InspirED Global Fellowship

S E E K I N G

Curious, open-minded, and reflective education professionals who are eager to solve complex problems through deepening their knowledge of high performing education systems. Fellows will create a link between policy and practice to bridge the gap between our state’s current reality and envisioned success.

F O C U S

In the midst of educating in COVID-19, our InspirED Design Team will engage in virtual conversations and immersions with Singapore schools, leaders, and American schools that exemplify the elements of high-performing systems we learn about.

How might we redefine success for Nevada students (and our system) in this moment?
What is missing from our current context?
What might we stop doing to create the space to prototype experiences and policies that recognize equity, excellence, and well-being as inextricably linked values so that all students thrive?

O U T C O M E S

Fellows will...

engage in applied research, prototyping shifts in practice and policy using a design thinking framework, redefining essential elements for Nevada student and educator success.
document learning in a collaborative “white paper” and virtual/in-person presentations with community and policy stakeholders

become charter members of The Playground, a NV Succeeds co-sponsored network that will embrace design thinking as a common language for inquiry and reflection to prototype meaningful educator-driven learning and policy recommendations across our state.

R A T I O N A L E

The United States has remained stagnant in international rankings (PISA) over the last 30 years, and education systems like Singapore are improving faster than the US. By many forecasts, Southern Nevada’s demographics today are indicative of the population of the United States 40 years from now. Nevada has an opportunity and obligation to ensure we are leading the way in defining and redefining success, promoting adult actions that support diverse student needs. Through intentional collaborative inquiry, we believe those in the field can lead the way for positive change. In this moment where COVID-19 has magnified the challenges of our system’s ability to meet the needs of all learners, we can must reimagine what’s next as we build a response that focuses on equity, excellence, and well-being as inextricably linked. The best education systems support educators as expert professionals to empower student success. They do this by having rigorous standards of entry into the profession, clear career pathways for professionals to ensure the attraction to and advancement within the field, and by creating opportunities for professional collaboration and ongoing learning to meet student needs. This fellowship will invite opportunities to learn about and reflect on and share what this can look like in a Nevada context.

D E S C R I P T I O N

The InspirED Global Fellowship will empower educators as designers of change through a design thinking framework. Fellows will become ethnographers of the Nevada and Singapore systems, define problems, brainstorm, build, and test solutions, and reflect on and share what they learn. We will intentionally focus on building the facilitation capacity of each fellow on the Design Team to lead and implement learning-focused conversations across our system that focus on innovating around student needs. A design thinking lens invites educators to engage in applied research; the habits of mind and strategies are applicable to classroom discourse and lesson design, collaboration meetings, coaching, leading, and policy development. Since design thinking also values cross-functional teams, this cohort of educators will ideally represent a variety of scopes of practice and disciplines to ensure diverse viewpoints inform our systemic conversations. This invites us to take a grass tops and grassroots approach to understanding and enacting positive change across the layers of our educational system.

T I M E L I N E

June-December 2020: Building a common language of inquiry and reflection, virtual immersions, implementing design thinking work back in your context to prototype experiences in alignment with our learnings, documenting reflections in a collaborative white paper, share relevant recommendations prior to the 2021 Legislative Session.
January-April 2021: Continuing to engage with policy advocacy through the 2021 session, implementing design work, and strategically engaging colleagues and other layers of our system into collaboration through your facilitation (which we are here to support).

For questions, contact Jeanine Collins, Executive Director, at jeanine@nevadasucceeds.org