An Education Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Discover how education innovations can produce astonishing results in student success both in and out of school. The educators featured in this book were motivated by the conviction that even the best status quo education was not serving current student needs. They responded with radical changes that tap into recent ideas about educational transformation: personalization, student-driven curriculum, student agency and co-ownership of learning direction, school-sheltered student entrepreneurship, student-led civic projects, creativity education, and product-oriented learning. Readers will find carefully researched and detailed stories of on-the-ground models where students learn empathy, cooperation, creativity, and self-management, alongside rigorous academics. Together these stories provide insight into the process of innovation and the elements that can make change successful. An Education Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste will inspire educators in ordinary situations to take extraordinary actions toward a new paradigm of education in which all students can flourish.

Book Features:

• Real-life stories of students, teachers, school principals, and school networks that have made radical innovations in education.
• Cutting-edge innovations that took place in a broad range of schools—public and private, elementary to high school.
• Specific strategies and tactics educators can use to counter preconceived or real concerns that prevent them from taking action to change.

Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas and a professorial fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy at Victoria University in Australia. Trina E. Emler is a doctoral candidate and a multidisciplinary research assistant at the University of Kansas and an international education consultant for YEE Education. Anthony Snethen is a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas and a middle school English teacher. Danqing Yin is a doctoral student and a first-year experience instructor at the University of Kansas.

“An impressively organized and seminal work of collective scholarship, An Education Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste is unreservedly recommended for both college and university library Contemporary Educational Issues collections and supplemental curriculum reading lists.”

—Midwest Book Review

“Any educator yearning to create a learning environment focused on student agency, relevant learning, autonomy, and personalized learning will value the pathways identified by the stories in this book. Any educator who is uncertain about change may find just the inspiration needed to ignite a spark by reading this book.”

—School Administrator

“Challenging the status quo of prescribed curriculum, standardized accountability, ‘one-size-fits-all’ teaching and rigid school structures, the authors offer a vision of what a modern education could be. Using case studies and illustrative stories, the authors paint tangible and compelling pictures of innovation in action. If you are an educator or policymaker who believes that education can (and should) be more authentic, personalized, product-oriented, and entrepreneurial, this book is for you.”
—Jay McTighe, consultant and author

“Zhao has, again, written an education book that one cannot put down. He has a profound ability to describe how the world is changing, and that schools should as well. He brings his unique international perspective along with a deep understanding of what great schools look like and how others can learn from them.”
—Larry Rosenstock, CEO, High Tech High

“In An Education Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste, Yong Zhao provides both a cornucopia of optimism and a set of concrete pathways for major rebuilding of the K–12 learning experience. He shows how ordinary educators have done extraordinary things at schools just like yours. This is a must-read for school teams seeking seeds of proven success that will ignite truly transformative change.”
—Grant Lichtman, internationally recognized thought leader and author

Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1
Entrepreneurship and Personalizable Education 2
“Yes, but . . .” 3
“Yes,  and . . .” 4
Plan of the Book 6

1. Radical Changes Led by Students 9
A Great School Invented by a Group of Unhappy Students 9
The Independent Project in Practice 10
Children Are Capable 16
Students Desire Autonomy: Deschooling Education 19
Get Out of the Way  22

2. Radical Changes in the Classroom 25
Teaching Without a Rudder 25
The Teacher Who Used to Hate School 29
The Teacher Who Accidentally Created a Miracle 31
A 19-Hour Drive Starts a Global Enterprising Educator  34
Challenge the Status Quo 36

3. Radical Changes in Broken Schools 39
A Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste 39
Challenging the Grammar of Schooling 42
Learning Entrepreneurship Skills with a Safety Net 49
Out with the Old, in with the New: Taking on the Challenges 53

4. Radical Changes in Successful Schools 57
New Measures of Success 58
Why Good Schools Change 60
How Good Schools Change 62
A Challenge for All Good Schools 77

5. Radical Changes Within Networks of Schools 79
Banding Together to Leverage Change 79
The Annesley Remaking  80
The Rudolph Group: Networked to Innovate 82
The Prisoner’s Dilemma and Possible Solutions 89
Challenging the Education Norm of Isolated Institutions 92

6. Radical Changes from Outside 95
Support for Students and Teachers from Real-World Scholars 95
Bringing Entrepreneurship to the Classroom 98
The Magic Is Not in the Money 101
What Works 103
Collaboration Is Key 105
Student-Centered, Student-Run 107
What Happens When Teachers Say, “Yes,  and” 110

7. “Yes, and . . .”  113
Characteristics of Changes and Change Makers Needed in Education 113
The Changes 113
Change Can Happen Anywhere 121
Characteristics That Spark Ignition 122
Creating a Culture of “Yes, and” 126

References  131

Index 139

About the Authors 151