While viewing the 21st Century website as assigned by my Graduate Studies Professor, I was pleased to initially see a collaborative partnership with the Librarians Association listed on the homepage. In my opinion, it is these individuals who have direct access and correlations to technology and 21st Century tools, within our educational system; so they should be part of the initiative. I also was delighted in the easy navigational tools provided by the Partnership website. Too often, websites that need to convey a vast amount of information seem unorganized or difficult to find your way. This site was not at all difficult to utilize, rather it provided easy access to upcoming events, frameworks for the Partnership, tools and resources, as well as what is currently in place for their initiatives. I was surprised to read of the states that already had begun their participation, at first; but upon further contemplation, I realized that it was simply because these states had a need for a Partnership that could apply real world skills and learning to their possibly struggling educational systems.
Students and educators can benefit from inquiry and participation with this Association. The framework appears to be grounded and applicable. As an educator, I believe that there is always room for improvement and growth, therefore supporting the goals of the 21st Century Partnership. I can foresee this program having a great impact on students and how they feel or prepare for future life and work experiences. Not to end on a negative note, but I was surprised at two of the statements listed under the State Initiatives Navigation button claiming, “Most academic standards are too low and do not reflect 21st Century skills or content,” and that “many states allow students to earn a high school diploma with 8th or 10th grade knowledge and skills (or less) in core subjects.” Personally, I don’t believe that overall academic standards are too low; I simply believe that individual educators may partake in the lowering of their expectations due to real life experience and socioeconomic struggles. Overall, standards are what they have always been; society and the nature of our students have simply changed, creating the need for standards and expectations to also be modified, not necessarily lowered. As for students being able to earn a high school diploma with 8th or 10th grade skills, I must simply say that my 8th graders surpass those noted expectations in, in the 8th grade and obviously do not represent the students for which the Partnership was speaking of. Clearly, there are benefits to displaying data, but data shared in a positive context usually promotes better interest and results.
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Hi Kelly,
ReplyDeleteI live in Pennsylvania and we are not included in the list of states for the Partnership. We have plenty of struggling students so our district may be categorized as one that has a struggling education system. I work in the county seat. We have a migratory population and have been enrolling many culturally diverse students. Why, then, weren’t we included in this initiative?
I agree that positive data is more likely for people to buy into the Partnership. It makes me wonder why they would post negative data? Is it to prove the necessity of the Partnership? Is it a baseline with which to gauge growth due to the efforts of the Partnership? I did not see the information you found negative, but I also feel it is not the best information to publish. I work in a low-income district and we have many students for whom the standards are unachievable. They are so far behind in their learning that the goals set by the standards are not realistic. This is, of course, not the case for every student in the district and I know it is not the case for every student in the United States, but it just goes to show that part of the problem in the country’s educational system is the lack of equity. Districts such as mine should receive more support and resources to boost our students’ success. I know life is not fair, but maybe the Partnership has a plan to even the playing field. I hope that is the case or those receiving funding and resources from this program will be even further ahead.