Item 10: Reformers must contribute to the base of social knowledge.
One of the advantages of a democratic culture is that the exchange of ideas and knowledge helps every citizen to grow and advance toward his or her goals. Democratic reformers should be particularly aware of this. In the course of their work, they will have to learn things about the population of the communities that they serve and the effectiveness of particular methods of reform. This knowledge should not be retained for purely internal purposes, but shared with a wider audience to extend the reach of the reformers. Activists or researchers in other areas may want to make use of the reformers’ findings so that their own activities will be more effective.
If the super-ambitious parts of the model have been achieved, and a reform movement school is working with its surrounding community to understand and solve problems, then the school will have also made a lot of progress toward implementing this element as well. As students learn about their neighborhoods and communities, and publish what they have learned for an authentic audience, they will be helping to create a record of their communities that other people can access. That is an important contribution to a society that aims to use empirical evidence to make better decisions.
The reform movement school has a chance to achieve this goal in a more conspicuous way by virtue of its unique nature within the field of education. Through its very existence, the reform movement school acts as an experiment or trial for Deweyan/progressive/democratic education. The school should embrace this fact and work to make its work as transparent and accountable as possible. I am not talking about the kind of “data-driven†evidence that is in vogue right now; I am not suggesting that the reform movement school should be broadcasting its standardized test scores as a referendum on its success.
If, instead, we agree that in order to assess an individual student’s success, we must be able to look at a varied body of work that demonstrates the way that a student engages the world and solves problems that are meaningful to him or her, then the reform movement school should make a point of demonstrating its students’ success to the world. As students create portfolios of meaningful work over their school careers, that work should be published and shared. Student-created blogs, wikis, videos, games, programs, and more should be a source of knowledge, inspiration, and evidence for all. If the school has successfully created a real community, then many students should be willing to reflect on their experiences in the years after they graduate and explain how they feel that their education did – and did not – prepare them for a life of meaningful work as democratic citizens. Some of this information can be quantified through surveys and demographic studies, but much of it will be qualitative. That does not make it any less valid as evidence.
Furthermore, the staff of the reform movement school should view their education mission as going beyond their specific school. They will be developing and testing tools and methods every day. They should share this knowledge with other educators. If, in fact, the methods of the reform movement school are successful, other people will want to adopt them. The staff of the school should see it as part of their mission to make this happen. In this way, the reform movement school will adopt some of the “research†mantle that is traditionally assumed by colleges and universities and the academic research process. Today we can see an alternative infrastructure take shape for collaborating, sharing results, and getting feedback. Within schools and districts, some teachers take on responsibility for planning professional development sessions for their colleagues. Twitter, education blogs, and other social media help teachers form personal learning networks that share ideas. Formal and informal conferences like TED, Edcamps, and EduCon offer opportunities for face to face interaction. The reform movement school should be consciously designed to plug into these networks and use them to fulfill the school’s mission.