In one Texas school district a high school is teaching every subject in every grade via project-based learning. The model is motivating students to pursue knowledge and it drives academic achievement.

It’s hard to deny the students’ success at Manor New Technology High School in Manor, Texas, where 98 percent of seniors graduate and 100 percent of its graduates are accepted in college.

Student performance on measures of state standards meets or exceeds the rest of the state, and is generally much better than non-high school students in the district.

How do they do it? The school’s success over the last five years is reviewed in several articles and a video in Edutopia’s “Schools That Work” series that profiles K-12 schools, districts and programs that are dramatically improving the way students learn.

See other stories in the Edutopia “Schools That Work” series.

In a new video from Edutopia, Thornburg makes a case for his “holodeck” classroom (pdf), an environment that supports project-based learning that was inspired by the TV series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Thornburg talks about this and why the role of the teacher must change from lecturer to exploration guide.

Thornburg is founder and director of global operations for the Thornburg Center for Space Exploration. The center provides programs, workshops and consulting based on inquiry-driven project-based learning.

The Thornburg video below is also available as a free download from iTunes U.

To good to be true? Long-time, award-winning journalist Dan Rather decided to check it out this year on his HDNet program, “Dan Rather Reports.” In a segment titled “Finnish First,” Rather examines what makes the system successful.

There is no single reason for Finland’s superior performance on international tests, Rather reports. It is a combination of many factors. The 54-minute program looks at several Finnish classrooms and interviews teachers, administrators and education official Pasi Sahlberg,

Perhaps, most surprising, Finland is successful in spite of the fact that students spend fewer hours in the classroom than other developed countries. And its success comes without high-stakes, standardized tests. “In Finnish schools,” Sahlberg says, “we can more or less use 100 percent of the time we have available everyday for learning.” Sahlberg also notes the high levels of teacher training and the high regard in which teachers are held.

“Finnish First” is part of Rather’s look at global education in an effort to determine why so many countries are out-performing the U.S. In a previous segment, “Dan Rather Reports” visited Singapore and he’s planning a trip to Brazil. “Finnish First” is available from iTunes. An excerpt is below or on YouTube.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop conducted the survey of over 500 teachers across the country.

Results showed that 18 percent of the teachers use digital games daily, with elementary teachers using games most frequently, while 32 percent said they use games two to four days per week.

Teachers surveyed found increased student motivation and engagement from game-playing. Sixty percent said using digital games helps them “personalize instruction, better assess knowledge and collect helpful data.”

The majority of teachers surveyed also reported that the games foster more collaboration among students.

Fewer than 10 percent reported negative experiences.

Digital games are described as any interactive digital activity using such devices as computers, tablet devices, mobile devices and game consoles.

The “Teacher Attitudes About Digital Games in the Classroom” (summary pdf) survey is part of the research being conducted by the Games and Learning Publishing Council to identify areas of innovation in gaming. The Council is funded largely by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

While competency-based pathways have been available to Iowa school districts for some time, interest skyrocketed when the State Board of Education made it one of its priorities in 2011. Then a forum in December 2011 featured practitioners and students who are implementing competency-based education in such states as Alaska, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. Participants examined research and considered how to evaluate the impact of competency-based education reforms. This forum also gave participants an opportunity to start making plans to implement this approach.

Approval to move forward was simple (pdf); the local school board must approve the request to be waived from the seat time requirements for credit toward high school graduation. The district must also demonstrate collaboration with local community or with school improvement advisory committee. A signed waiver request was due to the Iowa Department of Education in January 2012.

Iowa school districts submitted a total of 28 waivers for the 2012-13 school year. What’s interesting? Nine of those 28 waivers (one-third) are from schools within Prairie Lakes AEA (PLAEA). Why are so many schools from one region interested in a system where students earn credit and advance based on their mastery of content, rather than their age or the hours they’ve devoted to a course?

Perhaps it’s the predominantly rural geography that has given school leaders “permission” to think differently. As the 1-to-1 programs began to sprout in Iowa, Prairie Lakes AEA has had the most schools involved in some sort of 1-to-1 initiative. Access to high-quality instruction is just a click away.

“Our rural schools have figured out that they need to do something to set them apart,” said PLAEA chief administrator Jeff Herzberg. “Faced with declining resources, both financially and in the number and quality of job applicants, our school leaders use creative and innovative strategies to connect their kids, families, teachers with additional resources to enhance their education.”

Perhaps it is the connection that Herzberg established with Fred Bramante, who led a major effort to review and successfully revise the state education policies in New Hampshire. Herzberg attended a national conference in 2012 where Bramante was a featured speaker. The two joined forces on the DE Design Team focused on CBE and in late 2011, Bramante joined an area superintendents’ meeting via Skype to share more details and answer questions. As chairman of the New Hampshire State Board, Bramante was charged by the governor with the responsibility to lead New Hampshire’s first full-scale education reform effort since 1919. The results of Bramante’s efforts led to landmark changes in New Hampshire’s education regulations including the move from credit for seat time (the number of hours a student spends in class, known as the Carnegie Unit), to credit for demonstrated learning (anytime, anyplace, anyhow, any pace).

Perhaps it is the results-only work environment (ROWE) pilot that PLAEA has pursued this year. The book with a provocative title, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution by Carl Ressler and Jody Thompson presents a management strategy where employees are evaluated on performance, not presence. In a ROWE, people focus on results and only results—increasing the organization’s performance while creating the right climate for people to manage all the demands in their lives, including work. About 50 PLAEA staff members are in this pilot and working in this new “workplace for adults.”

“We like to think of ROWE as CBE for the workplace,” Herzberg said. “Much like school, work needs to change from the current factory model that is still in place.”

Perhaps it was a combination of any and all of these factors. What do we know? To use Bramante’s phrase, our attitude and approach to “managing abundance” rather than scarcity has opened doors for those in rural Iowa. We look forward to partnership with our districts on the journey to revolutionize Iowa’s education system and create the best system for our kids.

When given the opportunity to do something different, how many of us seize the moment and capitalize on the prospect of a new adventure?

You’ve heard some praise for online classes, e.g., they better prepare students for the types of classes they are likely to encounter in college. But, you’ve also heard negative, e.g., online classes are best for gifted students.

What are the facts about online learning? The North American Council for Online Learning, now the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, prepared a paper debunking the myths of online learning, Ten Myths About Virtual Schools.

More information about online learning may be found in a brief document, Fast Facts About Online Learning.

The district surveyed about 100 employers in the community, as well as the nearby Sioux City metro area. Nearly half have replied so far.

“Our board and administration are focusing on the types of skills and experiences our students will need exposure to throughout their K-12 experience so they are best prepared for college and career success in the 21st century,” says Jeff Thelander, superintendent.

The online survey asked employers to consider 11 applied skills as defined by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Some of the key, initial findings include:

• Skills most valued in current employees: critical thinking and problem solving, closely followed by professionalism/work ethic
• Skills most often lacking in applicants: professionalism/work ethic
• Skills requiring the most time and resources in trying to build in current staff: critical thinking and problem solving
• Skills expected to be the most necessary for employee and business success in the future: work professionalism/work ethic

The survey results are “one of several data points that our administration and teacher leaders are examining as we prepare for staff development next year and as we review our annual learning goals for students in our district,” Thelander says.

“We want to make every attempt to focus our resources on the most important priorities,” Thelander says.  “This survey provides us data to help in making those critically important decisions.”

Miller, a national faculty member for the Buck Institute for Education, reminds educators that flipping instruction “doesn’t solve anything.” It’s merely a “great first step in reframing the role of the teacher in the classroom.”

While the flipped classroom presents a great opportunity for teachers and students, Miller cautions that there are factors to consider when using a flipped classroom model.

• Need to Know: Are you creating a reason students will want to watch or listen to recorded instruction?
• Engaging Models: Flipped classrooms must use engaging models for instruction that occurs in the classroom, e.g., project-based learning. Teachers must become masters of these methods. These will create a “need to know” for watching recorded instruction.
• Technology: The flipped teaching model implies use of technology. What are the technology gaps that students face and how can they be addressed?
• Reflection: Just as with any instructional activity, reflective activities must be built in to allow students to consider what they learned from watching a video recording.
• Time and Place: When and where will students be expected to watch videos? Outside classroom time is an easy solution, but not necessarily or always the best. Blended classrooms provide natural opportunities. In addition, be sure videos are not lengthy. Keep them manageable.

Anticipating this week’s arrival of his new book (Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World), Wagner wrote about “Educating the Next Steve Jobs,” for The Wall Street Journal last week.

“Most of our high schools and colleges are not preparing students to become innovators,” Wagner says. “To succeed in the 21st-century economy, students must learn to analyze and solve problems, collaborate, persevere, take calculated risks and learn from failure.”

Most learning today is a passive experience, says Wagner, now innovation education fellow at the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University. But in the most innovative schools, students are more creators, not just consumers. He uses San Diego’s High Tech High as an example.

In conventional schooling, Wagner says, students learn so they can get good grades. But Wagner’s recent research shows that most innovators are intrinsically motivated.

Teaching innovation cannot be mandated or offered as a class, Wagner says. Solutions involve new ways of evaluating student performance and professional development in which educators learn the three P’s of innovative cultures: play, passion and purpose.

In Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World’s Leading Systems, Tucker, a tireless advocate for adopting successful international practices in U.S. Schools, offers evidence that the U.S. is running out of excuses. Iowa Future touched on the subject in an earlier article, “Report: Current reforms misguided.”

The topics of the book were more recently the subject of a forum sponsored by the National Center on Education and the Economy. Joining Tucker on stage was Tom Friedman, New York Times columnist and co-author of the book, That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind In the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. The event was moderated by NBC News correspondent, Luke Russert.

The 40-minute event (plus 35 minutes of Q and A) considers the need to redesign the U.S. education system to meet the demands of today’s workforce and global economy. The video offers excellent conversation starters for school and community groups. Troyce Fisher, of School Administrators of Iowa, has prepared a facilitator’s guide to use with the video. Watch below or at the Vimeo website.

Surpassing Shanghai from NCEE on Vimeo.