OTTAWA — Kansas education commissioner Randy Watson is spearheading an ambitious plan to remake Kansas schools. Ottawa is among the first Kansas schools to try out Watson’s plan, called “Kansans Can School Redesign.” The redesign will seeking to revamp a system of education that has lasted mostly a hundred years – dubbed by some as the “industrial model,” with set starting and ending times for classes, standardized curriculum, neat and orderly classrooms, and authority figures at the front of the rooms. Assistant school superintendent Ryan Cobbs said that Ottawa teachers and administrators are looking at a variety ways to redesign the education local students receive. That includes more hands-on learning, more flexibility, more individualized instruction and grading systems that more accurately chart students’ academic progress, he said. Cobbs will talk about the redesign efforts and how they’ll affect Ottawa schools for this weekend’s “Community Perspective” at 8:07 a.m. Sunday.
Thursday, Sept. 7, 7 p.m.
