Keynote: Culture, mission drive change
June 28, 2013 - During his keynote address at Summer Institute 2013, Pedro Noguera highlighted success stories of schools in New York City and Oakland, Calif., to illustrate innovations that engage students and boost student performance.
But the New York University education professor could have been talking about North Carolina's own innovative schools and the design principles they follow when he flashed a PowerPoint slide on the screen to show his "Five Essential Ingredients for School Improvement."
Echoing much of the work underway by NC New School's partner schools, Noguera urged nearly 1,000 educators assembled for this year's Summer Institute main keynote address "to create the schools that our kids deserve."
Noguera focused much of his talk on the need to build capacity within schools to ensure that schools are effectively meeting the needs of all students, regardless of their backgrounds and differences.
"Until a child's background doesn't determine how well a student does in school, we have work to do," he said. "If your school is reproducing existing patterns of inequality, you have work to do."
And he could have been reading straight from the NC New Schools design principle that addresses powerful teaching and learning and the Common Instructional Framework shared by partner schools when he said this: "Too many teachers, especially in high schools, confuse teaching with talking. Covering the book and developing a love of learning are two different things. In far too many schools, we expect students to learn the way we teach. If they don't, we blame them or their parents.
Ultimately, Noguera said, effective change that drives real improvements in student engagement and achievement depends on a shared culture "where learning is sacred."
"Nothing will change without the culture," he said. "That kind of culture is what distinguishes the best schools from the others. We need to create a culture in schools where it's cool to be smart."
"Great schools convince kids that knowledge is power."
Click to watch video of Noguera's keynote address at Summer Institute 2013.
