The Visioning Institute

The Visioning Institute


What is the Visioning Institute Document?

The Public Education Visioning Institute was the work and ideas of thirty-five public school superintendents who came together as a community of learners to create a new vision for public education in Texas. As the representatives of over 1.2 million students, frustration set in on the current direction of public schools. The only meaningful way to address the issues and challenge underlying assumptions was to define and express a vision, based on relevant beliefs, principles, and premises.

Major Conceptual Themes:
Why a New Direction and Why Now?-
The core business of schools is to provide engaging, appropriate experiences for students so that they learn and are able to apply their knowledge in ways that will enrich their lives and ensure their well-being.

Engaging the Digital Generation-
To keep students fully engaged, schools must adapt to this new and rapidly changing environment by embracing the potential of new technologies making optimum use of the digital services and connections that are prevalent today to make learning vibrant and stimulating for all.

New Learning Standards for a New Era-
A transformed system that meets the diverse needs of students in a digital environment demands new learning standards. Standards should reflect the realities of an age and recognized are not just consumers of knowledge; they can be creators of knowledge as well.

From Misuse of Standardized Tests to Unleashing the Power of Assessment-
Appropriate and varied assessment using multiple tools for different purposes must move assessment from the present “autopsy” model to one that more resembles a “daily check-up,” which continuously identifies student’s strengths, interests, motivations, accomplishments, and other information necessary so that teachers can design the learning experiences that will best meet each student’s needs.

Accountability that Inspires-
The present accountability system has created schools in which the curriculum is narrowed and only academic abilities are valued. Students become expert test takers but cannot retain or apply what they “know” in a context other than the test environment; and creativity, problem solving, and teamwork are stifled.

Transforming our Schools to Learning Organizations-
Schools must be transformed from their current bureaucratic form, characterized by rules and sanctions, punitive accountability systems, routines, and standardizations where only the mundane is standardized and the standards are used to nurture aspirations and accommodate human variables. Learning organizations capture the learning of adults, share it, and support its application so that capacities to improve student learning are extraordinary.

Saying No to Remote Control-
The shift in power in setting education policy from the local community to the state and federal government has resulted in a system where schools feel more accountable to the Legislature than to their communities. A more balanced and reinvigorated state-local partnership is needed to create a type of schools that can best provide the learning experiences to help students succeed in today’s world.

Please comment on your first thoughts to these conceptual themes………..