Tuesday, March 07, 2006
More Education for the New World Order
What should be striking about the two articles dropped in here below (thanks to Joan Master for these) is how they promote "education" ("21st century skills") without more than a few hints of the necessity of literacy in the traditional sense, history, literature, personal finance, logic, theology, or any of those subjects that make a person genuinely educated, i.e., able to think. This represents the triumph of pure vocationalism--"education" for what remains of the U.S. under the New World Order, turned into a third world once-sovereign nation by outsourcing, dumbing down, and apathy. And unable to evaluate critically those international moves that are subverting what little is left of government by consent of the governed. The intended product: human worker bees who belong not to themselves but to the global economy, and who are not at all troubled by this fact. The second article recommends "exposing [students] to the larger world around them." Will they be effective at learning foreign languages if they haven't learned basic English? How about teaching them to think critically about the world around them and to ask who benefits from the policy decisions bringing about all these changes?
E-SCHOOL NEWS ONLINE ™
Where K-12 Education and Technology Meet
http://www.eschoolnews.com
Contents Copyright 2006 eSchool News. All rights reserved.
N.C. Gov. announces 21st Century Center
By Corey Murray, Associate Editor, eSchool News
April 22, 2005
Faced with the challenge of preparing today's students for success in an increasingly global economy, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, April 21, announced the development of a first-of-its-kind Center for 21st Century Skills.
The Center will be run from the governor's office by the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE). Educators and business leaders across the state will work in tandem to redesign existing curricula, improve teacher professional development efforts, and implement assessments designed to track statewide student progress. The Center will collaborate with K-12 school systems, community colleges, and teacher education institutions to develop and pilot its programs, but specific details were not available at press time.
Joining forces with the nonprofit Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that brings leaders from education and the business community together, Easley said that he hopes the effort will lead to the development and adoption of a new model for teaching and learning in schools from coast to coast.
"We must continue to reform our public school system to meet the growing demands of the new global economy," Easley said. "The new Center for 21st Century Skills will ensure that students graduate from our educational institutions with the skills they need to compete and succeed in the workplace."
In an interview with eSchool News, Karen Bruett, who chairs the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and is the director of education and community initiatives for Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc., said the goal is to create "a public-private partnership that will better prepare students for their future."
The partnership's framework for 21st century education emphasizes competencies such as information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, global awareness, and business, economic and civic literacy--skills today's executives say are critical to success.
Easley's 2005-07 budget includes an appropriation to NCBCE of $250,000 in the coming fiscal year and $500,000 the following year for the creation of the Center. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills will work with North Carolina's Center to match the state's commitment with private contributions. The first company to participate is Dell Inc. which has made a commitment of $50,000.
In recent months, the cry for reform has intensified from educators and business leaders who want a radical redesign of the nation's antiquated education system--one critics argue has put American students at a disadvantage compared to tech-savvy graduates from nations such as China and India, where a single school has sometimes granted more engineering and technical degrees than every U.S. college and university combined.
The outcry reached a crescendo in late February when the nation's governors, including Easley, met in Washington to develop a plan that would restore credibility to the high school diploma and make schools accountable for the students they graduate. State leaders were buoyed in their discussions by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who branded the nation's high schools "obsolete" and called on policy makers to institute reforms that embrace the teaching of practical, job-related skills. (See "Gates, governors: Upgrade high school").
As governor, Easley has made reforming the state's high schools and better preparing students for the demands of higher education and the workplace one of his top priorities. In August 2003, Easley partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the 21st Century High Schools initiative--a program to create smaller, more intimate high schools dedicated to providing students with a relevant, hands-on education.
His supporters say the new Center represents yet another step in that direction.
"Every child needs 21st century skills for success in learning and life. This initiative will better prepare students to leave school with skills and knowledge needed for the better paying, highly skilled jobs of the new economy," said John Wilson, executive director of the National Education Association and vice chair of the partnership.
After spending the first two years of its existence building awareness around the program, defining a framework for 21st century skills, and rolling-out a series of online tools intended to further the use higher-order thinking skills in the classroom, Bruett says the partnership is gearing up to turn its vision into a reality.
"We're focused on finding states that are looking to make an investment in 21st century skills," she said. "The partnership has provided a very broad framework as well as several tools and resources ... but we haven't yet taken it down to practice in the individual states."
Eventually, Bruett said, the goal is to have at least five states that serve as a national model--sharing best practices and providing guidance--as educators realign current curricula to meet the demands of an increasingly competitive, technology-driven workforce.
"Teaching the 'three Rs' is not enough anymore for success in the 21st century," Bruett said. "Students need to know ... how to apply that information in the global economy. When you incorporate these kinds of skills into the classroom, you make learning more relevant to students."
Links:
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
Office of the Governor in North Carolina (Official)
http://www.governor.state.nc.us/
Gov. Mike Easley
http://www.mikeeasley.org/
http://www.eschoolnews.com
Contents Copyright 2006 eSchool News. All rights reserved.
E-SCHOOL NEWS ONLINE ™
Where K-12 Education and Technology Meet
Governors: Expand students' horizons
'International education' a key to boosting students' global competitiveness, they say
By Laura Ascione, Assistant Editor, eSchool News
March 1, 2006
Exposing U.S. students to the larger world around them and ensuring that they not only speak other languages, but also understand and appreciate other cultures, is essential to the nation's success in an increasingly global economy, said members of the National Governors Association's (NGA's) Education, Early Childhood, and Workforce Committee during the NGA's Winter Meeting 2006 this week in Washington, D.C.
"In our global economy, American students, workers, and businesses face new and fierce competition from around the world," said Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, chair of the committee, prior to the meeting. "I'm looking forward to having a conversation with my fellow governors about actions we can take to ensure our students are ready for the challenges of the future."
Foreign-language skills in the U.S. are not where they should be, Pawlenty said, and the cultural awareness of U.S. students and citizens also should be increased.
"We live in a changing world, with changing technology, changing culture, and changing economies," Pawlenty said. As a result, U.S. citizens need "to better understand language, culture, and foster relationships; and of course a big part of that is having an educational system that is aware of those trends. ... We need to prepare our educational curriculum [accordingly]."
"I have traveled around the world and witnessed firsthand our competition, and it is very clear that we need to maintain high standards. We let our students down if we fail to prepare them to succeed in this global economy," said Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, vice chair of the committee.
"Our future lies in our ability to compete, and that lies in our ability to have the best-trained workforce," Gregoire said during the Feb. 27 meeting, held in the JW Marriott just steps from the White House.
Motivating students to take foreign-language classes and teaching them about other cultures can go a long way in fostering an interest in international issues, speakers at the meeting suggested.
"Unfortunately, today there is a huge gap between the increasing importance of global issues and our students' basic knowledge of [these] issues," said Vivien Stewart, vice president for education at the Asia Society. "Our language instruction doesn't reflect today's reality."
Education officials need to find ways to attract all students to international education, not just the high-level students, Stewart said. The issue is not only about attracting students, but also about making the topic attractive to the teachers, she added.
Redesigning high schools to be relevant to today's world is one step to giving students an international education, said Stewart.
She noted that 2,400 schools said they want to offer an Advanced Placement (AP) test in Mandarin Chinese when it is released next year, according to a recent survey--yet only 200 schools currently offer Chinese-language programs, she said.
"Technology is a huge asset in these areas," she said, and governors could help their states "offer international courses through virtual high schools, or link to schools in other parts of the world."
Many states have taken an interest in increasing students' access to international education, and some have even created task forces and issued reports on the topic, Stewart said. "Many schools are beginning, on their own, to integrate international knowledge into the school day in exciting ways," she added.
Stewart said schools like this must be the norm, rather than the exception, and she suggested convening a group of business, political, and educational leaders in each state to raise awareness of the issue. Incorporating international education into other school programs and reforms, such as adding a global literacy requirement, would help, as would identifying opportunities for learning world languages in the state, she said.
By exposing U.S. students to world cultures early on, students can more easily become culturally aware and will be able to fit more easily into a professional world that is quickly becoming internationally driven, said Stewart.
"The world today is radically different than 20 years ago," she said. In a globalized economy, the international competitiveness of the United States will depend on how competent its citizens are in working in a global environment, she said, defining "international education" as the knowledge of other world regions, cultures, and global issues, being skilled in communicating in other languages, and working in a cross-cultural environment.
"How can governments help teachers to modernize their skills?" she asked. "We know teachers can't teach what they themselves don't know."
An internationally competent workforce is essential, and people need to use modern technologies and work in a cross-cultural world, echoed Stephanie Bell-Rose, managing director of Goldman Sachs and Co. and founding president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Businesses should establish a demand for international education, she added.
"We believe that, in order for our students to be successful, and ... for them to have great leadership, we need to focus on international education," said Bell-Rose.
"Today's students will be working in a global marketplace [and] living in a global society," she said, adding that success for these students will be measured by their ability to comprehend how the U.S. interacts with other countries and cultures.
President Bush recently announced a national initiative, the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI), to help U.S. students master critically needed foreign language skills to help the nation remain competitive. NSLI is a partnership between ED, the U.S. Department of State, and the Department of Defense.
The initiative aims to expand the number of U.S. citizens beginning and mastering critical-needs languages at a younger age, increase the number of advanced-level foreign language speakers, and expand the number of critical-needs foreign language teachers.
NSLI, however, was not the focus of remarks by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, who also spoke during the meeting. Instead, Spellings addressed the department's new emphasis on math and science education as a way to boost the international competitiveness of the nation's students.
"[We're] moving our emphasis into math and science, because it is the new currency of the job market," said Spellings during the meeting. "We have a lot of work to do on raising the bar, raising the level of academic rigor, and making sure that the pipeline is strong."
Spellings said it is imperative that children go through school well prepared and ready to enter the world when they graduate. She added that President Bush has asked her to form a National Math Panel to help bring about reform. This panel is part of Math Now, a program for elementary and middle school students that will help establish strong mathematics skills so that students can take more challenging courses in high school.
Links:
National Governors Association
http://www.nga.org
Asia Society
http://www.asiasociety.org
Goldman Sachs Foundation
http://www.gs.com/foundation
U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov
Math Now
http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/math-now.html
E-SCHOOL NEWS ONLINE ™
Where K-12 Education and Technology Meet
http://www.eschoolnews.com
Contents Copyright 2006 eSchool News. All rights reserved.
N.C. Gov. announces 21st Century Center
By Corey Murray, Associate Editor, eSchool News
April 22, 2005
Faced with the challenge of preparing today's students for success in an increasingly global economy, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, April 21, announced the development of a first-of-its-kind Center for 21st Century Skills.
The Center will be run from the governor's office by the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE). Educators and business leaders across the state will work in tandem to redesign existing curricula, improve teacher professional development efforts, and implement assessments designed to track statewide student progress. The Center will collaborate with K-12 school systems, community colleges, and teacher education institutions to develop and pilot its programs, but specific details were not available at press time.
Joining forces with the nonprofit Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that brings leaders from education and the business community together, Easley said that he hopes the effort will lead to the development and adoption of a new model for teaching and learning in schools from coast to coast.
"We must continue to reform our public school system to meet the growing demands of the new global economy," Easley said. "The new Center for 21st Century Skills will ensure that students graduate from our educational institutions with the skills they need to compete and succeed in the workplace."
In an interview with eSchool News, Karen Bruett, who chairs the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and is the director of education and community initiatives for Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc., said the goal is to create "a public-private partnership that will better prepare students for their future."
The partnership's framework for 21st century education emphasizes competencies such as information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, global awareness, and business, economic and civic literacy--skills today's executives say are critical to success.
Easley's 2005-07 budget includes an appropriation to NCBCE of $250,000 in the coming fiscal year and $500,000 the following year for the creation of the Center. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills will work with North Carolina's Center to match the state's commitment with private contributions. The first company to participate is Dell Inc. which has made a commitment of $50,000.
In recent months, the cry for reform has intensified from educators and business leaders who want a radical redesign of the nation's antiquated education system--one critics argue has put American students at a disadvantage compared to tech-savvy graduates from nations such as China and India, where a single school has sometimes granted more engineering and technical degrees than every U.S. college and university combined.
The outcry reached a crescendo in late February when the nation's governors, including Easley, met in Washington to develop a plan that would restore credibility to the high school diploma and make schools accountable for the students they graduate. State leaders were buoyed in their discussions by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who branded the nation's high schools "obsolete" and called on policy makers to institute reforms that embrace the teaching of practical, job-related skills. (See "Gates, governors: Upgrade high school").
As governor, Easley has made reforming the state's high schools and better preparing students for the demands of higher education and the workplace one of his top priorities. In August 2003, Easley partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the 21st Century High Schools initiative--a program to create smaller, more intimate high schools dedicated to providing students with a relevant, hands-on education.
His supporters say the new Center represents yet another step in that direction.
"Every child needs 21st century skills for success in learning and life. This initiative will better prepare students to leave school with skills and knowledge needed for the better paying, highly skilled jobs of the new economy," said John Wilson, executive director of the National Education Association and vice chair of the partnership.
After spending the first two years of its existence building awareness around the program, defining a framework for 21st century skills, and rolling-out a series of online tools intended to further the use higher-order thinking skills in the classroom, Bruett says the partnership is gearing up to turn its vision into a reality.
"We're focused on finding states that are looking to make an investment in 21st century skills," she said. "The partnership has provided a very broad framework as well as several tools and resources ... but we haven't yet taken it down to practice in the individual states."
Eventually, Bruett said, the goal is to have at least five states that serve as a national model--sharing best practices and providing guidance--as educators realign current curricula to meet the demands of an increasingly competitive, technology-driven workforce.
"Teaching the 'three Rs' is not enough anymore for success in the 21st century," Bruett said. "Students need to know ... how to apply that information in the global economy. When you incorporate these kinds of skills into the classroom, you make learning more relevant to students."
Links:
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
Office of the Governor in North Carolina (Official)
http://www.governor.state.nc.us/
Gov. Mike Easley
http://www.mikeeasley.org/
http://www.eschoolnews.com
Contents Copyright 2006 eSchool News. All rights reserved.
E-SCHOOL NEWS ONLINE ™
Where K-12 Education and Technology Meet
Governors: Expand students' horizons
'International education' a key to boosting students' global competitiveness, they say
By Laura Ascione, Assistant Editor, eSchool News
March 1, 2006
Exposing U.S. students to the larger world around them and ensuring that they not only speak other languages, but also understand and appreciate other cultures, is essential to the nation's success in an increasingly global economy, said members of the National Governors Association's (NGA's) Education, Early Childhood, and Workforce Committee during the NGA's Winter Meeting 2006 this week in Washington, D.C.
"In our global economy, American students, workers, and businesses face new and fierce competition from around the world," said Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, chair of the committee, prior to the meeting. "I'm looking forward to having a conversation with my fellow governors about actions we can take to ensure our students are ready for the challenges of the future."
Foreign-language skills in the U.S. are not where they should be, Pawlenty said, and the cultural awareness of U.S. students and citizens also should be increased.
"We live in a changing world, with changing technology, changing culture, and changing economies," Pawlenty said. As a result, U.S. citizens need "to better understand language, culture, and foster relationships; and of course a big part of that is having an educational system that is aware of those trends. ... We need to prepare our educational curriculum [accordingly]."
"I have traveled around the world and witnessed firsthand our competition, and it is very clear that we need to maintain high standards. We let our students down if we fail to prepare them to succeed in this global economy," said Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, vice chair of the committee.
"Our future lies in our ability to compete, and that lies in our ability to have the best-trained workforce," Gregoire said during the Feb. 27 meeting, held in the JW Marriott just steps from the White House.
Motivating students to take foreign-language classes and teaching them about other cultures can go a long way in fostering an interest in international issues, speakers at the meeting suggested.
"Unfortunately, today there is a huge gap between the increasing importance of global issues and our students' basic knowledge of [these] issues," said Vivien Stewart, vice president for education at the Asia Society. "Our language instruction doesn't reflect today's reality."
Education officials need to find ways to attract all students to international education, not just the high-level students, Stewart said. The issue is not only about attracting students, but also about making the topic attractive to the teachers, she added.
Redesigning high schools to be relevant to today's world is one step to giving students an international education, said Stewart.
She noted that 2,400 schools said they want to offer an Advanced Placement (AP) test in Mandarin Chinese when it is released next year, according to a recent survey--yet only 200 schools currently offer Chinese-language programs, she said.
"Technology is a huge asset in these areas," she said, and governors could help their states "offer international courses through virtual high schools, or link to schools in other parts of the world."
Many states have taken an interest in increasing students' access to international education, and some have even created task forces and issued reports on the topic, Stewart said. "Many schools are beginning, on their own, to integrate international knowledge into the school day in exciting ways," she added.
Stewart said schools like this must be the norm, rather than the exception, and she suggested convening a group of business, political, and educational leaders in each state to raise awareness of the issue. Incorporating international education into other school programs and reforms, such as adding a global literacy requirement, would help, as would identifying opportunities for learning world languages in the state, she said.
By exposing U.S. students to world cultures early on, students can more easily become culturally aware and will be able to fit more easily into a professional world that is quickly becoming internationally driven, said Stewart.
"The world today is radically different than 20 years ago," she said. In a globalized economy, the international competitiveness of the United States will depend on how competent its citizens are in working in a global environment, she said, defining "international education" as the knowledge of other world regions, cultures, and global issues, being skilled in communicating in other languages, and working in a cross-cultural environment.
"How can governments help teachers to modernize their skills?" she asked. "We know teachers can't teach what they themselves don't know."
An internationally competent workforce is essential, and people need to use modern technologies and work in a cross-cultural world, echoed Stephanie Bell-Rose, managing director of Goldman Sachs and Co. and founding president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Businesses should establish a demand for international education, she added.
"We believe that, in order for our students to be successful, and ... for them to have great leadership, we need to focus on international education," said Bell-Rose.
"Today's students will be working in a global marketplace [and] living in a global society," she said, adding that success for these students will be measured by their ability to comprehend how the U.S. interacts with other countries and cultures.
President Bush recently announced a national initiative, the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI), to help U.S. students master critically needed foreign language skills to help the nation remain competitive. NSLI is a partnership between ED, the U.S. Department of State, and the Department of Defense.
The initiative aims to expand the number of U.S. citizens beginning and mastering critical-needs languages at a younger age, increase the number of advanced-level foreign language speakers, and expand the number of critical-needs foreign language teachers.
NSLI, however, was not the focus of remarks by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, who also spoke during the meeting. Instead, Spellings addressed the department's new emphasis on math and science education as a way to boost the international competitiveness of the nation's students.
"[We're] moving our emphasis into math and science, because it is the new currency of the job market," said Spellings during the meeting. "We have a lot of work to do on raising the bar, raising the level of academic rigor, and making sure that the pipeline is strong."
Spellings said it is imperative that children go through school well prepared and ready to enter the world when they graduate. She added that President Bush has asked her to form a National Math Panel to help bring about reform. This panel is part of Math Now, a program for elementary and middle school students that will help establish strong mathematics skills so that students can take more challenging courses in high school.
Links:
National Governors Association
http://www.nga.org
Asia Society
http://www.asiasociety.org
Goldman Sachs Foundation
http://www.gs.com/foundation
U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov
Math Now
http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/math-now.html
