Team Reimagines High School, Beats Out Record Number of Entries
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 26, 2018--
Members of the K12 Academic Policy and Public Affairs team won the
Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s fifth annual Wonkathon, a contest designed
to generate substantive conversation around key issues in education
reform. The results of the month-long nationwide vote were announced on
March 21.
In light of diploma scandals in Washington, D.C., Maryland and
elsewhere, the Fordham Institute asked 2018 Wonkathon contributors to
address the questions, “Do our graduation requirements need to change?”
Newcomers to the competition, Jessica Shopoff, M.Ed., and Chase
Eskelsen, M.Ed., finished atop a field that included a Wonkathon-record
number of entries from thought leaders around the nation to win the 2018
contest with their essay entitled, “High
school reimagined (and we truly mean reimagined).”
“I’d like to congratulate Jessica and Chase on winning the Wonkathon by
recommending a new way to look at high school achievement,” said K12
President of Academics, Policy and Schools Kevin P. Chavous. “Focusing
on personalized learning and competency-based mastery instead of
existing graduation requirements would help ensure that students
graduate from high school prepared to be productive members of society.”
The purpose of high school in America, Shopoff and Eskelsen say, is to
train students to be responsible and productive citizens. However,
despite a graduation rate that is at an all-time high, most graduates
leave high school unprepared to lead successful lives, which leads to
5.5 million young people not in school or working despite one in three
American companies with openings for which they can’t fill due to a lack
of qualified workers.
“We wrote about making sure we’re measuring what matters – not just did
we get the students across the stage in four years, but after they
graduate are they moving toward success?” Shopoff said.
“Much of our focus was on figuring out how to support unique students in
unique ways with inclusion of career and college options for students,”
Eskelsen added.
In their essay, Shopoff and Eskelsen argue that our current approach to
high school is so flawed and ineffective that it can’t be fixed with
mere tweaks. Instead, they urge policymakers to revamp it by building a
personalized learning model that effectively graduates students prepared
to successfully contribute to society. This requires three steps:
-
Embracing cross-curricular competency-based learning – A high school
graduation plan should be a checklist of knowledge and skills that
students need to master in order to graduate.
-
Personalizing graduation paths – Every student should be able to
“create a path toward graduation that uses his/her interests and
future plans as a foundation” upon which to add coursework and skills
training.
-
Realigning learning across the preschool-to-higher-education-or-career
continuum: Students should not move in primary grades with their age
cohorts, but rather advance when they have mastered the subject
matter, with the expectation that “students may master all of the
competencies required in anywhere from three to seven years.”
Shopoff and Eskelsen were featured on the Fordham Institute’s Education
Gadfly Show podcast to discuss their winning essay, which can be
read here.
A follow-up piece by Shopoff and Eskelsen that outlines more
specifically potential implementation at a school level can be read here.
About K12 Inc.
K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN) is driving innovation and advancing the quality of
education by delivering state-of-the-art digital learning platforms and
technology to students and school districts across the globe. K12’s
curriculum serves over 2,000 school and school districts and has
delivered millions of courses over the past decade. K12 provides online
and blended education solutions to charter schools, public school
districts, private schools, and directly to families. The K12 program is
offered through more than 70 partner public schools and through school
districts and public and private schools serving students in all 50
states and more than 100 countries. More information can be found at K12.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005171/en/
Source: K12 Inc.
K12 Inc.
Jessica Schuler, 571-405-2211
jschuler@k12.com