Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Innovation Officer

Innovation


Enter the "innovation officer," a job title that is cropping up in school districts and state education departments nationwide. Often a top administrative position filled by a candidate from the corporate world, charter school management, or a district office,

The innovation officer (or a variant on that title) might oversee a "portfolio" of schools, lead the integration of new technology into the classroom, and redistribute central-office services.
Data on how many of those jobs exist are difficult to come by, but many identified by Education Week began in the past five years, with the more recent ones loosely coinciding with the Obama administration's Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation, or i3, competitions.
That shouldn't be a surprise, said Daniel A. Domenech, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, based in Alexandria, Va. During President George W. Bush's administration, districts developed administrative positions around "assessment and accountability," to garner favor and funds under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and its test-centered mandates, Mr. Domenech said.


How Much Substance?
Now, the Obama administration has awarded more than $4 billion so far in Race to the Top grants, which reward initiatives like school turnarounds, charter schools, and technology-based reform. School Improvement Grants offer $3.5 billion in federal aid to districts that agree to aggressive overhauls of their worst-performing schools. This year, the i3 fund awards $150 million in competitive grants for innovative practices proven to boost student achievement. Again, districts are responding, Mr. Domenech said, but will the administration's leverage really have an impact?


"They are just basically recooking or rewarming the old school," Mr. Domenech said. He added: "In the majority of cases, it's just a new title."
The U.S. Department of Education's top innovation official, however, disagreed.


"I don't think people are jumping in (to create the innovation officer positions) just because it's trendy," said James H. Shelton, the assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement. "I think districts are both seeing the upside of the opportunity and feeling the necessity that the pace of change should pick up dramatically."


Attracting Money
Innovation officers interviewed by Education Week did acknowledge a focus on procuring and managing state, federal, and private grants.
"That is what I do. All of it goes towards that," said Michael Haggen, the associate superintendent of innovative services for the St. Louis public school system, which enrolls 25,000 students.
Most of the time, Mr. Haggen's office, which manages federal School Improvement Grants the district received in 2010 to turn around 11 low-performing schools, must come up with an initiative, prove its worth and practicality, and then seek funding for it, he said.
"We're not going to write a grant with grandiose ideas," he said. "We are only going to put in there what we can do."
There's a similar approach in a much-smaller district, the 8,500-student Missoula County schools in Montana. As budgets are squeezed, Matthew Clausen, the director of creativity, innovation, and technology, seeks district funds, federal grants, and private money to support initiatives.
"The kind of things we are trying to do—our state budgets don't think about those things," said Mr. Clausen, who was hired in October as the first person to hold the position. "Grant funding is one of the ways to get the resources, so we can show they are successful and work them into state funding."
An undisclosed private foundation is supporting a pilot 1-to-1 iPad program for 120 elementary school students in Missoula, based on a similar Oregon initiative that is credited with helping to raise test scores.
Missoula's initiative illustrates Mr. Clausen's focus on technology. Before holding his current job, Mr. Clausen served in various district positions responsible for integrating technology into the classroom. It's a priority shared by innovation officers in smaller districts that don't have portfolios of schools or large federal support.
In Pennsylvania's 2,500-student South Fayette Township district, near Pittsburgh, Aileen Owens, the district's first director of technology and innovation, is focusing mostly on classroom technology and on the STEAM subjects: science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. Her goal is to train a new generation of software engineers and computer programmers.
A new computer-programming course enrolls 160 students in grades 5-7 this year, and 26 South Fayette high school students are enrolled in an after-school program that develops applications for Google's Android operating system.


While money for the programs is hard to come by—using free software and sharing costs with neighboring school districts are common—Ms. Owens prefers her small district. There, innovation can be nimble, as it should be, she said. "When you need to be innovative, you need to grapple with things quickly and move," said Ms. Owens, who was hired in July. "You don't want to wait a year to implement something."


Sharing What Works
In some large urban districts, new positions have formed to marry two new trends in education, "innovation" and school "portfolios."
Alyssa Whitehead-Bust, the chief of innovation and reform for the Denver public schools, oversees a portfolio of about 35 charter schools and 20 "innovation schools," which together enroll 18,000 of the district's 80,000 students.


In most cases, including in Colorado, innovation schools are not subject to certain state regulations and collective bargaining provisions, but are still operated by the school district. Some states and districts, most notably New York City, have taken the concept a step further and created "innovation zones," coordinated groups of schools within a district that pilot new programs and rigorously research them.
But rather than promote such schools as better alternatives to traditional schools, Ms. Whitehead-Bust aims to take what works in her portfolio schools—extended school days, for example—and scale it districtwide. The relationship works in reverse, too: A new initiative will allow charter schools to opt in to central-office services such as security, professional development, and English-language instruction, she said.
"It's a tighter, more congruent system, where schools get what they pay for and pay for what they get," said Ms. Whitehead-Bust, who was hired less than a year ago after working as an education consultant and founder of a charter school in Denver. "It's less about managing our portfolio of autonomous schools and more about creating district systems," she said.


Innovation Stakeholders
Christine Fowler-Mack, the chief of new and innovative schools and programs for the 42,000-student Cleveland district, oversees seven charter schools either operated or sponsored by the district. That puts her on the front lines of a larger effort by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to reverse plummeting student enrollment, establish new charter schools, and overhaul rules on teacher compensation and tenure.
But as positive as "innovation" sounds, the plan in Cleveland has been criticized. The Cleveland Teachers Union accused Mr. Jackson and the school district of excluding the union from the new plan.
"The notion of innovative schools isn't at odds with us; it's the troubling track the district is often taking to shut out the union when it comes to reform that's related to innovation," said David Quolke, the president of the union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.
Both Mr. Quolke and Ms. Fowler-Mack highlighted successful innovation initiatives stemming from district-union collaboration, such as the 13 separate contracts agreed upon for Cleveland's innovation schools. But Mr. Quolke also noted that Mayor Jackson and the district consulted with Cleveland's business community when creating the new plan, highlighting what the union leader sees as the tendency for innovation to favor the private sector over teachers.
Indeed, for many innovation officers, building relationships with businesses is a large part of the job, a dynamic that can rankle parents and unions.
The Denver district, for example, will use an $800,000 donation from the Dell Foundation to train school leaders at charter schools to prepare them for jobs as principals at district-run schools.
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St. Louis is looking to the private sector to support new charter schools, including one that will incorporate literature into all the curriculum and another dedicated to environmental sustainability.
"There's no way to do this without the private sector," Mr. Haggen, the St. Louis associate superintendent of innovative services, said.
As federal policy and, perhaps, the presidential administration change, so could these new positions. The comprehensive, all-encompassing nature of "innovation" in education, allowing for an agile approach but a great deal of uncertainty, appears to also apply to the daily work of its district-level stewards. As Mr. Clausen said: "It's certainly been a challenge to know what I'm doing every day. There's limitless potential." 


Assistant Editor Michele McNeil contributed to this article.


Coverage of the education industry and K-12 innovation is supported in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Vol. 31, Issue 22, Pages 6-7


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paulhoss@hotmail.com
7:07 AM on February 28, 2012
While "Innovation Officer" appears appropriate and clearly has great potential it also potentially adds another layer to the educational bureaucracy; one more insular division between someone in the classroom directly working with students.


I'd watch these appointments very carefully.
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Larry
12:57 PM on February 28, 2012
Those who were around when ESEA of 1965 came out will find this familiar territory. Title III of the orgininal act was dediated to innovation...and it set off many new directions that are commonplace today. What goes round comes round.
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DCGMentor
2:30 PM on February 28, 2012
Jason,
It is a funny thing about innovation. Some of the best innovations are not necessarily new. TV is 75 years old. Radio, 90. How about the refrigerator?


The question is not how to replace these but how to make them better thought the use of technology as a tool, not as a means and end unto itself.


The example I like to share is of a program that is approaching 40 years old and is nationwide. it is called the WISE program. (www.wiseservies.org)


It and others like it innovated the idea of experiential learning as a supplement to in class learning. What has changed is how we use the new technology. Experiential learning allows students to work with new technologies in subjects they are passionate about.


it was innovative back in 1973. It still is now. We should find ways to share it, not lose it.


In fact Denver had two HSs that had the program; Abraham Lincoln and East High schools, but somehow they lost out on that innovation as it was replaced with new innovation? Huh?





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This is the fight of our professional careers. Are You In or Out?

What's taking so long? This is the fight of our professional careers. Are You In or Out? "Hell has a special level for those who sit by idly during times of great crisis."
Robert Kennedy

The Art of SETTING LIMITS, Its not as easy as it looks.

Art of Setting Limits Setting limits is one of the most powerful tools that professionals have to promote positive behavior change for their clients, students, residents, patients, etc. Knowing there are limits on their behavior helps the individuals in your charge to feel safe. It also helps them learn to make appropriate choices.


There are many ways to go about setting limits, but staff members who use these techniques must keep three things in mind:
Setting a limit is not the same as issuing an ultimatum.
Limits aren’t threats—If you don’t attend group, your weekend privileges will be suspended.

Limits offer choices with consequences—If you attend group and follow the other steps in your plan, you’ll be able to attend all of the special activities this weekend. If you don’t attend group, then you’ll have to stay behind. It’s your decision.
The purpose of limits is to teach, not to punish.
Through limits, people begin to understand that their actions, positive or negative, result in predictable consequences. By giving such choices and consequences, staff members provide a structure for good decision making.
Setting limits is more about listening than talking.
Taking the time to really listen to those in your charge will help you better understand their thoughts and feelings. By listening, you will learn more about what’s important to them, and that will help you set more meaningful limits.
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SYSTEMATIC USE OF CHILD LABOR


CHILD DOMESTIC HELP
by Amanda Kloer

Published February 21, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT
category: Child Labor
Wanted: Domestic worker. Must be willing to cook, clean, work with garbage, and do all other chores as assigned. No contract available, payment based on employer's mood or current financial situation. No days off. Violence, rape, and sexual harassment may be part of the job.

Would you take that job? No way. But for thousands of child domestic workers in Indonesia, this ad doesn't just describe their job, it describes their life.

A recent CARE International survey of over 200 child domestic workers in Indonesia found that 90% of them didn't have a contract with their employer, and thus no way to legally guarantee them a fair wage (or any wage at all) for their work. 65% of them had never had a day off in their whole employment, and 12% had experienced violence. Child domestic workers remain one of the most vulnerable populations to human trafficking and exploitation. And while work and life may look a little grim for the kids who answered CARE's survey, it's likely that the most abused and exploited domestic workers didn't even have the opportunity to take the survey.

In part, child domestic workers have it so much harder than adults because the people who hire children are more likely looking for someone easy to exploit. Think about it -- if you wanted to hire a domestic worker, wouldn't you choose an adult with a stronger body and more life experience to lift and haul and cook than a kid? If you could get them both for the same price, of course you would. But what if the kid was cheaper, free even, because you knew she wouldn't try and leave if you stopped paying her. Or even if you threatened her with death.



Congress Aims to Improve Laws for Runaway, Prostituted Kids

by Amanda Kloer

categories: Child Prostitution, Pimping

Published February 20, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT

The prospects for healthcare reform may be chillier than DC weather, but Democrats in the House and Senate are turning their attention to another warmer but still significant national issue: the increasing number of runaway and throwaway youth who are being forced into prostitution. In response to the growing concerns that desperate, runaway teens will be forced into prostitution in a sluggish economy, Congress is pushing several bills to improve how runaway kids are tracked by the police, fund crucial social services, and prevent teens from being caught in sex trafficking. Here's the gist of what the new legislation is trying to accomplish:

Shelter: Lack of shelter is one of the biggest vulnerabilities of runaway and homeless youth. Pimps will often use an offer of shelter as an entree to a relationship with a child or a straight up trade for sex. In the past couple years, at least 10 states have made legislative efforts to increase the number of shelters, extend shelter options, and change state reporting requirements so that youth shelters have enough time to win trust and provide services before they need to report the runaways to the police. Much of the new federal legislation would make similar increases in the availability and flexibility of shelter options.

Police Reporting: Right now, police are supposed to enter all missing persons into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database within two hours of receiving the case. In reality, that reporting doesn't always get done, making it almost impossible for law enforcement to search for missing kids across districts. This hole is a big problem in finding child prostitution victims and their pimps, since pimps will often transport girls from state to state. The new bill would strengthen reporting requirements, as well as facilitate communication between the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Runaway Switchboard

We Must Never Forget These Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women

We Must Never Forget These Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women
Nor the Fool Politicians that used so many American GIs' lives as fodder for the fight over an english noun - "Communism"