Systemic Planning

It’s been a week since I last posted. This has less to do with being lazy and more to do with being busy. For those of you who don’t know, Iowa has embarked in a fundamental paradigm shift around student learning. One change agent is Authentic Intellectual Work. Schools self-select to engage in high risk AIW conversations that support increasing student engagement and intellectual rigor in job-embedded professional learning teams.

The initiative is very different because rather than focusing on local change, it’s a systems shift towards student learning with top down AND bottom up support. Because the Iowa Department of Education has taken steps to ensure that AIW is rolled out across the state with fidelity and support, participant involvement has gone from about 75 teachers in 2007 to roughly 1,000 teachers involved in year three, with several sites moving to full staff involvement. It has been the difference between renting space in the mind to investing substantially in the soul. When this happens, teachers exude a different energy that attracts others to the work.

Of course there are challenges, but I just need to shout out to the folks in AEA 11 who have chosen to take on the challenge by building more internal capacity collaboratively, as well as to their schools involved so deeply in the work.

Impressive tenacity and high marks for intellectual integrity! You guys rock.