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TEST  YOUR  INNOVATION  QUOTIENT  20  Questions  To  Ask  By:  Holly  Chesser,  SAIS  Published:  December  2012  

 At  the  Learning  Forward  2012  Annual  Conference  this  year,  Howard  Gardner,  in  a  thought  leader  lecture  on  his  new  book  Truth,  Beauty  and  Goodness  Reframed:  Education  for  the  Virtues  in  the  21st  Century,  closed  with  this  remark,  “I  haven’t  come  up  with  the  answers,  but  I  think  I  have  the  right  questions.”    With  this  quote,  Gardner  highlights  an  important  step  in  the  process  of  instituting  positive  and  essential  change  in  education:  asking  the  right  questions.    

   In  Grant  Lichtman’s  introduction  to  his  book  The  Falconer,  he  writes,  “I  want  us  to  spend  more  time  teaching  how  to  generate  and  recognize  elegant  solutions  to  the  many  problems  facing  our  world.”  In  the  model  that  he  advocates  to  help  move  students  from  passive  learners  of  old  knowledge  to  active  creators  of  new  solutions,  he  begins  with  step  one,  “The  Art  of  Questioning.”      In  Lichtman’s  blog  The  Learning  Pond,  chronicling  the  stories  of  63  schools  across  the  nation  that  are  undertaking  the  innovation  process,  he  highlights  schools  that  are  committed  to  reevaluating  best  practices  in  education.    Some  have  hired  or  discovered  within  their  ranks  “de-­‐facto  Chief  Innovation  Officer(s),”  champions  with  academic  experience  and  political  savvy  to  get  things  done.  Others  are  working  to  bust  silos  and  reassess  the  traditional  hierarchies  that  sometimes  stifle  innovation.    And,  most  importantly,  many  schools  are  instituting  a  “test-­‐fail-­‐retry  mode,”  looking  at  failure  as  merely  a  guidepost  to  achievement.      While  Lichtman’s  blog  is  an  invaluable  resource  to  read  about  innovative  and  model  practices,  employing  solutions  comes  only  after  studying  and  understanding  problems.  Any  school  wishing  to  institute  change  must  begin  first  with  the  process  of  questioning  who  it  wants  its  students  to  be  and  what  roles  the  school  -­‐  its  administration,  faculty,  parents,  and  the  students  themselves    -­‐  can  play  in  their  becoming.      Consider  the  questions  below  as  a  possible  starting  point  for  discussions  in  your  PLCs,  faculty  meetings,  informal  conversations  in  the  hall.    And  remember,  every  great  solution  began  with  a  question.          

   

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Test  Your  School’s  IQ  (Innovation  Quotient)    

1. What  process  do  you  have  in  place  to  institutionalize  faculty  ideas?    If  someone  comes  to  you  with  an  idea,  what  happens  to  it?  

2. Is  your  school  essentially  conservative  or  disruptive?  3. Does  your  school  seek  to  produce  the  next  entrepreneur  or  will  that  individual  emerge  

despite  his  or  her  education?  4. Do  your  administration,  staff,  faculty,  and  students  possess  fixed  or  growth  mind-­‐sets?  5. Does  your  administrative  team  lead  by  example  or  positional  authority?  6. Can  you  identify  the  “fast  horses”  in  your  school,  and  do  you  leverage  their  spirit  and  

energy?  7. Are  your  divisional  leaders  kings  and  queens  of  their  own  castles,  or  do  they  work  together  

in  a  united  kingdom?  8. Does  the  College  Board  and  college  admissions  dictate  your  school’s  curricular  decisions  or  

is  student  learning  the  central  stimulus?  9. Are  you  students  inspired  by  wonder  or  motivated  by  grades  and  compliance?  10. Does  every  member  of  your  school’s  community  (administrator,  staff,  faculty,  student,  and  

parent)  know  the  mission  of  the  school?  11. On  a  scale  of  1  –  10,  how  would  those  individuals  rate  the  face  validity  of  the  mission?  

Have  you  quantified  that  number?  12. Does  your  faculty  collaborate  within  their  disciplines,  with  other  disciplines,  and  among  

divisions?  13. How  many  of  your  faculty  members  write  their  own  curriculum  or  their  own  textbooks?  

What  is  the  percentage  of  your  faculty  members  using  textbooks?  14. What  type  of  leadership  training  model  does  your  school  offer  for  its  faculty?  15. How  many  of  your  teachers  sit  in  on  each  other’s  classes?  16. How  often  do  administrators  and  faculty  members  visit  other  schools  to  learn  about  best  

practices?  17. What  percentage  of  time  do  your  teachers  spend  as  the  focus  of  the  classroom?  Is  the  

space  student  or  teacher  centered?  18. Does  your  administrative  team  engage  in  360  feedback?  19. Is  the  traditional  structure  and  school  calendar  inhibiting  your  efforts  to  design  innovative  

teaching  and  learning  experiences?    Are  you  re-­‐evaluating  your  schedule/calendar  to  ensure  it  meets  the  needs  of  your  students?  

20. Does  each  member  of  the  school  have  a  growth  plan  focused  on  implementing  the  school’s  mission?