SCHOOLS OF INNOVATION:
LEARNING FAST TO IMPLEMENT
WELL
Office of Innovation for Education
December 9, 2014
Denise T. Airola
http://innovativeed.org
Schools of Innovation: Balancing Tension with Opportunity
Change—
innovation
efforts
Accountability
for outcomes
Improving
teaching
and
learning
Mission of the Office of Innovation for
Education
Change requires individuals and groups to trust
and to risk.
Our mission is to be partners with you in the
process—to help minimize the risk and maximize
the benefits to students, educators, and
communities.
It’s natural to be attached to memories of simpler
times in education…even as we expect that change
must come.
Often, what is not expected are the pace,
magnitude and multi-dimensionality of
change.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gK5MWQ__Ns
Innovation doesn’t mean you
abandon what is working or what
fits your community!
Where do you start?
Logistics: timing and requirements.
• Commissioner’s Memo 15-039 posted 11-18-14
• Technical Assistance PPT
http://www.arkansased.org/divisions/learningservices/schools-of-innovation
• January 30, 2015 submit to ADE for review and feedback
• March 16, 2015 final applications due.
• Don’t forget course approval deadlines!
Form Your Council of Innovation: Don’t
try to go it alone!
• Generate innovative ideas and proposals of its own;
• Determine a method for requesting innovative ideas and
proposals from school employees, community members,
and other stakeholders to be submitted to the council;
• Survey, focus groups, informal interviews (one-legged) 
• Receive innovative ideas and proposals from school
employees, community members, and other stakeholders;
• Consider all innovative ideas and proposals submitted by
community members and other stakeholders; and
• Determine the content and format of the plan that will be
voted on by the eligible employees.
Act 601
Focus Beyond Compliance
Establish a Shared Definition of “Innovation”
• Means leveraging new or unproven methods
or tools to improve practice or solve persistent
Problems;
• Includes identifying tools or practices from
another field to be applied in a new context;
• Often represents an entirely new way of
Thinking;
• Has no rules: There is no “right” or “wrong”
way to innovate; and,
• Always forces important choices and
trade-offs.
Duty & Kern, 2014, So You Think You Want to Innovate?
http://www.2revolutions.net/news/2Rev-TLA_Assessing_Culture_of_Innovation.pdf
Duty & Kern, 2014, So You Think You Want to Innovate?
http://www.2revolutions.net/news/2Rev-TLA_Assessing_Culture_of_Innovation.pdf
Seven Factors Driving Innovation
Duty & Kern, 2014, So You Think You Want to Innovate?
http://www.2revolutions.net/news/2Rev-TLA_Assessing_Culture_of_Innovation.pdf
Duty & Kern, 2014, So You Think You Want to Innovate?
http://www.2revolutions.net/news/2Rev-TLA_Assessing_Culture_of_Innovation.pdf
Getting the Right Fit is Key to Success
Early innovators’ lessons learned:
1. Figure out what, or whose, needs you are trying to
meet with the innovation.
2. Figure out your innovative learning solution before you
select your technology.
3. Consider student fit, teacher fit and leader fit—one
size does not fit all!
4. Monitor and measure your efforts and results.
For more details go to:
http://www.innovativeed.org/getting-right-fit-key-successfulinnovation/
How do you feel about the opportunity?
Design?
Dream?
Dread?
Schools of
Innovation
Source: 2revolutions Future of Learning available at http://www.2revolutions.net/index.html
Innovative Design Parameters: Anchor Design
in Core Principles
Source: 2revolutions Future of Learning available at http://www.2revolutions.net/index.html
Levers for Building: Key categories for
innovating learning models
Source: 2revolutions Future of Learning available at http://www.2revolutions.net/index.html
How might you innovate to allow for more
overlap among these program sectors to
expand learning opportunities?
Source: 2revolutions Future of Learning available at http://www.2revolutions.net/index.html
*Ackoff on Improving Systems
• Performance of the system depends on how the parts
fit in the system, not on the parts individually.
• Improve the parts only to improve the whole.
• Improvement must be directed at what you want—not
at what you don’t want.
• “What could you do right now if you could do whatever you
want?” The constraints are introduced later!
• What are the parts of your system and how well are
they working together? What could you do to improve
the system?
*Shared in training ADE training PPT for SOI
Where should you focus your innovation?
• Start by understanding your system.
• Use your data to understand what is working and not
working well in your current system.
• Achievement data: strengths, concerns, gaps,
opportunities
• Perceptual data: students, staff, parents, community
• Satisfaction with opportunities, choices,
responsiveness
• Perceived support and resources
• Perceived engagement
• Behavioral data: engagement, attendance, tardiness,
management and discipline, health, etc.
HOW DO YOU DECIDE ON
SCOPE AND SCALE?
Learning Fast to Implement Well
Improving: Joining improvement science
to networked communities
• Anthony S. Bryk, The Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching
• Education—We move fast and learn slow
• Need a shift—Learning fast to implement well
• Engage in disciplined inquiry
• Learn fast, fail fast, improve fast
Learning to Improve
Current
Situation
Capacity
Resistant
Indifferent Ready
Low
Confidence:
Good idea,
but how do
we make it
work?
High
Confidence:
Good Idea,
we can
make it
work!
Limited
Capacity
Very Small Very Small Small Scale
Scale Test Scale Test Test
Good Base
Capacity
Very Small Small Scale Modest
Scale Test Test
Scale Test
Limited
Capacity
Small Scale Modest
Test
Scale Test
Good Base
Capacity
Modest
Scale Test
Large Scale
Test
Large Scale Implement
Test
WideSpread
Office of Innovation’s Role
Resource for exploring, investigating, and
designing ideas and opportunities for
innovation.
• Connecting you to others doing/pursuing
similar opportunities.
• Facilitating your design process.
• Researching and sharing conditions that
support successful innovative solutions for
students.
What we’re investigating:
 Blended Learning Opportunities &
Challenges
 Personalizing instruction (pace, path,
preference options)
 Digital content & learning management
systems
 Competency-Based Education: Who is
doing what and with what kind of results?
 Reimagining college and career readiness
and connecting to relevance.
QUESTIONS
Contact Us!
OIE Phone: (479) 575-4499
email: oie@uark.edu
website: http://innovativeed.org