Education System Redesign: A Learner-Centered Focus
OBC has long believed that Oregon must redesign its education systems at significant scale to achieve better and more equitable student outcomes. Further, that redesign should begin with a focus on the needs, hopes, and learning styles of learners rather than the needs and prerogatives of institutions.
Fundamental to this learner-centered approach is the conviction that all students, not just a fortunate portion of them, can learn and succeed. If a student’s education from pre-kindergarten through postsecondary years can be thought of as a pathway, too many students fall off the path, often through no fault of their own. When this happens it limits their occupational prospects and lives as well as the vitality of Oregon’s communities and economy.
- Pathway Diagram Illustrates Need for System Redesign
Several years back, in our previous Oregon Learns project, OBC developed an interactive diagram that illustrates troubling patterns of postsecondary progress of one student cohort, the Class of 2006 up through age 25. For Oregon overall and for larger school districts and high schools, the tool disaggregates student progress by gender, ethnicity, and family income. The tool shows that Oregon is dramatically falling short in its aspirations for student completion of studies and credentials—both in high school and beyond.
Through learner-centered design changes our education institutions can do a better job of helping more students stay on the path. Facets of redesign include greater student agency and engagement, a more customized learning process based on measurable skill acquisition set to high standards and achieved at the student’s own pace rather than fixed seat time. It also calls for more helpful guidance of students along their chosen pathways; more equitable access, programs, and practices; and wrap-around supports whether for preschoolers from young families or for postsecondary students juggling studies, finances, child care, transportation, and part-time employment.
For more on our vision for learner-centered redesign, see our brief paper.
- Education System Redesign Video
Here’s our animated vision for the learner-centered education that Oregon kids need to thrive in the 21st Century. We developed this for our previous Oregon Learns project, but the case for learner-centered education is just as valid today as it was then.
Dozens of Oregon schools at both K-12 and postsecondary levels have adopted such design and practices or are moving in this direction. Oregon policy makers should support this trend if Oregon is to achieve its ambitious goals for education attainment.