Society for Organizational Learning

With this funding, the Society for Organizational Learning would assist state, district, and school communities by preparing an outline of the core leadership skills, commitment, and orientation they need to develop school capacity and successfully implement the new Common Core State Standards. This paper would include both a developmental framework for leadership and a clear approach to capacity building. The Society will identify six to eight thought leaders from business and education to review the paper. Each leader will be interviewed and expected to participate in a gathering to share perspectives and present key ideas for the future of K-12 education.

The SoL Education Partnership, a program of Ag Innovations Network—led by renowned organizational learning expert Peter Senge—is a consortium of diverse school districts that facilitates shared learning, reflection, and action to create systemic change in public education. The partnership uses a framework focusing on systems thinking/systems dynamics, organizational learning, education for sustainability, and youth leadership. SoL Education will identify and work with three school districts to cultivate "system leaders" drawing on educators from teachers to school board leaders, in order to develop deeper learning capacities in adults and students. This grant will fund a rubric for evaluating district progress and generate a series of district proof points; these proof points will demonstrate that progress on deeper learning outcomes is possible if certain organizational and leadership conditions are met.