Why a network?

We argue that a national network is needed to link "ordinary people" in sharing exciting successes in education, and struggles to make things better in education. We contend that in order to inquire into improving education inside their communities, people need to see examples from other places, of what is possible in education. We believe that the ultimate public network would show the public 1) examples of exciting learning going on in classrooms, museums, and libraries around the country (like MacArthur’s projects), and 2) examples of successes from community organizing, school reform, parent engagement, and service coordination efforts around the country (from projects of the kind that Ford is funding). We have suggested that a combined, collectively designed, public-facing Network launched by Ford and MacArthur might equip the public with a full range of ideas and examples for improving the lives of young people in the United States. We also argue for a public network that would engage not just academics, but people of all ages and roles in “reporting out” examples of exciting education-related initiatives in their locales.

In particular, people need a *searchable* network, enabling them to find people struggling or succeeding on similar issues in similar situations (e.g., people who have figured out ways to translate documents quickly in multilingual schools). People also need a basic space to communicate, find each other, create subcommunities, and share information about exciting efforts in education. This Network should also broaden, once again, the definition of educational improvement beyond test score improvement alone. It also needs to engage more people than just academics: people building and trying and experiencing things in their local school should have a voice in the conversation. The Network will also allow more people weighing in on what they think is good.

Finally, the Network will link local actors around kids (peers, parents, teachers, and community members who share local ecosystems with kids) into a national ecosystem of people sharing ideas about making life better for kids.

Using evidence from previous knowledge aggregation projects and making reference to the flow of history, we will argue that a shared example network around education is inevitable.

Current efforts are on the right track, but aren't sufficient to satisfy the ultimate need that a network could complete. We intend to create a set of reference documents to encourage an eventual network that we describe. In the meantime we hope to recommend to current efforts methodologies that will allow their effort to further the ultimate goals of a network.