Integrity at Scale Blog

Integrity at Scale -- Welcome!

We Americans are both a good people and a troubled people.   We love our country, yet times are hard and the habits of the past aren't delivering the goods.  For America to get its groove back, something has to change.

The foundation for this website is a book manuscript, Integrity at Scale.  Each of its chapters is available, just to the right, under the Categories section.  To read Chapter 1, for example, click on "01. The Challenge of Modern Society."  Some chapters appear as a single post; most chapters are subdivided into three or more sequential posts.  To select a single post, to read or write a comment, click on its title.  Other posts will disappear, and you'll have all the features available for the post you've chosen.  

The book lays out its basic principles in the first four chapters; it's best to read these first.  With chapter 5, the book becomes more topical.  Environmental Capital. Human Capital. Economic Capital.  Civic Capital.  Read as you like, comment as you like. 

This website has been built within TypePad, which gives me three options for managing comments.    It is likely I will test all three before settling on a permanent choice.  I do prefer comment sections in which people use their own names.

As do all bloggers, I will write new posts almost daily.   Ideas from the book will make their presence felt.  What's at stake for all of us is this nation's sense of direction.  On these pages I champion a point of view:  "A principled people.  A competent nation."  An America that practices integrity at scale will be a competent America.  

Steven Howard Johnson. 

 

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First novel

Today a note of personal pride.  My wife has just e-published her first novel.  Details can be found at her website, http://InOurMidstTheNovel.com.

Steven Howard Johnson

Chicago Teachers Strike

The Chicago teachers strike is a collision between partial truths.  The Mayor legitimately wants more accountability.  The teachers legitimately want more resources.  Yet there's something missing.  It's not easy to articulate, but one senses it.  

We know that some schools in America are great schools, and we know that many are not.  What distinguishes the great ones from the ones that aren't as good?  Is it as simple as testing and accountability?  Obviously not.  Is it as simple as more resources for teachers?  Obviously not.  

Great schools reflect a drive on the part of those who create them to create an environment so filled with success factors that every child learns.  And that's the question that ought to be on the table in Chicago. What does it mean to create a school so charged with success factors that every child will learn?

From those who have done it, one can make five strong inferences.  In a truly successful school, there's no bullying.  There's a culture of motivation so rich that every child gets engaged.  All the instructional material and lessons are learnable, for each kid.  Teahers are capable of recognizing each child's stumbling blocks and giving that child the coaching that he or she needs.  Children spend enough time in the classroom and on their homework to gain mastery of the material.

Testing and accountability schemes, as proposed by the Mayor and the Board, don't get to the heart of what it takes to create great schools.  Those running the system have put the B Issues on the table and insist that if they can get their way on the B Issues, the system will work better.  It's a strong claim, but it's not really a supportable claim.

But more resources for the teachers don't get to the heart of the matter either.  The teachers have put a different set of B Issues on the table.

The A issue is a "What's Missing?" issue.  What has to be present in a school for all children to learn?  It won't be just half a dozen success factors.  As KIPP's Mike Feinberg likes to say, it's 101 different things that all have to be in play.  

I think they should call a one year truce in Chicago and spend the year in a wide-open dialogue about the success factors that really matter.  How to fill schools with so many success factors that all children learn?  How to prevent bullying?  How to make sure all lessons are learnable, for each child?  How to develop each teacher's ability to be a skilled coach?  How to ensure enough time?  

A year spent in honest conversation about the A Issues will help both sides find their way to a better way of managing the schools and their relationships with one another.

Steven Howard Johnson 2012-09-12

Competent America Video Series Online

Last night I uploaded to YouTube my newest video, Competent America 14 - A Better Conversation.  I will now shift these videos from "Unlisted" to "Public" so that anyone can find them and view them. 

In this series, I address what might be called The Scurvy Question.  What's missing from the way America does its civic business that leaves us malnourished and malfunctioning?  A competent America would acknowledge the dangers of vast scale as well as the benefits.  A competent America would take integrity as its standard, especially for activities at vast scale, in order to avoid design choices that cause harm at great scale.  

We have a choice, we the American public.  Do we wish to see an America of low standards take the downward slide to perpetual mediocrity?  Or do we wish to see an America of high standards make the uphill climb to genuine competence?  Do we wish to be a public that accepts low standards, or would we rather be a public that embraces high standards?

That's the fifty thousand foot description.  Sounds good, but what about the details?  I expect the entire series to involve perhaps 36 episodes, give or take.  It isn't easy to rethink how we are to be citizens in a nation as large and complex as ours.  It looks like I'm good for about two episodes a week, so the whole series may not be wrapped up till late November. 

These videos are not super-polished.  Too early for that.  The series as a whole is intended to be a rough draft, a test of an emerging storyline.  We can make ourselves into a fully competent nation if . . . .   I invite feedback, critical and supportive both. 

Steven Howard Johnson   August 22, 2012