Friends,
I just wanted you to know about an interesting concept that Mark Lang has been working on.
He calls it the CPI education initiative, but it is a type of middle and high school that will teach the 21st Century skills of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Mark has been utilizing his model at the Lincoln Leadership Academy and the summer entrepreneurship camp held at Charter Partners every summer.
He hopes that it will be an incubator for ideas that school districts might adopt later.
He will be having an upcoming meeting. If you would like to be invited to it, please feel free to reach out to him and let him which of the available dates work for you.
For all those with an interest in the CPI education initiative, let me try to summarize where we are. I am sending this to a larger group for information and in case anyone wants to get more involved. Please also use this email as an opportunity to invite others you believe are interested to join us.
We have had a number of excellent discussions among different small groups. It seems that we all agree on the problem: issues with a qualified workforce are a major impediment to growth and even survival of high value employers in our region and the country -- the kind we need to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and education today is not able to prepare the very different kind of graduate we need to address the problem. It seems we all believe that the essence of a different way to educate that will fully address the problem is within our reach. We have also shared what it would take to start a new model school based on a charter school vehicle.
Concerns that remain: Many want to help but are not sure how they can assist with the tasks that face us. Many are concerned about the timeline to make the Sept 2014 opening. Many are concerned that the political and bureaucratic aspects of public education will get in the way of anything we do.
On the timeline, my experience is that a team with this kind of talent working in entrepreneurial fashion can get this job done, partly because we have a lot to build on. I also believe that all of you who are willing can find ways to contribute important work to the initiative. The final step to get us all working as a team is to hammer out a specific process map with everyone contributing of how this team can achieve the goal together. That means a 3-4 hour intensive session that Ann Raines has volunteered to facilitate, and the preference seems to be for a weekday evening meeting.
This is a very busy group (the good people always are busy), but I hope as many of you as possible can make time for this important step. To facilitate the scheduling, I have listed evening dates for the next two weeks below, and included the two Saturdays as possible alternatives. Would everyone who wants to be involved please notate the days that work for you and return this email to me? You can just put yes or no beside each date. For the evening times, I am going to suggest 6 to 9:30 pm, and suggest that we have some kind of food available at 5:30 pm for any who can come early for food and conversation, and we will jump into the process at 6 pm. Feel free to share any thoughts you have with me, also.
I know this effort has not been as efficient as one would prefer. Perhaps it could have gone better if I was a better facilitator. However, I am pleased with the talent and interest that has come together, and I am confident we and others we recruit can make this happen. Thanks.
Mark
Tuesday, Sept. 3 6-9:30pm
Wednesday, Sept. 4 6-9:30pm
Thursday, Sept 5 6-9:30pm
Friday, Sept 6 6-9:30pm
Saturday, Sept 7 8-12am
Monday, Sept 9 6-9:30pm
Tuesday, Sept 10 6-9:30pm
Wednesday Sept 11 6-9:30pm
Thursday, Sept 12 6-9:30pm
Friday, Sept 13 6-9:30pm
Saturday, Sept 14 8-12am
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Mark Lang
mlang@charterpartnersinstitute.org
610-691-8459
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