Next Steps

Center for Public Knowledge on Educational Opportunity

Policy efforts alone cannot “fix” education from above; nor does knowledge on “what works” automatically trickle down from universities and get shared across localities. Instead, educators, mentors, families, and students themselves need direct access to the best knowledge available about improving and increasing learning opportunities for young people. (that’s the Network.)

They also need tools for investigating learning opportunities where they live. (that’s OneVille.) Indeed, the ultimate scalable intervention in education may be organized local inquiry into specific ways of increasing local young people’s opportunities to learn. (Feb., 2010: the OneVille Project will offer findings into how to accomplish such localized inquiry. We may come out with a tool that “works,” or we will come out with findings about experiments in community inquiry and partnership.) And the most potent accountability model may be knowledgeable local stakeholders pressing each other toward doing “what works.”

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Center for Public Knowledge on Educational Opportunity

1C. Create opportunity advisory team 1B. Create public use toolbox to transfer research ideas to publicly usable form

2ABC. . . Create OneVille Project to engage cities in improving and increasing opportunities for young people

  1. Merge school & community quantitative data with individual qualitative data
  2. Support youth and adults to use cellphone and internet technology to make suggestions to improve
  3. Develop city-wide database, data analysis process and focus group process to help individual children
  4. Produce and study public message “frames” to inspire collective participation for each child’s success
  5. Collect city data on an interaction map

Interaction Map

Create:

Graphic diagram with hyperlinks that will offer usable best knowledge about best ways to increase everyday interactions:

Parent – Child      Caregiver – Child
Neighbor – Child     Mentor - Child
Child – Child    Youth - Youth
Teacher – Child     Administrator – Child
Social worker  - Child
Parent –Teacher
Parent – Administrator
Community organizer  - Legislator

1. Create direct usable access to best knowledge about improving and increasing learning opportunities for young people

2. Create tools for organized local inquiry that increase local opportunity for young people to learn