Creating a responsive 21st-century school

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, I recently attended the International Summit on the Teaching Profession. Part of the pre-reading for the conference was a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This report provides an excellent executive summary of recommendations for countries and states to implement in order to create a responsive 21st-century school. 

The three ingredients to create responsive schools are promoting effective teacher leadership, strengthening teachers’ confidence in their own abilities, and innovating to create 21st-century learning environments. Kentucky is hard at work on all three components. Here are some of the specific recommendations from the report. 

Promoting effective school leadership
     • empower teachers to play a role in decision making at the school level
     • provide opportunities for, and remove barriers to, continuing 
        professional development for principals
     • ensure that principals receive training in, and have opportunities to
        assume, instructional leadership

Strengthening teachers’ confidence in their own abilities
     • build teachers’ capacity to provide instruction to all types of learners
     • support the development of interpersonal relationships within the
        school
     • encourage collaboration among teachers

Innovating to create 21st-century learning environments
     • collaborate and communicate
     • create conditions conducive to innovation
     • ensure coherence

Next week, I will provide brief summaries of how Kentucky is working on each of the recommendations. It is inspiring to know that many of the top performing countries in the world are working on these same issues along with Kentucky.