Entrepreneurs Credo

As an entrepreneur I would like to play with one of our credos: “If you can’t fix it, feature it.”

I had a marvelous discussion yesterday (any one listening would have called it an argument) with one of our representatives. The conjecture that met me at the door was: “Education leadership is set in their ways and would not change the system even if student academic performance could be improved. The best strategy is not to waste any more funds, and in a few years the system will crumble as parents move their kids to private schools.”

Let’s face it; any 120 year old system is difficult to change from within, frustrating the best of administrators with few available resources for innovation.

Wilson District pulled off a complete eLearning transformation but they had two unique advantages. The first was that in 1992 they were the poorest performing district in Arizona, and could not fall any further. The second was that they had a unique one time opportunity to secure funding needed for the several years that their 1:1 eLearning transformation took. Then with the ongoing cost savings from eLearning they were able to keep modernizing and retain their teachers to secure their #1 position as a feeder district to Phoenix Union High School District.

So let’s feature the fact that Arizona K-12 schools are not meeting the No Child Left Behind mark of C level or better academic performance, have a major challenge from English Language Learners, and have a too-high drop out rate.

Then let’s use the theory of innovation, a favorite topic for Governor Napolitano. Most successful system innovations have a driver from outside the system. We propose that eLearning (of course) be that outside driver. For a few thousand dollars a student (out of the $85,000 we will be spending over 13 years) we fund the eLearning transformation school by school. The innovation leader schools will snap up the offer in the early years. Statewide support systems are developed concurrently under eSATS for digital curriculum and teacher professional development. We expect that the late adaptor schools will complete the transformation within ten years.

Nothing crumbles, investment funds have a significant return on academic performance, and in ten years the eLearning cost savings are being used to the benefit of every aspect of K-12 education.

Go figure! We have.