{"id":10470,"date":"2023-08-22T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T06:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/as-concerns-about-student-progress-deepen-heres-how-to-think-about-policy-options-to-drive-school-innovation\/"},"modified":"2023-08-22T06:00:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T06:00:53","slug":"as-concerns-about-student-progress-deepen-heres-how-to-think-about-policy-options-to-drive-school-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=10470","title":{"rendered":"As Concerns About Student Progress Deepen, Here\u2019s How To Think About Policy Options To Drive School Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As educators, policymakers, and the media fret that the unprecedented levels of federal investment in our nation\u2019s schools during the pandemic haven\u2019t had the impact that they had hoped on helping students rebound, some have asked how policy can help schools rethink and reinvent schooling rather than stick with the status quo.<\/p>\n

Bearing in mind the American Enterprise Institute\u2019s Rick Hess\u2019s adage that \u201cpolicy can make people do things, but it can\u2019t make them do those things well,\u201d there are a variety of ways to categorize policies that attempt to spark novel schooling arrangements. Here\u2019s one taxonomy that I\u2019ve created to distinguish different policies designed to support and foster innovation in education: permission granting, changing what\u2019s valued, infrastructure development, and research and development.<\/p>\n

Permission Granting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Permission granting is the first type of policy, which ranges from regulations allowing individuals or organizations to obtain waivers from existing statutes to specific policies that create more operational flexibility. This grants educators the flexibility to innovate and pursue ideas that may not have been possible otherwise. As an example, all 50 states now allow schools to move beyond measuring seat time.<\/p>\n

Yet few schools have moved to mastery-, or competency-based, learning models. That\u2019s because, as I\u2019ve written, waivers help far less than most policymakers believe. That\u2019s the case for a variety of reasons. Waivers often aren\u2019t comprehensive, for example. And the resources and processes underlying all mature organizations\u2014the schools and districts themselves\u2014tend to be much more stubborn and ingrained such that creating flexibility alone won\u2019t lead to much change.<\/p>\n

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As a result, until regulators create frameworks where innovation in pursuit of student outcomes is the default and doesn\u2019t require permission, don\u2019t expect a sea change from waivers.<\/p>\n

Changing What\u2019s Valued<\/strong><\/p>\n

That leads to the second bucket of policies to promote innovation: changing what\u2019s valued. This entails altering the incentives within the education system\u2014or changing the rules of the game\u2014by redefining what is valued and rewarded.<\/p>\n

For example, instead of paying for attendance, policies in this category might shift to measuring and then paying for learning growth and mastery of learning outcomes. Educational choice policies that allow for new entrants on the supply side and empower families on the demand side would likely fall under this bucket, as would policies that change how and what learning is measured.<\/p>\n

Key to these sorts of policies working is to not just change what the government funds and rewards, but also to free up the inputs and allow schools much more operational flexibility to meet the desired outcomes. People often think about this set of policies as being those that change the underlying conditions under which schools operate.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure Development<\/strong><\/p>\n

A third category of policy focuses on infrastructure development. This involves investing in the underlying structures that contain value, which could pave the way for new innovations. For example, funding broadband infrastructure or providing computers in schools can ensure that educators have new resources with which to innovate.<\/p>\n

But what we often see, as I\u2019ve written, is that the operating models inside mature organizations tend to co-opt the infrastructure. As a result, the infrastructure investments often meet the organization\u2019s existing needs, rather than result in novel practices that transform teaching and learning. We call this practice \u201ccramming\u201d\u2014and it results in incremental innovations in the best of scenarios.<\/p>\n

Research and Development<\/strong><\/p>\n

To use infrastructure in novel ways requires new learning models and advances in teaching and learning. This is where the fourth category of policy enters the equation: research and development. Funding research and development can support the creation of a range of innovations\u2014from incremental to transformational. But in the most far-reaching of cases, it includes the funding of the creation and research of novel learning models themselves, as the report Out of the Box recommends. If paired with bigger changes in the rules of the game\u2014what\u2019s valued\u2014then it\u2019s not hard to imagine the new models that successfully deliver on the desired outcomes gaining deeper traction in the contexts where they could be most useful.<\/p>\n

Mandating Inputs<\/strong><\/p>\n

In one incarnation, this research and development could also result in a fifth category of policymaking: mandating inputs. For example, policymakers could simply decide to fund specific school designs or educational models\u2014thereby picking the winners and creating one-off school models rather than something more transformational, for example.<\/p>\n

Although specifying inputs can be used to drive the adoption of evidence-based practices that haven\u2019t been done widely before\u2014see the number of states banning certain curricula at odds with the \u201cscience of reading,\u201d for example, or the use of these policies to fund certain professional development and other supports to drive change\u2014this is where Hess\u2019s adage enters the equation. It\u2019s not hard to mandate certain practices, but it\u2019s doesn\u2019t mean people will do those practices well. Often the result is a compliance, check-the-box mentality, as mandating inputs restricts innovation.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Policymakers and regulators ultimately have a range of options when it comes to creating policies that promote innovation in education. By understanding the different types of policies available and their likely impacts on schooling, policymakers can braid them together to maximize the odds of supporting educators in rethinking schooling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As educators, policymakers, and the media fret that the unprecedented levels of federal investment in our nation\u2019s schools during the pandemic haven\u2019t had the impact that they had hoped on helping students rebound, some have asked how policy can help schools rethink and reinvent schooling rather than stick with the status quo. Bearing in mind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leadership"},"yoast_head":"\nAs Concerns About Student Progress Deepen, Here\u2019s How To Think About Policy Options To Drive School Innovation | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As educators, policymakers, and the media fret that the unprecedented levels of federal investment in our nation\u2019s schools during the pandemic haven\u2019t had\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=10470\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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