K12 Team Wins Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s 2018 Wonkathon
March 26 2018 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Team Reimagines High School, Beats Out Record
Number of Entries
Members of the K12 Academic Policy and Public Affairs team won
the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s fifth annual Wonkathon, a contest
designed to generate substantive conversation around key issues in
education reform. The results of the month-long nationwide vote
were announced on March 21.
In light of diploma scandals in Washington, D.C., Maryland and
elsewhere, the Fordham Institute asked 2018 Wonkathon contributors
to address the questions, “Do our graduation requirements need to
change?”
Newcomers to the competition, Jessica Shopoff, M.Ed., and Chase
Eskelsen, M.Ed., finished atop a field that included a
Wonkathon-record number of entries from thought leaders around the
nation to win the 2018 contest with their essay entitled, “High
school reimagined (and we truly mean reimagined).”
“I’d like to congratulate Jessica and Chase on winning the
Wonkathon by recommending a new way to look at high school
achievement,” said K12 President of Academics, Policy and Schools
Kevin P. Chavous. “Focusing on personalized learning and
competency-based mastery instead of existing graduation
requirements would help ensure that students graduate from high
school prepared to be productive members of society.”
The purpose of high school in America, Shopoff and Eskelsen say,
is to train students to be responsible and productive citizens.
However, despite a graduation rate that is at an all-time high,
most graduates leave high school unprepared to lead successful
lives, which leads to 5.5 million young people not in school or
working despite one in three American companies with openings for
which they can’t fill due to a lack of qualified workers.
“We wrote about making sure we’re measuring what matters – not
just did we get the students across the stage in four years, but
after they graduate are they moving toward success?” Shopoff
said.
“Much of our focus was on figuring out how to support unique
students in unique ways with inclusion of career and college
options for students,” Eskelsen added.
In their essay, Shopoff and Eskelsen argue that our current
approach to high school is so flawed and ineffective that it can’t
be fixed with mere tweaks. Instead, they urge policymakers to
revamp it by building a personalized learning model that
effectively graduates students prepared to successfully contribute
to society. This requires three steps:
- Embracing cross-curricular
competency-based learning – A high school graduation plan should be
a checklist of knowledge and skills that students need to master in
order to graduate.
- Personalizing graduation paths – Every
student should be able to “create a path toward graduation that
uses his/her interests and future plans as a foundation” upon which
to add coursework and skills training.
- Realigning learning across the
preschool-to-higher-education-or-career continuum: Students should
not move in primary grades with their age cohorts, but rather
advance when they have mastered the subject matter, with the
expectation that “students may master all of the competencies
required in anywhere from three to seven years.”
Shopoff and Eskelsen were featured on the Fordham Institute’s
Education Gadfly Show podcast to discuss their winning essay, which
can be read here. A follow-up piece by Shopoff and Eskelsen that
outlines more specifically potential implementation at a school
level can be read here.
About K12 Inc.
K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN) is driving innovation and advancing the
quality of education by delivering state-of-the-art digital
learning platforms and technology to students and school districts
across the globe. K12’s curriculum serves over 2,000 school and
school districts and has delivered millions of courses over the
past decade. K12 provides online and blended education solutions to
charter schools, public school districts, private schools, and
directly to families. The K12 program is offered through more than
70 partner public schools and through school districts and public
and private schools serving students in all 50 states and more than
100 countries. More information can be found at K12.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005171/en/
K12 Inc.Jessica Schuler, 571-405-2211jschuler@k12.com
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