The Boston school committee is looking for a way to encourage a more deliberative discussion on school performance.  They’ve implemented a platform called CommunityPlanIt, a web-based social network that they hope will involve students, teachers and the broader public in a more thoughtful, informed deliberation about designing performance standards:

Users earn “tokens” for completing activities. The more tokens you earn, the higher you ascend on the community leaderboard. (Kids love racking up points, Gordon said, even if there’s no actual prize.) You spend the tokens on the values you support, such as “School Environment and Safety” or “Family and Community Engagement.”

At the end of a 35-day trial, all of the participants are invited to a special meeting — in real life — to talk about what they learned. At that point, Gordon hopes, the issues will have been explained and hashed out, and people will already know each other. A pie chart of aggregate token spending will demonstrate visually how the community prioritizes its values.

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