About standardized Aptitude Tests and Interest Inventories. "A child who holds a preconceived idea they were born 'less-able' will never pursue mastery and may even avoid the perception of interest in a subject area or career field." "...interest inventories perpetuate stereotyped socialization patterns and a segregated workforce because they typically compare an individual's likes and dislikes to those of persons already in the workforce. Given the extreme sex and race segregation common in the workplace, this concern is significant." "...rather than expand vocational options, aptitude tests and inventories heighten the other systemic pressures that make a young woman's pursuit of nontraditional vocational training extremely unlikely." These three articles highlight the need for educators to be cognizant of bias in guiding students in the exploring classes, college majors, and career interests. Society informs and pressures young men and women to think of these things in terms of either being male or female-centric. These articles also show through studies that young women's performance on aptitude test is linked directly to societal perceptions of gender competence. With that it has implications on their interests or perceived non-interests.

Implications for PLPs around bias engrained in unconscious mental models and in commonly accepted practices for guiding students in their interests/choices around coursework in high school, college majors, and career interests. "Cultural beliefs about gender are argued to bias individuals' perceptions of their competence at various career-relevant tasks, controlling for actual ability. To the extent that individuals then act on gender-differentiated perceptions when making career decisions, cultural beliefs about gender channel men and women in substantially different career directions."

Implications for PLPs. Messages about "gender appropriate" career interests start long before students actually start to think about steps towards college and career. "One interesting implication of this study is that any action directed to increasing children's motivation and self-esteem, if successful, is likely to reduce occupational sex segregation in the future."

Laura Mina mentioned Maker-Spaces at the last planning meeting. It seemed that there were a few Fellows who had were interested and might have had a few questions. This short NPR piece is timely and includes some time around a BTV Maker Space.

"Maker spaces have become hotbeds of technological innovation and entrepreneurship. Now, governments, universities and big corporations are taking notice - and beginning to invest in them." I personally believe for a number of reasons that every Vermont HS should have a Maker Space. First it is a place to encourage interdisciplinary work centered around elements of PBL. Second, it would allow students to connect with their communities to solve real problems with real solutions. And finally and perhaps most importantly, because it would help move the idea of "Libraries" being places where students go to find Information...to being places to the idea that they are places where students go to Interact & Collaborate around Ideas.

"The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) is your resource for quick, to-the-point fact sheets that will help you make the case for CTE with policymakers, businesses and the public. Check out our general, sector-specific and issue-specific fact sheets..."

Resource for Work-based Learning...relevant to those thinking about VTed Act 77.

It would be interesting if every Vermont High School took a Grit and Self-Control survey.

Imagine then what we might glean from comparing those results with those from readily/easily available surveys such as: AoE Youth Risk Behavior Surveys; VSAC Planned Activities After High School; VSAC Actual Activities After High School, School Health Profiles; Participation in Sports and School-based Clubs; Community Involvement Out-of-School; and Range of Academic Offerings available.

Students taking part in the My Education debate groups often said it was difficult for them to connect the relevance of school and learning to their future work aims. There appear to be three causes of the disconnection: 1) Little association between lesson content and career preferences; 2) Teachers not knowing their pupils' hopes and dreams; 3) Inadequate opportunities to gain foundation 'life' skills. Students expressed the need for learning that relates to their goals. They are hungry for that connection, and speak easily and specifically about what they want to do with their lives. Many aspire to go to university, and understand that means doing well in core subjects. But they also enjoy lessons that link clearly to their career ambitions.

"'The tests we rely on so heavily really don't measure creative thinking and they don't measure common sense thinking, wisdom, ethics, work ethic - they don't measure your character,' Sternberg said. In his view, students go to college to develop into active and engaged citizens. If colleges kept that ultimate goal in mind in their admissions process, it would send a message to high schools about the skills that universities value and want to see in prospective students."

"Science Leadership Academy (SLA), a public magnet high school in Philadelphia is a fairly young school, just eight years old. But in that short time, it's developed a reputation around the country as a shining example of the merits of inquiry-based learning approach. Colleges sometimes have a difficult time understanding the school's approach to developing autonomous, critical thinkers. For example, SLA doesn't offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses, because making students take a summative test at the end of the year is antithetical to the concept of allowing students to guide their own learning based on interest and collaborative work - and just as importantly, the value of the incremental learning process."

On the Minerva Project... "In fact, in the first year the students will take four courses: Multi-modal Communication, Complex Systems, Empirical Systems, and Computational Sciences. The intention is for traditionally separate subjects to be integrated if they involve complimentary skills. COMPETENCY-BASED UNIVERSITIES As the Minerva experiment develops, some existing universities are taking steps to award college credit based on skills learned, not the amount of time they've been enrolled."

They're Watching You at Work: What happens when Big Data meets human resources? The emerging practice of "people analytics" is already transforming how employers hire, fire, and promote.

"Academic environments are artificial environments," Laszlo Bock, Google's senior vice president of people operations, told The New York Times in June. "People who succeed there are sort of finely trained, they're conditioned to succeed in that environment," which is often quite different from the workplace.

"...administered a battery of tests to a group of corporate presidents, he found that not one of them scored in the "acceptable" range for hiring. Such assessments, he concluded, measured not potential but simply conformity." I would build on this with the statement that current assessment and graduation requirements are great at measuring a student's ability to excel at conformity and irrelevant knowledge sets while doing little to encourage that student's individuality and personal skill sets. Current assessment and graduation requirements are great at measuring a student's ability to memorize what others think important, but not in assessing and fostering the important act of thinking for themselves. Current assessment and graduation requirements are great at measuring who a student is according to an antiquated framework defined within the walls of a school. But, scripted versions of success and knowledge don't allow for assessing and promoting student potential for a world where there are no boundaries or false constraints of whom he/she might become. JF

TNTP's Fishman Prize honors amazing teachers with $25,000 and the chance to share their knowledge with educators nationwide.

The Rural Trust's Global Teacher Fellowship program will be awarding up to 25 fellowships in 2014 to support the professional and personal development of rural teachers. The awards (up to $5,000 for individual teachers and $10,000 for a team of two or more teachers) support teachers' participation in self-designed summer learning experiences and a two-day place-based learning institute in the fall following their summer experience. This fellowship is a stand-alone grant not meant to supplement other grant funds for larger projects. Teachers are encouraged to center their learning in an international travel and study experience, out of which they develop interdisciplinary, place-based learning curricula aligned with their specific state and local content standards.

There are a number of Rowland fellows that might be able to use this to supplement / expand their existing work.

""If you're not standing on the edge, you're taking up too much space." Littky

What an ideal #VTed school should look like according to students from across the state.

"Given the potential demonstrated by these new models, dismantling the walls that have separated CTE from more traditional programs leading to higher education should be a priority for educators and policymakers. Our goal should be to have all students graduate from high school ready for both college and careers, and be able to choose from a range of appealing higher education and labor market possibilities afterward."

With Act 77 Every school in Vermont has the opportunity (and needs) to consider the benefits of Career and Technical Education (CTE) for Every student.

"...when we encourage entrepreneurship, we're actually trying to get people to the place where they care enough and where they are confident enough to stand up and try to make things change."

IMHO, the transformation of education isn't about "Innovation" as much as it is about creating Educational Entrepreneurs. And...IMHO, that is what the Rowland Foundation allows for and supports. The question is how do we convince more school and district leaders to do the same? Answer that question first and innovation will follow. Innovation is the Product Of rather than the Means To EdReform

Another piece that puts the focus of Innovation on People rather than Programs. My personal belief is that #EdReform should start and end with empowering PD which is Personal and Purposeful. With that, what if schools modeled their PD on the Rowland Foundation's model of #EdReform? What would it look like if PD were not determined and delivered but instead supported and shared? What if PD were about providing resources and teaching teachers to be data collectors, researchers, developers of innovation? 2 year Action Research cycle? What if every teacher in a school spent a school year coming up with a hunch, collecting data, researching ideas around their hunch...then spent the second year testing it out/implementing it in the classroom, more data collection, presenting outcomes to their peers, and collecting feedback for reflection and refinement?

"What has proved to matter is...the building of knowledge and innovation skills, which are much harder and take longer to get in place and maintain. Leading-edge competency in one's area of practice is indispensable; practice at turning ideas into reality is a must." "...while learning is hard work, and the value is not quantifiable, it is the only way to remain valuable in an economy that thrives on innovation. The more you invest in your people's knowledge, the more innovation you can expect to reap."

IMHO Single most valuable piece of advice for successful #EdReform. As amazing as all of our programs are, I truly believe that programs have very little to do with successful EdReform. I believe that it is about people more than programs, about the freedom to teach, and especially about administrators supporting an entrepreneurial spirit in the classroom. It is not too much of a stretch to grasp the connection between ownership and passion. And, when we love what we do...we simply do it better.

A note. I am not saying the work we are doing isn't important...what I am saying is that you are the most important piece to making your work...work.

"Twitter has emerged both as an important source of news, information, and resources for educators, as well as a valuable way to engage in a meaningful professional learning network. This webinar will provide a useful overview of Twitter and how it can inform and support the ongoing development and networking of K- 12 educators." Webinar THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013 | 3:00-4:00 PM EST

Author Susan Cain explains the fallacy of "groupwork," and points to research showing that it can reduce creativity and productivity

Wondering if focus on collaboration, group work stifles creativity and individuals ...Do some approaches to education reward those students who are simply more extroverted. Do we often, inadvertently, value Personalities over Substance in our classrooms?

"...as a culture, our collective bias is toward extroverts. The popularity of work environments with 'open plans' that have no, or low walls and constant noise are completely focused on extroverts. She also notes the current popularity of what she calls, 'new group think', which revolves around work being done in groups and highly valuing collective thinking."

Interesting blog, great book. Really makes me think about how we design learning experiences...especially when we attempt to foster creative thinking.

"If you mistakenly believe that the most effective leaders are Extroverts, that using teams to brainstorm is the best way to foster innovation, or more simply, that Extroversion is a choice, you must read this book. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology as well as relevant case studies, Cain effectively debunks the Extrovert Ideal, and equally important, helps us to better understand and value many of the attributes and behaviors associated with Introversion."