Only innovation can transform K–12 student performance nationwide
Societal innovation, per Jamie Dimon, has the power to drive breathtaking, rapid change.
But he cautions that innovation must be tested—requiring implementation. By definition, the success of any innovation is not guaranteed. After all, innovation involves doing something that has never been done before—but in America, innovation is everywhere.
Innovation’s opposite is the slow, barely measurable change that, for decades, has left much of the national K-12 population unable to reach minimum NAEP proficiency in reading, writing, and math.
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A societal innovation that awaits testing—the HSe4Metrics platform
As the nation waits for a turnaround in its K-12 system, the little girl chasing the balloon awaits her turn in the K–12 system. America’s public schools—vast and accessible—represent a windfall opportunity. But will she be among the 50% who benefit from that opportunity—or the 50% who do not?
The difference-maker may be what JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon calls for: societal innovation. That is, not just the kind of innovation in business and industry now recognized as essential, but societal innovation across institutions—such as K–12 education—that shape opportunity and equity.
The object of this website is the HSe4Metrics platform innovation. The challenge is that it must remain free access, despite high operational, cloud, and infrastructure costs—expenses more commonly associated with large-scale government programs.
Thus, the platform seeks a mission-aligned funding sponsor.
The U.S. public K-12 system—arguably the best in the world—needs an assist
Just being the best in the world is not enough.
Visualize this scene. Ten thousand newborns—randomly selected and live-videoed from hospital nurseries across the United States. As they lie asleep or awake, they are indistinguishable in their promise. No labels—only possibility.
Within each child resides a unique and complex constellation of traits: cognitive ability, resilience, curiosity, discipline, creativity, and social capacity—a mosaic of future builders, thinkers, teachers, nurses, caregivers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders.
And yet, based on decades of national data, we can predict that—despite most being fully capable learners—circumstance and environment will lead roughly half of these children to fall below basic proficiency in reading, writing, or math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAPE) by the time they complete high school.
The assistance offered by this website is the HSe4Metrics innovation.
In innovation's absence
Decades of NAEP results show that the majority of students score in the lower half of NAEP.
In some high schools, the entire student body scores below basic, leaving a vast reservoir of human potential untapped.
To the extent that the overwhelming majority of low-performing students nationally possess the innate capability to reach—or exceed—the minimum NAEP threshold, while higher-achieving students simultaneously increase their performance across additional metrics, the result could redefine the scale and strength of America’s homegrown workforce and expand long-term GDP.
The holdup is funding
For the HSe4Metrics platform, funding must match the scale of the challenge.
A single federal agency could be the sole sponsor. So could, in principle, a top-tier corporation—such as Procter & Gamble (P&G)—backed by the best in executive leadership.
Or, an ideal scenario would be a “holy grail” public–private partnership: a major private-sector corporation (e.g., P&G) collaborating with a federal counterpart—such as one of the 15 cabinet-level departments (State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, or Homeland Security) or a significant independent agency (e.g., the National Science Foundation, NASA, AmeriCorps / Corporation for National and Community Service, National Endowment for the Humanities, EPA, FCC, or National Endowment for the Arts).
Objective verification: hard-number metrics results
The HSe4Metrics platform outcomes will be measurable across a wide range of hard-number metrics.
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