1. Kansas Leads the World in the Success of Each Student.
Dr. Randy Watson, Kansas Commissioner of Education

3. Kansas leads the world in the success of each student
A NEW Vision for Kansas ...
Kansas leads the world in the success of each student
KANSAS STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION |

4. Kansans Can Competencies
Go to
Type

5. Kansans said…

6. Kansans said…

7. Are we in the right forest?

8. “It wasn’t a miracle; we just decided to go.”
On the moon shot…
“It wasn’t a miracle;
we just decided to go.”
Jim Lovell, Gemini 7,12, Apollo 8,13

9. What are the take-home lessons from Question 1?
What are the characteristics, qualities, abilities and skills of a successful 24-year old Kansan?
The community focus groups cited non-academic skills at more than a 7:2 ratio over academic skills as characteristics of the ideally prepared young adult.
Conscientiousness, with its inclusion of achievement-striving and self-discipline, was the dominant characteristic, accounting for 22% of all items. Combined national sources of business people also identified conscientiousness as the number one desirable skill.
Among academic skills, the focus groups emphasized applied skills over traditional academic skills at about a 2:1 ratio, with critical thinking skills in between the two.
The community focus groups cited non-academic skills at more than a 7:2 ratio over academic skills as characteristics of the ideally prepared young adult.
Conscientiousness, with its inclusion of achievement-striving and self-discipline, was the dominant characteristic, accounting for 22% of all items. Combined national sources of business people also identified conscientiousness as the number one desirable skill.
Among academic skills, the focus groups emphasized applied skills over traditional academic skills at about a 2:1 ratio, with critical thinking skills in between the two.

10. A few take-home lessons
What is the role of K-12 education in achieving the future?
Re-designing the curriculum— around individualized goals, planning, instruction, and experience, around incorporating real-life problems and projects into the curriculum, and experiential learning—is heavily suggested.
New roles are suggested for school counselors—in deeper individual career planning, and perhaps in coordinating internships and work experiences with business and community organizations.
The large proportion of instrumental skill training that included some experiential training, e.g. internships; concrete, realistic practice, job shadowing, etc.—suggests much more integrated coordination with businesses and community organizations.
School climate is important but not well-defined.
There is a suggestion of a structure of social opportunities—opportunities for experience, particularly real-world experiences—that students need to practice applied skills, both practical and social.

11. What are community focus groups saying about measures?
How should K-12 measure indicators towards success?
Non-cognitive, social-emotional measures, like conscientiousness and school climate, are important, but how they can be measured isn’t clear.
Project and task performance, individual planning, curriculum designed for realistic experiences, internships and work experiences—are more important measures than traditional assessments.
Post high-school measures—credentials, employment, well-being—are also important measures of K-12 success.
KANSAS CHILDREN | KANSAS' FUTURE
KANSAS STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION |

12. Kansas School Redesign Principles
Student Success Skills
Family, Business, and
Community Partnerships
There is an integrated approach to develop student social-emotional learning.
Partnerships are based on mutually beneficial relationships and collaboration.
Personalized Learning
Real World Application
Teachers support students
to have choice over their time,
place, pace and path.
Project-based learning, internships, and civic engagement makes learning relevant.

13. How do we develop skills we want in students?
Most influential factor:
Repetitions (at the right level)
Second most influential factor:
Teacher feedback

14. What we need is Deep Practice
Repetition is invaluable and irreplaceable. There are, however, a few caveats. With conventional practice, more is always better: hitting two hundred forehands a day is presumed to be twice as good as hitting one hundred forehands a day. Deep practice, however, doesn't obey the same math. Spending more time is effective—but only if you're still in the sweet spot at the edge of your capabilities, attentively building and honing circuits. What's more, there seems to be a universal limit for how much deep practice human beings can do in a day. Ericsson's research shows that most world-class experts—including pianists, chess players, novelists, and athletes—practice between three and five hours a day, no matter what skill they pursue.
Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code (p. 88). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

15. Should practice be isolated or in projects?
Isolated Pros
More repetitions in less time
Teacher can control variables
Teacher can control speed
Teacher can more easily provide and time feedback
Early success / confidence
Isolated Cons
Reps don’t build the best neural pathways
Student boredom
Student dependence on coach for learning
False performance / flattened learning curve
Historically hard to personalize (critical)
“Because isolated practice can lead to better performance during classroom sessions, teachers and students are often led to a false sense of confidence that is shattered during real life, when predictability is no longer guaranteed”

16. Graph of Isolated Skill building
Performance
Repetitions

17. Should practice be isolated or in projects?
Project Pros
Highly comparable to real life
Soft and Hard skills taught at same time
Easier to personalize within the project
High transfer / high neural pathway development
Project Cons
Reps are scattered
Hard for Teacher to give feedback
Hard to focus on skill development, changes

18. What if we learn by projects?
Performance
Repetitions

19. Both are necessary for learning!
Know the Child Well!
Start isolated when it is a new skill and move toward get increasingly to projects. More variables, more speed.
Appropriate regulatory stimuli
Not too hard on beginners, not too easy on my advanced students (Personalized).
Challenge Point
“Isolated practice is better for retention (i.e. for learning) only for beginners. The findings seem to suggest that isolated practice is effective until the learner can ‘just (barely) do it’ and that practice in projects is always more beneficial thereafter”

20. What we desire in learning…
Performance
Repetitions

21. Teaching does matter! Meet performance standards between 50-75%
Students felt more “confident” at no less than 70% performance EXCEPT….
Ability actually increased more rapidly at 60% performance
Growth Mindset: ability to be pushed, ability to enjoy challenges, ability to understand failure (and be encouraged to fail), process vs outcome

22. What is then essential for learning?
Isolated skills MUST be personalized!
Projects need to make up 50% of time in grades K-3.
Projects need to make up 70% of time in grades 4-10.
Grades are heavy on preparing for transition to career.

23. Where are you at? Where are our learners at?

24. Motivation inspires deep practice
Growing skill requires deep practice. But deep practice isn't a piece of cake: it requires energy, passion, and commitment. In a word, it requires motivational fuel, the second element of the talent code. In this section we'll see how motivation is created and sustained through a process I call ignition. Ignition and deep practice work together to produce skill in exactly the same way that a gas tank combines with an engine to produce velocity in an automobile.
Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code (p. 97). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

25. Even practice randomness in isolated skills.
In Make it Stick, the authors explain that “A baseball player who practices batting by swinging at fifteen fastballs, then at fifteen curveballs, and then at fifteen changeups will perform better in practice than the player who (goes between three pitch types in a random order). But the player who asks for random pitches during practice builds his ability to decipher and respond to each pitch…and he becomes the better hitter.” Instead of focusing on one skill and mastering that skill before moving onto the next skill, focus on three similar skills and master all three while switching between them. If you want to learn graphic design and master the software programs Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects, don’t master one program at a time. Instead, get good at all three simultaneously. Do Photoshop on Monday and Friday, Illustrator on Tuesday and Thursday, and After Effects on Wednesday and Saturday.

26. Books to deepen your understanding of learning

27. Books to deepen your understanding of learning

28. Books to deepen your understanding of learning

29. Books to deepen your understanding of learning

30. What creates demand?

31. 17%
91%
31%
28%
31%

32. Business - Sales, managers, accountants Machining
Health Care
Teaching
IT – Software developers
Business - Sales, managers, accountants
Energy - Lineman
Health Care
Teaching
IT – Software developers
Business - Sales, managers, accountants
Energy - Lineman
Health Care
Engineering
IT – Software developers
Business - Sales, managers, accountants
Truck Drivers
Health Care
Teaching Ag
Business - Sales, managers, accountants
Machining
Health Care
Teaching Ag
Business - Sales, managers, accountants
Energy - Lineman
Health Care
Teaching
Engineering
Business - Sales, managers, accountants
Aircraft machining
Health Care
Teaching
Engineering
Business - Sales, managers, accountants
Aircraft machining

33. Business Entrepreneurship and Management 115 Marketing 106
Pathway Name
Count
Family, Community & Consumer Services
236
Construction & Design
230
Business Finance
194
AV Communications
187
Web & Digital Communications
180
Comprehensive Agriculture Science Pathway
170
Power, Structural, & Technical Systems
Visual Arts Pathway
133
Restaurant and Event Management
131
Manufacturing
116
Business Entrepreneurship and Management
115
Marketing
106
Health Science
103
Teaching/Training
Engineering & Applied Mathematics 82
Early Childhood Development & Services 77
Mobile Equipment Maintenance Pathway 63
Programming & Software Development 54
BioChemistry 47
Plant Systems Pathway
BioMedical 46

36. Teacher Shortage Money Increase pathways to be a teacher
Increase recognition of teachers
Expand Redesign Schools - Apollo

37. Today’s students are the future workforce and future leaders of Kansas
Today’s students are the future workforce and future leaders of Kansas. Kansans Can achieve anything and, together, Kansans Can lead the world in the success of each student.