The Partnership for 21st Century Skills’ website http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php provides an extraordinary amount of information regarding what, why, and how of bringing schools up to speed on what future high school graduates will need to be successful in today’s global economy. Their mission, to “Serve as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of US K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders,” is both noble and challenging, but without the support of every educational institution and the State and Federal policy makers in the United States, their work will not even begin to make a dent in the “profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and the knowledge and skills they need in typical 21st century communities and workplaces.”
I was equally surprised and perplexed that there were only eleven states officially partnered with The Partnership for 21st Century Skills who were actively working towards raising the level of education in order to help lessen the gaps between the world of school and the world of work. Does this mean that schools who are not partnered with The Partnership for 21st Century Skills are not doing their part to ready their graduates for the 21st century career world? I do not believe that it does and when reviewing the Framework for 21st Century Learning published by The Partnership, I was somewhat disturbed by their statement that “only when a school or district combines the Framework with 21st century professional development, assessments and standard, can the American public be sure that high school graduates are prepared to thrive in today’s global economy.” Although I am sure their intentions are not to offend, the implications that schools who do not follow the Framework are not preparing students properly is quite unfair, especially to those schools which suffer from a low tax base and lack of funding. Many of these schools are doing the best they can and do manage to produce many globally competitive graduates. Nevertheless, I do realize that we as a society could be doing more so that all of our graduates are globally competitive and that is the ultimate goal of The Partnership.
The implications for me as an educator are huge. Not only do my students need to be prepared, but I also need to be able to teach them and all of us will have to be open-minded and willing to make the effort; however, our hands are tied until schools and classrooms are equipped with the necessary technology need to make all this a reality. Until then, I will do as much as I can by continuing to educate myself independently while I wait for school administration to play catch up. And as I become more knowledgeable, I will share that new information with my students so that they can use what I know to educate themselves. At least in that way, they are not falling completely behind and will be encouraged to take some responsibility for their own learning and begin to seek out more knowledge than I can offer them. Perhaps they can even become better advocates and find ways to push legislators, schools, and other teachers to give them what they need to be competitive in the global job market.
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Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like we are in similar situations when it comes to lack of technology resources in our schools. I have no computers in my classroom and a computer lab (25) for 200 students. Our district talks about technology and its importance but they have been unable to “walk their talk”. (In the last 7 years the district has had to cut 15 million from the budget, next year alone they are looking to cut 12 million.) But I am not here to go on about the numerous obstacles. One of the oddities about the Partnership for 21st Century Skills site is how they actually don’t focus on technological training. Rather, skills like effective collaborative abilities, critical thinking skills, skills related to global awareness, and problem solving skills to name a few. As Levy and Murnane suggest, these are skills that can be taught in all content areas and don’t require a separate class. What I struggle with is how to teach these types of skills to my under achieving students. I work in an alternative education high school and the majority of my students struggle with basic reading and comprehension skills. For them learning a new set of literacy skills is tantamount to climbing a mountain. I worry about what the future holds for those who are already so far behind their peers, in a nation that is behind globally. I am with you in being willing to be open minded and willing to put out the effort to become more knowledgeable so that I can share what I learn with my students. I hope that this will encourage some to take the initiative as well.
Amy
Alt HS Science
Levy, F., & Murnane, R. (2006). Why the changing American economy calls for twenty-first century learning: Answers to educators' questions. New Directions for Youth Development, 2006(110), 53–62.
Amy,
ReplyDeleteAlternative education students are quite a different breed, are they not? I teach 7-12 English in seven periods of mixed grade groupings as well as a class of GED. Many of my students are 2 or more years behind their cohort group in credits, but in only about 1/2 is it because of learning disabilities. Motivation is a key factor and these are the students who can most benefit from an interactive, technology based curriculum that can keep them engaged in the content and yet, because of the labels that have been put upon them, the classrooms they are in are often the last to be considered for tech. upgrades. It is hard to accept, but frequently happens not only in Alt. Ed., but also in low income districts that have often been unofficially written off by state and local ed. boards who would rather close the school for not meeting AYP than give them the tools they need to make that progress. It is all about being willing to invest and the American public has a big decision to make in the coming years...invest in education or be willing to do the jobs that we often stick our noses up at today.
Keep fighting the good fight!
Rebecca
Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your response I stopped midway and went back to the website to start looking for some solutions to the problem of how we can begin to transform the education environment without the available resources to make the changes. Under the tools and resources tab the partnership has developed an extensive list of professional development affiliates that can be contacted for help in technology advancement.
It is nice to have this great big list of Professional Development Affiliates but again it all comes down to funding to bring in these great programs. If your district is in any condition that is similar to the district I teach in the funding will not be fit in. The current state of the economy is not helping. Many teachers in my school have taken separate approaches to get the funding to attend conferences or to bring in Professional Development. Individual Fund raising has been a method that the language teachers have devoted their time to. Secondly there are a large amount of Education Grants available that you can apply for to help fund the cost that are required to bring in professional develop programs.
Paul Harvey