This quote from Simon Sinek made me think of why I got into education. Here are some thoughts on how I got to where I am today.
I spent about 11 years in the corporate world. I was “let go” from The Stroh Brewery in 1999 after helping sell most of its assets as a member of the “Strategic Transition Team”. I essentially helped turn out the lights. As a part of my severance I was given “executive outplacement”. There I was coached in interviewing, cover letters, resumes and networking. During this training I learned that when asked, “what do you do”?, you should answer in terms of how you help others (either individuals or organizations). I was instructed that previous positions on my CV or letters of introduction should be couched in terms of “helpfulness”. I landed a job within three or four months at a reputable, publicly traded, “below the line” marketing firm, Visual Services Inc. (VSI). We did everything in marketing except what you regularly see, advertising. I was hired to help General Motors conquest the competitors’ drivers through the implementation of a program called AutoShow In Motion - no small task, given the quality, or lack thereof, of GM’s product line at the time. Iin Early 2001 VSI earned an RFQ to produce an “AutoShow In Motion” for the level eight and higher executives from GM. The purpose of the show was to demonstrate to GM’s top brass that their product was S**T compared to the competition. Then the Twin Towers in NYC came down . We all know now what the future held for GM (and the American Economy, in general) from that moment. Shortly after an eleven day trip promoting VSI’s services, the Executive VP in charge of the GM account called me into his office. This time I was not asked to stick around to close off the lights; I was caught up in the second round of layoffs for VSI. Later, VSI would be removed from the NYSE never to be heard from again. I dabbled in some freelance work and a short stint at a boutique marketing firm only to find myself at a pivotal crossroads. Here I was, living in Grosse Pointe Michigan, jobless for the second time in two years and America is at war. To add to the drama, I had a mortgage, a two year old son and a longing I couldn’t ignore any longer. As the event did for so many people, 9/11 caused me to reflect and reevaluate my purpose and pursuits; How I “helped” GM’s top line by conquering the competition was not how I wanted to start my CV. There was no sense in waiting any longer; I began to earn my secondary teaching certificate at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. I had been thinking about becoming a teacher for untold years. While “the calling” had been in my heart and soul for a time dating much farther back, the most definite point I can put a finger on is at my first job after earning my MBA from Indiana University as an Account Executive for Conrail’s Forest Product Division. Conrail “strongly encouraged” new employees to work 20 hours of community service each month. I accepted an assignment through Junior Achievement to help a high school senior class start their own tee shirt business. After three or four visits, I knew I had found my true calling - helping young people develop their business acumen and actively apply it to their own ideas. My wife and I put in place a plan for me to continue in the corporate world until I was 40 and then become an educator. (9/11 hastened the journey by two years.) Spending more time in the corporate world was important for two reasons:
I have now been a business and marketing educator for one year more than I was in the corporate world. The paychecks are not as large but the “value” of the rewards are tremendous. More to follow. I encourage you to be a part of the conversation; please comment. This quote comes from Sarah Fine, postdoctoral student at Harvard Graduate School of Education. It came from an article @MindShiftKQED, The original Mindshift article on CTE and extra-curricular ativities can be found here. This is the real work, the hands-on, authentic, experiential learning that is put forth daily in an ASaP classroom. This article, amongst a score of others on education reform, inspired me to post this -
North Carolina has the framework of an excellent Career and Technical Education model (CTE). From top to bottom, all the standards and measures are in place to develop outstanding youth leadership. As is often the case in large institutions, successful results can often be attributed to the the people who are on the front lines. The most critical links are those closest to the subjects. In the case of education, the subjects are the students, and those closest to them are the teachers and school administrators. The purpose of this treatise is to coalesce the CTE pathway linkages, to describe some of the motives and history, and to suggest how North Carolina can improve experiential education for all. I first became interested in North Carolina CTE after my mother died in February of 2014. While cleaning out her apartment on a cold, dreary March day in New York City with my wife and two older sisters, it occurred to me, “I don’t want to stay in Indiana.” My wife agreed. That fall we scoped out Cary and Apex, North Carolina. It had received high marks for quality of life in the annual survey published by Money Magazine. One trip to the area and we fell in love. The timing was perfect because Wake County (WCPSS) was about to bring online its twenty-sixth high school. Award winning principal Matt Wight was to be at the helm. After numerous inquiries, three visits, two interviews, Matt offered me a job as a DECA co-advisor and Marketing/Entrepreneurship Educator. After eleven years, I resigned my position at the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township and moved my family back south. North Carolina’s Career and Technical Initiative Prior to applying to Apex Friendship I conducted research on North Carolina Career and Technical Education (CTE). It was promising. In April of 2010 North Carolina State superintendent June St. Clair Atkinson published A Crisis in Relevance: How NC must innovate to graduate all students career-and college-ready. A Crisis of Relevance, included strategies for improving overall student achievement through better utilization of Career and Technical Education. The fifth objective was to, “Connect business leaders with educators in a unified effort to help students understand the relevance of their education to their future goals and prepare them with the knowledge, talent and skills valued and needed in today’s workplace.” In February of 2011 Harvard Graduate School of Education published Pathways To Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans For The 21st Century. The report stated its purpose was in response to a study that indicated, “Far too many young people are inadequately prepared to be successful. . . more than half were ‘deficient’ in such skills as oral and written communication, critical thinking and professionalism.” In June of 2011 the North Carolina Board of Education published The CTE Career Cluster and Course Planning Guide. The purpose of the guide was to establish programs of study that would address the needs of universities and employers. Beginning in 2012 many CTE classes underwent an overhaul to adapt the curriculums to be more relevant and rigorous. Entrepreneurship I, my primary focus each fall, adopted a new curriculum for the 2013-2014 academic year. It was over 500 pages long, I kid you not. (More on that on another date.) The NCDPI addressed engagement with the community and the development of skills critical for success through the Honors requirement that, “Student work will be assessed through both written and performance-based processes . . [including] an oral presentation summarizing their work to be presented to a panel selected by the teacher.” In February of 2016 WCPSS published its Strategic Plan. A part of the strategic plan was the 2020 vision, “Students will be successful communicators, collaborators, creative and critical thinkers who have mastered the NC State Standards and 4Cs. This will make them ready to graduate as productive citizens and for success in higher education and careers.” (Italics added by author.) Proof of the Possibilities; Patriots in Action The potential of career pathways can be found at Apex Friendship High School. According to data provided by Peter Destabler, AFHS’s ICM, in its first graduating class of about 450, there are a total of 131 students that completed at least one CTE pathway. Nearly 50% of these students completed two pathways. Fifteen students completed three pathways. Health Sciences’ completers narrowly beat the combined total of Marketing and Business Management, 47 to 45. To be a completer in a Business or Marketing pathway, you must have completed Entrepreneurship I Honors. The goals of Applied Synergy Partnership and its Entrepreneurship classes are aligned with the state’s and county’s education mission and achieve the requirements of an Honors level Capstone course. The students are actively engaged with the business and university community. The students work hard to develop critical transferable skills and are challenged to think for themselves in an authentic, creative, experiential learning environment. (More on ASaP at a later date.) I can say, with a high level of confidence that the state, DPI, WCPSS and Matt Wight have effectively put in place the pieces that, when executed faithfully, can develop outstanding youth leadership and prepare our students for a dynamic, competitive work environment. There is still more to be done; improved implementation in the classrooms and broader execution at more schools of all levels. What would the employers say? Have the North Carolina objectives listed in the Crisis in Relevance study been achieved? Who is to be the final judge? Recall the original catalyst for emphasis on CTE stated in Pathways, “U.S. employers complain that today’s young adults are not equipped with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century workforce. . .” Employers’ satisfaction with the next generation of high school graduates and those graduates demonstrated abilities, are the true measure of success. How do you measure achievement such as this? Presently, student proficiency on a state mandated 100 question multiple choice final exam is what determines “student mastery of entrepreneurial concepts.” They are deemed proficient if they score 70% or higher after the curve. But are institutions of higher learning and employers looking for “masters of concepts” and “proficient test takers”, or does our economic future demand “thinkers” and “doers”. (As an aside, as a result of a NCCTE mandate, (As an aside, as a result of a NC CTE mandate, I spent three hours this past weekend examining “standard based assessment data” to see where I could improve my test scores. Should I not have spent this time thinking of how I can improve my students’ leadership competencies that are in demand by universities and employers? I was not made aware of a mandate to deliver honors portfolios of my 46 entrepreneurship students, just to make them available “in case we are audited.”) 2017 ASaP by the numbers - Students 57 EOC Proficient 100% Average Score 90% Honors Portfolios 100% NC DECA Plans 19 out of 24 teams Professionals engaged 21 In early 2017 Lisa Conger and Carol F. Short delivered a presentation to the NC DPI CTE, NC Works Pathways Conference. One of the first slides stated, “The purpose of this session is to increase the awareness of policy and practice that results in increasing the partners understanding of career pathways and the value of the completion of a career pathway.” (Italics added by the author) The presentation went on to discuss how successful implementation of CTE as a platform for career readiness is determined, districts and schools. These entities need to capitalize on
How will we be held to a higher standard? The above prescription lays at the feet of educators and school administrators a lot of responsibility; the whole team is challenged, as well we should be. While the state and LEA’s are contributing to the advancement of an outstanding CTE pathway, my concern is the synthesis of strategic partnerships across industry, higher education and secondary classrooms, grades 6-12. Institutions of higher learning and employers are the customers of the public education system. How do we assure that the instructors on the ground are fostering the requisite skills of the students, the product these customers are receiving from us? A cross-section of the community that involves multiple stakeholders should help develop “Career focused accountability system(s)” within the individual schools. (More later on the education value chain) The aforementioned Conger and Short presentation stated, “Better alignment of education, workforce & economic development is needed to meet the future needs of both employees and employers”. It can be implied through an earlier slide that, this “Start[s] with industry partners.” Some of the credit for ASaP’s success can be attributed to AFHS Career Development Coordinator (CDC) Lane Tomey. She is in place as a resource to assist with community and classroom alignment. Each high school has a CDC who is responsible for liaising with the business community and the classroom. What if instructors do not take advantage of the CDC’s connections? How do we make certain that classroom instructors are engaging the community as collaborative partners to develop our emerging leaders (and not just the rare guest speaker)? AFHS students are direct beneficiaries of the efforts of Lane Tomey who provides regular opportunities for AFHS CTE staff to be actively involved in the community. Moving Forward It will take an undetermined amount of time and, likely, a longitudinal study to determine if the state can improve upon the “more than half [that are] ‘deficient’ in such skills as oral and written communication, critical thinking and professionalism.” If we hold ourselves to the timeline established by WCPSS’s 2020 Vision this will be the university class of 2024. That will be nearly fifteen years from the time North Carolina published A Crisis in Relevance. The time will come when students will become employees. They will be asked to apply technical and non-technical skills to advance the goals of their selected organizations. How will it be determined if the current decade of instructors improved our students foundational and leadership skills? What if the needle has not moved? Standards and curriculum come from the top down. Success is built from the ground up. The most important pieces are the instructors in the classroom; do they effectively develop the skills necessary for our students to thrive? To determine an answer to this would require high school and LEA administrators to put in place controls that assure our youth’s classrooms are meeting the needs of today’s competitive, dynamic global economy. All stakeholders, students, parents, et al, are encouraged to inspect closely what is going on in the classroom. What evidence do we have of the successes and failures? What mechanisms are in place for others to learn from these experiences? I know there are good things going on out there. I also am not so naive to think that everything is hunky dory. I’d like for you to be a part of the conversation. Please comment. I do the very best I know how-the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
Abraham Lincoln I am a reflective learner and strategic thinker. Education is important to me, as a student and as an instructor. My education mission is “to provide a ‘S.P.I.R.I.T.E.D.’ learning environment in which students feel comfortable and confident to strive for their very best.” S.P.I.R.I.T.E.D. is an acronym that describes the experiential learning environment in which my students thrive: Stimulating; Positive; Initiative; Respect; Integrity; Teamwork; Enthusiasm; and Determination. Educating our young people is a passion of mine. I try everyday to make a difference in the lives of each student. Over the course of fourteen years my definition of education has evolved from content orientation to more ‘learning through experience’. I help my students learn how to make decisions, to solve problems, to think critically and divergently, and to take control of their lives, not be controlled by it. This perspective of education along with my mission statement, are integral to not only my success, but also, more importantly, key to the accomplishments of my students and the contributions they make to their community. We learn from our experiences, which in turn shapes the perspective we present to our students. To know why I present much of what I do, you first should understand the roots of my perspective. Shall we say my background is varied. I’m not entirely sure from which class I hail, lower, middle upper or any other label society has used. I am sure it doesn’t really matter; I am who I am today because of the past decisions I have made and others made for me. I was adopted by the only parents I’ve ever known when I was seven weeks old. I was born October 13, 1966 in Cook County General Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. I was “picked up” from the Cradle Society in Evanston on December 5th of that same year by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Dold Jackson Sr. We flew home to Grosse Pointe, Michigan with the Detroit Red Wings hockey club. The one thing I know about my biological mother was she was single. My ongoing education is so much more than books and classrooms. My personal educational experiences were challenging. Adversity came at an early age when my parents divorced and my father moved from Michigan to California. I then became a human ping pong ball and zip code collector. I attended nine schools in three states over seven years from fifth grade through high school graduation. This taught me adaptability, flexibility and an affinity for conversation. After high school I immediately began to matriculate at The University of South Carolina because that is what I thought others and society expected of me. In short order I realized that I was not mature enough to handle college; I dropped out rather than flunk out. My mother’s next move was the best thing that ever happened to me; she told me to be out of her house in two weeks. For twenty months I supported myself working two jobs. During this time I grew to realize that a college education was necessary if I wanted to achieve my goals. I returned to USC more mature and responsible and graduated Cum Laude. I later earned an MBA from Indiana University and went on to have a successful career in marketing management. I’ve gained the perspective that a lot can be learned from life’s experiences, learning from mistakes, overcoming adversity and listening to sound advice from a variety of people. Much of the value that empowers me to play a positive role in making a difference in our emerging leaders efforts and perspectives is the varied life that I have lived and the lessons I have learned from my experiences. It is important to me that students are mindful of the life they are living and learn how to adapt, grow and thrive. I want our students to ask questions and be curious of what is going on around them, not to be mindlessly indoctrinated. As Carol Dweck puts it in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, “Great contributions to society are born of curiosity and deep understanding. If students no longer recognize and value deep learning, where will the great contributions come from?” Deep learning does not come from studying for a test. Much of what I’ve learned has been through experience and reflections on those events. Our current system focuses too much on the development of test-takers, not thinkers and doers. Many teachers still “teach to the test” because that is how teachers are measured. We need to help students become lifelong learners, reflective learners that are pursuing a passion, not a test score. My role as a teacher has evolved to become more of an “entrepreneurial educator”. By that I mean that I try to instill in my students an entrepreneurial mindset. Much of what we we have to do, as adults involved in the growth of our youth, is to “help” students understand “how to” identify and “how to” take advantage of opportunities created by asking and answering, “what if?” or “why not”. I hope for my students to learn how to be passionate, to persevere and to never stop asking why and being curious. I lead by the example I set in the classroom. Every day I envision and implement innovative ways to promote the development of an entrepreneurial spirit. My vision is for learners of all ages, from all backgrounds, to learn by satisfying their curiosity, exercising their imagination and by taking risks and making mistakes in an experiential learning environment driven by events and reflection, not texts and tests. The aspects of schooling that are of interest to me include -
The title of this post came from a “calendar of great quotes” given to me by a student for Christmas. It is JRR Tolkien.
Today’s daily reflection from Covey’s 7 Habits stated, “People can not live with change unless there is a changeless core inside of them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.” In my Personal Finance classes we are speaking of values and the role they play in our financial decisions and decisions about relationships, careers and college choice. We discuss the importance of values, where we learn our values and how values shape our beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. Values are at the heart of our character and character is what allows us to be steadfast in the face of adversity, conflict and change. There has been a change in the cultural and generational perspective to focus more on the “why” rather than the what. We can either be a change agent (nowadays called a disruptor) or we can get caught up in the rip tide of change. Covey, twenty-five years ago, compares this to a conscience decision “to be proactive or be acted upon”. I am proactively working to cause a paradigm shift in the delivery of education. Often I encounter individuals and bureaucracies that are apathetic on one end of the spectrum and downright belligerent on the other end. I am reminded that “Every new thinker is condemned by those for whom change is terrifying.” I’d like for all of us in education to embrace change, not not be terrified of the ‘frost that might reach our roots’. Our values will help us be resilient in the face of opposition and hold steadfast to our convictions. Be the change that we want to see; don’t wait for someone else to make up your mind for you. A lot of people notice when you succeed, but they don’t see what it takes to get there.”
Dawn Staley, flag carrying Olympian and 2017 women’s NCAA championship coach In the case of our @AFHS_DECA EPP, LEAP, I have had the chance to see first hand much of the blood, sweat and tears that went into last night’s rising ninth grader “CTE Discovery Night” at AFHS. What a way to kickoff the month to celebrate Career and Technical Education. A mnemonic device I’ve used to help students learn management is a play on a SC Johnson brand - SIPLOC - Staffing, Implementing, Planning, Leading, Organizing and Controlling. Our LEAP team learned all of these things, and so much more, through experiential learning! Hats off to LEAP, Emily C and Nicole V, they have raised the bar to Limitless. They are leading the charge on the change they aspire to see in education. In honor of African American Achievement month and CTE month, I leave you with this - “When people made up their minds that they wanted to be free and took action, then there was change.” Rosa Parks - Civil Rights Activist and “disruptor” |
Author: Dan Jackson
Experienced Reflective Learner and Strategic Thinker with an ongoing track record of of innovative, adaptive leadership in education and business management. Archives
December 2019
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