Re-Engineering Education -
An Outcomes Based, Open Source Approach
 

Essays on Education Process Reform

by Don Estes

Educational Process Reform

Discussions on reform of the education system miss a crucial point: it is the process of education that first needs reform in order enable the other reforms to be both effective and lasting.  Significant innovation in the content, instructional methodology, administration, or other aspects of education cannot take root and grow within the current process.  They can only flourish within a special environment, typically with additional resources, but then wither and die when translated into conventional schools with their budgetary limitations.

We know a (former) teacher of mathematics in the highly regarded public school system of Brookline, Massachusetts.  He had been a gifted teacher, inspiring his students to not only perform well in their grade level work but to excel: they were learning 1½ years of math in one year. The result? He was called on the carpet and told to hold back his students or be dismissed. He left.

In fact, it is easy to understand the problem he created. The next year, those students would move into classes with a different teacher and with students who had advanced only one year of math in the prior school year. So, some were half a year ahead of their classmates, and created great difficulties for the teachers, and indeed for the students as well who had to sit through half a year of instruction in material they already knew.

It is impossible, within the one-size-fits-all system that we have now, to create a quantum leap in the outcomes, yet that is what is required for our country in the 21st century. A teacher such as our example should be lauded and facilitated, not fired.  We need to produce the best outcomes for all students, those of superior, average and below average capabilities, and to do it without breaking the backs of the taxpayers who fund it all.

It is inherent in our current educational system that all reform not accompanied by process improvement will be transient, require unsustainable cost increases, or amount to tinkering around the edges.  The process of teaching the same content to all students at the same time and then evaluating what they learn is what must change.  At the same time we must empower students, teachers and administrators as we align their respective goals and incentives to prevent conflicts.

Beyond the Trap of Zero-Sum Thinking

Reforming the process of education requires a top-down re-think of the whole enterprise of education, starting with a fundamental principle: education is a business, and needs to be managed like a business.

Note that this does not mean that education must be organized and operated as a profit-making business, though that is not excluded.  What this does mean is that a business has certain characteristics that the education system needs:

•  A focus on results - businesses deliver value, just as the best teachers strive to impart thinking skills and a love of learning, not just information
•  Students as customers - businesses must be operated for the benefit of their customers in order to prosper
•  Businesses are pleasant places to be - we don't shop or work at unpleasant places unless we have no other option; a business focus will create a much better environment for both students and teachers.

We need to think about education as a business in order to get outside of the box we are in that prevents meaningful change. Perhaps most importantly, we need to recognize that barriers to reform are political: different stakeholders treat education as a zero-sum game. In order for one group to get a bigger piece of pie, other stakeholders must get smaller pieces.

The most important aspect of thinking of education as a business is that businesses move beyond the trap of zero-sum thinking.  Businesses make the whole pie bigger so that all stakeholders see an improvement.  This is the goal of focusing on education as a business - everybody wins.

Optimizing Educational Process

We have a large body of information know about how to optimize business processes, and once we begin to think of education as a business then we can apply them.

According to Forrester research,

"No matter what the driver, the key to success is viewing business processes from the customers’ perspective - instead of an internal view - and designing processes to deliver the greatest value to the customer. Without good processes in place that address customers’ needs, enterprises will be at a competitive disadvantage."

In the last 20 years, we have learned a lot about reorganizing businesses for optimal performance, what is referred to as business process re-engineering (BPR). We have learned what works, and what doesn't work. In general, BPR can work and work extremely well when the process is re-thought from first principles and utilizes automation when and where it makes sense. BPR fails when it attempts to automate the same old way of doing things.

The Example of Amazon.com

Let us consider one of the best known optimized business processes: Amazon.com. Compare shopping at Amazon with going to the mall. There's no gasoline cost, no waiting in traffic, no hassles at all in getting there and back.  You have an immense selection of goods available at very competitive prices. And, it's easy and friendly to use.  In other words, it's efficient.

But there is a more subtle aspect to Amazon. Amazon remembers what you like to shop for, and provides recommendations that you may not have thought of, just like a personal shopper. There is feedback on the goods on offer, so you can benefit from the experiences of others. Even more subtly: poor goods are discovered and removed from being offered at all much more rapidly than in any conventional store.

Amazon is an extremely clever business, operating profitably on low margins across a broad range of products.  But Amazon also delivers value to their customers, and provides a pleasant experience so people come back time and again.

It is easy to think of Amazon as an on-line business, and therefore in a category by itself. Being on-line allows it to exist and operate, but that misses the point. Amazon is an example of creating a bigger pie, an enterprise where everyone wins.

Most importantly of all - Amazon is an idea. That idea happens to require computer infrastructure to work, just as the idea of a trucking company requires trucks, fuel and roads to operate.  But what is important is the idea, not the infrastructure.

Amazon.com for Education

What we propose is the equivalent of Amazon for delivering education. It is an idea about education, just as Amazon is an idea about delivering goods. It does require computer infrastructure, just as conventional education requires buildings and books. But just like Amazon, what is important is the idea, not the infrastructure used to implement it.

Also like Amazon, which makes none of the products that it sells, we do not propose any specific change in content nor even in the methodology of teaching. What we propose is a change in the process of teaching so that changes in content and methodology can be effective and lasting.

Introductory Table of Contents

Abstract: An Outcomes Based, Open Source Approach

Preface

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 8 - Diploma Qualification

Chapter 10 - Taxonomy of Courses

Chapter 18 - Conceptual Definitions

Chapter 19 - Implementational Definitions

Chapter 20 - Software Design

Chapter 21 - Gradual Implementation in Existing Schools

Complete Table of Contents

© 2009 by Don Estes