UK influences US decision to ramp up teacher recruitment with Microsoft's Partners in Learning
US Education Secretary Arne Duncan delivered a massive endorsement of Microsoft's Partners In Learning (PIL) programme when he gave the organisation responsibility for the US Government's TEACH campaign to recruit a new generation of teachers. The decision followed an innovative government competition process.
Announcing the decision at the PIL World Forum in Washington DC, he revealed that inspiration for the campaign had come in part from the work of the UK's Blair government in recruiting new teachers by elevating the status of the profession and improving pay and conditions.
"International forums like this, which share best practices and build a cross-border community of innovation, are relatively new in the education sphere," he said. "But they are much-needed, and long overdue. In today’s knowledge-based, global economy, it no longer makes sense to view teaching, technology, and school leadership as parochial challenges, unique to each nation."
He added, "The power of technology and international collaboration to elevate the teaching profession and accelerate achievement is enormous – and the need for improvement is urgent. Unfortunately, this tremendous transformational potential has yet to be realised or unleashed. That means both that there is a huge opportunity here – but also that everyone has to think harder about what it will take to overcome the challenges of taking success to scale." (Full text of Arne Duncan speech downloadable here.)
'Deeply troubling' teacher shortage a challenge for TEACH campaign
Arne Duncan revealed that Microsoft's PIL would take over the TEACH website and be responsible for improving it and extending the teacher recruitment campaign – to "build a high-performing and more diverse teaching force" – as an official partner. The site has to be an effective tool to recruit new teachers and to help existing teachers find employment opportunities they seek throughout the US.
It appears to be a landmark decision on public-private partnerships for the technology industry in education, and recognition at the highest political level of Microsoft's success in building a rich global community of teachers and expertise with live research built in (see also Obama adviser Sonal Shah on social innovation and government policy in "Students want to change their world"). It's also an enormous challenge for the company as "the Partners in Learning division will be the sole owner and operator of the project".
The education secretary spelt out the scale of the teacher-shortage problem facing US schools as 'baby boomer" teachers start retiring. Worse still, within 10 years ethnic minority students will become the majority of learners but that is not reflected in the teaching profession, something Arne Duncan finds "deeply troubling".
"Our teaching profession does not reflect that growing diversity," he said. "More than 20 per cent of public school students are Hispanic, and that number will only continue to rise. Yet just 7 per cent of teachers are Latino. Something is radically wrong with that picture.
"Even more troubling, less than four percent of America’s teachers are Hispanic or black males. How can that be a good thing for young children, especially boys? And this imbalance is not a self-correcting problem. Without our leadership, without a sense of urgency, this problem will only grow worse."
Referring to the former Blair government, he said that its teacher campaign had turned "a 20 percent shortfall of teacher entrants to a 20 percent surplus".
'It is clear that technology has a vast, untapped capacity to improve education'
Technology had a powerful role to play in improving education, he said. "It sometimes seems that the technological revolution has spread everywhere in America--except in many of our schools. Technology is no silver bullet either. But it is clear that technology has a vast untapped capacity to improve education.
"High-quality online instruction and tutoring, which are available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection, can break down educational silos, expand personalised learning, and dramatically increase access to college-level education.
"One day, a young man on an impoverished Indian reservation in Montana and a young woman in a remote village in Mongolia will both be able to access—for little or no fee—the same course in civil engineering."
However, he warned that it would be easy to lag behind with tehnology for learning. South Korea is phasing out text books to replace them with digital materials by 2015 and even a small country, Uruguay, was already providing all students with computers. "Are we going to be a leader or a laggard?" he asked.
While it was an impressive speech to an outsider, voices in the US teacher back channel warned of the US Government's outdated stance on testing which undermined any talk of innovation and system change. However, the 'civil servant' back channel pointed to the Republican lockdown of President Obama's legislative powers. The clear message to the states, said one insider, was to press ahead with modernising learning and teaching and not wait for Washington politicians to wake up to the future.
Transformation of education has to move beyond mere 'automation'
Anthony Salcito, Microsof't vice president of education, warned that the transformation of learning required went beyond the mere "automation" which dominated current thinking and procurement for schools.
Asked whether the announcement represented a ramping up of Microsoft's performance in supporting a step change in education he agreed: "We are absolutely connected to the urgency of the need to drive change. We believe the opportunity is at hand to change the face of education and to help students all over the world solve not only the challenges in our environment and the land and water, but also get employed for the next generation of workers that countries need to fuel their economies.
"So we are fast at it. We have a great foundation and a long-term commitment with Partners in Learning to build on, but we have got to get more aggressive, more aggressive in supporting our educators, in making sure we respond to the needs of countries that have a need for great support. But we also need to celebrate the opportunity ahead with students and technology to make a difference.
"We are ramping up our investments for sure but really what we are trying to do is change the face of education in a positive way for the world, and that requires new partnerships and new thinking and a broader commitment which is what I hope you see in the new announcements."
Five-year African project with British Council and extension to Shout
Those announcements include a major five-year partnership with the British Council in Africa to "nurture the use of information communications technology for innovative practice in teaching and learning in order to equip millions of students with the knowledge and skills they need for life and work in the 21st century". The first project, in which each organisation will invest $1 million, will create 80 low-cost digital hubs (based on Windows MultiPoint Server) to support schools in Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.
The project is intended to promote literacy, train more than 20,000 school leaders and teachers and introduce digital access to more than 100,000 learners and their communities. The British Council already has some local experience in this kind of work, and Microsoft is working with other partners within the Clinton Global Initiative in Haiti to build labs powered by Windows MultiPoint Server in 40 “lighthouse” schools serving 24,000 students.
Another significant international announcement was for the extension of the Shout program. Started in Capetown in 2010, this innovative collaborative science project is an initiative from Microsoft Partners in Learning, the Smithsonian Institution and TakingITGlobal. It exploits technology to support students' investigations into the environment, connecting research and education resources. It has already proved popular and successful, allowing young people to simultaneously carry out rich curriculum work while making positive contributions to the environment.
Access to safe, plentiful water is the theme for this year's extension. The focus will be on "water quality and quantity, to ensure that water is safe for both people and the environment, as well as managing the crises of too much water and not enough water".
The Partners in Learning Global Forum 2011 was the most successful yet for Microsoft. The cultivation of what has to be the best global teacher network for innovative learning and teaching, and the exemplary practice and research it produces, represents a massive achievement that has so far eluded other companies and even governments.
Add to this the step up to a shoulder-level partnership with the US Department of Education on a major national project and the ability to initiate and succour other global partnerships like Shout, and Microsoft is getting within sight of the kinds of changes required to bring scale to the education system changes currently being sought by educators and governments worldwide. There are certain to be more answers at Microsoft's Partners in Learning Global 2012 - in Athens, Greece.
More information
Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum 2011
TEACH campaign
The Shout program
The British Council
Microsoft Partners in Learning
PIL Global Forum awards
PIL Global Forum awards Flickr stream
PIL YouTube channel
Innovative Teaching and Learning Research: 2011 Findings and Implications
To find out more about joining ITL Phase 2 contact
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For background information from the 2010 event and earlier research findings see 'Innovative teaching the route to 21st Century skills'
PIL research tools for schools to identify and develop 21st century learning and teaching
Next year's PIL Global Forum will be held in Athens, Greece
