Wiki Government (1): Which public education problems could be better resolved through collaboration? Which would not?

Posted on July 27, 2010 by catherine

I have been reading Wiki Government by Beth Simone Noveck (Brookings Institution Press, 2009).  Stumbling across this book was pure serendipity. The “wiki” originally caught my eye due to my experiments with a SW community wiki for everyone to use to brainstorm ideas and share information around strengthening families, enhancing innovative citizenship education, and improving communication (http://swedmontonittakesavillage.wikispaces.com/).  To say that my wiki has not taken off is an understatement – pretty much I am the only visitor! – so I thought there might be some good tips in this book.

The next thing that caught my eye was the subtitle:  How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful.  So far the book has been a fascinating read and there is much food for thought in here.  I thought I would share some of the ideas over the next couple of weeks and I welcome your ideas on how or if the ideas could be applied to school board governance. 

Ms. Noveck has been part of President Obama’s drive to go “beyond improving citizen participation to address the emerging opportunity for meaningful collaboration  — as distinct from participation – across levels of government and between government and citizens.”  Her purpose in writing this book?  “Knowing how to use technology to get all hands on deck and create more effective and efficient government institutions is the focus of the book.”  Getting all hands on deck … mobilizing “the wisdom of the crowds” as per a book by James Surioweki… is something I have long been interested in. 

The first half of the book describes in detail some work done within the auspices of the US Patent Office, called the Peer-to-Patent Process.  Ms. Noveck then applies her learning to think about how technology could be applied in other ways to government.  She states (p. 146), “Peer-to-Patent is not a panacea. The design is not the right design for all types of decision-making. This is because not all problems lend themselves to problem solving by a group. An institution must be able to articulate the challenge to which the wisdom of the crowd will be applied.” 

So, any preliminary thoughts on what public education problems might be best resolved through collaborative thinking/work/action?  Which would not be good?

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Governance for Public Education…What is ideal?

Posted on July 19, 2010 by catherine

I have just finished working through the Inspiring Action “transformation guide” on Shared Governance, Collaboration, School Boards, and Natural Person Powers.   The final question asks you for any other comments.  Here is what I wanted to say, but it exceeds the 100 word limit. This is way longer!

RE: Collaboration.  I totally agree that the whole community needs to be involved and active in public education, and we need to collaborate to maximize our respective strengths.  Truly, “it takes a village to raise a child.”   Collaboration takes lots of time, particularly up front, and time for all stakeholders is a precious commodity.  Collaboration needs to be supported through appropriate resourcing. Sometimes, though, we just need to get on with the job at hand.   

RE: Shared Governance. I also have a concern with “shared governance” if it comes with only the principle of shared decision making on paper and not the corresponding shared responsibility for the outcomes.  We need to be careful that we don’t end up in in a situation where everyone is responsible and yet no-one is ultimately responsible. Our children and their future are too important.  We ALL have a responsibilty toward our children/our future… I agree with that.  Practically, school boards have been the governing body “where the buck stops” in terms of public education…   Boards are a small enough working group where final decisions can be made effectively, and they are close enough to the local realities to reflect the local community in their decisions, and ultimately, they are the “public” voice in public education. If boards are well-connected to their communities, communicate well about upcoming decisions, and are open to hearing from the community, school boards are a very effective way of carrying out the business of public educcation. And if they are not doing this effectively, the community will let them know next election.

RE: appointments. I have a concern about appointments if you think this is the answer to “ensuring” a certain community is represented.  Who will make the appointments?  Which groups get an appointed representative… ?  The democratic process means elected reps should be responsive to their entire community (those who elected them, those who opposed them, those who did not vote) — what will be the acocuntability of appointed reps?  To the person who appointed them?  What other “out of the box” ideas are there for ensuring all voices from all communities are heard in the decision-making process?  Is it called public engagement?

I encourage everyone to visit the Inspiring Action Engage page and fill our your own transformation guide.  http://engage.education.alberta.ca/inspiring-action/become-involved/

Also some other ideas on governance … 

Edmonton Public Schools submission to the Minister with respect to School Act review

Comment from Public School Boards Association of Alberta on “Provincial governments or Local Communities: Where does school board accountability really lie?”

Some Thoughts on School Board Governance by Ken Chapman  (and be sure to read all the comments that people have made on Mr. Chapman’s blog entry)

Cheers.

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Hello, and welcome to Summer! Yeah! And Welcome to Inspiring Action!

Posted on July 7, 2010 by catherine

Even though it is summertime and time to kick back and relax a little bit, I wanted to bring your attention to an important set of consultations starting right now and happening over the summer and into the fall. As mentioned last time, the Minister of Education has now released a response to the recommendations from three initiatives he has held over the last several years: the Inspiring Education dialogue, the Setting the Direction for Special Education dialogue, and his Speak Out! Student initiative

The response, titled Inspiring Action, lays out a series of possible areas of change the Government is considering in its new Education Act. If you visit this page, you will also discover that the Minister is inviting further feedback through a series of topic-specific modules. For example, the first module is on Parental and Community Engagement. A new online module for discussion will be launched every two to three weeks until early October on the webpage mentioned above (and/or you can sign up for updates to alert you to the launch of the new module). (See dates below.)

The feedback received on these modules will directly influence the new Education Act that the Minister hopes to introduce in the Winter Session of the Legislature, so I encourage everyone to contribute your thoughts as the various modules are posted.

Parental and Community Engagement Module
I have gone through the first module and questions revolve around the role of school councils, ideal level of governance for school councils, what school boards and schools should be doing to support parental engagement, whether there should be a provincial parent advisory council, what school boards and schools should be doing to support community engagement in schools, what community engagement might look like, schools as community centres, etc.

Check it out! If you have more than half an hour (which is what it took me to go through the module), you may wish to read what about 40 people in SW Edmonton said about supporting students, teachers, schools back in March 2008 at my first broad community meeting as a preface to responding.

Also, consider: How does parental and community engagement contribute to Strengthening Families and Enhancing Innovative Citizenship Education – two of the key areas another group of community members have suggested as critical to achieve the schools and communities we want in 2030?

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