and his views. Further digging on him is needed. I recommend Teach Like a Pirate and Teaching with Poverty in Mind as alternatives. Perhaps more updates later.
June 20, 2022
The messages are interesting: let's change the purpose of K-12 so that students can come out of high school with useful skills for the labor market. It seems like the way to do this is by empowering teachers and reducing the importance of standardized testing. However, the book's research methods are questionable. It selects on the dependent variable by visiting schools that are innovating and succeeding and not visiting those that are performing poorly as much. Additionally, it uses the test data to its convenience: it argues that standardized tests are not useful measures of student success, but it relies on test data whenever that will help prove the book's point.
May 17, 2020
precīzs un aktuāls ieskats tajā, kur un kāpēc “buksē” tradicionālā skolu sistēma. par apsēstību ar eksāmeniem, par inovāciju neiespējamību vidē, kurā cilvēki ir apsēsti ar mērījumiem un vienīgais veids, kā pārliecināties par mācīšanos, ir cipari. apceļojot visus ASV štatus, autors sniedz ieskatu skolu praksēs, kam ir potenciāls transformēt mūsu kolektīvo izpratni par to, ko nozīmē mācīšanās 21. gadsimtā. attiecībā uz saturu, pieeju un rezultātiem.
February 20, 2020
O autor do livro fez algo bem legal, uma viagem pelos EUA passando em várias escolas que adotaram soluções de ensino diferentes. Gosto muito dessa mentalidade de buscar o que já funciona antes de tentar reinventar a roda e impor ideias em sistemas que não necessariamente vão comportá-las. É um apanhado de exemplos, propostas de aulas e projetos e formas de lidar com alunos e com educação que funcionaram em diferentes contextos.
July 12, 2018
Ted Dintersmith, most famous for his work on the documentary and book Most Likely to Succeed, is to be lauded for his efforts in assessing the state of education across the United States in What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across America. He concludes that, with a few praiseworthy exceptions, the longstanding tradition of having students sit for extended periods in desks, memorizing material delivered by a teacher for the ephemeral purpose of reproducing it on a short-term assessment dominates the landscape across private, public and charter schools alike. Instead, he favors a system focused on design thinking, internships, real-world problems, portfolios and exhibitions. If the dominant current model of education is metaphorically the equivalent of a modern day horse and buggy, the solution is not to whip the horse harder, but to change systems entirely.
Dintersmith’s main focus is the public education system in America, though he does praise a few private schools, he believes that hope for the future lies in monopoly public schools. Despite his gushing enthusiasm for High Tech High in Most Likely to Succeed, Dintersmith is also generally critical of charter school initiatives. He also tends to find that state education systems are either enlightened or backward, with few mixed reviews. According to him, New Hampshire and Hawaii have some of the most inspiring educational initiatives, while most other states are stuck in the traditional memorize, regurgitate, forget and repeat model.
There is some confusion as to what leads to success in changing educational paradigms. At some points in the book, Dintersmith focuses his criticism on inadequate funding as the problem, especially when discussing the education of the poor. At other points in the book, he points to inexpensive alternatives like Acton Academy (http://www.actonacademy.org/) that offer a great education at a lower cost than the funding of these disadvantaged public schools. The juxtaposition of these two observations is confusing. Surely, models like Acton could replace failing public options. Dintersmith is well aware that, although the funding is surely not equally distributed in the public system, there is little direct correlation between more money and better results, as demonstrated by the international educational outcomes. The United States invests more than most countries, but the results are far from stellar. Further, as educational spending has increased over the last 50 years in the United States, the results have disappointed.
In discussing the qualifications of leaders likely to effect visionary educational change, Dintersmith seems to believe that traditional educational credentials such as the Harvard Master’s of Education program are likely to lead to the needed reformation of the current system in favor of revolutionary new models. Given that most universities are both based on and teach the same model that he believes needs to be replaced, one might expect true, rapid innovation to come from outside of the current system. Entrepreneur Bob Luddy’s Thales Academy (https://www.thalesacademy.org/) and Jeff and Laura Sandefer’s Acton Academy are examples of how such reform can come from outside of the educational establishment. In the spirit of innovation, such innovative institutions are often staffed by non-certified teachers who have not been trained in the dominant educational model.
Although What School Could Be provides some interesting anecdotes about educational initiatives across the country, it struggles to fully appreciate the role of competition and private education in discovering and bringing innovation to our children. For example, instead of providing any traditional public schools, some regions of New Hampshire provide only vouchers for school-aged students to use in private schools of their choice. We can always encourage the public schools to improve, but such change is often limited in scope and slow due to institutional inertia. Beyond simply identifying some of the current systemic problems and some innovative educational alternatives, it would be helpful if Dintersmith could suggest some additional approaches to realistically transitioning more students to effective schools.
Dintersmith’s main focus is the public education system in America, though he does praise a few private schools, he believes that hope for the future lies in monopoly public schools. Despite his gushing enthusiasm for High Tech High in Most Likely to Succeed, Dintersmith is also generally critical of charter school initiatives. He also tends to find that state education systems are either enlightened or backward, with few mixed reviews. According to him, New Hampshire and Hawaii have some of the most inspiring educational initiatives, while most other states are stuck in the traditional memorize, regurgitate, forget and repeat model.
There is some confusion as to what leads to success in changing educational paradigms. At some points in the book, Dintersmith focuses his criticism on inadequate funding as the problem, especially when discussing the education of the poor. At other points in the book, he points to inexpensive alternatives like Acton Academy (http://www.actonacademy.org/) that offer a great education at a lower cost than the funding of these disadvantaged public schools. The juxtaposition of these two observations is confusing. Surely, models like Acton could replace failing public options. Dintersmith is well aware that, although the funding is surely not equally distributed in the public system, there is little direct correlation between more money and better results, as demonstrated by the international educational outcomes. The United States invests more than most countries, but the results are far from stellar. Further, as educational spending has increased over the last 50 years in the United States, the results have disappointed.
In discussing the qualifications of leaders likely to effect visionary educational change, Dintersmith seems to believe that traditional educational credentials such as the Harvard Master’s of Education program are likely to lead to the needed reformation of the current system in favor of revolutionary new models. Given that most universities are both based on and teach the same model that he believes needs to be replaced, one might expect true, rapid innovation to come from outside of the current system. Entrepreneur Bob Luddy’s Thales Academy (https://www.thalesacademy.org/) and Jeff and Laura Sandefer’s Acton Academy are examples of how such reform can come from outside of the educational establishment. In the spirit of innovation, such innovative institutions are often staffed by non-certified teachers who have not been trained in the dominant educational model.
Although What School Could Be provides some interesting anecdotes about educational initiatives across the country, it struggles to fully appreciate the role of competition and private education in discovering and bringing innovation to our children. For example, instead of providing any traditional public schools, some regions of New Hampshire provide only vouchers for school-aged students to use in private schools of their choice. We can always encourage the public schools to improve, but such change is often limited in scope and slow due to institutional inertia. Beyond simply identifying some of the current systemic problems and some innovative educational alternatives, it would be helpful if Dintersmith could suggest some additional approaches to realistically transitioning more students to effective schools.
October 21, 2024
In this book, the author identifies a lot of issues with the way we do schooling in the United States and then presents tons of examples of ways that teachers/schools from all across the country are doing things better.
I absolutely agree with all of Dintersmith's criticisms of how we do schooling, and many of the examples he presents are very inspiring.
I do wish that there could have been more detailed discussions of what some of these alternatives really look like day to day. We get a general idea, but I wouldn't be sure how to actually implement some of these ideas at the ground level. Obviously though, there is only so much space.
I also found that the organization of the book was sometimes hard to follow. The author is bringing together stories from a 9-month, cross-country trip, which is an admittedly difficult task. But sometimes it seemed like stories were stuck in simply for the sake of completeness.
Lastly, and I think this is my most significant criticism, I was concerned that the author never seemed to question the basic assumption that education is only about preparing people to work. There were a few places where teachers talked about developing students' characters and their ability to think critically, but it seemed to me that this was always discussed within the context of how this would translate to jobs. Obviously this is hugely important, and it's certainly not something that seems to be a concern in the way schooling is done now. But isn't there more to life than work? And while the author was very concerned that students be prepared for a changing world, there didn't seem to be any reflection on whether that world is actually something we want. Today's students won't just inherit the world; they will also help to create it. And it seems to me that something that true education ought to do is to help students think about the kind of world they want to create.
I absolutely agree with all of Dintersmith's criticisms of how we do schooling, and many of the examples he presents are very inspiring.
I do wish that there could have been more detailed discussions of what some of these alternatives really look like day to day. We get a general idea, but I wouldn't be sure how to actually implement some of these ideas at the ground level. Obviously though, there is only so much space.
I also found that the organization of the book was sometimes hard to follow. The author is bringing together stories from a 9-month, cross-country trip, which is an admittedly difficult task. But sometimes it seemed like stories were stuck in simply for the sake of completeness.
Lastly, and I think this is my most significant criticism, I was concerned that the author never seemed to question the basic assumption that education is only about preparing people to work. There were a few places where teachers talked about developing students' characters and their ability to think critically, but it seemed to me that this was always discussed within the context of how this would translate to jobs. Obviously this is hugely important, and it's certainly not something that seems to be a concern in the way schooling is done now. But isn't there more to life than work? And while the author was very concerned that students be prepared for a changing world, there didn't seem to be any reflection on whether that world is actually something we want. Today's students won't just inherit the world; they will also help to create it. And it seems to me that something that true education ought to do is to help students think about the kind of world they want to create.
August 24, 2025
I enjoyed and agreed with the overall message of this book, but my two biggest critiques are 1. the repetitive nature of the book. I understand he is telling individual stories, however, like many have already commented on, they in general end the same way. 2. There seems to be a disharmony between the discourse surrounding the idea of college. The book discusses how successful students can be without a college degree and then sometimes it boasts about a particular student or school’s college acceptance rate. I can get behind the overall message that college isn’t for everyone and the amount of issues with the college system would be a whole other book, but I feel as if it’s a little disingenuous to dissuade students from attending college because of the potential debt it could put you in, especially since the book acknowledges most 21st century jobs are asking for their prospective employees to be college educated, I mean the author himself has a Ph.D. To me the answer should be to teach students how to be financially literate and manage loans and savings accordingly to avoid crippling debt upon completion and show them the financial aid, scholarships, and other resources for college, or; better yet, hold colleges accountable for the way they exploit students and treat them as ‘commondities’ in their businesses.
This book does have a lot of insight and for the amount of issues it tries to cover it could be longer if it were more detailed, but overall I feel as if it stays on message and has some helpful information.
This book does have a lot of insight and for the amount of issues it tries to cover it could be longer if it were more detailed, but overall I feel as if it stays on message and has some helpful information.
August 6, 2020
Ted Dintersmith, one of the creators of the documentary and book "Most Likely to Succeed," goes on a road trip around the United States, visiting schools that are doing great things. Included are a few colleges, including the Naval Academy, that should shed light on how innovation at the college level can be inspirational for the high school level.
"Education is a community's responsibility," he concludes, and it is the community--its business leaders especially--need to step up and help out. Not just financially but also through relationships that offer internships and immersive learning experiences. The Innovation Era (about which Dintersmith writes in his other books) means we are in the perfect position to thrive, but education needs to evolve so that schools (and not just private ones!) produce innovative, creative thinkers. Schools will change from the bottom up: one classroom, one district at a time. So, while politicians need to do their part and take away test requirements and free up good teachers to be creative and solve these large-scale problems, educators shouldn't sit and wait for change to happen from the top down.
Children thrive in learning environments that share four elements: Purpose (projects that mean something to them, and can be displayed publicly); Essentials (students learn the competencies that are needed in the world today); Agency (students have a voice in their work, set their goals, manage their efforts, and persevere to complete work independently); Knowledge (guided by teachers, students master deep knowledge and is reflected in what they build, make, and design).
His big point: once someone sees what schools CAN be, there's no turning back.
"Education is a community's responsibility," he concludes, and it is the community--its business leaders especially--need to step up and help out. Not just financially but also through relationships that offer internships and immersive learning experiences. The Innovation Era (about which Dintersmith writes in his other books) means we are in the perfect position to thrive, but education needs to evolve so that schools (and not just private ones!) produce innovative, creative thinkers. Schools will change from the bottom up: one classroom, one district at a time. So, while politicians need to do their part and take away test requirements and free up good teachers to be creative and solve these large-scale problems, educators shouldn't sit and wait for change to happen from the top down.
Children thrive in learning environments that share four elements: Purpose (projects that mean something to them, and can be displayed publicly); Essentials (students learn the competencies that are needed in the world today); Agency (students have a voice in their work, set their goals, manage their efforts, and persevere to complete work independently); Knowledge (guided by teachers, students master deep knowledge and is reflected in what they build, make, and design).
His big point: once someone sees what schools CAN be, there's no turning back.
August 22, 2019
Technically I didn't finish this book because I couldn't bear it. I can't get past his racist views and I don't think anyone else should let him slide on it, either. This passage is where it first hit me: "I was at a documentary about low income African American students attending an inner-city high school that prides itself on getting all students into a four-year college. The school has an outstanding extracurricular program which it holds over each student's head. Grind through your lack-luster courses with satisfactory grades, or get booted from the program. At the film's conclusion, each graduating senior holds up the acceptance letter to the college they'll be attending. The audience went wild-cheers, tears, and a standing ovation. In the long list of colleges, I had heard of only one. No mention in the film of issues like loan obligations, likelihood of graduating or how much these students will learn. I broached my concern to the person next to me, who responded ebulliently, 'It doesn’t matter. They're going to college!' That's America today."
An African American community’s focus on and celebration of getting their kids into college is not the same as white people’s fixation on getting into elite colleges. To lump them together with the same glib conclusion that “This is America today” is just ignorant. But he takes it a step further by slipping in judgements about these particular kids' ability to handle a college education, assuming that they will have problems with student loans, completing their degrees, or even learning much! And his comment that he hasn’t heard of most of the schools the kids got into says to me he sees them as desperate just to get into any school because in his stereotype-drenched mind that's all they can manage to get into or figure out how to apply for, or something. His disdain for this community is apparent, he clearly thinks the person next to him celebrating the fruits of a community struggle is just stupid.
Let's look at the "Social Equity" chapter, obviously race will be relevant here. And that's how he begins it, with an exposition on the achievement gap, and a graph showing white students far above students of color in test scores. Why is this the case? "Most children in challenging circumstances don't get this daily push. Children with only one overworked parent in their life aren't drilling at night on vocabulary flash cards or Motion Math." So his first explanation is to trot out the broken home stereotype of inner city communities of color. But then "a teenager working long hours to help keep the family farm afloat" comes next. Huh? That would be white people, so I'm thinking he didn't want his analysis to sound TOO racist.
I have a lot of other problems with this book besides Dintersmith's view of race, but it's not worth going into because I just don't trust someone who does not have the interests of all children at heart.
An African American community’s focus on and celebration of getting their kids into college is not the same as white people’s fixation on getting into elite colleges. To lump them together with the same glib conclusion that “This is America today” is just ignorant. But he takes it a step further by slipping in judgements about these particular kids' ability to handle a college education, assuming that they will have problems with student loans, completing their degrees, or even learning much! And his comment that he hasn’t heard of most of the schools the kids got into says to me he sees them as desperate just to get into any school because in his stereotype-drenched mind that's all they can manage to get into or figure out how to apply for, or something. His disdain for this community is apparent, he clearly thinks the person next to him celebrating the fruits of a community struggle is just stupid.
Let's look at the "Social Equity" chapter, obviously race will be relevant here. And that's how he begins it, with an exposition on the achievement gap, and a graph showing white students far above students of color in test scores. Why is this the case? "Most children in challenging circumstances don't get this daily push. Children with only one overworked parent in their life aren't drilling at night on vocabulary flash cards or Motion Math." So his first explanation is to trot out the broken home stereotype of inner city communities of color. But then "a teenager working long hours to help keep the family farm afloat" comes next. Huh? That would be white people, so I'm thinking he didn't want his analysis to sound TOO racist.
I have a lot of other problems with this book besides Dintersmith's view of race, but it's not worth going into because I just don't trust someone who does not have the interests of all children at heart.
April 12, 2018
Great read for every educator and parent who care about how we should be educating today’s kids. Dintersmith travelled the country and provides an abundance of evidence that supports changing our outdated model that relies on compliance, standardization, memorization and high-stakes multiple choice testing, to one that is purposeful, focuses on building relevant skills, and engages learners through student voice. A must for every staff book study this summer!
July 15, 2018
This is a must-read for anyone who ever went to school, is going to school now or plans to raise children who will go to school.
I was already worried that the education system is not really equipping today’s students with the skills they need in the 21st century. Reading this, I am not only further convinced about the need for innovation in education, but also reassured that change is possible, and that it doesn’t have to come from the government level.
I was already worried that the education system is not really equipping today’s students with the skills they need in the 21st century. Reading this, I am not only further convinced about the need for innovation in education, but also reassured that change is possible, and that it doesn’t have to come from the government level.
February 24, 2020
Lots of great stuff, but for such an innovative mindset, I feel like this didn't go even far enough! This innovated the current economy and political landscape, but can't we see beyond that? Can't we see something better than just doing more? Visionary for education, but a little shy on society. Still, this really amped me up to try new things in my classroom, and now, I have an ambitious proposal for my English 11 recovery class.
May 18, 2021
A good overview of the many innovative schools in the US that are challenging standard learning practices that originate from the industrial era. The Author shares his passion for education and his perspective and analysis in a memorable manor. Its staying on my book shelve as there are many things I have follow up questions and thoughts inspired by this book.
November 3, 2021
This was... fine. Not bad. Not great. Fine.
At times, it felt very self-congratulatory (we get it, you made a documentary...) and repetitive. PBL works. We know this, but how do we implement it? Standardized testing is bad. We know this, but it's mandated. I appreciate the work that he went through to complete this, but it didn't feel like I was really getting any new information.
At times, it felt very self-congratulatory (we get it, you made a documentary...) and repetitive. PBL works. We know this, but how do we implement it? Standardized testing is bad. We know this, but it's mandated. I appreciate the work that he went through to complete this, but it didn't feel like I was really getting any new information.
January 22, 2019
3.5 stars. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it still had some solid points. I have been looking into project-based learning because of what I read, and I like the idea of connecting kids to real life/work experiences well before they graduate.
March 29, 2019
Great practical examples! Would love to see more of what PBL should look like in a lower elementary classroom.
April 29, 2020
Great book! Interesting, Inspiring, informative and very important. Here are some memorable quotes:
Students thrive in environments where they develop:
• Purpose—Students attack challenges they know to be important, that make their world better.
• Essentials—Students acquire the skill sets and mind-sets needed in an increasingly innovative world.
• Agency—Students own their learning, becoming self-directed, intrinsically motivated adults.
• Knowledge—What students learn is deep and retained, enabling them to create, to make, to teach others.
We’ll call these the PEAK principles—purpose, essentials, agency, knowledge.
Today, the purpose of U.S. education is to rank human potential, not develop it.
Findings you may find implausible, even preposterous:
• “College ready” impedes learning and innovation in our K–12 schools.
• All students would benefit from considerably more hands-on learning.
• We’re trying to close the wrong achievement gap.
• We can make education better and more equitable by challenging students with real-world problems.
• K–12 schools, done right, would produce graduates better prepared for life than most current college grads.
• Educators can transform schools at scale with change models that establish conditions, rather than mandate daily practice.
If you live abroad, you’ll appreciate what foreign education leaders tell me: “We get our best ideas from America. The difference is that we act on them, and you don’t.”
Comprehensive suburban schools like Eisenhower educate about half of America’s 16 million high school students. Another 4.5 million go to urban high schools, many labeled “dropout factories.” Some 3.5 million attend rural schools. A half million go to private high schools, mostly religious; a comparable amount go to charter high schools. A few hundred thousand homeschool. At least another million would be categorized as dropouts, although the number’s elusive since many disappear from the system after middle school.
In 1893 education leaders anticipated that the U.S. economy would shift from agrarian to industrial. Farsightedly, they formed a Committee of Ten and proceeded to transform education from one-room schoolhouses to a standardized factory model. Teach students the same subjects, in the same way. Train them to perform routine tasks time-efficiently, without error or creative deviation. Produce a uniform workforce ready for lifetimes on the assembly line. The model worked, spectacularly.
[Today’s] graduating seniors have taken more standardized tests than any other students in their state’s history… Pick a few letters at random, and they probably took that test.
There’s a recipe for excelling on these tests. Practice, practice, practice so you answer questions quickly, without thinking. Skip anything unfamiliar, rather than waste time trying to figure it out. Don’t think creatively, since that costs time and points. Perform like a machine.
I asked top superintendents about the key to turning around a broken district. To a person they said, “The right school board.”
While federal funds cover just 10% of national K–12 public school expenditures, they’re deployed in ways to ensure compliance with federal regulations. A heavy stick. The average school district in America gets 50% of its funds from its state, an amount trending down as budgets tighten. On average, 40% of funds come from local property taxes, with enormous variation. In most states, affluent districts have ample budgets ($20,000/student-year or more), while poor districts struggle ($10,000/student-year or less).
While Brown v. Board of Education promised America’s children an education on “equal terms,” Rodriguez makes clear that America is fine with vast disparities in rich v. poor. This matters.
The federal government played no role in education until 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty included the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to fund programs for low-income and disabled children, bilingual education, and libraries and curriculum.
Obama commented, “One thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching the test because then you’re not learning about the world…. All you’re learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test and that’s not going to make education interesting…. And young people do well in stuff that they’re interested in. They’re not going to do as well if it’s boring.” Truer words were never spoken, but they came late in his presidency.
This type of school made sense in the era of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Prepare young adults for an economy dominated by large, hierarchical organizations with employees performing to job descriptions. Equip students with citizenship skills suited to a democracy with trusted news sources informing us about civic-minded leaders. But Dwight D. Eisenhower died in 1969, taking a simpler era with him to his grave.
What’s crystal clear is that machine intelligence profoundly changes how, or even whether, an adult can contribute meaningfully to an employer or community. If nothing else, it’s screaming, “Children need to learn to leverage machine intelligence, not replicate its capacity to perform low-level tasks!”
February 6, 1992, [the day the New York Times first published international test score rankings] marked the start of our educational Groundhog Day, repeating the cycle of mediocre test scores, collective angst over Asia’s superior education system, fears of becoming a second-class nation, and doubling down on test preparation to close the gap. Nothing less than America’s hegemony is at stake.
He cites Einstein: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” But hard numbers inevitably crowd out qualitative nuance; people crave objective measures that facilitate comparison.
Lyons is passionate about the need to “ratchet down the absurd expectations we have for young kids and eliminate family anxiety, even shame, over college acceptances.” He notes that one-third of our kids in elite colleges are on antidepressants. “That’s a disgrace. It becomes a forever thing.” For our kids, “every achievement is a temporary high, which has to be followed by another achievement.”
Teachers with coaching experience prefer being the “guide on the side” to being the “sage on the stage.”
Students could pitch in on the daily tasks that keep their school running, as well as take on challenges such as analyzing their school’s energy usage and creating initiatives to reduce consumption. In helping “run” their school, students master hirable proficiencies and learn important life skills—like responsibility—through point-blank feedback from classmates and staff.
He related that after informing them they’d have one class period a week to work on whatever they’re interested in, half the students did a Google search for “What should I be interested in?” When I relate this anecdote to audiences, the initial laughter quickly turns to reflective silence. This is what we do to our children.
They found that mentors, internships, clubs, and meaningful longer-term projects—far more than grades and test scores—were the pivotal preconditions for future success.
Legislators decide what’s required to graduate from high school. Many kids won’t get their diploma because of a course most adults never use.
We’re quick in America to express admiration for teachers, but we need to back that up in how we pay, trust, and honor them.
Education should prepare our children for life, but we have it backward. We prepare children’s lives for education.
In the mix of “life ready,” “career ready,” “military ready,” “citizenship ready,” and “college ready,” the odd man out is “college ready.” Yet, bizarrely, the odd man rules the day in our K–12 schools.
We rationalize our curriculum by waving our hands. “They’re learning the fundamentals” or “We’re teaching them to think” or “They’re building grit.” Here’s the reality. This curriculum pervades our upper grades for one simple reason. It prepares students for the college-ready tests demanded by admissions officers and state legislators.
Across America, our kids study what’s easy to test, not what’s important to learn. It’s easy to test factual content and low-level procedures, so that defines the curriculum.
The saying “What gets measured gets done” permeates education. Schools teach to tests they’re held accountable to.
Colleges should be valued for developing excellence in the students they admit, not for admitting students with excellent test scores.
Any college committed to educating kids from challenging circumstances is making an unequivocally positive contribution to our society. But our best path to leveling society’s playing field is to make the high school diploma meaningful. Let students take on real-world challenges, gaining the ability to contribute effectively to an organization or a community.
He told a joke about a neurosurgeon dealing with back-to-back surgeries in the operating room but having to rush home to meet a plumber. The plumber comes, fixes the broken pipe in fifteen minutes, and hands her a $250 invoice. The surgeon complains, “Hey, that’s more than I make in an hour.” The plumber responds, “I know. I used to be a surgeon.”
Student loan debt can dog someone for a lifetime, since it’s the one form of debt that can’t be shaken through personal bankruptcy. Congress, in its wisdom, made it easy to get student loans and almost impossible to default on them.
[There’s] a bevy of aggressive start-ups see higher education as a large market ripe for disruption. Don’t underestimate what they’ll accomplish.
“What makes my mother unusual in our culture is that she doesn’t equate being unsure with certain doom. A lot of parents believe if they aren’t sure things are working out for their kids, then they have to step in and rescue them. We rob them of the discovery of who this little being will become. Yes, my mom worried about college, but I also felt her curiosity wanting to see what would happen.”
“There are two kinds of stress. There’s lousy external stress to excel on things the kid doesn’t believe in. But there’s healthy stress that comes from setting a big goal, and pushing yourself to excel in the face of challenges and deadlines.” It’s rare for someone to produce something they’re proud of without feeling stress. The key is aligning student work with a sense of purpose.
In today’s America, only those with degrees from our most elite colleges are qualified to rule on issues affecting mainstream America.
Education has become the modern American caste system.
Based on my travels, I believe that the purpose of school today in America is to rank potential, not develop it. Worse, schools rank potential on the basis of inconsequential proficiencies, in ways that provide outsized advantage to the affluent. This has consequences.
Everything changes if school is about projects, big ideas, and curiosity. Students get good at making things, coming up with creative ideas, asking thoughtful questions. Accomplishment is reflected by what is produced. No one cares how long it takes a student to read material or if they learn from a YouTube video or classmate. Just like life.
In a reimagined math track with ready access to online resources, students would have time to learn probability and statistics, computer programming, estimation, financial literacy, data analytics, decision analysis, algorithm structuring, problem-solving strategies, or digital fabrication.
A number of people I met this year would tell me, often in a whisper, that our schools of education aren’t attracting the best students. I’d respond, “How do you know?” They’d say, “Well, the average test scores for education majors are low.” To which I’d say, “When you think of outstanding teachers you had, what were their strengths?” People cite empathy, bringing a subject to life, being a great role model, providing helpful feedback, asking thought-provoking questions, making learning fun, helping them believe in their potential. To date, no one has said, “High standardized test scores.”
The following passage was particularly striking, given it was written over three decades ago: We live today, crowded together, in a culture overloaded with information, surfeited with data and opinions and experiences that we pump up with the buttons on our TV sets, home computers, telephones, and word processors. The world around us, for good or ill, is a more insistent, rich, and effective provider of information than was our grandparents’. Education’s job today is less in purveying information than in helping people to use it—that is, to exercise their minds.”
“The problem with education’s traditional model is that school is boring. It’s damn boring. I’m not saying we need a party every day, but we need to engage kids in creative thinking, to connect their learning to the real world.”
“Change happens slowly, right up until it happens quickly.”
Students thrive in environments where they develop:
• Purpose—Students attack challenges they know to be important, that make their world better.
• Essentials—Students acquire the skill sets and mind-sets needed in an increasingly innovative world.
• Agency—Students own their learning, becoming self-directed, intrinsically motivated adults.
• Knowledge—What students learn is deep and retained, enabling them to create, to make, to teach others.
We’ll call these the PEAK principles—purpose, essentials, agency, knowledge.
Today, the purpose of U.S. education is to rank human potential, not develop it.
Findings you may find implausible, even preposterous:
• “College ready” impedes learning and innovation in our K–12 schools.
• All students would benefit from considerably more hands-on learning.
• We’re trying to close the wrong achievement gap.
• We can make education better and more equitable by challenging students with real-world problems.
• K–12 schools, done right, would produce graduates better prepared for life than most current college grads.
• Educators can transform schools at scale with change models that establish conditions, rather than mandate daily practice.
If you live abroad, you’ll appreciate what foreign education leaders tell me: “We get our best ideas from America. The difference is that we act on them, and you don’t.”
Comprehensive suburban schools like Eisenhower educate about half of America’s 16 million high school students. Another 4.5 million go to urban high schools, many labeled “dropout factories.” Some 3.5 million attend rural schools. A half million go to private high schools, mostly religious; a comparable amount go to charter high schools. A few hundred thousand homeschool. At least another million would be categorized as dropouts, although the number’s elusive since many disappear from the system after middle school.
In 1893 education leaders anticipated that the U.S. economy would shift from agrarian to industrial. Farsightedly, they formed a Committee of Ten and proceeded to transform education from one-room schoolhouses to a standardized factory model. Teach students the same subjects, in the same way. Train them to perform routine tasks time-efficiently, without error or creative deviation. Produce a uniform workforce ready for lifetimes on the assembly line. The model worked, spectacularly.
[Today’s] graduating seniors have taken more standardized tests than any other students in their state’s history… Pick a few letters at random, and they probably took that test.
There’s a recipe for excelling on these tests. Practice, practice, practice so you answer questions quickly, without thinking. Skip anything unfamiliar, rather than waste time trying to figure it out. Don’t think creatively, since that costs time and points. Perform like a machine.
I asked top superintendents about the key to turning around a broken district. To a person they said, “The right school board.”
While federal funds cover just 10% of national K–12 public school expenditures, they’re deployed in ways to ensure compliance with federal regulations. A heavy stick. The average school district in America gets 50% of its funds from its state, an amount trending down as budgets tighten. On average, 40% of funds come from local property taxes, with enormous variation. In most states, affluent districts have ample budgets ($20,000/student-year or more), while poor districts struggle ($10,000/student-year or less).
While Brown v. Board of Education promised America’s children an education on “equal terms,” Rodriguez makes clear that America is fine with vast disparities in rich v. poor. This matters.
The federal government played no role in education until 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty included the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to fund programs for low-income and disabled children, bilingual education, and libraries and curriculum.
Obama commented, “One thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching the test because then you’re not learning about the world…. All you’re learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test and that’s not going to make education interesting…. And young people do well in stuff that they’re interested in. They’re not going to do as well if it’s boring.” Truer words were never spoken, but they came late in his presidency.
This type of school made sense in the era of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Prepare young adults for an economy dominated by large, hierarchical organizations with employees performing to job descriptions. Equip students with citizenship skills suited to a democracy with trusted news sources informing us about civic-minded leaders. But Dwight D. Eisenhower died in 1969, taking a simpler era with him to his grave.
What’s crystal clear is that machine intelligence profoundly changes how, or even whether, an adult can contribute meaningfully to an employer or community. If nothing else, it’s screaming, “Children need to learn to leverage machine intelligence, not replicate its capacity to perform low-level tasks!”
February 6, 1992, [the day the New York Times first published international test score rankings] marked the start of our educational Groundhog Day, repeating the cycle of mediocre test scores, collective angst over Asia’s superior education system, fears of becoming a second-class nation, and doubling down on test preparation to close the gap. Nothing less than America’s hegemony is at stake.
He cites Einstein: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” But hard numbers inevitably crowd out qualitative nuance; people crave objective measures that facilitate comparison.
Lyons is passionate about the need to “ratchet down the absurd expectations we have for young kids and eliminate family anxiety, even shame, over college acceptances.” He notes that one-third of our kids in elite colleges are on antidepressants. “That’s a disgrace. It becomes a forever thing.” For our kids, “every achievement is a temporary high, which has to be followed by another achievement.”
Teachers with coaching experience prefer being the “guide on the side” to being the “sage on the stage.”
Students could pitch in on the daily tasks that keep their school running, as well as take on challenges such as analyzing their school’s energy usage and creating initiatives to reduce consumption. In helping “run” their school, students master hirable proficiencies and learn important life skills—like responsibility—through point-blank feedback from classmates and staff.
He related that after informing them they’d have one class period a week to work on whatever they’re interested in, half the students did a Google search for “What should I be interested in?” When I relate this anecdote to audiences, the initial laughter quickly turns to reflective silence. This is what we do to our children.
They found that mentors, internships, clubs, and meaningful longer-term projects—far more than grades and test scores—were the pivotal preconditions for future success.
Legislators decide what’s required to graduate from high school. Many kids won’t get their diploma because of a course most adults never use.
We’re quick in America to express admiration for teachers, but we need to back that up in how we pay, trust, and honor them.
Education should prepare our children for life, but we have it backward. We prepare children’s lives for education.
In the mix of “life ready,” “career ready,” “military ready,” “citizenship ready,” and “college ready,” the odd man out is “college ready.” Yet, bizarrely, the odd man rules the day in our K–12 schools.
We rationalize our curriculum by waving our hands. “They’re learning the fundamentals” or “We’re teaching them to think” or “They’re building grit.” Here’s the reality. This curriculum pervades our upper grades for one simple reason. It prepares students for the college-ready tests demanded by admissions officers and state legislators.
Across America, our kids study what’s easy to test, not what’s important to learn. It’s easy to test factual content and low-level procedures, so that defines the curriculum.
The saying “What gets measured gets done” permeates education. Schools teach to tests they’re held accountable to.
Colleges should be valued for developing excellence in the students they admit, not for admitting students with excellent test scores.
Any college committed to educating kids from challenging circumstances is making an unequivocally positive contribution to our society. But our best path to leveling society’s playing field is to make the high school diploma meaningful. Let students take on real-world challenges, gaining the ability to contribute effectively to an organization or a community.
He told a joke about a neurosurgeon dealing with back-to-back surgeries in the operating room but having to rush home to meet a plumber. The plumber comes, fixes the broken pipe in fifteen minutes, and hands her a $250 invoice. The surgeon complains, “Hey, that’s more than I make in an hour.” The plumber responds, “I know. I used to be a surgeon.”
Student loan debt can dog someone for a lifetime, since it’s the one form of debt that can’t be shaken through personal bankruptcy. Congress, in its wisdom, made it easy to get student loans and almost impossible to default on them.
[There’s] a bevy of aggressive start-ups see higher education as a large market ripe for disruption. Don’t underestimate what they’ll accomplish.
“What makes my mother unusual in our culture is that she doesn’t equate being unsure with certain doom. A lot of parents believe if they aren’t sure things are working out for their kids, then they have to step in and rescue them. We rob them of the discovery of who this little being will become. Yes, my mom worried about college, but I also felt her curiosity wanting to see what would happen.”
“There are two kinds of stress. There’s lousy external stress to excel on things the kid doesn’t believe in. But there’s healthy stress that comes from setting a big goal, and pushing yourself to excel in the face of challenges and deadlines.” It’s rare for someone to produce something they’re proud of without feeling stress. The key is aligning student work with a sense of purpose.
In today’s America, only those with degrees from our most elite colleges are qualified to rule on issues affecting mainstream America.
Education has become the modern American caste system.
Based on my travels, I believe that the purpose of school today in America is to rank potential, not develop it. Worse, schools rank potential on the basis of inconsequential proficiencies, in ways that provide outsized advantage to the affluent. This has consequences.
Everything changes if school is about projects, big ideas, and curiosity. Students get good at making things, coming up with creative ideas, asking thoughtful questions. Accomplishment is reflected by what is produced. No one cares how long it takes a student to read material or if they learn from a YouTube video or classmate. Just like life.
In a reimagined math track with ready access to online resources, students would have time to learn probability and statistics, computer programming, estimation, financial literacy, data analytics, decision analysis, algorithm structuring, problem-solving strategies, or digital fabrication.
A number of people I met this year would tell me, often in a whisper, that our schools of education aren’t attracting the best students. I’d respond, “How do you know?” They’d say, “Well, the average test scores for education majors are low.” To which I’d say, “When you think of outstanding teachers you had, what were their strengths?” People cite empathy, bringing a subject to life, being a great role model, providing helpful feedback, asking thought-provoking questions, making learning fun, helping them believe in their potential. To date, no one has said, “High standardized test scores.”
The following passage was particularly striking, given it was written over three decades ago: We live today, crowded together, in a culture overloaded with information, surfeited with data and opinions and experiences that we pump up with the buttons on our TV sets, home computers, telephones, and word processors. The world around us, for good or ill, is a more insistent, rich, and effective provider of information than was our grandparents’. Education’s job today is less in purveying information than in helping people to use it—that is, to exercise their minds.”
“The problem with education’s traditional model is that school is boring. It’s damn boring. I’m not saying we need a party every day, but we need to engage kids in creative thinking, to connect their learning to the real world.”
“Change happens slowly, right up until it happens quickly.”
August 25, 2018
Looking forward to discussing this in opening meetings!
An update--this was not popular among the members of my group--they objected to the inundation of anecdotes without more research. Many gave up without finishing. I understand that criticism--what I thought was useful about the book was that it argued for making a high school diploma mean more, and rethinking the college at all costs model that our high schools and society currently embrace.
An update--this was not popular among the members of my group--they objected to the inundation of anecdotes without more research. Many gave up without finishing. I understand that criticism--what I thought was useful about the book was that it argued for making a high school diploma mean more, and rethinking the college at all costs model that our high schools and society currently embrace.
May 11, 2020
I'm fascinated by education and I don't even have kids! How about you? How much did you love or hate your school years? Do you find it natural that children today should learn the same ways we did, our parents did, our grandparents did?
After reading this book, I'm convinced everyone should care about what happens to our education, not just in the US, but globally. Our future depends on it.
I grew up an immigrant in America from the age of 12 and ended up going to an elite public high school - precisely the kind described in the opening chapter of this book - high-achieving, focused on AP courses, prepping for SATs with tutors, poised to get into that good college.
I used to pride myself that advanced schooling in the US had prepared me to be an adult equipped with critical thinking abilities, useful for the job market and in much better shape to succeed than if I'd stayed, grown up and been educated in my native Romania (eastern Europe, ex-communist bloc).
But once I saw what *some* education could be, in college (UCLA) and later in life with continuous learning and my adult eyes took in the rapidly-changing landscape in the workforce, I started looking back on my education with skepticism.
The 11th and 12th grades were miserable years for me. Though I was a straight-A student in advanced classes, did a bunch of extracurriculars and strove to demonstrate leadership too (not from being a natural-born leader, but only because that's what colleges were looking for - imagine!), later in life I regretted those hundreds of hours of study in painful subjects like AP calculus, AP physics, honors chemistry, AP History, etc., that amounted to enormous marginal costs to get from what would have been a B to an A and, worst of all, the opportunity cost (what was wasted) of not spending more time on the subjects I loved: music, playing instruments, developing creative writing and just plain socializing more.
Now, over ten years into a career that brings me no intellectual satisfaction other than a comfortable salary, dying to take guitar, piano and voice lessons, and just be outside to experience nature and scared to death of having kids, I'm doubting all of my schooling decisions. My life could have been very different if I'd dedicated myself, with adult guidance, to studying more of the things I was naturally good at, being allowed to explore and throw myself full steam into projects that interested me.
I don't blame my parents or teachers, who did what they thought best. But I do blame the adults who are in charge of designing - or rather failing to re-design - public education, who screw the futures of entire generations. My attraction to education is personal and I want to share with people the ongoing conversation about the HUGE stakes to our society of leaving education stuck in the 19th century.
Whether you have kids or not, this affects all of us, globally. Public policy needs to change to include the root of all social problems: innovating the ways we teach the young. As I realized after reading this book, policy can change, but it's not going to, magically. Legislation can only be brought about from the bottom up: one school at a time, a district, a state. People see that it's working and want to adopt similar laws.
~*~*
Ted went around to schools in all fifty states over the course of an entire school year and talked to absolutely everyone invested, from top leaders to the beneficiaries: school superintendents, governors, education advisers to state senators, and also teachers, hundreds of thousands of students, parents, community leaders, corporate partners, and foundations.
Many of the things I personally suspected about education, its role and its consequences were, sadly, very much confirmed during this study.
"...parents need to effect an orderly transfer of decision-making responsibility, from making 100% of your newborn's decisions to making 0% of your eighteen-year-old's decisions."
"A lot of parents believe if they aren't sure things are working out for their kids, they have to step in and rescue them. We rob them of the discovery of who this little being will become."
Nevertheless, the wonderful surprise for me was that the path to an overhauled education system is not what I had imagined: it's completely different! So you may know or be wondering, what it takes to make education great. The general recipe has already been discovered - long ago. The methods have been researched, confirmed and reconfirmed; some schools are already using them with fantastic results. The real problem is that systems are hard to change and replicating these models to scale is a huge task.
What I imagined was something to the tune of: adults (parents and teachers) need to focus early on what a child is interested in, find out her talents, encourage exploration. Eliminate things not relevant or interesting to an individual child. Focus on educating parents too! Give incentives and proper training to teachers and only attract those who really want to and excel at teaching. Continuing education should become a norm throughout any person's lifetime.
"We think our job as parents is to provide security to our children, to tell them what markers to hit and when to hit them. We have an educational construct that says you will learn these things and then you will become a person with agency. But you never get there. The carrot keeps moving."
What actually works is this: you don't even need teachers! Only adult guidance is necessary and, with today's technology, modern kids teach themselves and each other! The key to a rewarding education is not control, it's TRUST.
According to John Dewey (born 1859), "Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results."
"There are two kinds of stress. There's lousy external stress to excel in things the kid doesn't believe in. But there's healthy stress that comes from setting a big goal, and pushing yourself to excel in the face of challenges and deadlines. ... The key is aligning student work with a sense of purpose."
Out of the 4 common aspects Ted found in all new successful schools, Purpose, Essentials, Agency and Knowledge (PEAK) the most important one in overhauling education is the A: Agency.
"Our kids don't know why they're being educated other than to go to college."
"Nowadays, a child that gets interested in something can become an expert in a matter of days."
Set kids loose on a topic they care about, with only adult supervision (no teaching, no seat time) and the learning happens naturally! Project-based learning, apprenticeships, learning through games, teamwork to create something useful or solve a real world problem - this is what education looks like and it works for 80% of kids. When whole communities are invested in this kind of bold education, it can help get us all out of the most severe problems, as a society.
"In the world's wealthiest nation, can we get used to two million children who spend time each year homeless?"
"Education has become the modern American caste system...We bemoan the achievement gap but dwell on the wrong 'achievement' and the wrong 'gap.' Achievement should be based on challenging real-world problems, not standardized tests that amount to little more than timed performance on crossword puzzles and sudoku... 'If a cow is starving, we don't weight it. We feed it.'"
"Dewey cautioned that an uneducated population poses a threat to our democracy, words all the more resonant during ... the 2016 presidential election."
My favorite part of the book was the imagined, made-up speech of what a presidential candidate should say, ideally. Here are excerpts.
"America in the twenty-first century: 'The best of times for a few. The worst of times for the many.'... With Americans suffering, it's easy to blame immigrants, or trade deals, or terrorists. These ignorant words fire people up but lead us astray. We need to understand how our world is being shaped by innovation, automation, and machine intelligence. Low-skilled jobs aren't going to Mexico or China or immigrants - they're just plain going away. ...
We need schools to prepare Americans-rich and poor, young and old-for the future, not the past. ...
Each year, online resources make it easier and easier to learn on your own, yet we push kids to spend more and more years in costly formal education. ... Colleges charge exorbitant tuition levels and cater to the affluent. We've turned K-12 education into thirteen years of preparing kids for college, not life. This needs to end. ...
Everyone wins if employees in dead-end jobs have the opportunity to acquire advanced skills rather than punch the clock until they're laid off."
I got so fired up about all these topics. The most painful aspect to me was how misled adults - you guessed it - lead kids down wrong paths. Teaching parents about education and parenting in general is super important, as this book argues, since it takes the whole local community being actively involved in educating its kids the right way (not just one lone, forward-thinking adult outlier in a sea of naysayers).
In reading this book or becoming invested in similar topics, it helps to remember that the beneficiaries are to-be adults who will lead the world when we are old. Mind you, we will need leaders, not sheep, to deal with what's coming and the pace at which it's coming. Daring to bring out and nurture potential, not limit ourselves to just ranking it. Doing better things, not doing obsolete things better. This is a game we all need to play.
After reading this book, I'm convinced everyone should care about what happens to our education, not just in the US, but globally. Our future depends on it.
I grew up an immigrant in America from the age of 12 and ended up going to an elite public high school - precisely the kind described in the opening chapter of this book - high-achieving, focused on AP courses, prepping for SATs with tutors, poised to get into that good college.
I used to pride myself that advanced schooling in the US had prepared me to be an adult equipped with critical thinking abilities, useful for the job market and in much better shape to succeed than if I'd stayed, grown up and been educated in my native Romania (eastern Europe, ex-communist bloc).
But once I saw what *some* education could be, in college (UCLA) and later in life with continuous learning and my adult eyes took in the rapidly-changing landscape in the workforce, I started looking back on my education with skepticism.
The 11th and 12th grades were miserable years for me. Though I was a straight-A student in advanced classes, did a bunch of extracurriculars and strove to demonstrate leadership too (not from being a natural-born leader, but only because that's what colleges were looking for - imagine!), later in life I regretted those hundreds of hours of study in painful subjects like AP calculus, AP physics, honors chemistry, AP History, etc., that amounted to enormous marginal costs to get from what would have been a B to an A and, worst of all, the opportunity cost (what was wasted) of not spending more time on the subjects I loved: music, playing instruments, developing creative writing and just plain socializing more.
Now, over ten years into a career that brings me no intellectual satisfaction other than a comfortable salary, dying to take guitar, piano and voice lessons, and just be outside to experience nature and scared to death of having kids, I'm doubting all of my schooling decisions. My life could have been very different if I'd dedicated myself, with adult guidance, to studying more of the things I was naturally good at, being allowed to explore and throw myself full steam into projects that interested me.
I don't blame my parents or teachers, who did what they thought best. But I do blame the adults who are in charge of designing - or rather failing to re-design - public education, who screw the futures of entire generations. My attraction to education is personal and I want to share with people the ongoing conversation about the HUGE stakes to our society of leaving education stuck in the 19th century.
Whether you have kids or not, this affects all of us, globally. Public policy needs to change to include the root of all social problems: innovating the ways we teach the young. As I realized after reading this book, policy can change, but it's not going to, magically. Legislation can only be brought about from the bottom up: one school at a time, a district, a state. People see that it's working and want to adopt similar laws.
~*~*
Ted went around to schools in all fifty states over the course of an entire school year and talked to absolutely everyone invested, from top leaders to the beneficiaries: school superintendents, governors, education advisers to state senators, and also teachers, hundreds of thousands of students, parents, community leaders, corporate partners, and foundations.
Many of the things I personally suspected about education, its role and its consequences were, sadly, very much confirmed during this study.
"...parents need to effect an orderly transfer of decision-making responsibility, from making 100% of your newborn's decisions to making 0% of your eighteen-year-old's decisions."
"A lot of parents believe if they aren't sure things are working out for their kids, they have to step in and rescue them. We rob them of the discovery of who this little being will become."
Nevertheless, the wonderful surprise for me was that the path to an overhauled education system is not what I had imagined: it's completely different! So you may know or be wondering, what it takes to make education great. The general recipe has already been discovered - long ago. The methods have been researched, confirmed and reconfirmed; some schools are already using them with fantastic results. The real problem is that systems are hard to change and replicating these models to scale is a huge task.
What I imagined was something to the tune of: adults (parents and teachers) need to focus early on what a child is interested in, find out her talents, encourage exploration. Eliminate things not relevant or interesting to an individual child. Focus on educating parents too! Give incentives and proper training to teachers and only attract those who really want to and excel at teaching. Continuing education should become a norm throughout any person's lifetime.
"We think our job as parents is to provide security to our children, to tell them what markers to hit and when to hit them. We have an educational construct that says you will learn these things and then you will become a person with agency. But you never get there. The carrot keeps moving."
What actually works is this: you don't even need teachers! Only adult guidance is necessary and, with today's technology, modern kids teach themselves and each other! The key to a rewarding education is not control, it's TRUST.
According to John Dewey (born 1859), "Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results."
"There are two kinds of stress. There's lousy external stress to excel in things the kid doesn't believe in. But there's healthy stress that comes from setting a big goal, and pushing yourself to excel in the face of challenges and deadlines. ... The key is aligning student work with a sense of purpose."
Out of the 4 common aspects Ted found in all new successful schools, Purpose, Essentials, Agency and Knowledge (PEAK) the most important one in overhauling education is the A: Agency.
"Our kids don't know why they're being educated other than to go to college."
"Nowadays, a child that gets interested in something can become an expert in a matter of days."
Set kids loose on a topic they care about, with only adult supervision (no teaching, no seat time) and the learning happens naturally! Project-based learning, apprenticeships, learning through games, teamwork to create something useful or solve a real world problem - this is what education looks like and it works for 80% of kids. When whole communities are invested in this kind of bold education, it can help get us all out of the most severe problems, as a society.
"In the world's wealthiest nation, can we get used to two million children who spend time each year homeless?"
"Education has become the modern American caste system...We bemoan the achievement gap but dwell on the wrong 'achievement' and the wrong 'gap.' Achievement should be based on challenging real-world problems, not standardized tests that amount to little more than timed performance on crossword puzzles and sudoku... 'If a cow is starving, we don't weight it. We feed it.'"
"Dewey cautioned that an uneducated population poses a threat to our democracy, words all the more resonant during ... the 2016 presidential election."
My favorite part of the book was the imagined, made-up speech of what a presidential candidate should say, ideally. Here are excerpts.
"America in the twenty-first century: 'The best of times for a few. The worst of times for the many.'... With Americans suffering, it's easy to blame immigrants, or trade deals, or terrorists. These ignorant words fire people up but lead us astray. We need to understand how our world is being shaped by innovation, automation, and machine intelligence. Low-skilled jobs aren't going to Mexico or China or immigrants - they're just plain going away. ...
We need schools to prepare Americans-rich and poor, young and old-for the future, not the past. ...
Each year, online resources make it easier and easier to learn on your own, yet we push kids to spend more and more years in costly formal education. ... Colleges charge exorbitant tuition levels and cater to the affluent. We've turned K-12 education into thirteen years of preparing kids for college, not life. This needs to end. ...
Everyone wins if employees in dead-end jobs have the opportunity to acquire advanced skills rather than punch the clock until they're laid off."
I got so fired up about all these topics. The most painful aspect to me was how misled adults - you guessed it - lead kids down wrong paths. Teaching parents about education and parenting in general is super important, as this book argues, since it takes the whole local community being actively involved in educating its kids the right way (not just one lone, forward-thinking adult outlier in a sea of naysayers).
In reading this book or becoming invested in similar topics, it helps to remember that the beneficiaries are to-be adults who will lead the world when we are old. Mind you, we will need leaders, not sheep, to deal with what's coming and the pace at which it's coming. Daring to bring out and nurture potential, not limit ourselves to just ranking it. Doing better things, not doing obsolete things better. This is a game we all need to play.
September 11, 2019
I picked up this book after viewing "Most Likely to Succeed," a documentary about education in America. The author, Ted Dintersmith, was the Executive Producer of that film. In the film, a school named High Tech High (San Diego, CA) is profiled. Instead of seeing students with eyes glazed in boredom, cramming and memorizing information for AP tests or SATs (or even just the 4th grade math tests), High Tech High students are creating and directing plays, talking to each other in Socratic Seminar with the teacher observing from his office, creating laser woodcut pieces to symbolize their learning in history and display them for an exhibition for the general public. What should schools be for? the film posits. To prepare students for college or for real life? The film's answer is, "Real life."
The book picks up where the film left off. He traveled to all 50 states in order to find educators or schools that were innovating away from the 100-year old factory model of education, and away from standardized test-driven education.
As a public-school-teacher-turned-homeschool-mom (and a bit of an education junkie - I love reading books about education and how children learn), I wholeheartedly agree that American public school education needs a major overhaul. And I was the valedictorian of my high school and a summa cum laude degree recipient at my undergraduate and graduate institutions. As Dintersmith puts it, policymakers and school administrators shouldn't focus on "Doing (Obsolete) Things Better" (the title of Chapter 8), they should focus on "Doing Better Things" (Chapter 9).
I want to share this book with my children when they are older and have discussions with them about what they think a good education looks like.
As the author says (P. 47), “Education should prepare our children for life, but we have it backward. We prepare children’s lives for education. It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s visit places with the courage to break from the mold to help students find and reach their own definition of success.”
Here are a list of other quotes from the book I did not want to forget:
P. 3 [at a traditional high school] Regarding their studies, I asked which topics they found exciting. Blank stares, as though I was speaking a foreign language. Speaking of which, a few were taking Spanish IV but were at a loss when asked, "Por que es importante estudiar una lengua extranjera?" When I inquired about interests pursued in their free time, silence punctuated by nervous giggles. No signs of absorbing hobbies, internships, projects or jobs.
P. 12 Machine intelligence profoundly changes how, or even whether, an adult can contribute meaningfully to an employer or community. If nothing else, it's screaming, "Children need to learn to leverage machine intelligence, not replicate its capacity to perform low-level tasks!"
P. 13-14 If adults are competing with smart machines for jobs, they need distinctive and creative competencies - their own special something. But think about those students at [traditional] High School. They're memorizing bucketsful of definitions, formulas, and low-level procedures. They're becoming proficient at low-level tasks handled flawlessly by today's basic smartphone. They're being trained to follow the rules. These kids are sitting ducks in the innovation era.
P. 16 An Ivy League admissions director addressed his association, claiming they look for kids with diverse backgrounds, with real-world experience, with mundane summer jobs requiring hard work. [Doug Lyons, CEO of CT Assoc. of Independent Schools] pushed back, "We love everything you just said, but we know who you accept. You don't accept the kids you just described. You take the kids who go to SAT test-prep summer camps."
P. 23 A quick aside on coding. It's trendy to assert that computer programming is a basic skill that everyone needs to master. That's just one of the inane statements that gets tossed around education circles just because it sounds good. In reality, a few brilliant coders write the software the rest of us can draw on. As machine intelligence advances, the number of coding jobs could actually decline.
P. 25 (at Dunbar 3rd - 5th School in WV) Faculty used to give monthly awards to children for admirable behavior, with unintended adverse consequences. A kid polite to adults might win the compassion award, despite being a holy terror on the playground. Students lose confidence in their school when they feel it’s not “fair.” Her quick win? Students write notes when they observe admirable action, and the school celebrates successes each month. “They don’t care if the same student keeps winning, as long as the process is fair.”
P. 29 A high school English teacher in Minot, ND heard about Delzer’s Genius Hour and tried it with his juniors. He related that after informing them they’d have one class period a week to work on whatever they’re interested in, half the students did a Google search for “What should I be interested in?” When I relate this anecdote to audiences, the initial laughter quickly turns to reflective silence. This is what we do to our children.
P. 32 ...Almost every important life decision hinges on understanding probability and statistics. Almost none depends on algebra, trigonometry, geometry, or calculus - the backbone of grade 7-12 math. Go figure.
P. 48 Should we pay more attention to Bill Gates, whose goal is to “ensure that students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college?” That in the mix of “life ready,” “career ready,” “military ready,” “citizenship ready,” and “college ready,” the odd man out is “college ready.” Yet, bizarrely, the odd man rules the day in our K-12 schools.
P. 53 (visiting an Albuquerque charter school that implemented social media campaigns working for the local minor league soccer team)This project engages students as they learn essential skills. They’re getting good at writing, graphic design, and applied math. They’re becoming experts in an area they find fascinating, which happens to be a hirable skill needed by any organization. But here’s the shocker. In visiting 200 schools across the country, this is the *only* example I found of kids developing social media expertise applied to real-world challenges.
P. 57 OUr national K-12 education mantra is “College and Career Ready,” but the phrase is misleading. In reality, schools prepare students for their college application, not college. Career is strictly an afterthought.
P. 58 During this trip [to Boston], I met with an award-winning national journalist researching Common Core. She’s a Yale graduate with a lifelong passion for Victorian literature. As background research, she took the 10th grade English Language Arts / Literacy test administered by PARCC. It appeared she caught a break when her reading passage was a fictional piece set in 19th century England - right up her alley. She expected a high score but got a disappointing 79...Should we hold teachers accountable to these tests? Should we be surprised if our classrooms focus on test-taking tactics, not real learning?
P. 63 Lawrenceville [Academy] conducted an important experiment, something all schools should replicate. Students returning in September retook their final exams from three months earlier. To be precise, faculty removed low-level material they didn’t expect students to retain over the summer. On tests of just the essential concepts, the average grade fell from a B+ to an F. Lawrenceville conducted this experiment for two years, with many students and several subjects. Not one student retained all of the essential concepts that the school expected every student to have mastered. This raises a vital question. Are even our highest-achieving students really learning?
P. 64 Across America, our kids study what’s easy to test, not what’s important to learn.
P. 66 An admissions dean for a top-ranked university shared an objection to relying on portfolios of authentic work [for admission]. Many college courses, especially introductory courses, are taught in large lecture halls and require students to take accurate notes and memorize content. An entering freshman without this training might well hit the wall. So we need bad high school pedagogy to train kids for bad college pedagogy. At least he was honest.
P. 85 Our best path to leveling society’s playing field is to make the high school diploma meaningful. Let students take on real-world challenges, gaining the ability to contribute effectively to an organization or a community. Ensure K-12 graduates have hirable skills. Encourage K-12 districts to offer dual credit opportunities to high school kids, letting them jump-start careers and get a cost-effective leg up on college….Push higher education to meet the needs of our students instead of pushing our students to better meet the needs of higher education.
P. 93 The Flatiron School (NY) helps young adults turbocharge careers through a 3-month immersion in coding, collaboration, and communication. Since inception, more than 98% of Flatiron’s graduates have gotten one or more job offers, with an average starting salary of $74,000. They now accept just 6% of applicants.
P. 95 At a recent MIT commencement, a professor presented several graduates with a wire, a battery, and a lightbulb, challenging them to light up the bulb. None could produce a functioning circuit. On paper, they’re extraordinary STEM students - the world’s very best...Have these MIT graduates learned real science?
P. 99 [Katherine Von Duyke, homeschool parent of Brian Sowards, founder of USEED] bought a curriculum package but “just got tired and sent it back. The tiredness comes from a loss of a sense of agency. We started to ask, “How do we construct the right learning environment?” She believes that pushing a kid through rote curriculum robs them of their say in what they want to explore, which ultimately leads to boredom and fatigue.
P. 129 A woman, in her early 20s, waited 90 minutes to tell me that she got addicted to drugs in high school and struggled for years. Two years ago, she turned her life around at a rehab center that helped her with self-direction, agency, problem solving, communication, and collaboration. She said, “If my school had this focus, I doubt if I would have turned to drugs. I’d have six years of my life back.”
P. 136 (talking to Khan Academy staff) “Sal, why produce hundreds of lectures teaching kids how to do integrals by hand? They watch your videos on a device that performs these operations instantly, perfectly. Let computers do the mechanics and teach kids how to solve real problems using math - something school never gets to. Help our kids leverage technology, not compete against it.” To which a staff member offered, “We need to focus on where today’s market is” - an odd priority for a nonprofit aspiring to improve education.
P. 151 Calculus does reflect the *true* dichotomy in education. In a world with ready access to computational resources, we need to rethink what’s essential. A smartphone can instantly compute integrals and derivatives, yet high school calculus students spend a year drilling on these low-level mechanics, never learning how to apply these tools...To see how far astray we’ve gone, consider that fewer than 20% of adults in our country use any math beyond the basics of middle school. Nearly one-third of American adults prefer cleaning the bathroom to solving a math problem.
P. 167 In the 21st century [policymakers who want education to be “measurable by data”] should quote noted author Brene Brown: “When it comes to education, if you can measure it, it probably doesn’t matter.”
The book picks up where the film left off. He traveled to all 50 states in order to find educators or schools that were innovating away from the 100-year old factory model of education, and away from standardized test-driven education.
As a public-school-teacher-turned-homeschool-mom (and a bit of an education junkie - I love reading books about education and how children learn), I wholeheartedly agree that American public school education needs a major overhaul. And I was the valedictorian of my high school and a summa cum laude degree recipient at my undergraduate and graduate institutions. As Dintersmith puts it, policymakers and school administrators shouldn't focus on "Doing (Obsolete) Things Better" (the title of Chapter 8), they should focus on "Doing Better Things" (Chapter 9).
I want to share this book with my children when they are older and have discussions with them about what they think a good education looks like.
As the author says (P. 47), “Education should prepare our children for life, but we have it backward. We prepare children’s lives for education. It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s visit places with the courage to break from the mold to help students find and reach their own definition of success.”
Here are a list of other quotes from the book I did not want to forget:
P. 3 [at a traditional high school] Regarding their studies, I asked which topics they found exciting. Blank stares, as though I was speaking a foreign language. Speaking of which, a few were taking Spanish IV but were at a loss when asked, "Por que es importante estudiar una lengua extranjera?" When I inquired about interests pursued in their free time, silence punctuated by nervous giggles. No signs of absorbing hobbies, internships, projects or jobs.
P. 12 Machine intelligence profoundly changes how, or even whether, an adult can contribute meaningfully to an employer or community. If nothing else, it's screaming, "Children need to learn to leverage machine intelligence, not replicate its capacity to perform low-level tasks!"
P. 13-14 If adults are competing with smart machines for jobs, they need distinctive and creative competencies - their own special something. But think about those students at [traditional] High School. They're memorizing bucketsful of definitions, formulas, and low-level procedures. They're becoming proficient at low-level tasks handled flawlessly by today's basic smartphone. They're being trained to follow the rules. These kids are sitting ducks in the innovation era.
P. 16 An Ivy League admissions director addressed his association, claiming they look for kids with diverse backgrounds, with real-world experience, with mundane summer jobs requiring hard work. [Doug Lyons, CEO of CT Assoc. of Independent Schools] pushed back, "We love everything you just said, but we know who you accept. You don't accept the kids you just described. You take the kids who go to SAT test-prep summer camps."
P. 23 A quick aside on coding. It's trendy to assert that computer programming is a basic skill that everyone needs to master. That's just one of the inane statements that gets tossed around education circles just because it sounds good. In reality, a few brilliant coders write the software the rest of us can draw on. As machine intelligence advances, the number of coding jobs could actually decline.
P. 25 (at Dunbar 3rd - 5th School in WV) Faculty used to give monthly awards to children for admirable behavior, with unintended adverse consequences. A kid polite to adults might win the compassion award, despite being a holy terror on the playground. Students lose confidence in their school when they feel it’s not “fair.” Her quick win? Students write notes when they observe admirable action, and the school celebrates successes each month. “They don’t care if the same student keeps winning, as long as the process is fair.”
P. 29 A high school English teacher in Minot, ND heard about Delzer’s Genius Hour and tried it with his juniors. He related that after informing them they’d have one class period a week to work on whatever they’re interested in, half the students did a Google search for “What should I be interested in?” When I relate this anecdote to audiences, the initial laughter quickly turns to reflective silence. This is what we do to our children.
P. 32 ...Almost every important life decision hinges on understanding probability and statistics. Almost none depends on algebra, trigonometry, geometry, or calculus - the backbone of grade 7-12 math. Go figure.
P. 48 Should we pay more attention to Bill Gates, whose goal is to “ensure that students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college?” That in the mix of “life ready,” “career ready,” “military ready,” “citizenship ready,” and “college ready,” the odd man out is “college ready.” Yet, bizarrely, the odd man rules the day in our K-12 schools.
P. 53 (visiting an Albuquerque charter school that implemented social media campaigns working for the local minor league soccer team)This project engages students as they learn essential skills. They’re getting good at writing, graphic design, and applied math. They’re becoming experts in an area they find fascinating, which happens to be a hirable skill needed by any organization. But here’s the shocker. In visiting 200 schools across the country, this is the *only* example I found of kids developing social media expertise applied to real-world challenges.
P. 57 OUr national K-12 education mantra is “College and Career Ready,” but the phrase is misleading. In reality, schools prepare students for their college application, not college. Career is strictly an afterthought.
P. 58 During this trip [to Boston], I met with an award-winning national journalist researching Common Core. She’s a Yale graduate with a lifelong passion for Victorian literature. As background research, she took the 10th grade English Language Arts / Literacy test administered by PARCC. It appeared she caught a break when her reading passage was a fictional piece set in 19th century England - right up her alley. She expected a high score but got a disappointing 79...Should we hold teachers accountable to these tests? Should we be surprised if our classrooms focus on test-taking tactics, not real learning?
P. 63 Lawrenceville [Academy] conducted an important experiment, something all schools should replicate. Students returning in September retook their final exams from three months earlier. To be precise, faculty removed low-level material they didn’t expect students to retain over the summer. On tests of just the essential concepts, the average grade fell from a B+ to an F. Lawrenceville conducted this experiment for two years, with many students and several subjects. Not one student retained all of the essential concepts that the school expected every student to have mastered. This raises a vital question. Are even our highest-achieving students really learning?
P. 64 Across America, our kids study what’s easy to test, not what’s important to learn.
P. 66 An admissions dean for a top-ranked university shared an objection to relying on portfolios of authentic work [for admission]. Many college courses, especially introductory courses, are taught in large lecture halls and require students to take accurate notes and memorize content. An entering freshman without this training might well hit the wall. So we need bad high school pedagogy to train kids for bad college pedagogy. At least he was honest.
P. 85 Our best path to leveling society’s playing field is to make the high school diploma meaningful. Let students take on real-world challenges, gaining the ability to contribute effectively to an organization or a community. Ensure K-12 graduates have hirable skills. Encourage K-12 districts to offer dual credit opportunities to high school kids, letting them jump-start careers and get a cost-effective leg up on college….Push higher education to meet the needs of our students instead of pushing our students to better meet the needs of higher education.
P. 93 The Flatiron School (NY) helps young adults turbocharge careers through a 3-month immersion in coding, collaboration, and communication. Since inception, more than 98% of Flatiron’s graduates have gotten one or more job offers, with an average starting salary of $74,000. They now accept just 6% of applicants.
P. 95 At a recent MIT commencement, a professor presented several graduates with a wire, a battery, and a lightbulb, challenging them to light up the bulb. None could produce a functioning circuit. On paper, they’re extraordinary STEM students - the world’s very best...Have these MIT graduates learned real science?
P. 99 [Katherine Von Duyke, homeschool parent of Brian Sowards, founder of USEED] bought a curriculum package but “just got tired and sent it back. The tiredness comes from a loss of a sense of agency. We started to ask, “How do we construct the right learning environment?” She believes that pushing a kid through rote curriculum robs them of their say in what they want to explore, which ultimately leads to boredom and fatigue.
P. 129 A woman, in her early 20s, waited 90 minutes to tell me that she got addicted to drugs in high school and struggled for years. Two years ago, she turned her life around at a rehab center that helped her with self-direction, agency, problem solving, communication, and collaboration. She said, “If my school had this focus, I doubt if I would have turned to drugs. I’d have six years of my life back.”
P. 136 (talking to Khan Academy staff) “Sal, why produce hundreds of lectures teaching kids how to do integrals by hand? They watch your videos on a device that performs these operations instantly, perfectly. Let computers do the mechanics and teach kids how to solve real problems using math - something school never gets to. Help our kids leverage technology, not compete against it.” To which a staff member offered, “We need to focus on where today’s market is” - an odd priority for a nonprofit aspiring to improve education.
P. 151 Calculus does reflect the *true* dichotomy in education. In a world with ready access to computational resources, we need to rethink what’s essential. A smartphone can instantly compute integrals and derivatives, yet high school calculus students spend a year drilling on these low-level mechanics, never learning how to apply these tools...To see how far astray we’ve gone, consider that fewer than 20% of adults in our country use any math beyond the basics of middle school. Nearly one-third of American adults prefer cleaning the bathroom to solving a math problem.
P. 167 In the 21st century [policymakers who want education to be “measurable by data”] should quote noted author Brene Brown: “When it comes to education, if you can measure it, it probably doesn’t matter.”
November 5, 2019
Insightful, thoughtful, unique, and crucial for anyone concerns with supporting students, teachers, and an improved system of 21st-century schools.
May 31, 2018
Eye opening
I like concrete examples but sometimes author’s ideas were repeated. Overall, I think it is worthy to read. I recommend it.
I like concrete examples but sometimes author’s ideas were repeated. Overall, I think it is worthy to read. I recommend it.
May 23, 2018
So while I generally agree with the author's thesis about what needs to happen to make America's K-12 public schools better, the book could have been condensed by 80 plus pages and packed the same punch. I get it: you spent a year jetting all over the USA to fill us in on all the varieties of "what school could be" examples. Oh and to show the MLTS documentary in a Johnny Apple Seed way.
Would like to know if any real world teachers have read this and gotten any wisdom from the insights presented by Mr Dintersmith. Cheers !!!
Would like to know if any real world teachers have read this and gotten any wisdom from the insights presented by Mr Dintersmith. Cheers !!!
July 17, 2018
Great ideas about making the classroom and school system more workable for a world driven by machine intelligence. Also great diversity of ideas and geographic representation. Good to know this isn't a California or Massachusetts only-enterprise. Only major frustration was that it seemed to rely on heroic individuals to make change in their individual classrooms or at the district/state level, rather than an understanding of what leads to a shift in policy and how to change lots of minds. Also would have like to have seen more discussion of making education measurable. I get that tests don't actually reflect mastery or intelligence, but also understand that standards/measures feel necessary for evaluation. What would they be in a system that reflects PEAK in the classroom?
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