The Future of Education/Schooling…

1. The Future of Education/Schooling…

2. A Brief (seriously) History of Schooling in the United States • 1865-1910: Differentiated Curricicula for different student groups (vocational, business, classic) at the high school level

3. Today, these are some options • Traditional Public Schools • Independent Schools • Parochial/Religiously Affiliated Schools • Charter Schools • Big Picture, KIPP, Achievement First, Bilingual Immersion, Magnets, etc. • Alternative Schools • Therapeutic, Democratic, Expeditionary Learning, Community, etc.

4. As always, variability & context • What are some ways in which we would want to think about how these school types might vary across types and, within types, across contexts?

5. Activity: Scenario Planning • OECD activity to think about what schooling might look like in the future. Four broad categories, with infinite permutations: bureaucratic system, re-schooling, de-schooling, and system meltdown • For full activity, as run by the OECD see: http://www.oecd.org/document/33/0,3343,en_2649_35845581_38981601_1_1_1_1,00.html

6. What this activity is not… • Not Predictions • Not Visions • Not about schools • Not highly detailed

7. Instructions • Form a group of no more than five people, you want to be able to debate. • Discuss what you think the future of schooling might look like. Limit your discussion to the next 25-30 years. • You should focus your discussion on one or two of the following five dimensions

8. For your consideration… • Attitudes, expectations, political support: how schools are valued, the roles they are expected to play in communities and society at large. • Goals, functions, equity: what schooling is meant to achieve. • Organizations and structures: delivery of education. • The geo-political dimension: local, national, and international environment. • The teaching force: who “teachers” are, what do we expect them to do, what are we willing to give them to do it?

9. What perspective do you primarily identify with? • Researcher • K-12 teacher • administrator • Parent • Student • Citizen • Government Policy Maker • Non-profit policy maker

10. What do you think is most likely to happen to schooling within the next fifty years? • We'll continue to tweak schooling as it currently exists, but the system won't change dramatically. • Technology will totally revolutionize schooling such that we won't recognize it fifty years from now. • School choices will splinter support for traditional schools and we'll see the growth of multiple, equally valid models of education and schooling including home schooling, apprenticeships, charters, and traditional schools. • Formal schooling will become obsolete, to be replaced by some system we can't currently imagine. • Other

11. What do you most hope will happen to schooling with the next fifty years? • We'll continue to tweak schooling as it currently exists, but the system won't change dramatically. • Technology will totally revolutionize schooling such that we won't recognize it fifty years from now. • School choices will splinter support for traditional schools and we'll see the growth of multiple, equally valid models of education and schooling including home schooling, apprenticeships, charters, and traditional schools. • Formal schooling will become obsolete, to be replaced by some system we can't currently imagine. • Other