McREL helps Ohio plan for the future of urban education through scenario planning
No where has the economic downturn hit closer to home than in Ohio. A steady decline in the job and housing markets in recent years has led to a similarly steep decline in the state’s urban schools. But, with help from McREL, education leaders are focusing on the future of schooling in Ohio in order for urban education to not only survive but thrive.
In the spring of 2008, McREL consultants partnered with the Ohio 8 Coalition, a network of superintendents and teachers’ union presidents in the state’s eight largest school districts, to develop “scenarios,” or stories, about the future of education in Ohio that will assist the group in carrying out its mission to improve academic achievement among urban schoolchildren.
With low graduation and achievement rates, poor teacher retention, and safety issues to consider, state leaders were “empowered” by the scenario planning process, said McREL Senior Consultant Jill Conrad, because it offered an opportunity for them to “position themselves in a proactive way ... and develop a strong vision for what they can do as a coalition.”
Participants rethink approach
The Ohio 8 group, the largest McREL has ever engaged in scenario planning, included not only superintendents and teachers’ union representatives from all eight districts but also three representatives from each district, including teachers, assistant superintendents, administrators, community members, and Mayor’s Office staff.
Over a four-month period, Conrad led this diverse group through the scenario planning process, which included learning about the process itself, defining a focal issue and developing a framework, creating and revising scenarios, and discussing implications and action steps.
The group’s focal issue, How does urban public education in Ohio need to transform in order to become a high-demand, high-performing system in 2020?, guided them in narrowing down the future of education in their state to two “critical uncertainties”: policy environment (whether it will be prescriptive or flexible) and “urban core” (whether there will be decay or vitality). Then, participants developed strategies that can be implemented now to prepare for each of the four possible futures and outlined the emerging trends that will indicate which future is unfolding.
Conrad is optimistic this work will transform urban education across Ohio. “I heard people referring to teachers as ‘learning agents,’ an example of how they are thinking very differently about the nature and structure of teaching itself. Once you do that, you can’t go back,” she said.