Inflection Point

Fritjof Capra (systems thinker pre-Senge/Wheatley) said that we alway think that we’re at some kind of tipping point–but this week really feels like an inflection.  Here’s four pieces of evidence:

• Voluntary national standards were released this week locking in the goal of giving every American student viable post secondary options. For a couple decades Marc Tucker has been talking about the goal of ‘college eligible without remediation,’ and we all finally caught up with him.
• 35 states submitted apps for RttT last week. Less than a third will win, but going thru the motions (again) had value of imposing design principles, including high college/career ready standards, data, choice, and performance-based employment.
• Grants totaling $350m will soon fund development of a new generation of assessments that will frame the next decade of education in America (and probably more important than the next reauthorization of ESEA).
• A handful of small investments in second generation digital learning tools signals the beginning of the end of batch-print education and the dawn of digital personal learning.

Maybe it’s just a good night’s sleep, but put me in the optimistic column.