Mental ModelsMichael: How many of you feel that emotions are connection to learning?  About a third of the group.

That will very much impact what you’re comfortable with and what you’ll se in terms of what’s possible. Our mental models impact what we can see and what we can’t see. It is a fact that the brain gets deaf, dumb and blind if we get fixated on a certain way of seeing the world. We actually can’t perceive other options.

So if we have a third of the room seeing the world a certain way that’s going to impact what we’ll do today and how your work will carry out. We don’t need to resolve that but I do want to make the invisible visible. My own bias is that where this becomes more important is for example, in talking about partnerships; each of our interpretations will be different based on our belief systems. So the way of teaching, or even having a need for teaching, will be challenged by how you believe. This will affect how you implement your ideas.

The push that I’m making is connected to the scariness of making the leap, making learning flat, or innovation, and I’m pushing you to let yourself go. Today is relatively safe. Tomorrow may be a little less safe because you’ll realize that this is very big.

So off to the factual stuff: The Perkins Grant.

Perkins Grant Context

Rich and Dean: When we were first thinking how we might approach this, we pulled together committees and it started looking like it’s always looked. This is not necessarily an easy process. There was enough belief and influence that we tied our wagon to the scare that America is losing its competitive edge. This was a mandate and challenge for us in how we use these funds.

When we considered what we want to accomplish, we knew we had to broaden the conversation. Unfortunately, $45 million over 6 years is great, but not quite enough to do all we want to do. We’ve been focused on not limiting our thinking. Career opportunities look different than they did several years ago. Perkins represents about 7% of what is spent on technical education. We don’t have line item funding like a lot of other states do. One of the things in the context of this 7% from a historical perspective in the purpose of Perkins was to fund the equipment and new technology. The mindset of the use of the funds is still the way we get new stuff. We’re at this road when we talk about the rules and regulations we want to shift the conversation about what we want to do with this money. If we think about it the old way we will limit our innovation.

Yesterday, we were at the 30,000 foot level and we now want to move to the 10,000 foot level. By the end of the afternoon we want to get to the 1,000 foot level. Some of these conversations will be fun. We want to think differently about how we can foster innovation in Nebraska.

We want to leverage Perkins differently. We need to focus on what’s good for kids, what’s good for the state. One of the themes is strengthening the collaboration and making the transition from a secondary to the post-secondary placements. We want to think about all the details that we need to deal with. We’re not just talking about technical courses but the whole process. Let’s not limit our thinking just because there are limits in the legislation.

We have a concept of programs of study. They may have been called majors, but at the secondary level, we’ve never had that. But now we want to include that. This will be big changes that we have to think about. We think we’re positioned fairly well which will help us have a consistent language and approach. Right now these are still local decisions, so how can we connect this to a post-secondary school that isn’t in my area.

We also need to look at the area of professional development. We need a sustained plan and not just an hour or half day here or there. Why aren’t we all in this together as a state-wide development plan? We have an excellent example in the culinary arts. These are ideas that we want you to kick around and think about.

Another topic that all of you are all passionate about (laughter) is that we also want to focus on accountability. Diploma and graduation rate data are part of this process. On the secondary and the post-secondary level, the piece that is very significant is the technical skill attainment. This really needs to be some type of state or industry-based standard.

Now let’s talk about the joy of sanctions. (laughter) It is now tied to Perkins that accountability is tied to these sanctions. There are provisions not only at the state level but also at the local level. We have to figure out how we have to record this. One thing I want to do is how we can reduce the muck that comes with this. We want to reduce the burden and flip it around to use this data to drive continuous improvement. We could use this data instead of it being a stick to beat people up with.

Accountability is one area that the state department will drive recommendations on. We hope they’ll be kind. The last area that is exciting is about innovation. We need to be able to assess ourselves and show how we can use the Perkins funds as an incentive to not do business as usual. Not that what we’ve done isn’t good, but we can really make a leap to this new level of innovation.

The last bit of context is the timing of the whole thing. The legislation is 6 years. Part of that the state has an option to write a 6-year plan, or a 1-year transition plan and then a 5-year plan. We need to put a frame around this which will help us move forward.

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