Data: What do high school graduates do?

Trying to find data about what high school graduates do after graduation, I found the Massachusetts department of education: http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/plansofhsgrads.aspx

(generated from MATLAB)

Over the entire state, this chart clearly shows that the majority of graduating high school seniors go on to college. In college, arguably the most important characteristic is critical thinking skills. 

A system diagram for secondary education

The student is the center of the system - after all, they are nominally what the system is designed for. 

And here is the same diagram with an attempt at clustering the system into subsystems:

And of course the code. 

Visual Metaphor

High school education is like being taught to think outside the box. There is nothing creative going on, and you are routinely running around the racetrack of tests and work and information, not really encouraged to think critically or creatively. 




I want to use the two visual metaphors of a racetrack and a box to convey the idea that I am trying to get across. 

The phrase "think outside the box" is something that we hear all the time, but it's a nice visual clue that we already familiar with. The idea of being holed inside a box (especially while running around and around on a track, going nowhere linearly), gives off the idea that  unimaginative, repetitive tasks lead nowhere. 

An emerging message

Just through thinking about the simplest educational system (and the first infographic idea that comes to mind from the previous post), a very simple emerging message comes out: 

education as it stands does not educate children to become the citizens that the world needs today

 This begs a few questions:

• What are the goals of education?
• What skills to today's children need to become the citizens of tomorrow?
• What does education currently accomplish?
• What are the features of the current educational system that lead to those accomplishments?
• What is missing?

One question in terms of what message I want to tackle is the question of purpose. Do I want to complain about a problem, or offer a solution? Of course, one is easier than the other, but arguably one is more useful than the other. 

Metaphor, basic infographic

Message: education is too pedantic

Many students both inside the education system and outside the education system complain that there is no creativity in the standards, assessment, and tests. In general, the school environment is considered a very negative one by many students currently in the educational system. This idea is a simple one, and can be summarized very simply in a simple infographic that is not even styled in any way:

This infographic was made only using a few simple GraphViz lines of code and can probably make a stronger message with colors, layout, formatting, font changes, and something of that nature. 

Audience

The audience of this infographic is clear: lobbyists for the educational system. The ones who develop standards and curricula need to know that pedantic, non-creative methods for education are not what society needs right now.

Questions to think about

But the basic message I want to get across with this simple infographic is this: education is routine, pedantic, and more resembles "training" than "education." This leads me to think about questions that address the fundamental purpose of what we call education:

• What is the purpose of education?
• What is the difference between rote memorization and "education"?
• Do our curriculum and standards and assessments actually lead to the education of the people?
• What is the difference between education and training?
• Can learning be fun? Should it be fun? 
• Is there something fundamentally boring about education? 

These are all questions I want to address by thinking about the educational system. 

The most basic education system

I think the most basic educational system has three components: assessment, standards, and curriculum. In a very simplistic model, the arrows show the influences that these three components have with the other three components. Note that I think it is a cycle - standards affect the curriculum which then affects the assessment, but that not a ton of influences go the other way around. 

The purpose of this blog / system visualization definition

The inspiration for this blog is taken from a course I am taking at MIT in spring 2013 called Systems Visualization (MIT nuts, course number CMS.631). The idea of the class is to think about and model a system using infographics, charts, metaphors, data, stories, and system connections. 

The system I am interested in looking at is the educational system. Initially, my thought was to look at the secondary school education system and think about why we have it, what it is used for, why it is necessary, and how it interfaces with the college educational system. Over the course of thinking about the project, my ideas about what I specifically want to focus on might evolve and change, and that’s OK. It’s all part of the learning process. 

What is a system visualization

A system visualization conveys an idea, concept, or thought in a concrete way, combining visual elements, data, and a metaphor to bring the user to a conclusion about the system being discussed. The take-away should be clear, concise, and effective.