AIM (ARCHITECT'S IN MOTION)

When Governors Enter the Education Picture
By Gordon Freedman

There are so many moving parts to education in any given state or between states and the federal government that it is nearly impossible to address dropout rates, graduation rates, annual yearly progress, increased college attendance, or producing more capable teachers and administrators. The answer to the education dilemma, oddly enough, might be found in the building trades. There, the choice is often between renovation and new construction. We all know that remodeling an old house or building a new one can produce very different results. We also know that there can be a significant difference between using a builder to design a complex home versus hiring an architect to create a set of plans from scratch.

Education, in large part, belongs to the states. It is an expensive public good designed to produce human capital capable of boosting state economic output and contributing to the national economy. Hanging in the education and training balance, on the positive side of the ledger, is increased economic activity and tax revenue from a more highly educated workforce. In this sense, the education investment, not cost, finances the renewal and expansion of state infrastructure and state programs. On the negative side of the education balance sheet are the true costs, not investments, of social and economic failure -- increased incarcerations, expanding social services, and a declining base of innovation and economic development focused on replacing old state economies.

To attempt to solve such large social and economic issues, where 21st century education is a key part of a complicated calculus, hiring a builder to renovate a tired school system is not the right answer. The answer, using the construction metaphor, is to hire a state level education architect who can construct a clear path from kindergarten through college and into the workforce; one who can accommodate the quickly changing demographics of every state inside the rapidly developing global economy. Who could commission such a state office and create the mandate to build rather than renovate?

The only office that can rise above the thousand-pothole mentality and look at the whole education establishment in a state and do something about it is a governor. Left to their own devices, those further down the line, often influenced by many competing interests, are often incapable from an organizational and political point of view of looking at and acting on the whole picture.

The governors who are thinking architecturally are finding three enabling factors: enterprise technology, economic analysis, and organizational reengineering. There are clear efficiencies in using technology to not only collect and analyze data, but to apply what is known quickly and confidently to remedy problems, right down to individual teachers and students. But applying technology by itself is meaningless unless there are changes in the human organization that carries out education in all its many silos. And organizational reengineering is largely incomplete unless there are plans for how increased levels of education can bolster the workforce in ways that are more significant than simply stemming the tide of student and school failures.

Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan, and New Mexico have strong education governors committed to pre-K-20-workforce policies designed to use technology as an enabler. They are aware that the silos between different education segments and agencies must come down. For them, the information highway has to turn into a coherent education network where policies, practices and interactions can cross educational stakeholders as easily as an interstate traverses neighborhoods. Govs. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.), Janet Napolitano (D-Ariz.), and Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) were returned to office in November 2006; each took a stand on education as a centerpiece of their second terms. Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R-Ky.), who committed Kentucky to a realignment of its education and workforce capacity, will come to the end of his first term in 2007. Consider their work thus far:

? Arizona's Janet Napolitano created a pre-K-20 commission (pre-kindergarten through higher education) in Arizona to coordinate all the educational segments in that state and to drive toward a singular educational experience. "Here in Arizona, we're already making the investment today so our state can lead the global economy tomorrow and beyond," Napolitano has said. On the national scene, in announcing her first action as the current chair of the National Governors' Association, Napolitano stated that her personal project as chair will be to take Arizona's approach to the rest of the states in order "to educate our students to be innovators, and to carry that spirit of innovation through their university experience and into the workforce."

? Michigan's Jennifer Granholm perhaps went the furthest of her colleagues. In pushing through her state's first graduation requirements, Granholm put her support behind a high school graduation requirement that requires every student in the state to have an online learning experience. "When it comes to education, we will have one overarching goal: to become the best-educated workforce in the nation. To do that, we will give our children the tools they need to be successful in the classroom and in the 21st century economy." To make good on the online learning requirement in Michigan's sluggish economy, the Michigan Department of Education and Michigan Virtual High School have joined forces to offer a free online course entitled Career Forward. It explores the global economy, starting in ninth grade. "This course is an incredible 'two-fer,'" Gov. Granholm announced in March 2006. "It will help our students understand how to thrive in a changing economy, and it will teach them how to learn online, something they will need to do throughout their work lives."


? New Mexico's Bill Richardson, a likely presidential candidate, has made education New Mexico's top priority. Like his neighbor in Arizona, the investment is a comprehensive package for students, an integration of education units and singular statewide technology run out of the state CIO's office. "New Mexico high school graduates must be armed to compete for excellent jobs, not just here, but nationally and internationally," said Gov. Richardson after announcing a comprehensive high school redesign in May 2006. Richardson has reorganized the education structure in New Mexico, making the heads of K-12 and higher education the front pieces for the state's efforts all coordinated directly from his office.

? Kentucky's Ernie Fletcher has already spent years on the organizational realignment in his state. Getting every education and workforce unit on the same page has been difficult but rewarding. Run out of the statehouse, this effort puts Kentucky, the longest running of the pre-K-20-workforce taskforces, in a position to create a single technology, delivery and policy network spanning all of its state-funded stakeholders. Their collective goal is to raise the graduation rate and education level of Kentucky citizens so that they, like other more economically active states, can compete in the global economy. In August 2006, commending Virginia Fox, the outgoing the secretary of education, Fletcher said of the state's combined effort: "[Virginia] is an exceptional individual, and she has done a tremendous job helping me move Kentucky forward. Her tireless work has brought all of the Education Cabinet agencies much closer together, and the proof of her effort was visible in the successful 2006 General Assembly when many educational initiatives were approved."

The Herculean task of prodding the sedentary education machinery in our states must now evolve into even more. The next step for our governors is to develop well-crafted state education and human capital blueprints to make education systems match today's needs in the global economy. There is not enough money in any state treasury or local school district bank account to continue down the old path any longer.

Gordon Freedman is vice president of education strategy for Blackboard, Inc.