Written by Jessica Brown jbrown@bif.is
“We are in a time of great innovation.. and a time of great divides.” It sounds like the beginning of a great hero’s story, and in a way it is.
Our education landscape is at a crossroads. Too many students— often those who are marginalized based on race, ability, class etc.— are being left out or pushed out of the classroom. In response, we have created ambitious goals that seek to redesign our system— but often we aren’t fundamentally changing how we work or collaborate in order to reach these goals. As Eli MacLaren, BIF’s Chief Market Maker, mentioned in her recent blog post, the education system is fragmented by design and if we aren’t intentional it will stay that way.
One cohort working to change that is the Integration Design Consortium (IDC), a group brought together by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and facilitated by the Business Innovation Factory. The IDC exists to enable greater integration within education in order to increase equitable outcomes for students.
(Full panel discussion with the IDC)
This podcast is moderated by Eli and features: Molly McMahon from the Teachers Guild, Hailly Korman from Bellwether Education Partners, Alissa Peltzmann from Education First, Todd Kern from 2Revolutions, and David Garfunkel from FSG. Throughout the discussion, folks hit on important challenges, curiosities, and considerations for the education field. Our calls to action are clear:
- Innovate and integrate in service of a more equitable education system — [and know that innovation is only valuable as it affects things that matter in the lives of kids]
- Solve the toughest problems and hold ourselves accountable to results
- Iterate quickly and intentionally
- Embody a human-centered approach to problem-solving that prep our students to solve the complex problems of tomorrow
(Insights from Molly McMahon with the Teachers Guild)
(Insights from Todd Kern from 2Revolutions)
This story is full of complex challenges, a willingness to do things differently, and shared responsibility and urgency. We look forward to sharing the progress and ongoing learnings from this work. Let us know what resonates with your work!
