About

Building good maps and forging paths ahead

About Unstuck-Ed

How will we know where we’re going if we don’t have good maps? How will we know if we’re on track, and whether we have arrived?

Unstuck-Ed.org lets you hear from a diverse group of inspirational change agents, map-makers, way-finders, and thinkers on many aspects of K-12 education. Along the way, you can build and refine your own map of the education world, whether you are teacher, entrepreneur, administrator, student, community member or philanthropist.

Where we are

One of the important feature of maps is that they help you contextualize where you are in relation to the larger environment, and your destination. Too often we work heads-down in our own part of the education world without stopping to think about the bigger ends of education, or about what the world looks like that we’re educating students for. These are juicy and rewarding questions, even if the answers are divergent in a diverse society. To what end do we educate children? If the world changes, should schools? How does public schooling build a public? Do only public schools have a responsibility to help?

You are here

A stuck system can’t be moved by stuck people. Changing policy is not the whole picture of making change in education. We must attend to the human side of change as well. Some of the voices here will explore ways of moving forward personally and professionally in education. To outsiders, it may seem as if the education world, with its emphasis on individual growth and development, would be an easy place to grow a career. Insiders know that all too often there are impediments to professional growth and leadership development.

A few guideposts

People we talk to will have strong points of view, and they may not all agree on everything. That does not mean that we are starting with a blank slate. Among our guiding principles are the following:

• Education serves bigger ends, one of which is helping to build a strong, informed public
• In diverse societies, people will disagree on some of those ends. But we have strong guideposts for agreement on core principles
• Character matters
• Good teachers are crucial
• Teachers are experts, with needs for professional growth and support like other professionals
• People who look like they agree may not; and people who fall into different camps may agree on much

History

Unstuck-Ed was started in the summer of 2009 by Mark Basnage, who has spent the last twenty years working in education. One of his first projects was leading a science teaching and learning improvement project in urban North Philadelphia public elementary schools, scaling the project from a single classroom to multiple schools. From 1996-98 he initiated the effort to bring better public schooling options to West Philadelphia’s Spruce Hill neighborhood, eventually merging his efforts into what became the University of Pennsylvania’s lab school. He has also been a school administrator at one of Pennsylvania’s first charter schools, and at an innovative and influential independent school in Northern California. Mark is currently developing tools for teachers to allow them to connect to curriculum, experts, and peers in new ways.

If you have questions or comments about Unstuck-Ed, you may email Mark at mb @ basnagedesign.com