Are we on the same page about the purpose of education in our country?

There’s been an evolution in public education, but I don’t think that everyone’s on the same page. I think there are big differences in our views. Some have come to believe that the purpose of education is to make sure kids are ready for the workplace. Others feel that having a curriculum that is strictly focused on preparation for college is important. I don’t think it’s an either/or proposition, but I do believe students will not be successful in college or career unless they have developed the character traits that prepare them for the challenge of a diverse, technology-driven 21st century global marketplace.

We’ve seen many different strategies about how to improve American education, but there haven’t been any real scalable, consistent solutions across communities to improve the public education system. I think that our schools are a reflection of our country’s value system. We’re at a point in time where there’s just a lot of divisiveness — along political lines, economics and race. A lot of those beliefs work their way into our school policies and structures. In some ways, we need really strong national leadership with a great compelling vision around education to move forward in an equitable way.

In your opinion, is the current education system delivering on its promise of quality education for all students?

No, it’s not. Unfortunately, we know that there are opportunity gaps out there for all students. How do we make sure that we’re able to close gaps and give all kids the same chance at being successful? That doesn’t mean everybody gets equal resources. Rather, we need to structure things in a way that we can meet the needs of kids.

I believe we must consider different education models. For example, we should revisit how high schools are structured. It’s been the same model for well over 100 years. During that time, there hasn’t been any real significant change in most systems. It’s still an agrarian-type, factory-model structure. I don’t think that fits kids who are very creative.

At Broward’s South Plantation High School, where we have probably the best theater program in the country, we are building a new model. We’ve structured learning so that the core curriculum is integrated into the theater major. So, if you’re working on doing a play like “The Great Gatsby,” then social studies, history and language arts from that era are woven into the theater program.

It takes a lot of work to try to figure that out, but we ought to be able to develop different paths for kids to get the skills they need. If they can do that in three years, fine. For some, it may take five years.

You’ve been superintendent of Broward County for eight years. What district accomplishments make you most proud?

I would say that we have moved the needle on what are considered the classic benchmarks for success, whether that’s third grade literacy scores or graduation rates, and they are now at historic highs for the district. Our Advance Placement pass rates are at the best they’ve been in more than a decade. Still, the innovative and engaging initiatives that we’ve expanded in Broward County are our real legacy work. These include:

Debate

With more than 15,000 participating students, we have the largest speech and debate program in the nation. We grew the program from a few schools to every high school, middle school and half of our elementary schools across the county. Debate is one of those integrative skills that pulls everything together. Students have to be able to look at information and analyze it. They have to be able to take a position and then communicate and defend their stance. That’s what we do in the real world in a way that’s respectful and professional. Our students are learning these skills. For many students, the program has been transformative, giving them valuable life skills.

Computer Science

Broward County continues to be spotlighted as a national model for expanding access to computer science in schools. We were the very first district in the nation to work with Code.org and the “Hour of Code” in 2013. Today, our #BrowardCodes initiative benefits more than 50,000 students. We have computer science (cs) offerings at all district schools. Cs is integrated into mathematics. We have robotics programs too. Our efforts have had measurable impact. In 2017, we had more African American students taking the Advanced Placement computer science exam than all of the students in the state of Florida.

Mentoring Programs

The significant expansion of peer and mentoring programs has had tremendous impact on Broward schools. For example, the “Mentoring Tomorrow’s Leaders” (MTL) is a peer-to-peer mentoring and student leadership program that serves youth who are at risk of dropping out of school or not graduating, especially minority males. Recently, I shared the story about one of the MTL students who graduated last year. He was struggling with poverty and homelessness. MTL saved his life. He was accepted into three Ivy League schools and now attends the University of Pennsylvania. Through a NASA internship, he has been working on new generation satellites they are developing.

Another program, “Latinos in Action,” is structured like MTL. Students mentor each other in high schools, middle schools and elementary schools.

These are the things that I’m most proud about in Broward County, so far.

How would you encourage superintendents in smaller districts who are looking to develop those kinds of programs?

Folks always think it’s about the funding, but you don’t need a bunch of money to actually do these things. Computer science might be an exception. For programs like debate, however, it’s really a matter of prioritizing. I believe when a superintendent and a school board get behind an initiative, it’ll grow if it’s providing real value to students and families.

One of the ways we began tracking the value and impact of our programs is to monitor what our students are doing. Of course, we track their grades and attendance, but we also examine their affinity for school and engagement. For example, we look at whether students are involved in clubs or sports. If we see that students are not participating, that could be a sign of trouble. Those students are flagged, and the administration is expected to call them in and start a conversation to make sure that they’re connected to someone and some activities.

You have talked about the battle for quality education being the social justice cause of our time. What is the next big social justice cause?

I think we’re still in the push for quality education. Again, our schools are always a reflection of where our community and nation are on a social level. I haven’t seen a lot of change here. It’s still a fight. It’s still a struggle.

For example, trying to make sure that we put our best resources against our most challenged schools is still an issue. I spent a lot of time in the private sector where we put the most qualified people to work on the most challenging projects. We don’t always do that in public education.

Three years ago, we had a couple of failing elementary schools that persistently received “F” rankings. Teachers blamed the kids for their failure. In response, we removed all of the adults from the schools — principals, teachers, staff. From there we looked at a whole bunch of data to identify the top 10 principals from across the district. These were the leaders who consistently delivered on quality and earned high marks for student performance. We offered them an additional $25,000 annually to turn around these failing schools over a five-year period. Teachers and some staff were similarly given a greater salary to commit to the turn-around schools. Remarkably, when you place really good leaders in schools, really good teachers want to go work for them. We were able to attract some of our best teachers in those schools and student performance reflects that change. Both schools moved their rankings to “C” in 2018.

When I initiated this process, there was pushback from folks — board members and even some community members. Now, the school board is asking when we’re going to apply the approach to more schools.

What do you believe is the value of education?

The value of education is to prepare people for the future, not just for their careers. I believe that because I think it’s important to prepare students not only for careers but also for the responsibilities of adulthood — parenting, voting and participating in society at large. Education is one of the most important ways we deliver on the ideal of America being the land of opportunity. Our country is founded on the idea that we are all created equal. The number one way to deliver on equality of opportunity is through education.

How has your personal story impacted your beliefs about education?

I came to America as an immigrant from Iran. I grew up during the Iran-Iraq War and spent most of my childhood in a neighborhood that was getting bombed every single night. So, coming to America as an immigrant in a family that had very little money, everything I’ve achieved is thanks to the education I had. Part of that education is from the schools I was lucky to go to, and part of it is from my parents who taught me computer science. I’m effectively living the American dream myself.

I started Code.org because I realized that the American dream feels broken to most Americans. Most Americans feel like there isn’t a great pathway into the middle class or from the middle class and up. People feel like wages are stagnating at a time when automation will be replacing large swaths of work in this country. People don’t feel like there’s a plan for who’s going to be taking care of them and what the future’s going to look like for their children. And all of that, along with my personal story of success in the tech industry, is what motivated me to start Code.org.

How do you think that we can get on the same page about the purpose of education in our country?

I don’t think there’s that much disagreement on the purpose of education, but when you think about K-12 education, there is a question of how much of the goal is preparing for college versus preparing for life. That’s the debate that isn’t being had enough, but I think it’s going to grow because, as we all know, the tuition costs of universities are going through the roof. Student debt is going through the roof. And wages are not going through the roof. A larger percentage of people are not graduating college. There’s a strong correlation between college graduation rates and income. Sadly, those students in the lowest income brackets, increasingly, are not graduating from college. Given these outcomes, is it appropriate for the primary focus of K-12 to be university prep, regardless of whether they’re going to pursue higher education?

How is Code.org helping schools make the leap from coding to computer science?

I regularly get asked, “Does every student need to learn to code?” People assume that my answer would be “yes,” but my answer is “no.” Every student does not need to learn to code. What they especially don’t need to learn is all the sort of garbled syntax of the latest coding language. Students do need to learn how to be a digital citizen in an increasingly digital world. They need to understand how technology works on the inside. Those are the things learned by studying computer science. So as an example, most of the curriculum in Code.org involves drag and drop coding, which doesn’t involve learning any kind of language. It’s more about problem solving, but it is also learning about data analysis, cybersecurity and the societal and ethical impacts of technology.

We expect students to learn how the digestive system works or how electricity works, not because they’re going to become electricians or surgeons, but because they need to understand how the world around them functions. In the 21st century, understanding how an app works or how the internet works or how to keep your data private are equally important foundational concepts.

The goal of Code.org is for every school to teach computer science, not for every student to learn to code. In terms of achieving that goal, we’ve built a professional learning program that reaches every state in the country. Every school district in the entire country can work with Code.org to train existing teachers to become computer science teachers.

In one or two days, an elementary school can prepare the librarian to become a computer science specialist. Almost 100,000 elementary school teachers have gone through our free computer science workshops. A middle school or high school can send a teacher from any subject to our nine-day workshops, which prepare them to teach a yearlong computer science class as part of that school’s curriculum. I encourage educators to visit www.Code.org to check it out.

What do you believe we’re doing right in terms of delivering on the promise of education? And what do we need to improve?

The thing that we’re doing the most right is having this amazing workforce of passionate teachers — millions of Americans who have chosen to serve their country in the classroom when many could have a higher paying job somewhere else. The American teacher doesn’t receive nearly enough accolades. Leaders across all walks of life need to do more to thank and recognize teachers for the work that they do. The other thing I would say that we are getting right is the movement to teach computer science in schools. While it still has not reached the majority of schools in this country, it is one of the fastest growing movements in the history of global education. That’s something that started with the American teacher.

When we started Code.org in 2013, pretty much everybody thought it would be impossible to introduce a new subject to public education, let alone computer science. The reason that we’ve grown computer science from 10 percent of schools to 35 percent of schools so quickly is because of teachers who decided to make this their cause. That’s something we should celebrate.

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