Over the last two years, our small team has been hard at work developing tools, resources, and professional development to introduce educators to the positive deviance process. We began developing prototypes of new empathy-driven tools, ran testing sessions with school-based teams, and saw evidence that this process was inspiriting, actionable, and meaningful for educators. The excitement and interest from early work with educators led us to launch a free virtual professional development course, where school-based teams applied if they were facing intractable problems within their school related to assessment, belonging, culturally-responsive teaching, or civic engagement. Over the course of ten weeks, we led the teams through the process, utilizing the tools we’d designed and tested with educators, and ensuring we were aligned to the positive deviance process through The Power of Positive Deviance and the Positive Deviance Collaborative case studies and resources. We were also given the incredible opportunity to connect with Monique Sternin, who provided incredibly beneficial insights and critiques of our approach thus far and helped craft our vision for the future of the work. The professional development course ended with the school teams finding a cumulative 75 ‘bright spots’(scalable instances of positive deviance) related to their intractable problems.
A few examples of bright spots that were identified are as follows: new strategies to give students agency and options in assignments, tools to help create conditions for student reflection, and using simple gamification tools (e.g., Kahoot) to increase engagement in assessments. In addition to the bright spots, over 90% of the teams reported that they felt a profound mindset shift in how they would approach problem-solving in the future.
We brought on a team of content-level experts, classroom educators, and school leaders to analyze our work thus far and provide feedback on its potential for impact, and help review our newly developed Positive Deviance for Educators Toolkit. Thus far, here are a few key learning outcomes we have heard from educators:
Bright spots exist in our schools and can be uncovered via a positive deviance process
This process can lead to a mindset shift in how educators and students approach problem-solving
It is liberating to shift from a deficit mindset to an asset-based mindset
Positive Deviance can advance equity in schools
This process works in myriad contexts - language, geography, and design experience is not a barrier
We engaged an advisory board of experts to help us figure out the next path forward with this work. Our advisory board consisted of the following experts: Monique Sternin (positive deviance), Manasa Yeturu (equity and design), Julie Goo, Pamela Cheng, Emalie Mcginnis, Michelle Beddo (K-12 education), Bob Lenz (project-based learning) and Ben Daly (improvement science). These conversations helped us determine our next step forward, and align on our driving question for the next phase of this work: Why don’t equitable solutions scale in education?
Moving forward, we are interested in challenges that matter to communities and that can be addressed using measurement data. We intend to learn about the most promising and impactful ways for schools to employ the positive deviance approach to promote equitable, community-led problem-solving. In doing so, we hope to offer a complementary approach to addressing problems in K-12 schools. One that:
is low-cost and low-risk
is grounded in community needs, resources, and relationships
democratizes the use of data in school decision-making
enables teachers to be at the forefront of scaling solutions across their school communities
increases engagement among students, parents, caregivers, and other community members to support the whole child
By applying a positive deviance approach at a district and state level, we will meet schools where they are and support them in the range of ways they are seeking improvement. We will also illuminate examples of (positively) deviant approaches that create greater equity in schools.
This work would not have been possible without the generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. In addition to financial support, our program officers have been instrumental in shaping this work and ensuring we stay focused on what matters: supporting educators in creating opportunities for all students to thrive and succeed.
If you’re interested in staying in touch and learning more about the project, please sign up for our mailing list. In addition, check out our Positive Deviance for Educators Toolkit, and let us know what you think! We’re open to any and all feedback, and welcome the opportunity to connect with any positive deviance practitioners throughout the world. Many thanks to Monique Sternin and the Positive Deviance Collaborative for their stewardship of this work, and for continuing to be a source of inspiration and guidance as we advance equitable solutions in schools.