The world is leaving schools behind

We hear this over and over: 'Schools are leaving kids behind.'

I’d argue something even more important is happening.

The world is leaving schools behind.

Think about the bureaucracy of the education system. Both No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds Act focus so heavily on standardized testing.

The system still incentivizes schools to 'teach to the test.'

In the mid-1990s, the internet became accessible to households around the world. Over 30 years ago, and we still pretend like it’s important to memorize who the 19th president was. Or to memorize the periodic table. Or the classification hierarchy of living organisms - domains, kingdoms, phyla, classes, order, families, genera, species.

In the words of a 5-year-old learner at Acton Academy Columbus - 'Who cares?'

He’s right. Our kids now have more access to information at their fingertips than many of us had in all our libraries growing up. They have access to Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, and now ChatGPT.

Textbooks and scantrons are outdated. We don't have to memorize a long list of random facts only to spit it back on a piece of paper.

That industrial revolution system is now over. Our schools need to rethink the whole 'memorize and spit back' model.

That's not me speaking. Leading companies around the world are telling our schools just that through their actions. We need to listen and make changes.

Google: Google started their 'Grow with Google' initiative and no longer requires applicants to have a college degree for many of their positions. Instead, they focus on assessing candidates based on their skills, experiences, and potential contributions to the company.

Apple: Apple has also moved towards skills-based hiring practices, especially in technical roles.

IBM: IBM has implemented a skills-based approach to hiring through their 'New Collar' initiative. They offer training programs and apprenticeships to develop necessary skills in areas such as cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data science.

Who else? Think Bank of America, Tesla, Microsoft, Accenture, EY amongst many others.

Here's more detail on the move towards skill-based hiring: https://lnkd.in/dZDt2sN3

Skills are important. Scantron scores are not.

The world is moving forward. Our schools are being left behind.