A Guide for Transformation — “Bold Moves” by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Marie Alcock

Posted on September 8, 2017 by David Niguidula

There are lots of books on education out there. The good ones are helpful and tell you some ideas. The great ones give you some ideas – and help you generate even more.

Heidi and Marie’s new book — Bold Moves for Schools: How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments (available from ASCD) — talks about curriculum and assessment and pedagogy and leadership. But more importantly, it talks about all of these things as interrelated. All too often, schools and districts put together initiatives that focus on one area of change. That’s understandable; we don’t want people to feel overwhelmed. The problem is that changes in one part of the system inevitably rub against other elements. When adding advisories, or a different schedule, or introducing a new technology, there are inevitably side effects. The reason many initiatives disappear is because the school hasn’t connected those initiatives to a larger vision of what we want school to look like.

One particularly nice description in Heidi and Marie’s book is in thinking about a school’s current practices. Are they contemporary? Or classical? Or antiquated? This framework provides a new, and useful, way of distinguishing among the activities at the school.

I’m pleased that they discuss our work on digital portfolios in the chapter on “Contemporary Assessment Systems.” Richer Picture, when used well, can support innovative approaches to assessment – and because things are interrelated, will naturallly support your innovations in curriculum, personalization and school transformation.