A PROPOSAL
Rouzier Dorcé Jr., Ed.D.
Tucker, GA. March 28, 2015
THE PROPOSAL




The formation of an academic institute to promote the
concept of engineered education with the goal of
contributing to educational reform.
The institute will be governed by a board and staff
that will review all the latest researches on education,
formulate and run studies to advance education,
teaching and learning theories.
The institute will run a Charter School to serve
students using the concept of engineered education
and a lab to advance modern teaching philosophies
and practices.
The institute will promulgate its education concepts
through workshops and the publication of a journal
MAKING THE CASE
The state with the best literacy rate in the U.S.,
Massachusetts, only has 43% of its fourth
graders reading at the proficient level (Frohlich,
2014)
 A Gallup survey in 2013 found that while the U.S
has the sixth highest GDP per capita ($52,839), it
ranks 19th out of 29 developed countries that
offer the best opportunities to children as
measured by education, health, safety and
wealth.(Sauter, 2014)
 Gallup’s analyst and editor, Julie Ray, pointed
out that the U.S. had the worst income equality
(as measured by the Gini coefficient) of any of the
29 countries in the survey. (Ray, 2014)

MAKING THE CASE
There is a gap between American students that
can be explained by their socio-economic status
and their geographical locations. While we can
agree that those factors should not determine the
individuals’ academic abilities and consequently
the quality of their future, they too often
do.(Sauter, 2014)
 There is a need for a comprehensive education
system designed to: 1-clearly identify individual’s
academic needs and progress 2- formulate a
meaningful improvement plan 3- monitor with
real-time and accurate information and 4- offer
total access to experts in one-on-one setting.

THE INSTITUTE WILL …
Be registered as a non-profit organization
 Apply for federal grants
 Employ researchers, academic reviewers, writers
and bloggers
 Oversee the operation of the charter school
although the charter school will be run by a
principal, an administrative staff and its own
independent board.
 Apply for grants to establish and run the charter
school
 Train the school staff to implement its concepts

THE CHARTER SCHOOL WILL…
Operate on a Blended School Format
 Use a Kitchen-Table Instruction Delivery Model
 Use Competency-Based Education
 Use an Unconventional Campus Design
 Employ Innovative Staff Selection and Role
Designation

THE CHARTER SCHOOL
“The American school system has continued to rely
on an anachronistic factory-based model, even as
so much of society has transformed around it. To
the extent that it has employed technology, it has
done so to sustain and reinforce its factory-model
processes, not to fundamentally change
them.”(Horn & Evans, 2013)
A WIRELESS WORLD
BLENDED CURRICULUM
“Blended curriculum may offer a continuum of
learning along which students can move at a
flexible pace.”(Julia Freeland, 2014)
“Disruptive blended learning models—by design—
mark a departure from time based traditional
school structures and may fit better within the
goals and structures of competency-based
education.”(Julia Freeland, 2014)
KITCHEN-TABLE INSTRUCTION
The Home-School Advantages
 A dynamic with the strongest of bounds
 Attention and Structure
 One-on-One Interaction with all the benefits of
flexibility and creativity
 The Team Approach

COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION

“What most of these new [competency-based
education] policy adoptions seem to overlook is
the fact that improving the social utility of
student outputs may require a reconsideration
of the kinds of goals around which the
instructional program is built and the structures
and mechanism it creates to achieve
them”(William Spady, 1977)
COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION
“By enabling students to master skills at their own pace,
competency-based learning systems help to save both time
and money. Depending on the strategy pursued,
competency-based systems also create multiple pathways
to graduation, make better use of technology, support
new staffing patterns that utilize teacher skills and
interests differently, take advantage of learning
opportunities outside of school hours and walls, and
help identify opportunities to target interventions to
meet the specific learning needs of students. Each of
these presents an opportunity to achieve greater efficiency
and increase productivity”. (U.S. Department of
Education, 2014)
COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION


Michigan passed legislation in 2010 providing a seat time
waiver to districts that want to offer pupils access to online
learning options and the opportunity to continue working
on a high school diploma or grade progression without
actually attending a school facility.(US DOE, 2014)
Ohio’s plan, adopted by the State Board of Education in
2009, allows students to earn high school credit by
demonstrating subject area competency, completing
classroom instruction, or a combination of the two. Under
this plan, subject area competency can be demonstrated by
participation in alternative experiences including
internships, community service, online learning,
educational travel, and independent study.(US DOE, 2014)
COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION

“New Hampshire has been a trailblazer among
states in catalyzing competency-based education
at the high school level. In 2005, the New
Hampshire Department of Education mandated
that all high schools measure credit in terms of
mastery of locally selected competencies, rather
than by time based metrics. Removing seat-time
from state regulations opened up more
opportunities for students to advance upon
mastery and for educators to measure student
progress in terms of authentic learning, rather
than in hours and minutes”.(Freeland, 2014)
UNCONVENTIONAL CAMPUS DESIGN
A library set up with cubicles
 An abandoned mall
 A church basement
 An old factory (without olfactory concerns)
 An old school building
 Classrooms at the K-3 levels would need be as
close as conventional as possible
 Areas for Art, Music and Physical Education
would need to meet certain conventional
requirements

INNOVATIVE STAFF SELECTION AND ROLE
DESIGNATION
Content Experts serving as facilitators
 Every member of the staff serving as mentors
and facilitators
 Teachers dedicated to improvement through
action research
 Limited administrative staff freeing up dollars to
increase teacher salaries
