The first week at Harvard has been a rollercoaster. Coming off of a fantastic vacation in Spain, I definitely started out on a high note. Even biking around town in the pouring rain to buy groceries and take care of other business didn’t really phase me. Sure, I miss my car a lot. Every time it rained in San Francisco — actually even when the sun was out — I took my trusty Prius to where I needed to go. This biking/walking/busing lifestyle will take some adjustment, but I’m getting there.
And then orientation at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government started, and let me just say that I have some ridiculously amazing classmates. We’ve got a guy who was one of the first astronauts from South Korea, a lady who has her MD and her MBA and who’s looking to get a third. We’ve got fellow nonprofiteers, former teachers, servicemen and women, and people who have hobnobbed with heads of state. We have this one girl who has three passports, and this one guy who has visited 86 countries. We’ve got future politicians, future ambassadors, future foreign ministers, leaders who are bound to make some real social change in the next few years. Wow. To say that I was humbled on that first day upon meeting my classmates is an understatement, yet I held my own. I know my purpose here, and I am extremely excited to have such high caliber classmates to add to the fabric of my education.
However, I’m not going to lie. There was a millisecond where I felt like I slipped in undetected, like I was a spy living a double life. “I snuck into Harvard! I got in without them noticing! Ha!” I certainly felt a tinge of that as I sat in HKS’s storied John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, where heads of state, celebrities and students all have had the chance to speak. But Debbie Isaacson, the director of the MPP program, reminded us that “Harvard does not make admissions mistakes. You belong here, and you were meant to be here.” And as several other speakers reminded us on day one, each of us was chosen because of our propensity to be leaders and our drive to fix our world’s most pressing problems. We answered the call.
So as I lay here in bed, after a long weekend of being ill (I had to get these vaccinations, which caused side effects, like fever, aches, cramps and tiredness, for about 48 hours), I am still astonished at this journey of which I am about to embark. And I remain grateful to everyone that has helped get me to this place.
Wish me luck as I start classes this week! (And that I get over this illness quick so I can actually go to classes!)
I do a lot of workshops every year. I love them. I love the energy of being up in front of a room of eager and willing learners and participants. Yet after workshops (of any sort) there is always that lingering question of whether or not it was worthwhile, valuable or if it made any kind of impact.
This morning I received a lovely message from someone who attended a workshop that I gave a couple of years ago, and it absolutely brightened up my day. I’m glad to help, and even more glad to hear that she gained something from what I shared!
A few weeks ago, I listened in on a webinar entitled “Lessons from Abroad: International Standards and Assessments” presented by Stanford professor and renowned education researcher Linda Darling-Hammond (I also attended the Kerner Forum at Stanford a year ago where she was the keynote speaker). It’s been a busy few months since I came out of my sabbatical, and I’ve focused a lot on work and the efficacy of what we do, so I was interested to hear more about international education standards.
Overall the presentation was quite eye-opening, especially in regards to America’s archaic and sometimes obsessive focus on results, to the detriment of actual student learning. She points out that while most US standardized tests (think SAT, ACT, CAHSEE, ABCDEFG…) are designed to assess whether students learned what they were taught in school and focus on recall and recognition of facts, there are a set of international tests designed to assess if students can “apply what they’ve learned to new problems and situations, focusing on inquiry and explanations of ideas.”
How novel.
She goes on to mention how schooling evolved through the ages from “The School of the Church” in the middle ages to the Industrial Age’s emphasis on educating for discipline. It made sense back then because workers in factories and other industrialized functions required routine manual and cognitive behavior to be successful. But the demand for skills changed, especially over the last 20 years with rapid growth in technology, social and cultural contexts.
The education challenges today and in the future are to prepare motivated and self-reliant young people to analytically think and interact via multiple mediums.
Welcome to the Knowledge-based Society, kid.
So what can be done to take our slow and bureaucratic education system to the next level – to prepare our youth to be competitive for the knowledge-based society?
1)Improve the use of technology in schools – Remember your school’s computer lab? Get rid of it! I envision a future where students don’t have to go to a lab to access computers, where the technology is built into every classroom and seamlessly integrated into the learning experience. Imagine if teachers used technology to have real-time student assessments so that they can adjust their teaching techniques and styles as quickly as their students can text their classmate across the room.
2)Institute summers of service – Americans need to stop wasting summers! I don’t necessarily think we should have year-round schools, but I imagine a future where instead of wasting away at home playing video games, students are engaged in summer learning activities, like community service or entrepreneurial endeavors. Check out this cool start-up social venture that shows amazing promise for this initiative: Summer Advantage.
3)Invest in recruiting, retaining, and developing teachers – By strengthening the professionalism of the teaching force, teachers will not only get the training that they need to continuously grow, but teachers will also want to stay in their profession. There are interesting models out there that are experimenting with performance-based pay for teachers, most notably in Washington, DC and Singapore, and while I don’t know if that specific change will create the desired results, I do know that teacher compensation needs to rise to that of comparable civil servants.
4)Institute leadership training for principals and school leaders – Outstanding principals drive schools, teachers and students to achieve better results. School leadership is an important and sometimes misunderstood piece of the education puzzle. At a meeting with a principal at one of our partner schools recently, she constantly joked around about how tough her job was and how her marriage was at stake because of all of her responsibilities. Yet the culture and tone that the principal sets impacts the quality of instruction, the development of staff, and orderly administrative tasks. Because it can be lonely at the top, principals should routinely collaborate with colleagues and receive leadership training from seasoned coaches.
5)Implement assessments to inform investments & improvement rather than to deny diplomas and sanction schools – This last one is a Linda Darling-Hammond staple, as I have heard her say it at several events. Because of No Child Left Behind, American assessments are obsessed with results. “Assessment systems should support the learning of everyone in the system, from students and teachers to school organizations and state agencies.” School systems need to take back the power of assessments so that they can be used positively.
Anyway, there’s my end-of-the-year rant on the education system. Click here to read more about the Darling-Hammond’s webinar.
Which of the five improvements above do you think will be the most important for the next generation of education? Or do you have an idea for an improvement I didn’t mention?
In youth development work, it’s rare to ever see the fruits of your labor — the actual impact that your work makes. When I was working in my first social change organization, Troy Camp, almost exactly ten years ago, I inherently knew that the mentorship that I was providing was a good thing to do, and it was fun to do. By the end of the school year, the outcome was that we went to camp and had a year full of activities and events with impressionable youngsters from inner city Los Angeles.
The impact, however, was not as clear. After the year was up, a majority of the students who ran Troy Camp lost touch with the youth that they were mentoring, and we could hardly keep up with all of the Troy Camp alumni. There were / are no systems in place, like MOST nonprofits out there right now, to keep track of the clients and the long-term impact that the organization had on the youth. But then again, Troy Camp didn’t really make any promises either. Rather, we made vague promises of a “Commitment to Friendship” and a summer of fun in the wilderness. But back then we were not as savvy as organizations are today–Today’s organizations promise tangible and relevant outcomes and impact — i.e. “increasing the college enrollment rate of low income students”.
And so our organizations embark on lengthy evaluations, both internal and external, calling upon expensive expert evaluators to interview stakeholders, board members, clients, alumni, and staff members, to answer a pretty simple question: Are we making an impact?
This month’s BUILD college tour to San Diego cemented that answer for me, again (it’s good to get a reminder every now and then). It was the eighth college tour I had chaperoned with BUILD, and, hands down, it was the best and most fun one. What was the difference? Maybe I was more alive and more awake to see the subtle changes that students were going through. Maybe it was easier for me to notice their “turning points” or their “moments” on the campus that would forever make an impression on them… so that they are motivated to better in school. Maybe it was because the staff was happier, students were happier, too? Maybe it was the other way around? Either way, the outcome shines: 45 impressionable young minds were exposed to new and inspiring worlds. Now the questions remain: Will the college tour make an impact? Will the college tour motivate them to get better grades so that they can be competitive for these schools? My hunch is yes, and here’s why:
A week ago, Karla forwarded me an email that she got from a current member of Troy Camp, and the email was from a former Troy Camp kid who went to camp in 2002.
To whom it may concern,
As a 3rd grader at 32nd St. Performing Arts Magnet, I was chosen by my teacher to attend Troy Camp along with several of my other classmates. At Troy Camp, I met numerous USC undergraduates, who I will always remember by their nicknames (Snuggles, Fuzzy [sic], etc.). I created a bond with my fellow classmates, new friends, and the Trojan Family. My week at Troy Camp is definitely one of my fondest memories, thus far, and I even tried to attend it once again in 5th grade. Though I didn’t participate in your “follow-up” programs like SMASH, I’m extremely proud of the USC undergraduates for helping out the neighboring schools in such ways. I have been admitted to USC this fall, and wanted to personally let Troy Camp know that the wonderful experience I had in the woods initiated my desire to not only attend SC, but to pursue an education at an academically enriching institution. I am currently undecided about my college plans, but if I do attend USC (I hope I do!), I can’t wait to become a Troy Camp counselor. I hope this e-mail demonstrates that Troy Camp is a great program, and has inspired and will keep inspiring youth to pursue higher education. I congratulate everyone who helps organize and run Troy Camp. Fight on!
Sincerely yours, Blanche
Although she spelled my camp name wrong, it was awesome to know that we made an impression on this young woman, and that Troy Camp had made an impact on her life even eight years later. I secretly hope she chooses USC, and Blanche, if you’re reading this, contact me! I’d love to help you out with your college decision-making process.
Now you might be thinking that eight years is just far too long to wait for an impact. But imagine all of the seeds that were planted years ago that are about to bloom. Imagine all of the seeds of knowledge and power that are being planted right now in young social change makers in organizations like BUILD and Troy Camp. In our world of metrics, databases, and spreadsheets, we expect impact immediately. And while quantitative analysis has its place in nonprofit organizations, the letter from Blanche serves as a reminder to me that sometimes impact has it’s own timeline, and we do not always have control over how and when that impact will happen. All of the students that we serve right now might not be able to realize their potential, but in the meantime, we can plant the seeds of hope and create immediate outcomes that will one day blossom into the impact that we had hoped for.
FYI, the pics I’ve added to this post are not of Blanche, but are of the last Troy Camp event I attended — at Disneyland in September 2003.
The last few weeks have been felt like a glorious whirlwind. I crossed a few time zones, befriended some beautiful souls, and reunited with friends and family (some of whom I had not seen in over nine years).
Summer 2009 will mark my third summer in training as a Rap Director, and I have been so grateful for this opportunity. Not only have I gotten a chance to connect with a team of amazing leaders from across the nation, but the training and workshops have changed my life. Training is like a playground–you know the floor is made of that soft squishy stuff, and if you fall, it’ll hurt a little bit, but your team is there to help pick you back up. I have gotten to explore and learn the language and tools to communicate and build relationships with one person or an auditorium of people, and the funny thing is that everything I needed, I already had. I just had to unravel all the junk that’s been piled up around it.
Derek, one of my trainers and mentor, reminded us of two things:
Apparently, Derek went to school with Barack Obama (Columbia), and he told us that Barack, when he was our age, was no different from us now. If he can make social change, then we can do it too.
Our power lies in our hearts.
In yoga, we talked about the second point, and they call that the “essential nature,” which I learned after taking a 4-week long yoga immersion at Yoga Tree SF (it was really empowering, btw, and I recommend it). I had always been wrestling with the whole notion of opening up my heart. After training and the yoga immersion, a big question that was answered for me was “What is the capacity of my heart?”
Yoga Teacher Dina was describing the aim of meditation and breathing, and she said it is to realize our “essential nature.” Everyone has this vessel of light within that unfolds, and we have tens of thousands of rivers of energy flowing through our bodies. And the neat part is that this vessel of light… is limitless. I felt like a fountain, yet I felt re-energized as energy was flowing out. It was a completely new feeling. The revelation was deep.
Leading up to Rap Director Training in Chicago a couple of weeks back, I set a a couple of powerful intentions, which have since been coming into play on many different levels in my life:
I want to learn how to empathize rather than demonize with people who have seemingly differing or completely opposite views from my own.
I want to learn how to give love without expecting it in return.
I think an update on how these intentions have been playing out would be too exhaustive at this hour of night, but let’s just say they are a work in progress. In the meantime, check out the pictures from my 10-day trip from California to DC to Chicago after the jump:
Bill gives a talk on world health and education at this year’s TED conference! He says, “There’s no reason only poor people should have the experience [of malaria]” after he set the mosquitoes loose on the crowd of some of the world’s most prominent thinkers. Brilliant.
He then goes on to discuss his foundation’s focus on making great teachers: “Even though I was a college dropout, I had great teachers.”
“How do you make education better? Having great teachers was the key… If the entire US had top quartile teachers, the entire difference between us and Asia would be gone in a year. It’s simple, all we need is the top quartile teachers.”
But how do you shift the culture of teaching to focus on improvement and to be data-driven? Well watch his 20-minute TED talk here:
I feel like a Bill Gates fanboy. He’s one of the few public figures that I seem to continually bring up in my posts because I think so highly of his move from Microsoft to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation six months ago. When he first made the announcement that he had planned to do that, it was an acknowledgment to the entire world that we are facing extremely grave social problems, and that it was going to take commitment from talented people to solve those problems. And it was like a high five for the nonprofit sector. Thanks Billy.
Recently, Bill released a public letter about the foundation’s efforts to improve education and global health, as well as the impact of the economic downturn on those efforts.
What I liked about the letter was Bill’s candid review of the foundation’s successes and failures, particularly in the education field. He discusses that even though they’ve made over $2 billion in grants to create better high schools over the last nine years, “Many of the small schools that we invested in did not improve students’ achievement in any significant way.” Rather than investing in existing schools to improve their systems, the foundation will focus on creating new schools out of radical charter school models that work, like KIPP, and invest in systems that will foster the creation of better teachers. He said, “If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.”
Amen.
He also praised the Obama administration for committing to education despite the recession and dwindling tax revenues, as we saw with the education portion of the stimulus plan.
I also wanted to point out that the foundation’s website says “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation BETA.”
Seriously? BETA? Come on… What’s up with this beta culture spreading to the nonprofit sector?
Check out the lengthy letter at this link or by clicking the pic above. If you don’t want to read all 20 pages of the letter, I’ve picked out a few choice excerpts from the U.S. Education page after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »
My friends and I are on a mission to level the playing field in the leadership of the nonprofit sector, and we need your help.
THE PROBLEM
Over tea at a cafe, my friend Karla and I lamented the lack of development opportunities for young professionals of color in the nonprofit sector. We witnessed our friends leave nonprofit to pursue careers in the for-profit sector because of this very reason.
And then we saw the severe lack of leadership diversity in the nonprofit sector. Did you know that people of color lead just 16% of nonprofit organizations nationwide? Sixteen percent! We instinctively thought that in order for nonprofit organizations to level the playing field for their clients, they first need to level the playing field in the leadership of their organizations.
There is a large pool of talented and motivated young people of color that want to make a difference in their communities. But high barriers to entry such as noncompetitive wages, limited career advancement, and few professional development opportunities continue to deter young people of color from pursuing careers in nonprofit. This untapped talent pool holds the key to making a lasting impact in the diverse communities that nonprofits serve.
OUR SOLUTION
Because we are tired of waiting for change to happen, we are choosing instead to make change ourselves. Thus, we created the Level 5 Project to increase diversity in the nonprofit sector by developing and empowering a corps of young professionals from diverse backgrounds. Our flagship project will be the Level 5 Fellowship, which will provide young professionals of color with challenging leadership training, including an intensive curriculum and dynamic hands-on mentoring. We will award up to six fellowships to motivated, driven students from diverse backgrounds to join the charter cohort by spring 2009.
We’re starting this social venture with optimism, and although we are starting relatively small, our sights are set on systematic sector-wide impact.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? HELP US RECRUIT!
Do you work on a college campus in the Bay Area? If you do, we’d love to set up info sessions and/or workshops to advertise our opportunity.
Do you know any awesome current college juniors? We are looking for current college students who represent diverse backgrounds and are passionate about a career in the nonprofit sector. Please pass on this email to your contacts.
WANT TO HELP IN OTHER WAYS?
As a small start-up social venture, we’re always looking for donations of expertise (PR, finance, design, leadership), funding, and time (interested in volunteering or maybe being a mentor?). Let’s make this a community effort!
WANT TO APPLY TO THE LEVEL 5 FELLOWSHIP?
Check out the info sheet and application attached to this email or download them atjoinus.levelfive.org. Applications are due on Dec 1, 2008!
Friends, we are on a mission, and you can read more about it atwww.levelfive.org. Join our social change movement to empower next generation’s changemakers!
I just got off the phone with Karla, and it is about 2:30 am her time in Washington, DC on a Monday night. I had to call her because I am/was so tense about the state of our education system. After spending last Friday at the Kerner Forum on Education and Opportunity at Stanford, I realized that there is still so much to be done for our nation’s children. I felt like my hands were strapped behind my back because of the sheer immensity and gravity of the situation in which we, as a country, have gotten ourselves.
And Karla, being the stabilizing force that she is, ensured me that slowly but surely all of the micro-level things we are doing as a community and as organizations working with youth, schools, and teachers, add up, and join the momentum that is gradually being built up on a macro level, where the policy shifts need to start happening.
But above and beyond that, I feel a personal responsibility and calling to do more. And part of my issue is that I am so impatient that I want to get things done now, make big changes now, and be where I need to be professionally and personally so that I can start affecting change now.
And of course Karla brought me back to reality, and to steal from our new favorite musical, In The Heights: Paciencia y Fe (Patience and Faith).
Let me just briefly show you some of the information from the Kerner Forum that re-ignited some of my passionate fervor for educational equity.
The No Child Left Behind Act has failed
American educational disparities remain linked to funding disparities. The wealthiest 10 percent of school districts in the U.S. spend nearly 10 times more than the poorest 10 percent.
In the U.S., the highest performing students from low income families now enroll in college at the same rate as the lowest performing students from high income families. In other words, the smartest poor kids attend college at the same rate as the dumbest rich kids.
Achievement Rates for “Minority Students”
The achievement gap has widened since 1990
Graduation rates for minorities have declined since 1995 and the gap has grown
Equity in college going has decreased since 1975
Progress since Brown v. Board of Education in 1954?
The desegregation movement is falling backwards. The peak of desegregation in schools happened in 1968 with about 47% of American schools being integrated. In the 2004, we are back down to pre-Brown v. Board of Education statistics with about 27% integration. What happened?
It’s so easy for us to think that race is not an issue any more, but when you look at schools these days, the wealthiest schools are where the high income White folks tend to flock to, while our low income urban schools continue to educate a majority of our Black and Latino kids.
I’m proud to say that I work with one of the most diverse schools in our nation, Menlo-Atherton High School (MAHS), but that is proving to be more of an outlier than the norm. And even within schools like MAHS, we can easily see what many of the Kerner Forum presenters called “Apartheid education,” where Whites and Asian-Americans are privy to special high-achieving tracks of education, like Advanced Placement classes, and Blacks and Latinos are relegated to remedial/intervention classes, even if they do not need to take them. Oh and I’ve seen this firsthand. I cannot tell you how many times it breaks my heart to see one of my students come in with her transcript showing me that she’s been “tracked” into business math or a second year of the same subject even if she doesn’t need it, only to find out later that it was a waste of time and won’t help her when she’s applying for college. And don’t even get me started on the students who are tracked into remedial English classes just because they speak a second language at home.
And yes, it hurts. I was one of those kids. I remember when they wouldn’t let me be part of the “Gifted, and Talented Education” (GATE) program at school because I had just moved to the country and couldn’t speak English as proficiently as a native speaker. Luckily, I was savvy enough to figure out the system, and I had the support from my parents and some special teachers to make sure that I was on the right path to college. But it’s so easy for a gifted and talented young person to fall through the cracks in today’s reality of Apartheid education. It’s segregation masked in progress.
It hurts, but it’s so validating for the work that we are doing.
Solution Space
If America’s number one route for “job training” is in our education system why do we put the least amount of resources into it? Our school system and infrastructure is based on antiquated industrial complex solutions. And the way we measure the success of our schools is boiled down to a numbers game: how many students graduate from high school?
Imagine if we held our schools to a higher expectation? What if we measured their success by how many students graduated from their school and went off to college? It seems like a minor shift, but it’s a reality that we cannot wait for others to create.
What we must do together as a nation
Pay off the educational debt: Fund schools equitably, ensure pre-school and health care for all, and provide access to higher education.
Invest in recruiting, retaining and distributing well-qualified teachers who can address diverse student needs.
Redesign schools to support authentic learning and strong relationships.
Create accountability system that use thoughtful assessments and are used for improvement rather than for punishment.
And according to Linda Darling-Hammond (pictured), co-director of Stanford’s Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, all of this could be done “for the cost of one week in Iraq.” While it can be easy to throw your hands up in typical 20th century-style apathy, as a nation, we cannot afford to ignore our educational crisis.
Can we act now to avoid an educational crisis akin to the $700 billion crisis in our financial sector?
Can we as adults advocate for our young generation who cannot vote?
Can our voices can get loud enough to be heard by superintendents, politicians, and policymakers?
Absolutely.
And in the meantime, let’s keep doing the good work we are doing because before you know it, the students who we were once supporting and encouraging through their algebra homework or presentation–be it Rosa, Freddy, Brianna or Vince–might be the ones standing by us as we fight for educational equity.
The first week at Harvard has been a rollercoaster. Coming off of a fantastic vacation in Spain, I definitely started out on a high note. Even biking around town in the pouring rain to buy groceries and take care of other business didn’t really phase me. Sure, I miss my car a lot. Every time it rained in San Francisco — actually even when the sun was out — I took my trusty Prius to where I needed to go. This biking/walking/busing lifestyle will take some adjustment, but I’m getting there.
She goes on to mention how schooling evolved through the ages from “The School of the Church” in the middle ages to the Industrial Age’s emphasis on educating for discipline. It made sense back then because workers in factories and other industrialized functions required routine manual and cognitive behavior to be successful. But the demand for skills changed, especially over the last 20 years with rapid growth in technology, social and cultural contexts.
In youth development work, it’s rare to ever see the fruits of your labor — the actual impact that your work makes. When I was working in my first social change organization, 
Now you might be thinking that eight years is just far too long to wait for an impact. But imagine all of the seeds that were planted years ago that are about to bloom. Imagine all of the seeds of knowledge and power that are being planted right now in young social change makers in organizations like BUILD and Troy Camp. In our world of metrics, databases, and spreadsheets, we expect impact immediately. And while quantitative analysis has its place in nonprofit organizations, the letter from Blanche serves as a reminder to me that sometimes impact has it’s own timeline, and we do not always have control over how and when that impact will happen. All of the students that we serve right now might not be able to realize their potential, but in the meantime, we can plant the seeds of hope and create immediate outcomes that will one day blossom into the impact that we had hoped for.
…and other lessons learned from the 
