How hateful rhetoric connects to real-world violence |
- A new federal program goes local to accelerate regional innovation
- Starting conversations on social and emotional learning with parents and teachers is critical for building family engagement
- TechTank Podcast Episode 45: Deciphering the Metaverse
| A new federal program goes local to accelerate regional innovation Posted: 31 May 2022 11:43 AM PDT By Mark Muro One of the most compelling developments of the Biden presidency has been the emergence of significant programs and policies targeted at helping places (and their residents) thrive, rather than people more generally. Proposed across numerous realms, "place-based" programs such as the Economic Development Administration's Build Back Better Regional Challenge are encouraging bottom-up problem-solving in more and more places, even though the Senate blockage of the Build Back Better Act stymied multiple proposals last winter. Now comes another impressive embrace of place-based policy—this one from the nation's top driver of scientific progress and innovation, the National Science Foundation (NSF). Last month, the NSF's new, impact-oriented Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships announced that it would be providing select U.S. regions with up to $160 million over 10 years to strengthen their local innovation scenes, with a focus on regions that have not fully participated in the tech boom of the last few decades. Branded the NSF Regional Innovation Engines program, the new initiative represents an especially serious effort to deploy place-based problem-solving against a major national challenge—in this case, lagging tech-oriented economic development and inclusive talent development in scores of locations that have been underserved for years. What's striking is the program's urgency about improving the results of federal investment in innovation and entrepreneurship by leveraging the commercial synergies of local tech ecosystems more intentionally. Instead of just awarding millions of dollars in grants to support basic research in cloistered Research 1 universities, the NSF Regional Innovation Engines program seeks to produce "measurable societal impacts" and "tangible outcomes" by stimulating the latent innovation power of promising but underperforming local regions. That is, the NSF seeks to maximize the nation's innovation by accelerating the rise of regional ecosystems in new places. The program is noteworthy for the way it targets one of the key virtues of place-based strategies: the ability of bottom-up local trust and information flows to maximize and optimize the connection of relevant actors and activities. In that vein, the program bets on the power of place-based problem-solving by challenging regions to advance a specific game plan to better align loosely connected actors and activities into a cohesive network of partners. Likewise, the NSF's announcement stresses the importance for prospective regions to develop plans for enhancing that cohesion by cultivating a "culture of innovation" consisting of trust, diversity, risk-taking, and knowledge sharing. In other words, the NSF is betting on a growing body of literature—such as from Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Marco Di Cataldo, Arnault Morisson, and Roberto Ezcurra—that sees place as a forum for improving the collaboration and governance that are crucial for improving innovation and inclusive growth. In this regard, the NSF is pushing in the same important direction as the Economic Development Administration's Build Back Better Regional Challenge as well as its $500 million Good Jobs Challenge, which is aimed at strengthening local skills training systems in particular places, with an emphasis on underserved communities. Together, these programs represent an important recognition that tackling broad systemic problems—such as the nation's stark economic divides—with smart action targeted on distinct places can deliver superior results. And the NSF Regional Innovation Engines program stands out as the latest in a series of compelling new federal initiatives that are testing the promise of place-based policy to address hard problems more robustly. By going local, the NSF is enlisting U.S. regions in working to grow the U.S. economy and train a diverse workforce for future high-wage jobs. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 31 May 2022 11:42 AM PDT By Emily Markovich Morris, Rini D'Souza "Build back better" and "build back equal" have become familiar slogans used to capture a global commitment to redressing educational inequities and system failures brought to center stage during the COVID-19 pandemic. These slogans are also a way for decisionmakers, educators, and communities to verbalize how and why our education systems are not adequately and inclusively serving all students and families. The Akanksha Foundation, a civil society organization based in Mumbai that works with government schools, is using "build back better" to create momentum for promoting the social and emotional learning (SEL) and well-being of students. Akanksha is building this momentum through fostering intentional conversations between families and teachers on how to ensure that schools are not just preparing children academically, but also promoting SEL alongside civics education and work readiness skills development. In research conducted in collaboration with the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings, Akanksha discovered that parents and teachers have different beliefs and perceptions about the purpose of school. Rather than viewing these differences as a hurdle to building back better, Akanksha is using this as an opportunity to start critical dialogues on SEL and build synergy between schools and families. The rationale for social and emotional learningAccording to a study on multidimensional poverty—which measures health, education, and standard of living—roughly a quarter of Indians are living in multidimensional poverty. As in other parts of the world, the pandemic has increased food insecurity, lack of sufficient medical services, poverty, unemployment, and interruptions in school in India—all of which negatively impact students' well-being. Akanksha is using a building back better approach to acknowledge students' experiences with multidimensional poverty, and to bring communities together to address learning gaps and the social and emotional needs of children and their families. Established in 1991 as a group of student volunteers, Akanksha is now a professional institution and network of over 700 educators, staff, and volunteers. They are on a mission to provide equitable and quality educational opportunities to over 10,000 marginalized children in 27 government K-10 schools in the cities of Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur. Akanksha's teaching and learning approach focuses on the holistic physical and mental development of students and draws on Emory University's Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning curriculum. Akanksha is using this curriculum alongside teacher professional development activities, family engagement strategies, and systems change efforts to build a culture of well-being in schools. The need for conversations between families and teachersHolding international conversations with parents and teachers is a step toward building greater alignment and collaboration between families and schools on the importance of SEL. According to one teacher leader from a Mumbai school, "Children studying in our schools often come from households and communities where they experience trauma, be it physical or mental, regularly. SEL plays a key role here in giving them a platform to talk about and learn healthy mechanisms to cope with this trauma. Additionally, a healthy and balanced mind also strengthens their academic abilities." Integrating SEL with academic development is shown to foster educational success. As a member of the Family Engagement in Education Network (FEEN), Akanksha knows that family engagement is critical to transforming education systems to better serve children, families, and educators. Started by CUE, the FEEN is a peer-learning network made up of over 50 member teams representing government jurisdictions, educator and parent associations, and civil society organizations from 12 countries around the world. In addition to being active in the FEEN, Akanksha has been using the Conversation Starter Tools to capture the perspectives of teachers, parents, and students on the purpose of education and their level of trust and alignment, along with other measures. They are using the findings to inform conversations between families and schools that lead to evidence-based strategies to increase family engagement. The tools include checklists for contextualizing the survey language and design, as well as guidance on how to analyze and use data to inform conversations. The tools are part of “Collaborating to transform and improve education systems: A playbook for family-school engagement” and are currently being revised and internationally validated in collaboration with the FEEN. What families and teachers are sayingBetween December 2021 and January 2022, Akanksha surveyed 323 parents and 109 educators (teachers, school leadership, counselors, and administrators) in government schools in Mumbai and Pune. The findings from these surveys showed that parents and teachers are on different pages when it comes to the purpose of school, and that greater trust and alignment are needed. Parents emphasized academic learning as the main purpose of school, whereas teachers prioritized SEL. Over half of teachers (54 percent) believed SEL was the main purpose of school compared to those who saw civics education (19 percent) and an economic purpose (20 percent)—or gaining work readiness skills—as the priority. Only a small percentage of teachers (7 percent) saw academics as the main purpose of education. On the other hand, most parents (42 percent) believed that academic preparation was the main purpose of school, followed by civics education (21 percent) and SEL (21 percent). Less than a quarter (16 percent) saw the main purpose of school as economic. This trend held true for parents across gender and age of their child (kindergarten through secondary school). However, parents with lower education levels prioritized academics to a greater extent than parents with higher education levels. This is likely because academic and work skills are seen as increasing social mobility, especially among groups who are historically marginalized by class, caste, or urban or rural residence. Teachers rightly perceived that parents prioritized academic preparation as one of the main purposes of education. However, parents believed that teachers also prioritized academics over other purposes, which was not the case. As one school leader in Mumbai stated, "Parents may not be aware of the school's role in children’s SEL development" in the same way they see schools as leading students' academic preparation. This perception gap is shown in Figure 1 below, where there is a notably larger difference in perceptions on academics and SEL as the main purpose of school. Figure 1.
Utilizing data to further conversations and family engagementSurveying parents and teachers is just the first step in understanding their values and beliefs on education and utilizing evidence to spark conversations. Akanksha will use their survey findings toward three key actions to increase family engagement and promote systems transformation in their partner schools.
In order to "build back better," parents and families must have spaces where they can discuss their different perspectives on education with teachers and school leaders. Data is critical to informing these conversations. Intentional and data-informed discussions can lead to greater trust, as well as meaningful collaboration. Akanksha is still trying to develop its approach for increasing family engagement, but these conversations are an important step to working more inclusively and intentionally with parents. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| TechTank Podcast Episode 45: Deciphering the Metaverse Posted: 30 May 2022 06:25 AM PDT By Darrell M. West The Metaverse is an immersive environment that combines virtual and augmented realities and allows people to integrate their digital and physical spaces. There is a lot of hype surrounding this concept and not everyone uses the term in the same way, so it is important to determine what the Metaverse is and what issues it raises for consumers and businesses. Already, there are questions about privacy, security, virtual content moderation, the sale of virtual goods, and data ownership so unpacking this notion is critical. To discuss these important questions, host Darrell West is joined by two distinguished experts. Tom Wheeler is a visiting fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings and author of a forthcoming book "Techlash". Katherine Cross is a Ph.D. student in the Information School at the University of Washington, where she writes about video games, social media, and online harassment. You can listen to the episode and subscribe to the TechTank podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Acast. TechTank is a biweekly podcast from The Brookings Institution exploring the most consequential technology issues of our time. From artificial intelligence and racial bias in algorithms, to Big Tech, the future of work, and the digital divide, TechTank takes abstract ideas and makes them accessible. Moderators Dr. Nicol Turner Lee and Darrell West speak with leading technology experts and policymakers to share new data, ideas, and policy solutions to address the challenges of our new digital world. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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