Spotlight Session – COSN 2023

Gary Stager will lead a Spotlight Session, “The Case Against Innovation,” at COSN 2023 in Austin, Texas.

You read that correctly! Innovation is the wrong focus for schools. complete with perverse incentives and diminishing returns. The quest for innovation breeds instability and favors novelty over quality. It generates fatigue, costly detours, and distractions. Worst of all, self- proclaimed innovators rarely produce evidence of actual innovation. Cautioning against innovation addiction doesn’t excuse inaction, encourage sloth, or justify the status quo. It is necessary to educate well.

This buzzworthy session will explore the unmet needs of students, teachers, and communities left in the wake of an overemphasis on marketing, competition, while offering healthier approaches to building and sustaining educational excellence.

This presentation will:
• Consider the high cost of innovation.
• Assess innovation, claims of innovation, and recognize that we stand on the shoulders of giants.
• Explore alternatives aligned with the core mission of schooling.

A growing body of literature from the business community supports these assertions.