Why We Should Be Testing Where Innovations Break
And the role of accreditation and religion in higher ed innovation
As we wrap up the academic year in the United States, there’s a lot happening across the education spectrum right now. And from rethinking reading to rethinking research, there’s a lot that has me excited. Before I go into some highlights from the past couple weeks, a quick note: I’m going to skip publishing anything the week of July 2nd just to give your inboxes a break as we move into the 4th of July holiday here in the United States.
Accreditation 101
It seems that accreditors are always the boogeymen of higher education. Everyone, including me, always has hot takes on accreditation—what accreditors should or shouldn't do, how they should or shouldn't operate, how to reform them, and more. This recent
post from captured many of my criticisms of accreditors serving as the gateway to federal financial aid, for example:
In a sign of just how big this conversation has gotten, even former President Trump and Florida Governor (and presidential candidate) Ron DeSantis have recently had hot takes on accreditors. Trump said that the current accreditors should just go away (in effect), and DeSantis said that he wanted to approve alternative accreditors.
And yet it seems that far too few of the folks in and around higher ed actually know all that much about how accreditors operate and what they do and don’t do. Given that accreditors are a mainstay of the American higher education system—they’re central to how colleges get federal financial aid, and they’ve long played central roles in self-improvement for institutions—it’s worth knowing more about how they actually operate. In the latest episode of Future U., Jeff Selingo and I did just that. Our objective was to level set just what is accreditation, what is its history in this country, how do accreditors actually operate, and why is accreditation so central? And what might be changing down the line?
To help us, we welcomed Barbara Brittingham, the former president of the New England Commission on Higher Education, also known as NECHE, which accredits over 200 colleges and universities in the six New England states and 11 American-style institutions abroad, on the show to help us do a Higher Ed 101 on accreditation. Check it out here.
Religion and Higher Ed
America’s colleges and universities have their roots as religious institutions. It’s well known that most have drifted away from those origins. But what I didn’t know is that enrollment at religious institutions in the United States has risen over the past 20 years.
Why didn’t I know that? Part of the reason is that of the many college closures over the past decade, a high number of them have been small, religious institutions.
But as our guest on a recent episode of Future U. argued, religion can actually be a source of strength in helping colleges and universities innovate and tackle some of the central challenges facing higher education: namely accessibility, affordability, and value.
Clark Gilbert, the Commissioner of Education of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and former president of BYU-Idaho and BYU-Pathway Worldwide, joined us to share how this can work for institutions. I also enjoyed catching up with Clark, as, like me, he counts Clayton Christensen as one of his mentors. Jeff and I included some of his reflections about Clay on the episode titled “Religion and Higher Education.”
Speaking of Jeff Selingo… He’s hosting a live, virtual event on June 20th. Here are the details:
How Students Want Their Learner Experience Improved
A free virtual event on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 at 2 pm ET / 11 am PT
Enriching “the student experience” is all the rage now in education, but what do students really want? In this free virtual event, an expert panel will dive into the results of a new national survey of 2,700 college students and explore what worked and what didn’t on their way from K–12 to college. You’ll want to participate in this webcast just to get access to the insights and learn from experts about how to fill gaps or reduce friction.
Among some of the key findings of the survey:
—> 2 in 3 students say their high school coursework didn’t make them feel prepared for college.
—> Those who felt prepared said it was college-level courses, extra-curriculars, and college visits that most prepared them.
—> First-generation college students reported feeling less prepared than students with a parent who completed college.
Jeff Selingo will host a live, virtual event that will include interactive discussion with:
· Josh Sine, vice president of higher ed strategy at Qualtrics, who will discuss the findings of the survey.
· Thomas Chase Hagood, senior associate vice president for academic affairs and dean of undergraduate studies at the University of Utah, who will discuss how to build a better seamless student experience.
· Bridget Yuhas, co-executive director, Institute for Well-being, and the director of student affairs assessment and strategy at Butler University, who will discuss how to design well-being programs that work and get buy-in.
Reserve your spot today at the link below:
Even if you can’t make it, you can register and receive an on-demand recording after the event.
Testing Where Innovations Break
For years, my mentor and friend Bob Moesta, co-creator of the Jobs to Be Done theory, has told me that the real key to innovation isn’t to test and learn what works, but to learn from where things break. I frankly never understood the implications of this somewhat Yoda-like statement until I listened to one of his recent podcasts, “Red Line Green Line Development” on The Circuit Breaker.
Diane Tavenner and I summarized Bob’s points on our latest Class Disrupted podcast—and then debated some of the implications for education. One of my key takeaways? One reason far too many edtech products don’t produce the student outcomes they promise is that the companies don’t systematically try to figure out where what they’ve created won’t work—and to grapple with the design implications of those boundaries.
Check out the full episode here.
Speaking of Research
The “Green Line, Red Line” concept holds significant implications for research and development. And it’s among the reasons I was so excited to read the reflections on where we should be going in education research by the director of the Institute of Education Sciences, Mark Schneider, in this interview for The74.
Schneider’s points about why the founding director, Russ Whitehurst, had focused so much energy on randomized controlled trials as the coin of the realm rang true. But then Schneider’s reflections on where RCTs fall short and what else we should be doing echoed perfectly the thoughts that Julia Freeland Fisher and I wrote about back in 2016 in the white paper, “A Blueprint for Breakthroughs: Federally funded education research in 2016 and beyond.”
On the topic of research, I also recommend Laurence Holt and Jacob Klein’s recent map that they published to help chart the impact and growth of AI in education. Check it out and send them a note to help them improve the map and the tracking of what else they should include!
Finally, CXO Magazine did an exclusive interview with me around my perspectives on transforming K–12 education and some of my personal background, goals, and tactics in writing and researching. I enjoyed the questions, and hope you enjoy the answers as well. It’s all here at “Creating a World in which All Individuals can Build their Passions & Fulfil their Potential.”
As always, thanks for reading, writing, and listening.