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# Help Create The 12 Killer Questions To Innovate US Education
- URL: https://www.philmckinney.com/help-create-the-12-killer-questions-to-innovate-us-education/
- Published: 2010-03-23T15:27:55.000Z
- Updated: 2016-06-20T20:27:17.000Z
- Description: I’ve been asked (more like challenged) to create a dozen or so killer questions that could be used by teachers, schools, districts, state education agencies, federal agencies, etc. to help innovate the educational system in the US. I took up the challenge as a “pay it forward” project to help the
- Author: Phil McKinney
- Tags: Blog, Killer Questions, classroom innovation, education, innovate education, Innovation, learning, Pay It Forward, school, teaching, #wp, #wp-post, #philmckinneycom, #Import 2023-05-01 05:17

I've been asked (more like challenged) to create a dozen or so [killer questions ](https://www.philmckinney.com/tag/killer-questions/) that could be used by teachers, schools, districts, state education agencies, federal agencies, etc. to help innovate the educational system in the US. I took up the challenge as a “pay it forward” project to help the officials think differently about the problem they are facing.

As a starting point, I've adjusted a few of the killer questions already in the [killer question card deck](https://www.philmckinney.com/there-really-is-a-killer-question-card-deck) such as …

*Under what assumptions does my \[classroom, school, district, state education agency, etc\] operate? Why? How could we change each of the assumptions?*

Using this question as an example, I brainstormed the following assumptions (keep in mind that I'm a technologist/innovator and *not* an expert in the education):

- Students have to go to school a certain number of days per year
- Teaching is done in classrooms of between 20 and 40 students
- School hours are from 8:00am to 3:00pm Monday through Friday
- Students are grouped in classes based on age
- The percent of students who graduate from high school is “the” measure of a success for the educational system
- etc.

Here is the ask:

> What killer questions do you think should be used to help innovate the US education system?

## Killer Questions For Education

The killer questions would be asked during brainstorming/ideation sessions/workshops with the different participants of the educational system \[students, parents, teachers, administrators, politicians, etc\]

Here are some of suggestions for creating great killer questions:

- A given question should cause the team to look beyond the obvious and challenge their assumptions. A weak example: What are the metrics to encourage better teaching? A better example question would be: What do \[students, parents, teachers, principals, etc\] not like about \[learning, teaching, administrating, etc\] ? Why?
- Wording of a question should be clear and avoid any confusion or inherent assumptions. An example of an ambiguous question: What could we do to improve \[what does ‘improve' mean?\] classroom learning \[how do you define learning\]?
- Test your question. Ask the question to someone (spouse, friend, co-worker, etc) and get their reaction. If they aren't challenged to look at the problem differently, then keep working on it.

How can you get involved?

1. Submit a killer question (via the comments below) you think should be submitted as one of the 12.
2. Review the questions proposed by others and make them better by suggesting improvements/enhancements (edit, challenge, etc).
3. Vote for questions you like by replying to the comment.

I will choose 12 questions to forward on to the officials who made the request. If your question is chosen, you will be added to the list of contributors.

**Incentive**: If you are the first one to submit a question that I select, you will receive a ***free*** copy of the “[Creating Killer Innovations](https://www.philmckinney.com/creating-killer-innovations-cd/)” CD. I will also award CD's to those individuals who contributed the best “improvements” of someone else's killer question.

**Deadline**: Two to three weeks from the date of this post . . .