70910 & Shanker & Standards & Advocacy Oh My!

In the tenth year since Al Shanker’s death, Richard Kahenberg has authored “Tough Liberal …” (Columbia Univ. Press) that addresses Al’s battles over schools, unions, race and democracy. As the legendary president of American Federation of Teachers Al was the quintessential advocacy leader. His vision was ahead of the times and his tactics drove year-by-year changes. In the1980’s he was a founding father of the standards movement. Twenty years later No Child Left Behind is delivering greater resources for greater accountability. What is forgotten is his 1993 prediction that it would take decades for standards based education to be perfected. Al Shanker pioneered the understanding of the long range innovation cycle that is the process for effective transformationi education.

I remember calling his office and talking to him in the middle 1990’s but cannot remember the details. I assume it was about educational technology and the future.

The standards movement is one of many foundational elements to effective eLearningi deployment. With grade level standards for core and enrichment subjects, person-learning-plans can guide individualized eLearning support and summative assessments can assure mastery to standards. Choice can be realized not just at the school or teacher level, but in the minute to minute learning process.

The concept of the brightest will succeed anyway (they don’t, half of the most gifted without special programs do not finish college.) and the faltering student can just do manual labor (the availability of these jobs have plummeted 300% in the past 50 years) must be forever erased.

Al Shanker liked the European method of multiple standards to challenge students over the full range of academic capabilities. eLearning with personal learning plans can assure the basics are learned and support the gifted and faltering with a highly flexible system adapted to their needs.

The eSATSi design with critical path (thanks John K.) will deliver the full systems implementation of eLearning for every Arizona student over the next ten years. It will provide the means to effectively implementation individualized learning to Arizona standards for all students.

Like any system transformation of this magnitude it will take at least another ten years to work out the flaws, address the unintended consequences and embrace the emerging attributes of eLearning that are over the horizon in 2007.