Our Mission...
The ESD Project is a large consortium of progressive partners working together to design, implement, and evaluate new approaches to education that are far more effective.
When the current educational system was designed, we knew much less about how people learn, and we had few alternatives. Books and magazines were scarce, and film, video, and computer-based options were not available. As a result, the designers of yesterday's system grouped students by age or ability, and then had people who knew something tell it to them. That system has worked pretty well for some students, but not well at all for others. It is better at sorting students than at teaching them.
Our schools are better than they have ever been, and our teachers are caring, dedicated professionals, but both students and teachers are working against the odds in a system that is in need of transformation.
Michael Fullan, the leading expert on change in education, says...
"The main problem is not the absence of innovation in schools, but rather the presence
of too many disconnected, episodic, fragmented, superficially adorned projects."Fullan, M., (2001), The New Meaning of Educational Change, New York: Teachers’ College Press
The ESD Project's mission is to design a new educational system:
- based on our new understanding of how people learn
- designed to produce the skills and attributes required for success in modern life
- taking advantage of powerful and rapidly evolving learning technologies
- designed to meet the diverse needs of individual learners.