Welding the Educational Pipeline for 2016

Unfortunately, we segment how we think about education.  When students transition from one school to another as they progress along the educational pipeline, the "sending" school ends its relationship with the student and his/her family and the "receiving" school takes over.  Choppy, leaky pipeline. This happens all along the educational pipeline -- from pre-K to K, from K -- 5th or 6th or 8th or 9th grades (elementary to and through middle school depending on the system), from grades 9 -- 12 and then into and through college.  

All along the way, there are opportunities for coordination, shared activities, smoother transitions and coordinated educational programming.  Certainly, it is easier if there is geographic proximity among the schools but the range of possibilities for improving the existing efforts are vast.  And yes, it may be easier among private institutions and in smaller communities. And, we can't underestimate the need for a cultural shift to make these coordinated efforts a success.  There will also be needed bends and curves and alternative routes along the educational pipeline, given home many students will progress through

The benefits of a more thoughtful progression through the pipeline became vastly clearer to me when three of us (leaders at different institutions along the pipeline) traded places along the pipeline.  It wasn't easy to be sure.. We all learned from the "swap" ways in which the educational pipeline could be improved and how that would benefit students, teachers/professors and leaders.  We were collectively struck by the wide range of benefits and improvement -- from academics to athletics to teacher development to psycho-social skills. Our findings are detailed in the below referenced article and appendix.

https://www.nais.org/Magazines-Newsletters/ISMagazine/Pages/Swapping-Places.aspx

https://www.nais.org/Magazines-Newsletters/ISMagazine/Documents/Swapping%20Places%20ISMfall2015.pdf

Were we more coordinated in our views on educational progression (and it is not easy given the number of schools, our sense of autonomy, our lack of respect for those teaching/leading "below" us in the pipeline), we would not be asking the questions now being raised with respect to the growth in high school graduation rates.  Instead of celebrating the rising rate of diplomas (which is celebration worthy), we are concerned about whether the increased number of recipients of a high school diploma are career and/or college ready.  And for good reason.  

If the answer is that important question is that many HS grads are neither workplace nor college ready (which it seems to be the case), the blame could be placed in many spots along the educational pathway, not just on high schools.  That's an important realization. The issue did not start and does not stop with high school preparation.  What if we had  teachers and students and professors and leaders all working together to improve alignment, expectations and preparation? We would have shared faculty development -- with professors learning how kids from pre--K onward use technology for instance. 

Here is what worries me most, prompted by this quote attributed to Alexander Den Heijer: 

"When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower."

In education, both our instincts and our efforts (both time and money) are to fix the flower (the student)  that is not thriving through remediation of varying sorts. We do that all the time. We track. We have  IEPs. We provide counseling and tutoring, if fiscally feasible.  We provide augmented advising and guidance, if there are resources.  Colleges look to ramp up needed support programs for entering students who struggle or, for the more elite colleges, they do not accept students who are low scoring on standardized tests and from weaker high schools. Instead of focusing on improvement -- collective and systemic improvement -- along the pipeline, we miss key opportunities for change.  Environmental (educational) improvement is what we need -- and it is a vastly better way of achieving systematic and systemic change.

So, as we reflect on college readiness, let's look across the entire educational pipeline, starting at P-K and perhaps even earlier.  Not a bad thought as we enter 2016.  Could this be the year we find ways to improve the educational pipeline itself?  The improvements will not create a single smooth pipeline with no curves or alternative routes. It will create instead a pipeline that enables children/young adults/adults to thrive.