A Unique Alliance with a Different Mission Over the past two years, the Council of Chief State School

Officers (CCSSO) has been engaged in an intensive effort to chart a course to transform our public education system. To bring this vision to reality, CCSSO has formed an alliance with the Stupski Foundation to create the Partnership for Next Generation Learning. The goal of the Partnership is to create a personalized system of education that engages and motivates each studentregardless of his or her circumstanceto be prepared for life, meaningful work, and citizenship. The Partnership was formally launched at the CCSSO Annual Policy Forum in November 2009. Founding members CCSSO and Stupski seek to expand the Partnership with innovators who bring intellectual capital, financial resources, public will, and a range of other assets to this unprecedented opportunity for our nation. Through bold leadership and innovation, the Partnership will create replicable, scalable implementations of next generation learning. The collective action of state education officials will be the engine that drives the design of new systems and influences state and federal policy to sustain those systems. What Problem Are We Trying to Solve? The design of public education in our nation today is no longer aligned with the needs of the country. CCSSOs Transforming Education: Delivering on Our Promise to Every Child strategic agenda calls for a new education systemone that is designed around the fundamental premise that we will provide each and every child with personalized learning experiences leading to success. If our children are to succeed in a world that is increasingly diverse, globalized, and technology-rich, they require learning experiences and environments for learning that are radically different from those the current system was designed to deliver. Students must be prepared to meet the expectations of the changed world as they transition to college and career, and develop identity as successful life-long learners to grow as productive citizens of the United States and the world. There are many examplesin this country and abroad, in both formal P-12 education and other sectors of what transformative learning looks like. Unfortunately, these examples remain exceptions rather than the norm. We are still falling short of wholly systemic transformation because existing federal, state, and local systems are not conducive to fostering innovation and making transformative shifts to new policy. Our challenge is to change the national conversation about how to improve educational outcomes. Although many are working to improve various elements of the current system, the Partnership for NxGL is ready to engage those who are prepared to shift energy, time, and investment away from fixing what we have toward creating the public education system that we need. Part of the solution to the problem lies in finding people and organizations outside the traditional education sector who are willing to commit to the vision set forth by chief state school officers and assist in making this transformation a reality for all students.

Partnership for Next Generation Learning-Innovation Lab NetworkAugust 2010

What Is Our Theory of Action? The Partnership will spark a powerful broad-based transformation through the establishment of state-based Innovation Labs connected through a network across states. This Innovation Lab Network has already begun to employ collective state action to create proof pointsor tangible manifestationsof scalable state and district systems that deliver the educational outcomes we seek. Together, these proof points will allow us to develop a framework for a coherent set of systems that are capable of scaling up and sustaining next generation learning efficiently and effectively. The Innovation Lab Network will transfer knowledge among the states about the elements of those systems, the state and local conditions in which they were created, and the capacities that were needed to design and bring them to fruition. The Innovation Lab Network will use that knowledge to influence policy at all levels to create incentives for systems change as well as disincentives for maintaining the status quo. We will use key influencers and policy makers at all levels to support and spread innovations and to build public will for the infusion of next generation learning throughout the states. In this way, we will gradually shift the balance to an education system that is centered on the learner and is wholly aligned to the civic, social, and economic needs of the nation. Where Do We Begin? In collaboration with CCSSO, chief state school officers have identified a set of critical attributes that form the foundation of the student experience they seek to make ubiquitous for all learners. The attributes spring from three primary sources that did not exist or were not relevant when the current system of education was designed: a deepened understanding of the process of learning, greater knowledge of socio-cultural factors in learning, and recognition that the world has changed. The attributes are not program strategies. Rather, they serve as a set of design principles for systems change. Grounded in a solid base of research and best practice from around the world, the attributes are: Personalizing learning, which calls for a data-driven framework to set goals, assess progress, and ensure students receive the academic and developmental supports they need; Comprehensive systems of learning supports, which address social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development along a continuum of services to ensure the success of all students; World-class knowledge and skills, which require achievement goals to sufficiently encompass the content knowledge and skills required for success in a globally-oriented world; Performance-based learning, which puts students at the center of the learning process by enabling the demonstration of mastery based on high, clear, and commonly-shared expectations; Anytime, everywhere opportunities, which provide constructive learning experiences in all aspects of a childs life, through both the geographic and the Internet-connected community; and Authentic student voice, which is the deep engagement of students in directing and owning their individual learning and shaping the nature of the education experience among their peers.

Partnership for Next Generation Learning-Innovation Lab NetworkAugust 2010

How Are We Proceeding? In April 2010, the Partnership selected six pioneering statesKentucky, Maine, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsinwho demonstrated readiness and capacity to establish an Innovation Lab and made a five-year commitment to take their transformation efforts to scale. Each Innovation Lab is comprised of the state education agency, one or more districts, and constituent schools, as well as key partners, including early childhood programs, postsecondary institutions, community organizations, and others. In addition to state Innovation Labs, the Innovation Lab Network includes 12 Affiliate membersstate education agencies interested in being part of the Innovation Lab Network learning community. The Network will grow as more Labs come online and the innovations within and across states move to scale.

In May 2010, teams from the initial cohort of six Innovation Labs convened to begin their journey toward system redesign. While each state team brought forward distinct areas of focus, shared goals began to emerge across the Labs. It is those goals that will form the foundation for the collective transformation agenda. Although each Innovation Lab will be working initially in only one or a few districts and schools, all Lab sites will pursue implementation of the critical attributes to lead to the design of new systems for next-generation learning. Through the Innovation Lab Network, states will share their work, engage in mutual solution-building, access national and international expertise, and benefit from a robust knowledge platform. The Innovation Lab Network will formally launch on the national stage in October 2010. The Innovation Lab Network is focused on supporting and driving action at the Innovation Lab Network level. Chief state school officers and the agencies they lead have parallel responsibilities to remove barriers, cause change, and provide supports to innovators within their states. As the Labs are established and implementation begins, traditional structures will still be in place and states will need to ensure that those structures do not hinder innovation. As the Innovation Lab Network takes root, it will be essential that states and the public develop a collective understanding about where incremental work ends and true transformation begins. This will require that the Innovation Labs accept responsibility for exploring and challenging the validity and appropriateness of all elements of the current system. Although they are the norm today, each piece of the structureincluding the SEA itselfmay need to change.

Partnership for Next Generation Learning-Innovation Lab NetworkAugust 2010

Chief state school officers will need to ask questions about the most fundamental aspects of public education in their states. Organizational structures and roles, teacher and leader development, funding, standards and accountability, how learning is credentialed, technology, data systems, assessment, facilities, and all other facets of the current system will be subject to consideration of their value to a system centered on the learner. How Will the Partnership for NxGL Support the Innovation Lab Network? To support states in this game-changing endeavor to achieve the goal of transforming education into a studentcentered, personalized learning system, CCSSO, the Stupski Foundation, and other members of the Partnership will serve the Innovation Lab Network by providing and enabling the following key activities: 1. Collective state action to ensure sustainability and support for new system implementation and public will-building; 2. Information sharing for change through an open-architected knowledge platform to enable the Innovation Labs to learn from new research and one another; 3. Innovation design expertise from various national and international sectors to co-develop new system infrastructures; 4. System design tools to assist in the transition to new systems at the state and district levels and to develop change management processes for leaders; and 5. Research, development, and dissemination (RD&D) agenda to conduct rigorous analyses of existing examples of next generation learning and synthesize what is learned. Creating a Culture of Innovation and Scaling Up The conditions are right to bring action to the rhetoric of system change. Theoretical discussions are quickly moving to implementation in the Innovation Labs and across the dynamic learning community of the Innovation Lab Network. These efforts will provide the proof points for scaling this work to meet the needs of every student. The initial cohort of Innovation Labs and Affiliates are represented by education leaders committed to transforming their educational systems for the benefit of each child. Through their workand the support of a broader network of experts and partnersthe Innovation Lab Network will foster the increasing culture of system transformation and scale learner-centric education systems throughout the country. For More Information To learn how to become part of this unique opportunity, please contact Lois Adams-Rodgers (loisar@ccsso.org) or Linda Pittenger (lindap@ccsso.org) CCSSO Co-Directors, Partnership for Next Generation Learning. You may also contact Ted Stilwill, Innovation Lab Network Director, at ted.stilwill@nxgl.org.

Partnership for Next Generation Learning-Innovation Lab NetworkAugust 2010