The Decision Education Foundation
The Decision Education Foundation (DEF) is a California-based non-profit whose mission is to improve the lives of young people by empowering them with effective decision skills. The foundation works with schools and youth organizations throughout the United States, developing classroom-ready materials and training teachers, administrators, and mentors interested in making decision education a part of their curricula and youth-focused programs.
History
DEF was established in 2001 by educators, decision scientists, and business people committed to equipping today's youth with solid decision skills. The founders shared the belief that despite visible signs or poor decision making by significant numbers of young people (e.g., violence, substance abuse, teen pregnancies, alarming school dropouts rates), formal decision training is missing in the majority of today's school curricula.
The founders of DEF include Carl S. Spetzler, co-founder & CEO of Strategic Decisions Group(SDG), Professor Ronald A. Howard, academic director of the Strategic Decision and Risk Management certificate program at Stanford University, and the late Joyce Mattea Howard. Professor Howard is widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of decision analysis. Many of the teachings underlying this discipline are incorporated into DEF materials.
Others involved with the foundation at its inception include Tom Keelin, founding partner of consulting firm Keelin Reeds Partners, James Matheson, CEO of SmartOrg, a management solutions software provider, J.F.Foran, currently a consulting professor at Stanford University and a partner at consulting firm Keelin Reeds Partners, David Heckerman, founder and manager of the Machine Learning and Applied Statistics Group at Microsoft Research,Eric Horvitz, principal researcher and manager of the Adaptive Systems and Interaction Group at Microsoft and Paul J. H. Schoemaker, CEO of Decision Strategies International and research director of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at the Wharton School of Business.
Core Principles
DEF's approach to decision education begins with Six Elements of Decision Quality, incorporated into a six-link chain, where the quality of a decision is only as strong as the weakest link.
Head and Heart
DEF believes that a good decision must make sense and feel right, ie., a balance between head and heart.
Decision versus Outcome
Whether a decision is a good or bad depends on how it is made, not on the outcome. A good decision does not guarantee a good outcome.
How DEF Reaches Youth
Teacher Training
DEF conducts public summer workshops for educators in decision skills and how to teach these skills to young people. The workshop courses are offered at Stanford University, in partnership with the Stanford Center for Professional Development(SCPD) and online. In summer 2009, the foundation also offered a public summer workshop for educators in the Philadelphia area.
The foundation also holds onsite workshops for teachers, parents, and students at interested organizations. In 2009, DEF director and world-champion poker player Annie Duke spoke to parents and students at The Haverford School, a DEF partner school, where she presented a thought-provoking lecture on the importance of solid decision skills, indicating that she makes her living by taking advantage of poor decision makers.
Additional schools and youth programs working with DEF include the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences(SAAS), Morton Magnet Middle School and Benson High School Magnet in the Omaha Public Schools, ESF Camps, and others across the nation.
Curriculum Development
DEF has created a number of classroom-ready curriculum modules, including lesson plans which incorporate decision skills training into mainstream subject areas including English, History, and advisory/counseling. Current offerings for educators include:
- Decision Quality for Educators
- Teaching Decision Skills in Humanities
- Improving Advisory and Counseling with Decision Quality
- Certificate Program: Teachers, administrators, and other school/youth personnel can receive a Certificate in Strategic Decision and Risk Management with an Emphasis in Decision Education from the Stanford Center for Professional Development at Stanford University.
In summer 2010, DEF will add Decision Quality for Educators: Part 2, a continuation of the basic Decision Quality for Educators course. The foundation will also launch an online course intended for direct delivery to students in late middle school and early high school.