As I sit in my hotel room on this January evening, the drizzle that has shrouded Manhattan all day is lifting and the unique skyline is emerging block by block-the Empire State Building resplendent in its daily livery of mauve and red. This is my second weekend here working with the new leadership team at Innovate Manhattan Charter School. There is nothing like a new start to feel the optimism and the challenge.

But these last few weeks working here has reminded me of the challenge of building a global network of schools and the need to contextualize practice to each locality, not just across countries but even across  communities in the same jurisdiction. I remember a paper I read some time ago, published by the National College of School leadership (NCSL) showing how where school federations are established, leaders should be really careful about taking management and curriculum practice ‘lock stock and barrel into the new school. More than anything else, it prevent ownership by the local team and as such removes an important accountability.

So here I am facing the third national challenge of bringing a programme that was first developed and refined over 14 years in Sweden to the USA, albeit now in its third year of operation. The school has faced some significant and unfortunate leadership changes through this period and as such has not has chance to develop consistent practice. Nevertheless, whatever the local difficulties, the school has had to respond to significant changes in external assessments as New York adopts the Common Core Assessments for each grade of students and other state and national regulations about  teacher qualifications are implemented. This presents a similar problem facing both the UK and to a lesser extent Sweden.

The programme in Sweden was developed in an environment where students and teachers could take a long term  approach to an ultimate goal. So to be specific if a student is aiming for the highest outcomes in a subject at the age of 16, the learning from 12 years of age does not have to be compartmentalised to meet an annual external test. Students can vary their pace across subjects and the years to meet what will always be a challenging goal. In some ways this is the way schooling is going in the UK with exams being more terminal; however years of obsession with pace and consistent levels of progress and assessment is hard to remove and demonstrate to a rigorous inspection regime.

Here in New York all students in grades 6,7 and 8 of our middle school will be tested with a number of 3 hour exams in English,Language and Arts and Math with grade 8 also having a science test. The outcomes are very important for the schools especially charter schools. The results are published so they are one of the factors parents will be using to make a decision about joining the school. School always have to work within the context of their own system.

It is different in the UK except the imperative is the same. So many schools set up all sorts of intervention strategies in year 11 to make sure that students are well equipped for their exams. This is going to be even more so now exams are going to be terminal rather than a series of modules and significant coursework.

One of Kunskapsskolan’s key values, wherever the school is located, is ‘Education for Life’, which is the best translation we can make of the Swedish ‘ bildning’ . This is about making sure that we really develop understanding and as they progress through their education they become more aware of the complexity of thought, solutions and understanding. Our programme is built on the fact that we secure learning and understanding at all stages. Teachers  use their time to question, challenge, listen and sign off understanding through one to one coaching, Socratic seminars, discussion, and reflection. Organising teacher time to support this , creating spaces to learn, making the learning journey transparent through a learning portal that scaffolds the curriculum are all tools to facilitate this.

The point is, that if we can develop this understanding, and the self confidence of learners to be able to use their knowledge and skill to understand and solve new problems, then the need for last minute intervention and cramming can be reduced if not reviewed. We cannot alter the assessment regimes of every state or country. But what we can do is not allow the structures to interrupt the flow and excitement of learning.

We have to be pragmatic about this when operating in a global dimension. The Swedish portal, is different to the UK portal, is different to the US portal and so on. Maths in the UK is the same sort of Maths in USA and Sweden and India. There will be the same topics, the same resources, but they will have to be packaged differently to reflect the national curricula. Other subjects will have to take account of the cultural differences in each country; History and English will vary for instance. But creating great learning facilitated by great teachers and allowing students to find their personal way through that learning can be a shared way forward. What is exciting is that all the techniques and approaches can be shared across the international boundaries.

So back to Innovate Manhattan. As we work hard to realise improved scores this year, we have to hold true to our programme. We have to work on diagnosing where learning is insecure, we need to draw on all the resources on the Learning Portal, we need to coach each student and get them to believe that they can achieve more than they thought possible. Cramming, testing and retesting will improve things, but unless students own the journey, unless they are excited by the learning we do them no favours.

How can we not make learning exciting in this location  here on Delancey Street , Manhattan. Just listen to what Ella Fitzgerald says: