C.M. Rubin’s Global Education Report
Jeff King is the Head of MUSE School in Calabasas, California, and the architect of the MUSE Blueprint that has enabled 100 percent of MUSE high school graduates to be accepted by their university of choice. “We recognized that there was a pervasive, systemic issue with the age-old ‘sit, get, memorize, and regurgitate’ model that has continued to hinder children’s educational experience for decades,” says King, who believes that the current system does not prepare youth for real world challenges, but instead “teaches them to memorize content.” Muse school was co-founded in 2006 by James Cameron’s wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, and Suzy’s sister, Rebecca Amis. The team set out to create a learning model that equips students with the skills and tools needed to flourish in both higher education and the job market. This month, The Global Search for Education welcomed Muse School’s Jeff King to learn more.
PISA has successfully created a test that the world’s leaders pay attention to. But those who have followed the decades of research and activism on what kind of education matters for a 21st Century child know that the PISA assessment is fast becoming irrelevant. The kinds of things that we test have become easy to digitize and automate, so is it time to change the content of the world’s leading standardized test? This month, C.M. Rubin, Co-Founder of CMRubinWorld and The Global Search for Education, says it is time to challenge the content of the PISA test as a holistic assessment of 20th Century competencies. How does an academic test that measures what students in 79 countries know in reading, mathematics and science at age 15 give us sufficient data about the quality of education systems, the abilities of students to flourish in today’s world, and the quality of teachers in our classrooms? Rubin notes that while these core subjects remain vital, the PISA test is an assessment with limited 21st century context, e.g. interdisciplinary learning, use of digital tools that students access in their everyday lives to search for immediate knowledge, and focus on the competencies recognized to be imperative to flourish as a citizen. She concludes that given PISA’s powerful audience, it’s time to create a more relevant, holistic assessment for global learning.
National award-winning educator, Kris Hupp, the current Director of Technology & Instructional Innovation at the Cornell School District in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, believes students need the knowledge and skills to create original content in an ever-increasing media-rich world. Over 10 years ago, his school decided to provide students with the opportunity to create and run their own broadcasts. The kinds of skills they wanted to teach included “talking on camera, lighting, and camera angles,” says Kris, but they were also focused on “the 4 C’s: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.” With limited resources, the educators found innovative ways to organize a diverse team of students and mentor them to take ownership of the project.
This month, The Global Search for Education welcomed Kris Hupp and Patricia Dahmen from the Cornell School District to find out more.
We’d all like to thank our global contributors, teachers, entrepreneurs, researchers, business leaders, students and thought leaders from every domain who shared perspectives on the future of learning with The Global Search for Education this month. We wish you all Happy Holidays and look forward to continuing our important conversations in 2020.
C. M. Rubin (Cathy) is the founder of CMRubinWorld, an online publishing company focused on the future of global learning, and the co-founder of Planet Classroom. She is the author of three best-selling books and two widely read online series. Rubin received 3 Upton Sinclair Awards for “The Global Search for Education”. The series which advocates for Youth was launched in 2010 and brings together distinguished thought leaders from around the world to explore the key education issues faced by nations.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
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