Running head: FUTURE OF EDUCATION CASE STUDY 1

Future of Education Case Study

Starr Levy

Post University
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Future of Education Case Study

Introduction

Democracy Prep Public Schools hold the potential to change the course of today’s

education for the better by virtue of their life-changing curriculum. Evidence of this claim is clearly

visible in the impressive growth trajectory of the institutions within this network. The Democratic

Prep Public Schools is a network of 24 schools and 2 K-12 programs that cumulatively add up to

a total of 5500 students (Our Schools-Democracy Prep, 2017). The network comprises public

charter schools in operation in the following areas:

1. New York City;

2. Camden;

3. Baton Rogue;

4. The District of Columbia;

5. New Jersey.

Essentially, this network of institutions operates on the basis of open-enrollment across all

the levels between kindergarten through high school (Our Schools-Democracy Prep, 2017).

Remarkably, despite the numerous ways in which public schools stand at a disadvantage compared

to the private institutions, the Democracy Prep Public Schools' performance rivals that of exclusive

private schools according to facts and figures on the network's website. Although 99% of the

students are people of color and 18% are special students, all are enrolled through a random lottery

and get equal access to the following opportunities:

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1. Participation in community activities;

2. Value-creating and experience-enhancing school events like the Inaugurations Ceremony

for students in New York;

3. Civic engagement activities including speech programs, debate programs, public speaking,

and music competition events among others.

4. Cultivation of personal, life, and professional skills through the motto “Work Hard, Go to

College, Change the World.”

From the above facts, it is clear that the adoption of Democracy Prep Public Schools could be the

key to a bright future for education.

History: Past and Present

According to the network’s official website, the school program began only 9 years ago

(2008) with a handful of students from the sixth grade. Less than a decade later, the program has

about 5,500 students across several states and across all ethnicities and ages for high school and

below. However, understanding that the program is composed of charter schools, it is correct to

argue that it targets students from middle and low-income families. This is because most charter

schools are established by communities in conjunction with a local government body and, although

publicly funded, these institutions remain independent. This is to say that most schools within the

Democracy Prep Public Schools network subsist on public funds like grants and donations, which

makes them appropriate for students from middle and low-income families (Our Schools-

Democracy Prep, 2017).

The humble beginnings of the program led to the misinterpretation of intention: that the

school targeted the low-income people and could, therefore, not provide high-quality education.
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However, as of 2016, 755 students were making it to college successfully. In addition, the number

of branches in the network keeps proliferating, with New York even having some private schools

within its network. Explicably, 89% of the alumni are enrolled in college, with 80% of the

graduates from these schools being admitted to the most selective colleges (Our Schools-

Democracy Prep, 2017). The undeniably high performance of these schools is the main reason

why the networks are growing rapidly and also proof of the fact that the program could immensely

and very positively impact future education.

Trends in Education

The schools are attracting funding and aid from both private sectors and the federal policy

makers. For instance, the fall of 2012 saw the schools get a grant from the United States

Department of Education that would enable the expansion of the network into 25 schools.

Demonstrably, the funding has boosted the quality of education in a number of ways. Most

remarkably, where the schools are heavily dependent on volunteer services from willing education

professionals due to shortness of funding, the schools can afford professional teachers, which is a

valid explanation for the ever-increasing quality of education. Evidence of this is noted in the high

statistics of performance above.

The curriculum of the schools is highly distinct and thorough and a big part of the general

success of the program. With equal portions of time allocated for math, science, Korean, and

history each day, the program guarantees that the students leave when all-rounded, which is one

of the main explanations why 95% of all students who leave the schools go on to earn a rigorous

diploma (Our Schools-Democracy Prep, 2017). Inferring from this and the statistics in the second

section above, it is correct to say that as a creator of potential college graduates, the Democracy
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Prep Public School network is up to 90% efficient. This is a very impressive figure, but

improvements can still be made.

Continuing the argument above, the promise exhibited by the institutions makes it

necessary to examine how the performance of the institutions can be boosted even further. In NMC

Horizon Report: 2016 Higher Education Edition, Johnson et al. (2016) point out that there are two

main technologies that will sustain and even improve education systems in the future. These are

internet technologies and learning technologies. Each of these technologies has been examined in

brief below:

a. Internet Technologies

These technologies are critical for education for two main reasons:

i. They provide research platforms of the learners.

ii. They provide a means for students to network in the context of learning.

For the case of the Democracy Prep schools, a wide range of Web 2.0 applications applicable

between kindergarten and high school is relevant. This could be anything from online creativity

sites like Glogster for children or class websites for high school seniors. In the article, the

researchers argue for the importance of using internet technologies in a number of

observations, but most assertively in the view that, “More colleges and universities are taking

advantage of the vast affordances enabled by digital tools, such as more ubiquitous Internet

connectivity and on-the-go learning opportunities." (Johnson et al., 2016, p. 21). Obviously,

the Democracy Prep Schools need to emulate this concept in order to make its students wholly

prepared for college.

b. Learning Technologies
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Learning technologies are said to, “…include both tools and resources developed expressly for

the education sector, as well as pathways of development that may include tools adapted from

other purposes that are matched with strategies to make them useful for learning.” (Johson et

al., 2016, p. 34). As implied in the definition above, learning technologies unique to these

schools are a prerequisite for the maximum exploitation of the potential of these institutions.

In relation to the issue of learning technologies, it is important to point out that while the

schools do not have much to show insofar as learning technologies are concerned, there are

programs, that is, learning tools, that work in very impressive alignment with the goals and vision

of the schools. Specifically, the motto of the schools is “‘Educate responsible citizen-scholars for

success in the college of their choice and a life of active citizenship" (Our Schools-Democracy

Prep, 2017). This motto is very well practised in three programs which serve as tools for learning

beyond the classroom context, specifically with respect to the important modules of responsible

and active citizenship:

1. The Alumni Relations Program

This program facilitates a smooth and active tenure of Democracy Prep graduates through

college by connecting one alumnus with the next and, in so doing, building a valuable

network of professionals committed to personal and collective social excellence.

2. The Civics Program

This program gives the learners the tools to engage in civic activities in their communities

while still young, thereby giving them a real-life experience of the civics knowledge gained

in class.

3. The Leader U program

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The Leader U program is a training program dedicated to the nurturing of leadership talents

and abilities where they exist and imparting them into young learners where they do not.

All these programs lend an extra edge to classroom learning and function as effective tools with

which the learners can maneuver the world beyond 12th grade.

In full acknowledgment of the above facts, credit must be given to the Democracy Prep

Public Schools for the thoroughness of their curriculum and their investment in out-of-class

learning tools. So far, the schools seem to be doing particularly well because of these

implementations. Even then, the incorporation of more internet and class technologies will be the

capping modification that this program needs to achieve perfection. Hence, the futuring techniques

for Democracy Prep Public schools must be examined keenly and laid out with focus on the above

technologies for the sake of the sustained educational performance in these institutions.

Futuring Techniques

Futuring has been described as a process through which an individual systematically

visualizes and plans for the future (Kirkwood, 2017). Specifically, the future landscape is

constructed as an extrapolation of current events and states of affairs so that studying the current

trends becomes a necessity for the futuring process. In the context of the Democracy Prep schools,

futuring applies to how the schools should modify their structure and operation to accommodate

large numbers of students in the near future. This is a prediction from current indicators of

accelerated growth of the schools in the network.

Putting into context the resources available and the value anticipated from the process—the

schools need to expand as much as possible due to a notably high growth in student numbers—the

following two approaches of futuring will be used:

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1. Scanning: This is a survey of sources of information with respect to trends (Kirkwood,

2017). This approach will be applied to the Democracy Prep schools by gathering

information on future trends in technology and learning tools while also factoring in

projected rises in student populations to come up with approximate statistical figures of the

changes needed.

2. Scenario Planning: Scenario planning entails the analyzing of a future situation from

existing information and preparing in advance for a scenario anticipated or targeted for

(Kirkwood, 2017). In the contexts of these schools, scenario planning will be done by

examining increase rates in student population, performance of and changes in financial

streams, as well as internet and learning tools currently in place. From this information, a

construction of the future position of the schools will be achieved and then juxtaposed

against the vision and goals of the schools to know what to change and adjust in order to

stay within this vision.

Vision

In spite of the fact that the Democracy Prep schools have achieved much in such a short

span, it holds that they can achieve more if the right moves are made with respect to learning and

internet technologies as well as thorough execution of the futuring techniques mentioned above.

a. Democracy Prep Schools Organization and Operation in Five Years

In half a decade, the following moves should have long been implemented across

institutions in the Democracy Prep Schools network:

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i. Active use of smart technology in classrooms across all levels. This will include

smartboards from kindergarten through middle school and computers as well as

websites in junior and senior high school for academic research.

ii. Interactive teacher-student internet technologies to ease communication between

teachers and learners and sustain a personal relationship between the two;

iii. Development/availing of learning tools specific to Democracy Prep schools, including

programs for more affordable technological gadgets since most students are from low-

income families;

iv. Increased engagement between citizen-scholar programs and local civics institutions,

most notably local city halls and state capitols.

b. Rationale for the Visualization in a. Above

Each of the four operational propositions above has a rationale for it as explained in the

respective paragraphs below:

i. The active use of smart technology in class is informed by the simple fact that Web 2.0.

is the future of both in-class and at-home learning (Johnson et al., 2016). The

proliferation of class-targeting and learning-specific digital and smart technologies has

seen a lot of schools adopt the use of these technologies in classes. This means that

Democracy Prep schools will have to evolve with the times.

ii. Closely related to i. above, the use of technology makes it easy for learners to stay in

contact with teachers—not necessarily class teachers but tutors in general—and find

help, for instance, when doing their own preps over the weekend. This can be seen in

the innumerable homework assistance websites that are immensely helpful as research

sites (Johnson et al., 2016).

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iii. The driving force for scenario iii. above is simple economics. As Scearce and Fulton

(2004) observe, economics, like any other factor, must be looked at in order for a

futuristic move to be proposed, and, in this case, most of the students are poor. The

situation is not likely to change in the short run. Hence, the expensive nature of some

of the technological gadgets needed may call for the schools to step in and, for instance,

get standard classroom tablets at subsidized prices instead of letting students get their

own gadgets, a process that will be problematic due to different economic standing

among students.

iv. The programs for Leader U and civics allow only a once-a-year visit to important civics

and leadership places and events like state capitols and city halls (Our Schools-

Democracy Prep, 2017). This is not enough to teach a learner valuable lessons, and

there is need to significantly reduce time spent between visits.

c. Challenges and Opportunities

The changes proposed above will not come easy, and there will be challenges to

implementing the propositions above. However, there are many benefits that will accrue in the

event where this Future vision is successfully implemented:

Challenges

i. Scenario and What If thinking is always a calculated risk, and there is no guarantee that

scenarios will turn out as projected (Mietzner & Reger, 2005). Hence, the schools may
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have to make expensive financial and even operational adjustments where scenarios

fail to be accurate.

ii. The schools are mostly charter organizations. Hence, irregularity of funding makes it

hard to plan accurately or, at least, with absolute surety of implementation

(Scearce&Fulton, 2004).

iii. The increasing number of students complicates operations already. If changes are to be

made, it will be doubly complicated to handle them successfully.

iv. Sustaining performance with increasing challenges in administration is hard.

v. The changes will mean more funding, which will be difficult because most parents are

in the low-income group.

Opportunities

i. There will be increased student-based learning with internet technologies.

ii. The leadership and citizen scholar programs will be fruitful because learners will have

more hands-on experience after dealing first-hand in civics with actual leaders.

iii. There will be sustained student-to-student and student-to-teacher communication in the

context of learning.

iv. Students will be better prepared for the 21st-century techno-savvy job market.

v. Students will be better suited for the extensive use of technology in education in

college.

d. Potential Dangers in the Event Where the Organization Does Not Evolve
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In the event where the schools in the Democracy Prep Schools network fail to implement the

changes above, there are three things that will most likely happen:

1. The schools will lose their competitive touch because technology is becoming more and

more important in classrooms and out-of-class learning and may be fully integrated in most

curriculums soon.

2. The schools will start producing under-prepared graduates for college because of point 1.

above.

3. Finally, and most critically, the organization will be unable to produce meaningful leaders

because of the gradual decline in the efficiency of its leadership programs due to bad time-

management for field engagements among the citizen-scholars.

Plan for Change

The changes outlined above will be easy to achieve if the organization puts the following

measures in place early enough:

1. Start doing research on the most popular and student-friendly means of technology used in

Web 2.0. in order to set a framework for implementation of these internet technologies as

soon as possible;

2. Increase the funding base in light of the high cost that comes with improving some of the

areas of the curriculum, notably acquisition of the internet technologies;

3. Evaluate the current curriculum and examine time allotted for class work against time for

leadership programs in order to know what trade-offs to make in favor of the latter;
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4. Encourage parents through periodical parent events to start making efforts to guide their

children into becoming better versed with Web. 2.0. in order to ease the integration of

internet technologies into the system;

5. To start analyzing existing physical resources and plan for expansion in anticipation of

increased student numbers.

Call to Action

As a necessary yet preliminary move to the immense changes in operations outlined above,

the schools should start by forming an online forum on which students, parents, and facilitators of

the program can all interact. The number of parties and amount of work involved in running the

schools is too immense to conduct basic arrangements through general meetings. Hence, along

with stakeholder meetings, parent-teacher liaisons, and appeals to the federal government and

other facilitators for funding, an online interactive website should run at all times to gather data,

opinions, and attitudes towards the best way forward as expressed by students, parents, teachers,

and other stakeholders. In this way, efforts for the improvement of the Democracy Prep School

program will kick off based on real-time information.

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Works Cited

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Estrada, V., Freeman, A., and Hall, C. (2016).

NMC Horizon Report: 2016 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media

Consortium. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2016-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN.pdf

Kirkwood, H. (2017). Retrieved 4 March 2017, from Futuring - strategy, system, examples,

advantages, model, disadvantages, system. (2017). Referenceforbusiness.com. Retrieved 4 March

2017, from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Ex-Gov/Futuring.html

Mietzner, D. & Reger, G. (2005). Advantages and disadvantages of scenario approaches for

strategic foresight. International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 1(2), 220.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijtip.2005.006516

Our Schools - Democracy Prep. (2017). Democracy Prep. Retrieved 4 March 2017, from

http://democracyprep.org/schools/

Scearce, D. & Fulton, K. (2004). What If? The Art of Scenario Thinking for Nonprofits (1st ed.,

pp. 5-119). Global Business Network Community. Retrieved from

http://monitorinstitute.com/downloads/what-we-think/what-if/What_If.pdf