My friend and colleague Michael Horn, co-author of "Disrupting Class" and Executive Director of the Innosight Institute, recently shot this rough video commentary about the recent $10 billion House bill to save teacher jobs.  Listen closely to what he is saying, because he's not "anti-teacher," but merely reiterating what I wrote a while back in a blog post about how we need our administrators to be better business people.  We need to do more with less, and online learning, if used appropriately, can go a long way towards making our education system not only more efficient, but better aligned with the stimuli of the outside world.  And the more I study the dysfunction in our school system, the more I realize that perhaps the best way to systemically change the system is not to reingineer it, but to completely redesign it.  Take out a fresh sheet of paper and rebuild the structure.  Maybe the education system should look long and hard at what Lou Gerstner did when he was brought in to completely reinvent IBM.  And yes, he was an "outsider."

We hear a lot of talk about online learning programs, virtual schools and certain charter schools as examples of the types of "non-consumption" options that most frequently come to mind when trying to deploy discrutive innovation products and services for our education system.  But what about after-school programs as the perfect "testing ground" for new teaching approaches and enrichment options? I'll provide my rationale below.

A recent report by Public/Private Ventures titled, "Recruiting and Retaining Older African American and Hispanic Boys in After-School Programs" really caught my eye the other day.  Consider these facts:

• In 2006, high school students living in low-income families were four-and-a-half times more likely to drop out than their peers from high-income families
• In that same year, 11% of African American youth and 22% of Hispanic youth between the ages of 16 and 24 had not earned - and were not working toward - a high school diploma, compared with only 6% of whites in the same age group.
• African American and Hispanic males between the ages of 10 and 24 are also more likely than their white peers to be involved in violent crime
• Homicide rates for African American males (62.2 per 100,000) and Hispanic males (21.5 per 100,000) far exceed those of non-Hispanic white males in the same age group (3.4 per 100,000)

These are alarming statistics.  However, this group has researched the best practices for successful after-school programs and here are some encouraging excerpts from the detailed report:

• Research has found an association between extended participation in these programs and a host of positive outcomes, including bettter school attendance, greater self-confidence, increased civic engagement, improved academic achievement and decreased delinquency.
• Participation in afterschool programs may yield these benefits as a result of core developmental and academic skills taught to youth both directly and indirectly through program activities or because of the sheer fact that youth are spending more time in safe settings with adult supervision.
• Historically, youth from minority and low-income families have demonstrated lower rates of participation in various types of after-school programs.
• A small study was funded to begin identifying promising strategies currently used by after-school programs to recruite and retain middle and high-school aged African American and Hispanic males.  These were some of the key characteristics:
  • Programs encouraged enrollment via peer networks
  • Programs were easily accessible, meaning most of the programs were offered in the schools in which the youth were enrolled, thus making it easy to get to and from the program
  • Programs were affordable
  • Programs directly met a financial need, meaning some of them actually were paid a stipend for their participation so that they do not have to go to a job to contribute financially to their family (in this example, I'm not opposed to paying the students a stipend as an incentive, since there is an opportunity cost in some cases)
  • Programs exposed older youth to topics and activities that are fun.  These include sports and entertainment, creative endeavors, and other recreational activities
  • Programs were relevant to older minority youth in terms of interest, cultural issues and economic needs
  • Programs were flexible in their participation requirements while maintaining their expectation for youth's consistent participation
  • Programs rewarded youth, through positive reinforcement, prizes via a point system, etc.
  • Programs empowered youth
  • Programs provided nurturing environments

I have redacted a great deal from this very inciteful report, which I encourage all of you to read.  More needs to be done here, including analyzing not only the successful programs (e.g., The Comic Book Project, Progressive Sports and Entertainment Alliance, The After-School Corporation), but also the failures.

And finally, instead of actually having a teacher or counselor teach an after-school program, maybe consider this radical approach:  put the kids in a room with some stimuli and let them teach themselves!  Think I'm totally insane?  Before you say "yes," look at the research conducted by Sugata Mitra, who happened to give an incredible talk today at TEDGlobal 2010.  He calls these environments, "SOLE's," or Self-Organized Learning Environments.  You'd be amazed what putting a group of kids together with an undefined task will lead to.  Working as a team, and only possessing a computer, children can self-teach new and complex information.  You have to see it to believe it.

Just imagine what we can do if we freed ourselves from traditional stereotypes and physical barriers.  Maybe after-school programs can become the new research labs for innovative approaches to learning.  If you free your mind, there's no telling what new inventions we'll come up with.