Dear friends in and around Tahoe,
​
Will you please join me and the TLT Design Club for a very special event - our coming-out party of launch of a program that has long been in the works - my true passion project:
What?    EIC THRIVE LAB TAHOE OPEN HOUSE
When?   SUNDAY MAY 1st 4:30 to 7 pm
Where?   916 Southwood Blvd. #3, Incline Village
Why?
-> To experience an "Escape Room" style tour of our 8 design studios and projects that support personal and career development of 10 to 18 year-olds with coaching;

-> To experience a mini-project in one of the studios (your choice);

- > To participate in a FORUM to envision the Future of Learning, Working, & Playing in Incline and beyond
​
- > To enjoy pizza, wine (adults of course), and social time

Link here to RSVP:
https://www.eic-nv.org/openhouse.html

Please help spread the word! Share this post with friends.
Thank you for joining us - and helping to imagine and create a brighter future for us all - together!
Mary Alber
#thrivelabeic.org

*Self-Preneur: designer, creator, and collaborative self-developer of one’s best life in service to community.

EIC invites all employers and community members to support student projects and coach Self-Preneurs-in-training - sharing your expertise to guide and inspire young people to create their brightest future. Through career studios, teens will explore, experiment, and stretch their boundaries, as they flourish to their full potential as strong contributors to the vitality and well-being of their community. 

Many people are surprised to learn that in Incline Village, Nevada (one of the wealthiest communities in the state), public schools have over 50% of families qualifying for economic assistance - which is similar to regional and state demographics. Unfortunately, this statistic also correlates with gaps in academic achievement and the chance of future success. The EIC and Thrive Lab Tahoe teams are committed to closing these gaps by providing access to personal and career development projects for ALL students and families in our community. 

By investing in ALL of our students, we are investing in our communities. You can support Thrive Labs development by donating your time, talent and/or resources to enable all students, regardless of socioeconomic background, to THRIVE.  Our visionary goal is to establish a NETWORK of community-based Thrive Labs that share programs, resources, and coaches - including hybrid and distance project teams - across regions, the state, and beyond! 

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Families: As a parent in the North Lake Tahoe area, your purchase of a Thrive Lab Tahoe Club Member Passcard for your children 10 to 18 years old will allow them nearly unlimited use of the studio space, equipment, and coaches after school, weekends, breaks, summer, and snowdays. Home school and distance learning students can access studio spaces during the day:

         $100 - Monthly,  $275 quarterly,  $1000 annually,  $1800 for two siblings 

            TAKE STUDENT MEMBER INTEREST SURVEY & SIGN-UP HERE 

Community Members: There are several ways to contribute to the success of Thrive Labs:
1 - Join the Groundbreakers Club: funds support operations, studio equipment, special program offerings, and scholarships for underserved youth. You’ll be recognized in EIC and Thrive Lab publications, websites, social media, on the donor wall, and have use of lab equipment:
     $1,000   -  Entry Level - a scholarship student membership (need-based)
     $2,500   -  Learner Level
     $5,000   -  Mentor Level
     $10,000  -  Leader Level
     $25,000 -  Master Level - includes named studio sponsorship

2 - Become a Coach or Mentor: Lend your expertise and advice to students.

3 - Join the EIC Board - help EIC and Thrive Labs empower universal thriving. 

4 - Join the Advisory Team for Thrive Lab Tahoe - or your local community Lab -   
      to empower the universal thriving of young people.  

                TAKE SUPPORTER INTEREST SURVEY & DONATE NOW

To learn more and contribute to EIC Thrive Labs success, please visit EIC’s website - and do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or suggestions. 
We deeply value your input!
 
As 2021 comes to an end, the EIC team is eager to welcome you to JOIN THE ADVENTURE and support our bold mission to develop Thrive Lab Tahoe and Thrive Lab Network across Northern Nevada in 2022. 

Warm wishes and blessings for a joyful holiday season!
 
Mary Alber, Founding Director, Education Innovation Collaborative (EIC)
And the EIC Team     
[email protected]
WWW.EIC-NV.ORG 

As I began writing, the enormity of the topic sunk in.  I realized that those in special education are way ahead in their thinking! They realize better than any other that education is not a one size fits all, but should be customized around the strengths and weaknesses of an individual child. They have firsthand experience in creating Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and implementing this style of customized or what *Aurora calls, Personalized and Competency-based Education (PCBE). 

Nowadays the background experiences of some of the children which give them the label of "at risk" affects their personalities, behaviors, and even though they may not fall under the traditional category of children with "special needs", they still need to be treated as such. Or else we may lose an increasing cross section of population to delinquency, resulting in a burden to society instead of becoming future constructive citizens. Personalization is crucial to not only their success but can and should be done, for all children (typical and atypical). In other words, an IEP for all, albeit a more simplified version of an IEP for typical children.

You might say, this is too Utopic an idea, given the diversity of students with regard to race, gender, socio-economic aspects, slow learner, fast learner, LGBTQ, and children with special needs, all together in one classroom being taught by a single class teacher (with a little help hopefully.) That it is not practical or doable.

Well, the good news is that with the right kind of support and given the fantastic innovations in technological software, what was impossible, is now possible. Harnessing the support of technology would support the teachers in utilizing their time in more enjoyable and useful forms of learning, such as the potential of fantasy, role play, group discussion, project based learning and problem based learning. Thus personalizing learning to each student and understanding and solving real world problems and scenarios which enhance 21st century skills such as critical thinking, team work, collaboration, multiple perspectives, creativity,  imagination and not to forget character building and socio-emotional learning, across a broader cross section of students. This is more important to a student’s growth, learning and achieving success in my opinion than being a stickler to traditional and rigid forms of assessment, strict adherence to seat time and an ‘industrialized’ form of education which does not work efficiently in the ‘information’ age of internet globalization and diversity.

Leaders in education, such as Scandinavian countries like Finland, are moving away from silos of subjects and towards “phenomenon-based” learning for their main stream curriculum. Further, personalization and proficiency or competency-based education is already being implemented across the US to varying levels (seek map link below). Also, the benefit of ‘personalization or individualizing an education plan for all’ would have the added benefit of removing the stigma associated with having an IEP for children with special needs. 

If you refer to the link of the map of competency-based education which facilitates personalization across the US below, you will notice several states with significantly promising state policies and implementation in this area. (Learn more here: https://aurora-institute.org/blog/competencyworks-releases-updated-competency-education-state-policy-map-for-the-united-states/)

The funding needs to be better directed towards shifting to more meaningful methods of assessments, where students will no longer take “fill in the bubble exams,” but demonstrate mastery/proficiency in various ways, such as performance-based assessments. This will require significant attention to and investment in building educator and leader capacity for next generation assessments and allowing for the development of more meaningful accountability with a higher focus on achieving greater transparency and equity with multiple measures of student learning and learning environments.

My reason for giving you a snapshot of what is starting to happen, in fact has been happening for some years across the US as well as in other parts of the world, is to reinforce the importance of customization or personalization in closing the gaps in learning and bringing a love of learning back to our students.

At a time when not only a lot of the states across the US, but also other countries are moving towards personalization of education, so then how can we in Nevada veer away from customization at this nth hour?

Thanking you
Priya Ahlawat
Education Innovation Collaborative

I’m grateful to our wise and hardworking EIC team member and recent college graduate, Michelle Alber, for sharing her compelling story in a video-letter to education innovation advocates. (See letter/transcript here). 

As Michelle says, young people have for too long been disempowered and disengaged in their learning experiences. Even privileged students like her have felt the imposed stress of the current education system to conform to an outdated definition of success; get all As in courses, strive for a competitive college, compete for high paying jobs, earn enough to own a car, home, and raise a family. But the education rat race has left young people feeling unsuccessful, under-prepared for the workforce, unmotivated, in debt, and struggling to make ends meet in unsatisfying jobs. Michelle spent a year searching for a job that leveraged her expensive out of state BA in political science and anthropology, and then settled for an office manager position that taps into a fraction of her abilities and interests. Michelle’s brother will be graduating from college in June to a likely still-COVID-ravaged economy that will be challenging for ALL graduates - whether high school or college - but even more so for a passionate philosophy major.  It seems that both of my children feel the best and only path is to pursue yet another expensive degree - to take on more education debt for a business or law degree that will eventually, hopefully help them make ends meet.  

For less advantaged students, which are the bulk of our population, higher degrees are seen as impractical and out of reach. Even if they get scholarships and Pell grants, today’s young adults know how many of their peers have failed to earn any degree (on average, only 55% of freshmen complete a degree at a Nevada university - and community colleges are even lower). The bulk of education debt is carried by incompleters who also struggle to access jobs that can pay it off.  Clearly it’s not our young people who are failing. It’s our non-adapting system of schooling that is failing to meet new needs. The system must update criteria of “readiness” and “success” in today’s world. Instead of diploma factories for yesterday’s jobs, schools need to start fulfilling their core role in serving a rapidly changing society.
 
I hope we can all agree that that role, simply put, is to prepare every learner to thrive for life. 

I hope we can also agree that today’s systems are not designed to develop and uplift each and every learner to thrive - to honor their glorious uniqueness, unleash their strengths and full genius, or empower their highest contribution to a better world.

While shifting our education system to serve this higher purpose is a daunting challenge, COVID-19 is forcing us to action. Education is the slowest social system to innovate - to integrate new technologies to optimize efficiency and effectiveness - to adapt to the new reality of what citizens need to be successful in our increasingly complex world. As education is the most foundational system to society, its products - high performing self-directed lifelong learners -  are crucial to enabling the high functioning of all other social systems; 

• If our graduates aren’t equitably prepared to thrive in Fourth Industrial Revolution occupations, then the economy will collapse from growing unemployment and income inequalities. 
• If graduates aren’t prepared to optimize their own health and wellbeing, the healthcare system will collapse from the burden of having to handle growing rates of illness, substance abuse, and contagious disease. 
• If citizens aren’t prepared to understand the complex, international dynamics and science of the environment, politics, economics, healthcare, and education, then democracies will collapse from the burden of fear and ignorance that welcomes autocratic rule.  

The education system has been the most bureaucratic of all social systems - slow to leverage new technologies to empower the end-users; to enable learners to be in charge of their own learning. If we act quickly and collaboratively, Nevada has a unique opportunity to leapfrog and transcend the outdated goals, assessments, policies, politics, methodologies, inequitable funding, entrenched politics, and misguided promotion criteria. How? By adopting the EIC mission: to reimagine education to empower every learner to thrive to their potential. 

After years of seeking pathways to realize this essential and urgent mission, the fog is slowly lifting, and we are seeing the bridge to our brightest future. EIC’s team is now working with innovators in several Nevada counties, including Churchill, Washoe, and Pershing, to host student Design Clubs. These small teams of forward-looking students and coaches will work on two key PROJECTS to envision the future: 

1. Design My Life Plan; using their Selfpreneur Playbook practices, each student explores and prototypes potential futures and decides what their learning plan needs to be to achieve their desired future. Their small peer cohort engages in practice together.  
2. Design Our Ideal Thrive Lab for Life; considering all needs of members of the community, small student teams lead the community in visioning the perfect learning spaces and ecosystem to meet every student where they are; to develop their strengths, passions, and interests to serve the needs of their community.  

EIC is well-equipped and excited to support Nevada's youth to design and develop their community Learning Lab Ecosystem. For example, we look forward to supporting Pershing County to expand their Nevada School Television Network, an already successful workforce development CTE program, where students operate the K14KQ TV broadcast channel and produce informational video stories for the community. The work-study program serves to prepare students for the workforce through building in-demand skills and competencies for success in 21st century occupations. These include learning about computer science, technologies, engineering, arts, early literacy, digital and media literacy and production, business management, and marketing. By expanding the broadcast range to Elko, Carson, Reno, and the I-80 corridor, many more students across the region can have meaningful learning experiences by producing content for distribution through the network - including those in underserved rural communities. As students become investigative journalists studying the needs of employers, families, and community civic organizations, their stories will inform each other and community members while also building self-awareness and clarity about their optimal life-work/career pathway. 

In this great video by master teacher John Spencer, Why Journalism is the Subject of the Future, investigative story-telling in and with the community is revealed as a profound and powerful learning methodology. Please visit our website to learn about our vision and plans for nurturing community-based Thrive Lab Ecosystems based on the common principles behind journalism, scientific inquiry, and entrepreneurialism to solve community needs. 

As student Design Club members guide us in re-imagining education, we’ll necessarily need some re-languaging: 

1. Moving from student to learner to Self-Preneur; designer and creator of one’s best life; 

2. Moving from teacher-instructors to coach-cheerleader teams who guide Self-Preneur teams through “collaborative action research and design” project investigations in the real world.  

Does this paradigm shift sound scary, essential, and fun at the same time? 

Please join us to unleash ALL young people to explore their world - to discover their gifts and passions on their hero’s quest to their most fulfilling place and contribution to their community and world.  

GIVE GENEROUSLY to make 2021 an amazing year for Nevada students. 
SIGN UP to learn more and co-create with us!

Mary Alber, PhD, MBA
Founding Director of Education Innovation Collaborative
775.224.3736    [email protected]        
​eic-nv.org

Here's the Situation;

• Nevada ranks 50th in the nation for student opportunity (Ed Week, Quality Counts Report Card 2020)
• Less than 15% of Nevada’s students are prepared to succeed in college and career (ACT 2020) 
• COVID has only made matters worse as Nevada was far from prepared for distance education. Every day our young people fall further behind. Those who were disadvantaged before are losing the most learning (McKinsey, June, 2020). Parents are struggling to become teachers while teachers are struggling to keep students engaged without the technology and programs to do so.

Here's the Solution
The Education Innovation Collaborative (EIC) was created to solve these problems - through transforming the system. EIC has a plan to turn this crisis around and position Nevada as a leader in the new paradigm of student-powered learning. We believe that enabling all children in Nevada to become independent and collaborative learners, online at home and in enhanced schools and community places, is the path to success for education in Nevada - and beyond.  Our team of experts has been working with Nevada’s vanguard of innovators and leaders to design a roadmap to a future in which ALL students thrive to their full potential. 

What’s the key to this future? Empowering every learner, of every age, to design and own their learning as self-directed masters - as Selfpreneurs* of their best life. These passion-driven learners will be highly collaborative, creative, compassionate, and ready to make the world a better place to live.

To achieve these critical, challenging shifts, we envision Power Learning Labs in every community -- virtual and physical spaces and resources where students engage in REAL learning challenges that build their capacities to thrive in a rapidly changing, unpredictable world.

Power Learning Labs will enable the shift by:

• Integrating latest technologies, learning sciences, & goals to personalize learning
• Unleashing each individual’s strengths and passions to empower self-direction
• Collaborating to solve real-world challenges in communities and workplaces
• Having a caring coach team of peers, parents, experts, counselors, and mentors
• Developing leaders who inspire a culture of student-powered learning

Here’s How You Can Help
Sponsor students to join Design Clubs where they collaborate with community members to design and prototype a world class Power Learning Lab. Our budget is $200,000 for each site. 

• For $50, become a member of EIC and help students with design
• For $100, sponsor a student in a Design Club 
• For $1000+, support a Design Club team 

​During this holiday season, we count our blessings to have caring community members and generous donors like you. Thank you for your support!

Why has it been so many months since I last wrote an EIC blog post update? 

​Two main reasons: 

• Hunkering down to develop the plans, people, and finances to launch Learning Labs prototypes in two innovation communities and
• Seeking the RIGHT combination of partners and programs to have the greatest impact for the most economical investment.   

As you can imagine, COVID made mincemeat of plans that we had started in February to do LLab prototype in the Fall.  We had just begun discussions with amazing leaders in two communities in Nevada - led by Churchill Superintendent Summer Stevens - who are ready and willing to spearhead this work. However since the onslaught of COVID, teachers, students, and parents have struggled to keep up with the challenges of distance and hybrid learning - with little time to plan for an innovative pilot program at their schools. The existential stress of growing COVID infections along with election season dramas have only made it harder for an innovative start-up non-profit program such as ours to take root and attract funding - or ask the schools and districts to chip in.

With Nevada's education budget shrinking daily (Las Vegas is feeling like a ghost town), schools don't know how they will possibly cut MORE from their budgets when they have already been operating on razer thin budgets for years before COVID. Many students still do not have adequate computers or connections at home. Kids are falling behind more every day - especially children of color and economic disadvantage who don't have quality of support at home or quality of learning programs through their teachers.  

On the bright side, NV leadership is taking action to support innovative initiatives such as ours. Superintendent Ebert and her hardworking staff are doing a heroic job of supporting districts with educator professional development for remote and digital learning and teaching programs. Dr. Ebert launched a Blue Ribbon Commission for education innovation last week that I am honored to be invited to sit on and optimistic about the direction in which the group is moving - supported by forward-looking students and leaders from schools, districts, states, and non-profit organizations - and facilitated by KnowledgeWorks.

Further feeding my optimism is an emerging partnerships with UNLV College of Education - as new interim Dean Danica Hayes and team see how Learning Labs can be a host for learning sciences and advanced technologies (AR/VR/AI Interaction & Media Sciences Lab) for demonstrations, research, and development - putting Nevada on the map as a true leader in education innovation.

Yet another promising development last week that has inspired me to write this update, is a conversation with Kelly Young, President of Education Reimagined and then reading her compelling article today (published by Getting Smart) entitled The Time to Redesign is NOW!  You will see Education Reimagined's references throughout EIC's website (in process of overhaul) as ER's A Transformational Vision for Education paper was a key inspiration for our writing of the XQ SuperSchool grant way back in 2016 - which got us to semi-finals!    

Having spent 18 months of participatory research by a large group of diverse stakeholders years ago, Kelly and team's vision remains as relevant as ever - and more urgent!  As this table indicates, the logical education paradigm for a networked world is one that is learner-centered; highly personalized, competency-based deep learning experiences supported by a stable and supportive relationship network of adults and peers who engage in self-directed discovery together:    ​