February 1, 2016

Public education faces enormous challenges, especially in urban school districts. But we often forget that public education represents one of this country’s greatest successes, an example of incredibly rapid scaling to advance literacy, knowledge, and skills across an entire country. In 1910, less than 10% of Americans had a high school diploma, by 1940 it was 50%, and today it's around 90%. But the standard, industrial model and curriculum that scaled primary and secondary education to these successes also makes it extremely difficult to iterate and advance as our understanding of successful teaching practices and learning improves.

In other domains we’ve become accustomed to such large scale, rapid iteration, particularly through new technology and automation. But education no longer fits that kind of industrial model, and advances don’t just happen by introducing new tools and devices in the classroom. It requires teachers and administrators who can assess the difference between technologies and practices that can be used to truly advance learning from those that are a rehash of the same methods, just with shiny new devices.

This relies upon educators having a solid, fundamental understanding of technology, and right now we don’t have enough teachers with the background and training necessary to take advantage of the opportunities that technology brings. This month we’ve learned about the DragonsTeach program, which offers a new pathway for Drexel students to explore teaching, expanding the pool of potential teachers to students pursuing STEM fields (that’s Science,Tech, Engineering, and Math). It builds upon knowledge developed through other projects, such as our GK-12 program connecting graduate students in STEM with Philadelphia high school teachers and classrooms. These efforts will be coordinated through the new Drexel Center for Advanced STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence, or CASTLE, to integrate our efforts in higher education with those in K-12.

At the ExCITe Center, we believe teachers and administrators need to be empowered as program developers. They should be continually seeking, testing, and adopting new tools and methods to improve their practices. One way we try to facilitate this is through the multidisciplinary framework of STEAM (integrating the STEM fields with Arts & Design). This month, we’re hosting our second annual STEAM Education Workshop on February 15, bringing together teachers and administrators to highlight new approaches and to learn from one another. It will be a fantastic program and everyone is welcome to join us (visit our website, drexel.edu/excite, for more information). We believe this workshop is one way we can start to rethink scalability and iteration for education for the future.

Youngmoo Kim, Director