James Tracy

James Tracy President, Woodrow Wilson Academy for Teaching and Learning Greater Boston Area Connect Connect with James Tracy More actions Woodrow Wilson Academy for Teaching and Learning Stanford University Stanford University See contact info See contact info See connections (500+) 500+ connections College President, Technology Advisor, Entrepreneur. This media is a video Dr. James Tracy Keynote Address Dr. James Tracy Keynote Address Articles 1,832 followers The (Highly Uncertain) Future of Higher Education James’ profile photo James Tracy Published on LinkedIn The (Highly Uncertain) Future of Higher Education Some years ago, I was a panelist at the Microsoft Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the topic of the future of higher education. My comments were to the effect that the future for private K-12 schools was bright while the future for most colleges was highly uncertain. Nothing in the intervening years has led me to alter this view. Private K-12 schools certainly face their share of challenges, among them demographic and financial shifts that necessitate innovative responses. Yet their fundamental paradigm of providing nurturing attention to children in small classroom settings will continue to hold value for parents. Children will always benefit from more and richer individuated interaction with caring adults. The ongoing value proposition of most colleges is much less clear. Assured placement into professional jobs that provide higher lifetime earnings? That is an increasingly difficult, if not impossible, proposition to demonstrate. The most certain and prestigious certification for professional training? Perhaps for now, yes, but that might soon change. We have seen tremendous progress in the quality of online education. Ten years ago, the experience of taking a course online was clunky and inconvenient, heavy on textuality and the sheer mechanics of completing assignments and low on the pleasure of interactive learning. Today, online classes are much more intuitive and convivial. What’s more, the ongoing learning curve of educators offering online study, the expansion of number and types of institutions offering such opportunities, the concomitant increase in investment and development of online learning tools, and the ever-accelerating increases in speed and bandwidth of data streaming all give every reason to suppose that the next ten years will see even greater inflection toward organic and intuitive collaborative interfacing between teachers and students in the online learning environment. The implications could be revolutionary—and, for many colleges, disastrous. Colleges and universities as we know them today, of course, emerged in the Middle Ages as students gathered around the handful of manuscripts and learned professors who began to cluster in centers of learning such as Padua, Bologna, and Paris. In the 19th century, the model of universities as major research institutions similarly emerged out of the need for centrality and ease of access to thinkers and printed texts in those settings. Today, thought leaders and books alike are increasingly accessible via the cloud from even the remotest corners of the planet. We are already witnessing the emergence of educational credentials that are earned by completing discrete modules of learning and practice through web-based products. Increasingly, it will be possible to earn innumerable “badges” of training and accomplishment offered online by companies and online educational institutions. Some of these will emerge as quite rigorous, competitive, and, significantly, prestigious, with virtual “student bodies” spanning the globe. Let’s jump ahead, then, to a scenario some years hence, in which all these elements come together—when a college-aged student can earn prestigious certification via online learning and training programs that are highly interactive, engaging, and intuitive. They also cost far less than traditional college classes, because the institutions offering them don’t have the high overhead costs of brick-and-mortar infrastructure or of tenured professors. When these online offerings begin to carry social and economic cachet among the general public and employers that is comparable to education at typical colleges, middle-class families will opt for them in droves. Compare a middle-class family that pays for an adult student to go off to four years of college to earn a degree and becomes saddled with debt to a family whose adult student lives at home, works at least part-time to earn an income and gain professional experience during those same four years, and takes on-line courses that provide credentials that are as well regarded by employers as college classes but that cost pennies on the dollar. Most middle-class families would balk at purchasing a traditional college education just so their daughter or son can have an extended adolescence when the tangible benefits are comparable and the costs are so divergent between these two scenarios. This is not to say that all universities will disappear. I once shared this analysis over a dinner with the Chancellor of Oxford University, Chris Patten, who retorted, “Well, you’re probably right about eighty or ninety percent of colleges, but people will always want to come to Oxford to chat!” Lord Patten was right, of course, and the highly resourced schools such as Oxford can probably continue to exist on their endowments and reputation virtually regardless of the demand curve. But I would not want to be a president today of any college outside that top, empyrean circle of elite institutions. What this means for pedagogy must be the subject of a future blog, but I am confident that the value of private K-12 education is insulated from these vortices that threaten to shake our centuries-old college paradigm to its core. Ten, twenty, thirty years from now, private schools will still be providing personalized, child-centered teaching in small classroom settings led by nurturing educators in a way that no alternative can match for children at younger ages. Jim Tracy is Head of School at Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, RI. 8 Likes Like Comment Share See all Experience Woodrow Wilson Academy for Teaching and Learning President Company NameWoodrow Wilson Academy for Teaching and Learning Dates EmployedJul 2018 – Present Employment Duration5 mos LocationCambride, Massachusetts President of new graduate school of education, founded by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as an innovative education lab, changing master's-level teacher and leader preparation for the 21st century. LearnLaunch Company NameLearnLaunch Total Duration3 yrs TitleBoard Member Dates EmployedJul 2018 – Present Employment Duration5 mos LocationBoston Prominent EdTech accelerator and convener. TitleSenior Advisor Dates EmployedDec 2015 – Jul 2018 Employment Duration2 yrs 8 mos LocationBoston Senior Advisor to Board/Principal Partners of prominent education technology incubator, accelerator, and institute in Boston. Global Religion, Ethics, and Technology (GREaT) Summit Founder Company NameGlobal Religion, Ethics, and Technology (GREaT) Summit Dates EmployedSep 2017 – Present Employment Duration1 yr 3 mos Digital Learning and Innovation, Boston University Advisory Board Member Company NameDigital Learning and Innovation, Boston University Dates Employed2017 – Present Employment Duration1 yr MassRobotics Work of the Future Committee Co-Chair and Founding Member Company NameMassRobotics Work of the Future Committee Dates Employed2017 – Present Employment Duration1 yr LocationBoston Rocky Hill School Head of School Company NameRocky Hill School Dates EmployedJul 2016 – Jun 2018 Employment Duration2 yrs LocationEast Greenwich, RI Led first-of-kind partnership of K-12 school with LearnLaunch; in first semester of program launch, 11 edtech companies incubated/accelerated on campus, with students and teachers actively engaged in product iteration and development. ... See more Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council Professional Speaking News Company NameMassachusetts Technology Leadership Council Dates EmployedNov 2017 – Nov 2017 Employment Duration1 mo LocationFederal Reserve Bank of Boston Plenary Speaker at Transform Conference, “Preparing the Next Generation for Work in a Roboticized World “ Future of Work, U.S. Congressman Seth Moulton Advisor Company NameFuture of Work, U.S. Congressman Seth Moulton Dates EmployedApr 2017 – Sep 2017 Employment Duration6 mos Upon request, put together Future of Work Advisory Committee for Congressman Moulton. Members included Tony Wagner of Harvard, Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT, Anant Agarwal of MIT/Harvard, Julie Shah of Harvard, Greg Toppo of USA Today, Eric Daimler. CATS Academy Boston Headmaster Company NameCATS Academy Boston Dates EmployedJan 2014 – Dec 2015 Employment Duration2 yrs LocationNewton, MA As point person for buiding CATS Academies across U.S. for for-profit British venture owned by London-based Bridgepoint, led two-year-old school during rapid phase of growth from about 180 students to over 280; played key role in shaping new campus in Braintree, MA; oversaw conception and implementation of innovative CATS Institute for Global ... See more Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University Affiliate Company NameBerkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University Dates EmployedSep 2013 – Jun 2014 Employment Duration10 mos Research project involving education and digital technology. Show 5 more experiences Show fewer experiences Education Stanford University Stanford University Degree NamePh.D. Field Of StudyAmerican History Dates attended or expected graduation 1987 – 1993 MIT Sloane School of Management MIT Sloane School of Management Degree NameExecutive Certificate Field Of StudyStrategy and Innovation Dates attended or expected graduation 2010 – 2010 Yale University Yale University Field Of StudyVisiting Fellow, Department of History Dates attended or expected graduation 1994 – 1995 Boston University Boston University Degree NameMBA Field Of StudyCertificate in Public and Nonprofit Management Boston University Boston University Degree NameMaster’s Degree Field Of StudyEd.M. Higher Education Administration