A plan!

For about 9 months now (how symbolic...) I have been looking at the state of education, trying to figure out what is wrong with it and how to bring the education system up to speed with life outside the system. From the very beginning, some people around me expected me to know what I plan to do. But I was only in the beginning of learning the current status, and I was careful not to have a plan too early.

A few months later, I already felt I have some initial level of understanding about what's going on, and even a few opinions about directions for improvement. It was clear that some form of central regulation will be necessary: Probably different than what we have in most countries, but it still has to be there. It was also clear that ongoing systematic research is part of any picture if the system is to keep up with a rapidly changing society. I also started thinking about the need for freedom of choice regarding the types of school we wend our kids to, going towards more of a market economy in education. To the disappointment of some people around me, I still had no plan regarding how to get from the current state of affairs to a more desirable one.

In the past few months, even I started to expect myself to generate a plan - a roadmap - for getting from here to there. The current state is clear enough, and is very far from any desired state I can think of. The desired state seems to have three main pillars: A market economy of school options, a central regulation system which is minimal and strict, and ongoing research supported by all players. Building such a tripod so it's accepted and self sustaining is a very-long-term project: Decades. I don't know how to make a plan for 20-30 years, and so far I haven't found anyone who does know. Still looking.

But one can make definite progress even without a specific plan specifying every step. Anyway such grand plans tend to change considerably through months and years of friction between the plan and reality. Creating a market economy of schools would take a serious change in the attitude of the political system in almost every country - way too difficult without a good plan. Creating an alternative education system may be less difficult, since it's more technical. But there is still much political involvement and social beliefs issues here. The public relations challenge makes it a tough target. So regulation is not a great first target. Research is the third main pillar, and it may be the best candidate.

Research is not a new idea. Universities all over the world conduct educational research. Research journals publish educational research. Education establishments make incremental changes according to research. Frustration about the limitations of such research is being expressed and discussed. Doing something about research would not be like entering a completely new field, and should not generate nearly as much opposition as the other issues discussed above. Another advantage of working to improve research is that doing this doesn't commit anyone to being a revolutionary, which is not in everybody's comfort zone. Research is well within the consensus.

So Research it is.

The plan for the next 2 years is to create FIRE: Facilitation Institute for Research in Education (temporary name; suggestions are welcome), along the lines described in the previous entry. As can be understood from the name, this institute is not in itself a research institute, but it concentrates on facilitating research done by others - those already inclined to conduct research. The aim is to remove obstacles and make it easier to conduct research.

Resources put into the institute will be leveraged several times so they are going to have a great bang/buck ratio: A dollar (Euro? RMB? ounce of gold?) and a work-hour put into the FIRE can help, for example, to validate a questionnaire. This validated questionnaire can help a student convince a professor that a certain worthy line of research is feasible, thereby attracting several dollars and many work-hours for the research itself. If this worthy research, together with others that follow it, has actionable results, it may attract may more dollars from the state in pushing a change in even a small aspect of how education is pursued. If successful, the effect on society is difficult to break down into dollars and hours, but after the several levels of leverage, the potential effect for every unit of investment in FIRE is gratifyingly significant.

FIRE in itself should steer clear of any agenda or opinion regarding education. But we should accept the fact that many of those who want research to be done, do have their agenda. This is fine, as long as FIRE can make sure the research and the results are not bent towards the preconceived interests. To allow parties with inherent interest to support and enjoy the facility, FIRE should provide a mechanism for donors to donate money towards specific research or specific lines of research. The mechanism should include careful accounting to make sure the donation goes in the specified direction, and that the donors get their due recognition for their donation, together with transparent traceability between interests and research supported by the interests.

Creating FIRE as a one-stop-shop for supporting educational research: All of the above under the same roof, or at least in a group of affiliated organizations, sharing information among them. This is the work plan for 2010-2011.

This can also be the subject of the next book.