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Changing Michigan's Schools / Detroit News Editorials

Changing Michigan's Schools
Sunday 2-11-2007

Local school districts balk at education reform

Michigan is already stepping back from its new commitment to education reform, just as it is trying to catch up with other states and the world.

Less than a year after Michigan passed much-heralded statewide curriculum reform for high schools, school districts are balking at fully implementing it, saying they will teach it through trimesters rather than semesters, allowing them to keep more elective courses as well as teachers who aren't qualified for the tougher classes.

In doing so, they are sabotaging students' access to the content they most need to prepare for college and the work world.

"It makes a mockery out of these high school graduation requirements," says Sharif Shakrani, co-director of Michigan State University's Education Policy Center and one of the country's foremost experts in student achievement. "Unless the legislators do something about this, it will be really hard to correct later on. Otherwise, it's a sham."

Today, The Detroit News kicks off a weeklong series on Michigan education, exploring how the state can dramatically improve students' K-16 success if it is willing to stand up to the special interests controlling the schools.

Never before has education mattered so much to our future well-being.

Yet at the school and district level, many administrators, teachers and union leaders are proving reluctant to follow state leadership on the high school curriculum reform passed last spring.

At the state level, both Democrats and Republicans resist or do not initiate reforms, using the respective excuses of union rights and local control to protect their core supporters.

These so-called traditions are holding the state back from educational and economic progress.

"I really am a local control guy," says Mike Reno, a Republican member of the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education. "But at this point, local control is out of control."

The problem is not ignorance. We know what to do. Other states have shown us.

Nor is the problem simply funding. Money helps, but it has not driven successful reforms elsewhere.

Texas, Virginia and North Carolina and other states have undertaken bold state-level reforms to effectively boost their students' academic success. As a result, they are increasingly closing their socioeconomic achievement gap.

By contrast, Michigan did not pass a statewide assessment until April 2006. The state has not improved its college attendance rate significantly, and its student achievement is continuing to fall behind compared with other states' performance growth.

"We need another approach," Shakrani says. "Other states have taken another approach, and it is bearing fruit."

This week, we'll look at how Michigan can -- and must -- take another approach to K-12 education.

If Michigan is to regain its educational edge, both political parties must put children before their partisan supporters and embrace a more open-minded, 21st century interpretation of their core beliefs.

_____

About the series
How Michigan must reform the state's K-12 education system to catch up with the rest of the world.
Today: Opponents use excuses of union rights and local control to frustrate school change.
Monday: Why Michigan's student achievement is falling behind, and what we can do about it.
Tuesday: We explore the special interests that fight reforms to turn around the state's dismal dropout rate.
Wednesday: How other states have overhauled teacher management to improve student performance.
Thursday: Michigan must cut its skyrocketing administrative costs to save money for the classroom.



Changing Michigan's schools
Monday 2-12-2007

State must play stronger role in education reform

Just 10 years ago, Michigan students significantly out-performed the national average on achievement. Today, their performance is barely average compared with other states -- and fails miserably compared to other countries.

Michigan students didn't grow worse; they just didn't grow at all. While our state's performance stagnated, other states' students blossomed under careful cultivation.

Years after other states launched dramatic changes to improve their schools, Michigan is just trying out overdue education reform.

Last year, Michigan implemented a sorely needed statewide curriculum reform. While we applaud this new mandate, we realize that schools need further state leadership to guide instruction, textbook policy, teacher management and other issues to ensure the educational system leads the country once gain, and the world.

Other states have embraced bold statewide reforms. They are seeing real results. Yet Michigan clings to outdated, rigid traditions of local control and union rights that need to be modernized.

We have always believed that government works best when it is closest to the people. But Michigan's local school boards have proven incapable of breaking the stranglehold of education unions and implementing common sense reforms. We cannot deny what is working in other states.

Experts and activists agree the state must take the lead on improving student performance by providing more guidance on instructional methods, and addressing school structures and educators who resist reforms.

Michigan can wipe out its education deficit if the state:

Provides more guidance on instruction. Many school districts are struggling to figure out how to implement the new state curriculum.

Overhauls middle school instruction and structures to better prepare students for high school.

Recommends textbooks, if not mandate them, to reflect the needs of the new global economy. Michigan instruction is based on textbooks. If the books change, the teaching will follow.

Michigan's rigid teacher bargaining agreements and interpretation of local control has continued to thwart reform.

"This is a state that has prided itself for many, many, many years that the decisions of education are made at the local, local, local level," says Sharif Shakrani, co-director of Michigan State University's Education Policy Center and one of the country's foremost experts in student achievement.

Mike Reno, a businessman and Rochester school board member, adds, "With local control comes responsibility to make sound decisions. Look at most school boards: I don't think they make bad decisions; they just don't make any decisions. If they had done their jobs, we would not have needed the state to lead reform. But we do."

Michigan's cultural attitude must also change. North Carolina upended its old belief that "not everyone is meant to go to college" and mandated that middle schools eliminate tracking. Now, every middle school student is taking rigorous college preparatory classes and they are closing their socio-economic achievement gap.

Michigan needs a similar comprehensive reform of education that starts with taking the schools back from special interests.

THE DIGITAL GENERATION!

HOW Can EDUCATION BENEFIT from WIRELESS OAKLAND Initiative?

Microsoft joins Wireless Oakland team: Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson announced that Microsoft Corp. had signed up as a member of the corporate team behind Wireless Oakland, the effort to offer free basic wireless Internet service everywhere in Oakland County. During his State of the County speech, Patterson announced that Microsoft will "develop and maintain all content and advertising on the Wireless Oakland portal," the home page for the system that will come up first on users' computer screens. WWJ Newsradio 950's Web site is offering a podcast of Patterson's remarks, at this link. There's also a podcast of an interview on the speech with Oakland County CIO Phil Bertolini, who is leading the Wireless Oakland effort. Installation of the system began in Troy Jan. 19. Other pilot areas in Birmingham, Royal Oak, Madison Heights, Oak Park, Wixom and Pontiac will be live with service available by April 30. At that time, Bertolini said, the county will release a schedule for rolling out service in the rest of the county. All areas of the county should see service by early 2008, Bertolini said. The system will offer Wi-Fi service free at 128 kilobits per second, at no cash cost to the county. The companies financing the system will make money selling faster service tiers. More at www.wirelessoakland.com.

AIM for the DIGITAL BHAG!

A New Story + a BHAG

David Warlick has blogged often about our need to tell a new story. A story about the technological shifts that are occurring in our society. A story about the impacts that digital technologies are having on our lives, the workplace, and, indeed, our very economies. A story about the future of eduation and what our kids need to know and be able to do in the New Economy. A story that helps people make the move from an education system designed for yesteryear to a system that is designed for tomorrow. This story needs to be told in a compelling way so that it resonates with listeners.

I agree with David. We do need a new story. We probably need multiple new stories, told in different ways to different people at different times in different settings. We need to tailor the new story for different audiences to ensure maximum reception. But I’m also thinking that a new story is not enough. A new story alone will not get us to where we need to be.

I think we also need a BHAG: a big, hairy, audacious goal. A tangible, concrete target that lets us know when we’ve reached some crucial point. A new story (or three or four…) is a necessary component, but I don’t think it will be sufficient in and of itself. I think we need a new story and a BHAG, because the BHAG will help drive action and allocation of resources. A new story tells us what the issues are but it doesn’t necessarily help people know what to do. The BHAG helps people understand where we might go and how to get there. Together a new story and a BHAG will help educators, and parents, and community members, and politicans create the will and the action to move us forward.

I think we’re starting to wrap our heads around what a new story might look like. For example, I know that the presentation set I’ve been delivering lately, which combines diifferent resources and quotes and materials from the blogosphere and elsewhere, is resonating well with folks here in Minnesota. But we still need a BHAG.

So what might a BHAG be? What might be a big, hairy, audacious goal, a target that makes us gulp a little bit but also is focused and achievable? What might be something that would help us accomplish our goal of moving schools, students, teachers, and classroom pedagogy into the 21st century? What might be a goal that is tangible and yet energizing, a goal that grabs people in the gut and serves as a unifying focal point of effort?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I can’t come up with anything better than this:

1. ubiqitous nationwide high-speed wireless Internet access, and
2. a wireless-capable laptop for every student and educator.

I’ve previously blogged about variations of the first component (both here and here), and I think we’re starting to see the revolutionary impacts of giving every kid and teacher a computer, even when those impacts weren’t foreseen or desired at the outset. I think these two in coordination (and you need them both, I believe) are a BHAG worth rallying around. Now of course the question is… what do you think?

AMERICA'S "Perfect Storm!"

Press Releases

ETS Report: Converging Forces Threaten America’s Future

Contact:

Tom Ewing (609) 683-2803 tewing@ets.org

Princeton, N.J. (February 5, 2007) —

Three powerful forces — inadequate literacy skills among large segments of the population, the continuing evolution of the economy and the nation’s job structure, and an ongoing shift in the demographic profile of the nation, powered by the highest immigration rates in almost a century — are creating a “perfect storm” that could have dire consequences for our nation, according to a report ETS released today in a National Press Club Newsmaker press conference in Washington, D.C.

“America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future,” a report by ETS’s Policy Information Center, warns that America is in the midst of a perfect storm that, if unaddressed, will continue to feed on itself, further dividing us socially and economically, jeopardizing American competitiveness and threatening our democratic institutions. In the report, authors Irwin Kirsch and Kentaro Yamamoto of ETS, Henry Braun of Boston College and Andrew Sum of Northeastern University contend that the convergence of the three forces has serious implications for future generations and could turn the American dream into an American tragedy.

“America’s Perfect Storm is a wake-up call with implications for education, business, policymakers and every parent and child,” says ETS President and CEO Kurt Landgraf. “It describes forces at play in society that will affect all of us in the near future. The American dream is the idea that everyone has the opportunity to make a living, provide for a family, and raise children who will be better educated and better off. If we fail to act now on the warnings sounded in this report, the next generation of children will be
worse off than their parents for the first time in our country’s history. The American dream could turn into an American tragedy for many.”

The report also offers hope that if we act now and develop new policies that will increase literacy skills across the population, we can reduce the impact of the storm, help our nation grow together, and retain our leading role in the world.

“America’s Perfect Storm describes brilliantly the major challenges facing American workers and our economy as the result of an education system that fails to educate our young people, an increasingly technological global economy, and major demographic shifts in our population,” says Arthur J. Rothkopf, Senior Vice President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Unless we act aggressively and promptly to reform our public education system, the standard of living of U.S. workers will decline, and the U.S. economy will become far less competitive.”

One of the major forces contributing to America’s perfect storm is inadequate literacy skills among large segments of the population. “Individuals are expected to take more responsibility for managing various aspects of their own lives, such as planning for retirement, navigating the health care system, and managing their careers,” Kirsch says. “Yet half of adults lack the reading and math skills to use these systems effectively and, therefore, will face challenges fulfilling their roles as parents, citizens and workers. Perhaps of greater concern is the fact that this problem is not limited to adults. Our high school graduation rate, at 70 percent, is far behind that of other countries, and our students lag behind many of our trading partners in reading, math and science.”

The second force is a dramatically changing economy, driven by technological innovation and globalization. “The economy itself is experiencing seismic changes, resulting in new sources of wealth, new patterns of international trade, and a shift in the balance of capital over labor,” Braun says. “These changes are causing a profound restructuring of the U.S. workplace, with a larger proportion of job growth occurring in higher-level occupations that require a college education, such as management, professional, technical, and executive-level sales. The wage gap is widening between the most- and least-skilled workers; men with bachelor’s degrees can expect to earn almost twice as much over their lifetimes as those without.”

The third force contributing to America’s “perfect storm” is sweeping demographic changes. “Half of the U.S. population growth into the next decade is expected to come from new immigrants, which will have a dramatic impact on the composition of the workforce, as well as on the general population,” Kirsch says. “While immigrants come from diverse backgrounds with varying levels of education, we should recognize that 34 percent of new immigrants arrive without a high school diploma, and of those, 80 percent cannot speak English well, if at all.”

Although each of these forces is powerful in its own right, it is their interaction over time that can have momentous consequences. “Our nation has a choice to make,” Sum says. “If we continue on our present course, we will gradually lose ground to other countries and, in the process, become more divided socially and economically. Or we can invest in policies that will help us to grow together, policies that will result in better opportunities for all Americans.”

Download the full report, “America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future,” for free at www.ets.org/stormreport. Purchase copies for $15 (prepaid) by writing to the Policy Information Center, ETS, MS 19-R, Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ 08541-0001; by calling (609) 734-5949; or by sending an e-mail to pic@ets.org.

ABOUT ETS http://www.ets.org

ETS is a nonprofit institution with the mission to advance quality and equity in education by providing fair and valid assessments, research and related services for all people worldwide. In serving individuals, educational institutions and government agencies around the world, ETS customizes solutions to meet the need for teacher professional development products and services, classroom and end-of-course assessments, and research-based teaching and learning tools. Founded in 1947, ETS today develops, administers and scores more than 24 million tests annually in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide.

GO DIGITAL!

K-12 Computing Blueprint

Your Resource for One-to-One Computing
Timely tools, resources, and information for K12 leaders about mobile learning solutions. Includes research data, best practices, funding models, deployment strategies, and more. Sponsored by Intel Corp. and Center for Digital Education.

Whoever Provided the MUSICAL Backdrop to WHITTEMORE 422....God Bless!

A "Ticket" to the BIG SHOW filled with PROMISE!

Governor to push for free tuition

Local taxes, donations could send more high school grads to college

February 2, 2007

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF and LORI HIGGINS

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to give more Michigan high school graduates who can't otherwise afford it a chance to go to college.

In her State of the State address Tuesday, she will outline a plan -- inspired by the bold Kalamazoo Promise -- that would offer the incentive of tax money to match private donations to create a college-tuition plan for all graduates of public schools in economically stressed communities, administration officials said Thursday.

Detroit parent Ted Spencer said he likes the idea.

"We're losing a lot of kids between the third and sixth grade," Spencer said. "We need something to motivate them, and I think this would be beautiful."

The Kalamazoo plan is funded entirely by anonymous donors.

Granholm's plan would rely on deep-pocketed benefactors, but also match their money with a portion of local property taxes. The combined funding would pay tuition costs that aren't covered by financial aid such as Pell grants, scholarships or the Michigan Promise, which gives up to $4,000 for college.

Part of the funding would come from Promise Zones -- most likely entire cities -- which would capture half the annual increase in revenues from the existing 6-mill property tax on homes that pays for schools statewide, the State Education Tax (SET).

How much private money would be required before the taxes are tapped under Granholm's plan hasn't been determined.

Neither have other details, which must be discussed with potential donors and school districts before legislation is drafted, said Chuck Wilbur, Granholm's chief policy adviser.

For example, it is not known whether the tuition grants would go to students in charter schools, which are numerous in Detroit.

The tuition plan would be limited to areas with high levels of unemployment and poverty and low academic achievement.

Wilbur said groups in Detroit, Flint, Jackson and west Michigan have discussed ways to replicate the Kalamazoo Promise in their communities.

"We're doing this because we know the level of interest is high," Wilbur said. "Where struggling communities are trying to use higher education to create a better future for themselves, the governor believes the state should be part of that effort."

One potential problem is that in some cities, property-tax revenues haven't increased much as home values have stagnated and little new construction has occurred.

Detroit revenues from the SET are expected to rise by $2 million a year; Granholm's plan would take half of that for college tuitions. But in Flint, SET revenues rose by only $151,000 from 2005 to 2006.

That would create a total of about $76,000 for college tuition for Flint graduates to share.

Wilbur said the free-tuition program would stimulate property values to rise faster by attracting more families with children, and more development.

The Kalamazoo Promise is credited with increasing enrollment in Kalamazoo public schools by 1,000 students this year. Previously, the district was losing 250 students a year.

Kalamazoo Mayor Hannah McKinney said the city's home prices have risen by 10%, compared with flat prices in surrounding areas.

Among those considering the free-tuition concept is the Greater Flint Education Exploratory Committee. But no major donor has stepped forward, said foundation president Kathi Horton.

"The thought that there could be tools from the state, or the state could be an active partner in achieving this, is very encouraging," Horton said.

The scholarship program would improve the economy and give hope to young people who have the ability -- but not the money -- to attend college, said Carol Goss, president of the Skillman Foundation.

But she said community leaders must step up.

"As a foundation, this isn't something we could do by ourselves," she said.

In the Detroit Public Schools, free college tuition could reverse a troubling trend. The district has lost 60,000 students in the last decade, and the Board of Education is considering a plan to close 52 school buildings.

"We would retain more students and probably attract more students to the district," board President Jimmy Womack said. He said it would encourage more students to not only complete their high school education, but to also pursue higher education.

Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, said the details would determine the support Granholm's plan gets from lawmakers.

Cassis chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which likely would have to approve the property-tax portion of Granholm's proposal.

Contact CHRIS CHRISTOFF at 517-372-8660 or christoff@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Promise renews city's hope for the future

Secret donation opens the door for students to go to college

February 2, 2007

BY LORI HIGGINS

FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

Originally published June 4, 2006.

KALAMAZOO -- Elizabeth Lauer knows too well the sacrifices her mother, a single parent and former migrant worker, made to raise three children.

They "made me want to work hard to have the things I want in life," said Elizabeth, 18, a senior at Kalamazoo's Phoenix High School.

Her mother, Virginia Mills, barely had managed to finance the education of her older brother, who graduated this spring from Michigan State University. College seemed out of reach for Elizabeth.

Then came news of the Kalamazoo Promise.

The anonymously funded scholarship has changed Elizabeth's life and the lives of thousands of other students with its promise of full or partial tuition for nearly every graduate of Kalamazoo Public Schools.

"Words can't express what we feel," said Elizabeth, tears welling up in her eyes. "This is like a miracle."

Mills cried as she talked about what the tuition guarantee will mean for her daughter.

"I keep telling her I don't want her to be like me -- not having an education," she said. "I'm so happy for the promise."

In a district where enrollment has been on a downward spiral -- losing on average 250 students a year -- officials project that as many as 450 new students will enroll this fall because of the scholarship.

Students say the promise has motivated them to get better grades.

And a city where a quarter of the 77,000 residents live in poverty now feels revitalized.

"We really were in a crisis before the promise," Kalamazoo Mayor Hannah McKinney said.

Fiscal problems remain, she said, but now there is hope.

That hope is heard through the voices of the teenagers who now realize that the promise has the power to change their lives.

Elizabeth will attend Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where she'll decide between a career in business or medicine. Eventually, she wants to transfer to her dream school, MSU.

Her only regret -- one echoed by many students -- is that the promise was not part of the landscape sooner.

"I would have worked harder," said Elizabeth, who attends an alternative high school for students who have trouble succeeding in a traditional classroom setting.

A rosier future

It's hard to imagine one scholarship fund having as much impact on a school district as the Kalamazoo Promise is expected to have.

Like most urban districts, Kalamazoo Public Schools has struggled financially and academically. Its MEAP scores are well below state averages. More than half the students -- 61 % -- receive free or reduced-price lunches, a common barometer of school poverty.

The district has cut $20 million from its budget over the last seven years.

But just months after the promise was announced last fall, administrators now are looking at a decidedly rosier financial picture.

The current enrollment of 10,200 is expected to grow by 450 students for the 2006-07 school year, with the increases coming from charter schools, private schools and new residents, Deputy Superintendent Gary Start said.

And instead of cutting its budget, the district actually is going to have more money this year. The boost in enrollment is likely to bring an additional $3.3 million -- $2.3 million of which would go toward hiring new teachers.

The remaining money might be used for efforts such as lowering class sizes.

"The promise is going to save Kalamazoo," Start said. "Many urban districts are in a downward spiral. If you lose students, you lose funding. This is changing the spiral to an upward spiral."

The promise rewards longevity in the district, so families who want to take advantage of it -- and get tuition paid in full -- will have to move within its boundaries and enroll their children by kindergarten.

As he talked about the program, Start could barely contain his excitement.

"I feel like I've had two careers: One was before the promise and one was after," he said.

But it's in the lives of individual students that the promise is making the biggest impact.

"I didn't know how I was going to pay for college," said Emily Midling, 17, a Loy Norrix High School senior who graduates June 8. "This just means so much to me. I just see it like changing my life."

Danielle Betke, an 18-year-old senior at Phoenix High, remembers being skeptical at first when she heard about the promise. It took weeks before the reality sunk in. No longer was community college her only option. Now, she's planning to attend WMU.

"It was crazy. My mom cried."

The donors "don't know what kind of impact they're having on KPS students. They are changing KPS students' lives forever," Danielle said.

Though Danielle doesn't know who the donors are, this is clear: "They must have a lot of faith in KPS students. Loy Norrix and Central don't have the best MEAP scores or send a lot of students to Harvard. They figure maybe this can make us more of what we want to be."

Families first, then businesses

The city itself may undergo a transformation, too.

"We've just been a city people move away from," said David Harris, 18, a senior at Loy Norrix High School. He's enrolled at WMU, after initially believing the most he'd be able to afford was a community college.

The promise, David said, will help the city grow and encourage people to stay.

Bob Jorth, executive assistant for the Kalamazoo Promise, the fund's sole employee, agrees that there's been a change.

"There's more community pride," he said. "The community understands this is an extraordinary gift and that the whole community needs to step forward and show that they appreciate it and they're going to utilize it in a way that honors the scope."

While there hasn't yet been a rash of people buying homes within the district's boundaries, it's only a matter of time, said Bob Rateike, a real estate agent with ERA Network Real Estate in Kalamazoo.

"Long-term, the Kalamazoo Promise is going to be a real benefit to the area and to the real estate market. If the schools improve their reputation, it will have a positive impact," Rateike said.

McKinney said there already are groups of people working to determine "how we can best leverage the Kalamazoo Promise to really help the whole area's economic and community development."

The city itself sure needs it.

In the 1990s, it lost a General Motors plant. Gone are several paper mills that helped fuel the economy.

"People have been leaving the core city, moving to the suburbs," McKinney said, citing the quality of the school district, high taxes and fear of crime. "What the promise has done for us is take one of those off the table. It's up to us to deal with the other two."

She expects the promise will eventually bring in more businesses and stabilize the neighborhoods.

"We're going to see families move first, and then businesses," McKinney said.

'Everyone should go to college'

In the office at Phoenix High School, a large clipboard containing dozens of applications for the Kalamazoo Promise is displayed prominently on a rack.

The school serves struggling students, and of the 48 seniors who are graduating, 10 already have earned the scholarship. Principal Von Washington Jr. expects more to be accepted.

University officials say that even though the promise is a guarantee of funding, students still have to meet admissions standards.

"They might try harder now because they know they can get to college," said Chris Crook, 17, a Phoenix graduating senior.

Senior Elizabeth Lauer used to ride by big office buildings and dream of one day becoming a chief executive officer. But it wasn't something she ever thought would happen.

Until now.

"Everyone should go to college, so we're not depending on welfare and food stamps," Elizabeth said. "With college, you're pretty much guaranteed a career. ... You just have to want it."

Contact LORI HIGGINS at 248-351-3694 or higgins@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

FINALLY, Something RELEVANT to the BUILDING TRADES and the FUTURE OF EDUCATION!

When Governors Enter the Education Picture
By Gordon Freedman

There are so many moving parts to education in any given state or between states and the federal government that it is nearly impossible to address dropout rates, graduation rates, annual yearly progress, increased college attendance, or producing more capable teachers and administrators. The answer to the education dilemma, oddly enough, might be found in the building trades. There, the choice is often between renovation and new construction. We all know that remodeling an old house or building a new one can produce very different results. We also know that there can be a significant difference between using a builder to design a complex home versus hiring an architect to create a set of plans from scratch.

Education, in large part, belongs to the states. It is an expensive public good designed to produce human capital capable of boosting state economic output and contributing to the national economy. Hanging in the education and training balance, on the positive side of the ledger, is increased economic activity and tax revenue from a more highly educated workforce. In this sense, the education investment, not cost, finances the renewal and expansion of state infrastructure and state programs. On the negative side of the education balance sheet are the true costs, not investments, of social and economic failure -- increased incarcerations, expanding social services, and a declining base of innovation and economic development focused on replacing old state economies.

To attempt to solve such large social and economic issues, where 21st century education is a key part of a complicated calculus, hiring a builder to renovate a tired school system is not the right answer. The answer, using the construction metaphor, is to hire a state level education architect who can construct a clear path from kindergarten through college and into the workforce; one who can accommodate the quickly changing demographics of every state inside the rapidly developing global economy. Who could commission such a state office and create the mandate to build rather than renovate?

The only office that can rise above the thousand-pothole mentality and look at the whole education establishment in a state and do something about it is a governor. Left to their own devices, those further down the line, often influenced by many competing interests, are often incapable from an organizational and political point of view of looking at and acting on the whole picture.

The governors who are thinking architecturally are finding three enabling factors: enterprise technology, economic analysis, and organizational reengineering. There are clear efficiencies in using technology to not only collect and analyze data, but to apply what is known quickly and confidently to remedy problems, right down to individual teachers and students. But applying technology by itself is meaningless unless there are changes in the human organization that carries out education in all its many silos. And organizational reengineering is largely incomplete unless there are plans for how increased levels of education can bolster the workforce in ways that are more significant than simply stemming the tide of student and school failures.

Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan, and New Mexico have strong education governors committed to pre-K-20-workforce policies designed to use technology as an enabler. They are aware that the silos between different education segments and agencies must come down. For them, the information highway has to turn into a coherent education network where policies, practices and interactions can cross educational stakeholders as easily as an interstate traverses neighborhoods. Govs. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.), Janet Napolitano (D-Ariz.), and Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) were returned to office in November 2006; each took a stand on education as a centerpiece of their second terms. Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R-Ky.), who committed Kentucky to a realignment of its education and workforce capacity, will come to the end of his first term in 2007. Consider their work thus far:

? Arizona's Janet Napolitano created a pre-K-20 commission (pre-kindergarten through higher education) in Arizona to coordinate all the educational segments in that state and to drive toward a singular educational experience. "Here in Arizona, we're already making the investment today so our state can lead the global economy tomorrow and beyond," Napolitano has said. On the national scene, in announcing her first action as the current chair of the National Governors' Association, Napolitano stated that her personal project as chair will be to take Arizona's approach to the rest of the states in order "to educate our students to be innovators, and to carry that spirit of innovation through their university experience and into the workforce."

? Michigan's Jennifer Granholm perhaps went the furthest of her colleagues. In pushing through her state's first graduation requirements, Granholm put her support behind a high school graduation requirement that requires every student in the state to have an online learning experience. "When it comes to education, we will have one overarching goal: to become the best-educated workforce in the nation. To do that, we will give our children the tools they need to be successful in the classroom and in the 21st century economy." To make good on the online learning requirement in Michigan's sluggish economy, the Michigan Department of Education and Michigan Virtual High School have joined forces to offer a free online course entitled Career Forward. It explores the global economy, starting in ninth grade. "This course is an incredible 'two-fer,'" Gov. Granholm announced in March 2006. "It will help our students understand how to thrive in a changing economy, and it will teach them how to learn online, something they will need to do throughout their work lives."


? New Mexico's Bill Richardson, a likely presidential candidate, has made education New Mexico's top priority. Like his neighbor in Arizona, the investment is a comprehensive package for students, an integration of education units and singular statewide technology run out of the state CIO's office. "New Mexico high school graduates must be armed to compete for excellent jobs, not just here, but nationally and internationally," said Gov. Richardson after announcing a comprehensive high school redesign in May 2006. Richardson has reorganized the education structure in New Mexico, making the heads of K-12 and higher education the front pieces for the state's efforts all coordinated directly from his office.

? Kentucky's Ernie Fletcher has already spent years on the organizational realignment in his state. Getting every education and workforce unit on the same page has been difficult but rewarding. Run out of the statehouse, this effort puts Kentucky, the longest running of the pre-K-20-workforce taskforces, in a position to create a single technology, delivery and policy network spanning all of its state-funded stakeholders. Their collective goal is to raise the graduation rate and education level of Kentucky citizens so that they, like other more economically active states, can compete in the global economy. In August 2006, commending Virginia Fox, the outgoing the secretary of education, Fletcher said of the state's combined effort: "[Virginia] is an exceptional individual, and she has done a tremendous job helping me move Kentucky forward. Her tireless work has brought all of the Education Cabinet agencies much closer together, and the proof of her effort was visible in the successful 2006 General Assembly when many educational initiatives were approved."

The Herculean task of prodding the sedentary education machinery in our states must now evolve into even more. The next step for our governors is to develop well-crafted state education and human capital blueprints to make education systems match today's needs in the global economy. There is not enough money in any state treasury or local school district bank account to continue down the old path any longer.

Gordon Freedman is vice president of education strategy for Blackboard, Inc.

THE "yin" of the 19th Century.........followed by the "YANG" of the 21st Century!

"Yin and Yang are the interdependence of opposites. Yin symbolizes earth, darkness, cold, night, moon, passivity, and Yang symbolizes heavens, light, heat, day, sun, activity. Yin and Yang, "imaginary" and "real", the mastery of their interactions provide opportunities where the weak overcomes the strong by borrowing from the enemy’s power."

19th Century Model for Business as Usual

More students, more cash

School districts consider enrollment bonuses

January 28, 2007

BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

When Bellevue Community Schools hired Scott Belt as superintendent this month, the district asked him to help reverse years of declining enrollment. Officials offered him $300 per student if Bellevue's enrollment grows.

The rural district between Lansing and Battle Creek isn't the only one showing the money. In Grand Rapids, teachers will get a cash bonus if the district loses fewer students than expected.

Cash incentives for attracting new customers have been common in the business world. Now, they're moving into education.

The idea is still young and largely in the experimental stage, but it makes sense to some school leaders in Michigan, where school funding is based on enrollment. Competition among districts for students has become so keen, some educators refer to schools of choice as "schools of theft."

"That's how districts survive today -- on enrollment," said William Mayes, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators.

Carl Hartmen, associate executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards, said the idea is likely to spread.

"I'm sure you're going to see more and more of it," Hartman said. "If you're losing students, you're losing money."

Not everyone sees bonuses as the answer to declining enrollment. East Detroit Public Schools have gone from 6,500 students to 5,200 over the last 10 years. The board recently voted to become a school of choice district, offer all-day kindergarten and close buildings to help cut costs and keep enrollment up.

But East Detroit doesn't offer financial incentives for enrollment.

"I see it as a slippery slope," Superintendent Bruce Kefgen said. "If your bread and butter depends on you being able to retain students, might you be less prone to suspend a student?"

Even though Detroit Public Schools has lost about one-third of its enrollment during the last several years and is closing schools, parent Samuel Ivory said the district would be better off putting the money in the classroom. Ivory has five children in Detroit schools, at Southeastern High School, Joy Middle School and Hutchinson Elementary.

"They should be spending it on the students, maintaining the schools and keeping the buildings open," if they want to retain students, Ivory said.

The incentives could also add to the growing concern that school districts are cannibalizing each other in their zeal to pick up students.

"It makes you like a bounty hunter," said Royal Oak Superintendent Thomas Moline. Royal Oak Public Schools' enrollment has been declining by about 200 students per year. The district uses a demographer to help forecast the change and is closing schools to keep pace with it.

But Moline isn't opposed to incentives.

"I think it stimulates the system," he said. "But the bottom line is, you'd better have better quality and better outcomes, because parents are very savvy shoppers these days."

Promoting the pluses

Bellevue has gone from 1,005 students in 2000 to 710 today. Some of the students have gone to neighboring districts, while others have been forced to move for economic reasons, Belt said. His job is now to run a PR campaign convincing parents to come back.

"If we can get the word out, get some good positive promotion going on, maybe we can gain enrollment," he said.

But Belt was a little uncomfortable with the bonus.

"I don't ever want anyone to think that I want a kid to come here so I can make an extra dollar," Belt said. "I want them to come because this is the best place for them to be."

Tim Reed, Bellevue's school board president, said Belt's role will be to be more visible in the community than previous superintendents and tout, in part, the district's new emphasis on students earning Michigan Merit Scholarships and its decision to offer more science classes.

"I expect him to be the leader and visionary thinker for the staff and teachers and bring these things to reality," Reed said.

Unions agree

The 20,000-student Grand Rapids Public Schools district has been losing between 800 and 900 students a year. Almost all the unions in the district -- including those covering teachers, administrators, secretaries and noncertified personnel -- have agreed to a plan in their contracts calling for a lump sum bonus in June if the district loses fewer than 800.

The bonuses will vary, from 0.25% of their salary if the district loses between 600 and 699 students, up to 1.75% if the loss is 100 or less.

"We all have a role in recruiting and retaining students. Even a secretary ... has things that can be done with customer service," said Fredericka Williams, executive director of human resources.

Employees are being urged to make parents feel welcome and make sure they are aware of programs that other districts may not provide, such as the district's after-school program.

Not everyone is convinced that teachers or superintendents can change enrollment.

The Lansing School District tried enrollment incentives for the superintendent, only to drop them, said Hugh Clarke, board vice president.

"Given the economy, the mobility of people ... it's kind of an unworkable goal," Clark said.

Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-469-4681 or pwalsh@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

21st Century Model for Creating & Innovating NEW Business Solutions that Add-Value to the Intentional Mission! (AIM)

Bill Gates says internet will revolutionise television

The internet will revolutionise television within five years. That was the prediction of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“I’m stunned how people aren’t seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we’ve had,” the Microsoft chairman told politicians and business leaders.

“Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it,” he said. “Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior.”

He said the change was coming “because TV is moving into being delivered over the internet — and some of the big phone companies are building up the infrastructure for that.”

Microsoft has had some success in signing up telecommunications companies to use its software to deliver audio and video, but worldwide only a few million customers currently receive television over internet technology.

The rise of broadband video delivered over the internet has been more spectacular, but for most people it is still not currently a substitute for watching television.

It is not the first time that Bill Gates has predicted that broadcasting will become irrelevant. Back in October 2004 we reported that he said that linear schedules were on the way out.

YouTube

Chad Hurley, the co-founder of YouTube was also speaking at Davos. He said that the impact on advertising would be profound and that YouTube would be experimenting to build an effective model that works for advertisers and users.

He also confirmed that the company, now owned by Google, is working on a revenue sharing mechanism that would reward users that submit material to which they own the copyright.

www.microsoft.com
www.youtube.com

Broadband, Business, IPTV

AND the Natives are Restless

Living with Digital Natives and their Technologies

By Jonathan Nalder
January 1, 2007
URL: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604072

from Educators' eZine

Attending a recent conference dealing with Boys Literacy, I was happily surprised to find that many of the solutions presented involved technology, and not just for their gimmick value. A range of educators had all reached a similar place of integrating technology to increase engagement and learning, no easy task.

These same educators, however, all seemed to have picked up Mark Prensky’s idea of distinguishing teachers from students with his terms “Digital Native” and “Digital Immigrant.” We heard those terms several times, and they elicited nods of recognition as well as collective sighs. It was if those who considered themselves Digital Immigrants now had a name for their ‘condition’ that excused them for being outside the new world created by the Information revolution. Terms such as these, when used broadly, can end up causing harm if they are accepted as mono-cultural, rather than just as useful lenses through which to see current issues.

Many of the presenters also spoke about inclusive practices and taking into account the damage that separating out one group can do. So, as educators, let’s not create a them-and-us mentality when it comes to technology in the classroom. When a show of hands was solicited in one session asking who understood the meaning of several newer ICT terms, only about one in ten responded. If you fear you may have been one of those excluded, you can start gaining a passport to the world of the ‘Digital Native’ right away. ‘But how’ you may ask? Outlined below are just ten names/sites/programs/devices that currently mark the digital world in which our students exist. The socialising technology of Tamagotchi is nothing compared to the revolutionary nature of these:

Nintendo DS: I’ve sighted this handheld gaming device several times in the playground of my school. The Nintendo name may be familiar to you, but the DS is something else, and, rather than the usual shoot-em up games associated with such devices, Nintendo’s tend to have less-violent characters, such as Mario.

The DS opens like a clam- shell, has Dual-Screens (hence the name), a built in microphone and packs a PDA-like stylus (kids’ toys are growing up). Its unique features means it can offer software like ‘Nintendogs’, a digital pet game where users view the top screen, can tap commands on the lower screen, and even speak commands to their pet. It also has wireless capabilities for messaging other users with the unique write and draw ‘Pictochat’. Watch for the new ‘brain age’ game full of puzzles and brain-challenges.

With a street price of around $180, and a new, more compact model on the way (the DS lite), this is one device guaranteed to be high on the wish list of most students, girls included.

Myspace.com: Launched only it seems like yesterday, Myspace is an all in one Webpage service with over 50 million users worldwide. That’s more than the population of some countries! It provides a free (but with advertising displayed) homepage where you can have a blog, photo gallery, songs etc. displayed. This is one of the sites whose combination of many features is increasingly being described as an example of Web 2.0.

With so many users, it is also a community unto itself where one can easily get in contact with other people who have the same music or hobby tastes. You can view other peoples ‘profile’ or homepages and even leave comments or add someone whose site you like as a ‘friend’. It’s been hugely popular with high school students overseas (although the minimum age requirements have recently been tightened due to concerns about Net predators) and there is now an Australian-hosted chapter to further add to the phenomenon.

flickr.com: A free photo-sharing site where you can search for images on any topic imaginable – all uploaded by people just like yourself. The breadth of images available is quite staggering – one of my favourite sections is the one-letter and number group where people all over the world have uploaded pictures of single letters and numbers taken from signage, and advertising. One can then go to an associated site and spell out words or sentences using the hundreds of various pictures.

There is a monthly limit on the free account for how many megabytes you can upload, but no total limit on how many images one may have. (There is also a Pro account available with no limits).

Like MySpace, its members number in the many millions. You can comment on the photos you like, and in turn have yours viewed by others from the flickr community. The site keeps a record of how many times your photos have been viewed, and you can add friends, join groups based around photo themes, and even send internal Emails to other members. Again, the emphasis is on the creation of a social space.

Youtube.com: A free video-sharing website doing for video what flickr has done for photos. Upload your holiday or podcast video and instantly have access to a potential audience of over 35 million other users. The site keeps track of how many times your collection has been viewed, and who has rated your creations with stars, or left you a message.

Fitting in perhaps with the reality TV trend that so many students seem to love, it really is a ‘power to the people’ site, where the most viewed video (close to 3 million) is from a comedian parodying different dance styles. Recently a British singer has gained a record deal and top-ten debut solely by building a huge fan base with video recordings of herself performing. It has even become a site for ‘street’ journalists who record video of important events, speeches and the like and upload it so it becomes immediately accessible to anyone around the globe.

RSS: Really Simple Syndication. With so many news and info-tainment web diaries (blogs) and podcasts being published these days, it’s easy to do a Google search and find someone writing just about that obscure hobby you have. RSS was developed for use on handhelds or laptops in the pre-always-on internet days so that news could be downloaded when one was connected and read later, but now is used as well to keep track of audio and video podcasts.

With RSS software you can paste in an RSS address and set your computer to automatically download the blog or podcast entries as they are published. Podcasts can be searched at many sites including from within iTunes, which will keep your ‘feeds’ organised and updated for loading onto a portable mp3 player for later listening or viewing.

Skype: Like the sound of free phone calls? Skype software (in conjunction with a microphone) allows you to call any other Skype user for free using an Internet connection. Like the IM (instant messaging) craze in which many students spend their home hours participating, it’s a way of communicating with their friends that doesn’t add $ to the family phone bill. Skype even has the option to purchase call credits and call landline phones at discounted rates.

Xbox Live: Ok, you know the Xbox is a gaming machine, but it now comes with an Internet connection to the Microsoft Live service. Xbox Live “provides voice communications [and] … a console-related friends list of other selected online players, as well as a messaging system of either text or voice messages” (taken from www.wikipedia.com). As long as you are signed in to Xbox Live, while either playing a game, watching a DVD (with the DVD playback kit) or navigating the dashboard, you have access to view all your friends, see what your online friends are doing, and send messages via the dashboard or the Xbox 360 guide. You can send either written messages or voice messages to other players, even if they aren't online.

Leapfrog: A maker of game and quiz inspired education toys - everything from talking storybooks to handhelds that mimic adult PDA’s. They seem to have found a way to make basic learning tasks fun, and at a decent price point too. Their audience base begins at about three and up, but for school-age children they market the ‘Leapster’ handheld which accepts cartridges like a Nintendo but with a more educational bent.

iPod: Ok, you know it plays music. But these days, an iPod (or other mp3 player) can play video, display maps and images, and hold your calendar and address data. It can hold literally thousands of podcasts, becoming a portable audio (or video) library with accessible information on the hundreds of topics on which podcasts are now produced. It can also be used to record audio for later moving to a pc for using in producing your own podcast!

There are many uses that a creative teacher can make of these capabilities. For example, educational videos or school-slideshows can be displayed directly on the classroom TV or data-projector without the need for a Laptop or DVD player. Interactive step by step guides can be produced with hyper-linked sections that can be taken on field trips or even used to facilitate independent learning tasks.

The iPod is also about a new concept that is revolutionizing modern life – that being the ability to carry previously unimagineable amounts of music, video and data in your pocket. For adults who have spent years carefully building up a CD or a video collection, the concept of it all fitting into one pocket-sized rectangle may seem hard to grasp, but it is something that today’s kids are already used to.

Keen readers who have got this far will have noticed just how many of the current technologies mentioned above have something to do with social networking. I have had conversations with parents recently who are concerned that computers are stopping today’s kids from interacting with their peers. These same parents also marvel at how their children’s use of Email and instant messaging means they now know more about what’s happening with other family members (via their computer-using children) than they ever did before. In a world of sometimes increasingly fractured families, this is one positive of technology worth noting.

There are ways for teachers to also make use of students’ affinity for this networking technology. I have just begun encouraging students to Email me their written work as computer files so I can correct them whenever I have time, an innovation too which they have taken well. Students working on group projects can message their notes to each other, and if each student adds his contribution in a different text colour, teachers can keep track of who has written what.

Now, you may have also noticed that, although I promised ten, I’ve only listed nine examples that mark out just what makes our students such ‘digital natives’. This is not because there aren’t many more, but because I’m challenging you to ask your students for the tenth. Open up a discussion and you might find a new way into their world, or better yet, be inspired to become a part of it yourself. After all, how can one teach students and yet know so little about the world in which they are immersed? Is it enough to seek to bring them only into our ‘adult’ world, and not be willing to enter theirs? Surely that is the learning contract we make with our students – to expect from them only what we first show ourselves – which is, hopefully a willingness to be involved in each other’s world and to set a learning example.

And get started right away; after all, any passport to the digital world is likely to stay current for ten months at best. Then you’ll again have to ask your digital native students about the latest hot trends.

For more on all this, visit my Blog, M-Learn.

Email: Jonathan Nalder

OUTSTANDING PROGRESS being ACCOMPLISHED by the MEN in the FIELD!

21st Century "Sticky" Virtual Digital Learning Environments......NOW JUST WHERE IS THAT HOUSE IN PONTIAC?

Measuring Educations "Digital Flatness"

Measuring Up in a FlatWorld

By Karen Greenwood Henke
January 22, 2007
URL: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604144

from Technology & Learning

Pioneering groups are reforming curriculum to prepare students for the global digital workforce.

When President James Monroe was crafting the Monroe Doctrine back in 1823 to prevent foreign inter ests from encroaching on American territory, the notion of a global economy undeterred by regional boundaries would have been viewed as pure science fiction.

The fact is we're there today. An Internet-enabled society has brought with it a rash of competition that is already posing a threat to our position of economic leadership in the world.

How does the future look? According to U.S. employers, not so bright. In November 2006, we reported results from a survey of 400 of the Fortune 500 companies showing startling skill deficiencies in today's graduates in a range of crucial areas (see "The Workforce Readiness Crisis."

Graduating students who can compete in the digital age is imper ative but remains an uphill battle in the absence of a strong national technology policy, empowered education leadership, and ongoing dialogue involving business, community, government, and educators.

Meantime, in pockets around the country, some states, districts, and schools are moving forward with innovative initiatives that aim to prepare students for success in the global digital workplace.

A State Steps Forward

West Virginia's State Superintendent Steve Paine got a wake up call last year when scores on the state's assessment for No Child Left Behind, which showed increased achievement, were at odds with results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a country-wide evaluation tool, which registered no progress. If the state's standards did not measure up to national benchmarks, then neither would West Virginia's students.

Paine knew that successful competition was key. West Virginia students needed to master a broad range of skills to compete successfully with other states and worldwide. Tapping into West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin's commitment to education as the cornerstone for economic development and, with support from the state legislature, Paine launched an initiative to refine and align state standards and assessments.

Shaping a New Curriculum

Using a mixture of traditional, digital technology, and 21st century crucial skills, West Virginia has created its own state-level model for a new core curriculum and is currently in the process of designing assessments to measure the new elements.

"We are revising our objectives and creating a new assessment built around more rigorous content standards," says Brenda Williams, exec utive director for the state's office of technology. "We've incorporated ICT literacy with learning skills standards and core content." The state development team adopted the Inter national Society for Technology in Education's National Education Technology Standards to define ICT literacy and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills' 21st Century Learning Framework as an implementation strategy.

"The revised content standards are much more focused and defined according to performance task and expectation," says Dr. Jorea Marple, assistant state superintendent of schools for curriculum and instruction. "We actually reduced the number of objectives and made them clearer."

For example, a current reading policy states: "develop an outline using prepared notes to write a paragraph." The proposed policy says: "using student-prepared notes, create an outline and use it to develop a written and/or oral presentation using computer-generated graphics (e.g., tables, charts, graphs)."

The proposed standards have been submitted to researchers around the country for feedback, and the next step is to bring teachers into the review process and to help develop resources. Instructional guides for all four content areas will show teachers how to integrate skills into a definable performance task that they can use to measure acquisition of that skill. The state expects to integrate the new standards and assessments by 2009.

Six Key Elements of 21st Century Learning Core subjects: NCLB-identified core subjects. 21st century content: emerging content areas such as global awareness; financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; health and wellness awareness. Learning and thinking skills: critical thinking and problem-solving skills, communication, creativity and innovation, collaboration, contextual learning, information and media literacy. ICT literacy: using technology in the context of learning so students know how to learn. Life skills: leadership, ethics, accountability, personal responsibility, self-direction, and so on. 21st century assessments: Authentic assessments that measure all five areas of learning. (For details, go to www.21stcenturyskills.org.)

A Starting Point for Accountability

West Virginia and North Carolina are the first two states to incorporate the Partnership for 21st Century Skills' Framework into their curric ulum strategy. The Partnership has so far focused on defining and measuring skills crucial to the workplace of today and of the future (see www.21stcenturyskills.org). Its latest initiative helps states, counties, and districts develop learning plans and implementation strategies based on its framework: Six Key Elements of 21st Century Learning (see sidebar). In addition to subject mastery, the framework emphasizes learning and thinking skills; information and communications skills; and the life skills that help students become responsible, productive, and self-directed leaders.

In the age of accountability, what gets measured gets priority in the classroom, and most end-of-the-year (summative) state tests only measure core content acquisition. The Partner ship supports a balance of assessments — both high-quality standardized tests used for summative reporting as well as high-quality classroom assessments throughout the year to evaluate progress and soft-skills acquisition.

"Nobody is advocating more assessment," said Ken Kay, president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. "The question is, "What kind of assessment?'" Multiple-choice, true/false, and other standardized assessment tools measure subject mastery rather than thinking and decision-making skills. Kay points to the Council for Aid to Education Collegiate Learning Assessment Project (www.cae.org/content/pro_collegiate.htm) as a resource for measurement tools that require complex reasoning and written responses rather than multiple choice questions.

District Level Adoption

Although West Virginia and North Carolina are pioneers in spear heading a state-level push for the integration of 21st century skills, many districts around the country are taking matters into their own hands to raise standards and revise assessments. The Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township, a medium-size K-12 district (16,000 students) located outside Indianapolis, used the 21st Century Skills Frame work to define seven literacies it deems key for its students: tech nology literacy, basic literacy, information literacy, visual literacy, higher-order thinking skills, self-direction, and cultural competency (www.ltschools.org).

Toward that effort, the district ensured that each of its 16 schools has an instructional coach to train teachers to integrate the seven literacies into authentic instruction based on "rigor, relevance, and relationships." After five years of this program, Leona Jameson, director of professional development for the district, estimates that 80 percent of teachers are teaching to the seven literacies.

Profile of an International Studies School Graduate The Asia Society forms a vision of the 21st century graduate. Academically prepared Proficient thinker and problem solver Culturally aware Aware of world events and global dynamics Literate for the 21st century Collaborative team member Effective user of technology Socially prepared and culturally sensitive (For details, visit http://international studiesschools.orgs.)

"Coaches help teachers create a situation for kids to understand and master skills," says Jameson. "They ask teachers, "How is the instruction authentic? How does it meet the standards?'" For example, a science teacher using project-based instruction helps students solve a real-world problem to learn the scientific process. The teacher might start with an issue such as water purity and ask students to define what they want to find out and how they will go about doing it. When the project is finished, the students present their results to a panel of experts in the community for authentic feedback and assessment.

An online grading system lets students and parents log in to see grades, attendance, and track their progress. But while the district has the state assessment measures to compare schools, it still lacks the ability to track students beyond graduation to measure the impact on outcomes in higher education and the workplace.

Global Relevance

Several networks have sprung up to address this lack of articulation between school and work success. The New York-based Asia Society International Studies Schools Network (ISSN) received a Gates Foundation Grant in 2003 to create small secondary schools that prepare students for college or other post- secondary education through knowledge and understanding of world cultures. Beyond that, the ability to communicate in languages other than English, and the capacity to work, live, and learn with people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds are central goals of the society, which has 10 schools in the United States.

"We created a graduate profile that defines what we believe young people should achieve to be ready for college and global competency," says Executive Director Tony Jackson. This profile maps closely to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Framework with an added emphasis on cultural awareness and second language proficiency (see "Profile of an International Studies School Graduate," above).

Metropolitan Learning Center Expectations for Student Learning Effective communication Problem solving Oral proficiency in a second language Global connections Emerging technology Content knowledge and enduring understanding Essentials learning Civic responsibility Social skills (For details, visit www.crec.org/ magnetschools/schools/met.)

The Asia Society curriculum broadens core subject skills and content for increased relevancy in an international workplace. "For example," says Jackson, "a biology class might focus on the nature of disease, and issues of wellness, exploring the spread of disease, migration trends, and the globalization of transportation, [which increases] human contact."

The Metropolitan Learning Center (MLC) in Bloomfield, Connecticut, is one member of the Asia Society's network. The public, interdistrict, grade 6-12 magnet school serves 681 students from six school districts in and around Hartford and focuses on the global themes of the society.

The MLC curriculum centers around nine Expectations for Student Learning that go beyond traditional objectives. For example, Effective Communication ESL focuses on the higher-order skills of interpretation, making connections, and taking critical stances to extend textbook content. Rubrics for each ESL define a range of achievement from advanced/exemplary to below basic and include multiple forms of assessment.

Recently recognized as an ISSN exemplary school, MLC has graduated two classes (it was founded in 1999). According to Principal Anne McKernan, almost all of the students have been accepted to college, with at least 80 percent going to four-year schools. And though this is one measure of success, adapting the graduate profile of ISSN to its curric ulum and measuring its success beyond college is a work in progress. It created a rubric about global connectedness that defines skills such as being socially prepared and culturally sensitive and is now grappling with how to assess them. To help enable MLC and other schools in its network find ways to measure global skills, ISSN is working with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (www.cpre.org) to establish assessment tools.

Success Beyond Graduation

At least one organization, the progressive New Technology Foundation (NTF), which has 25 schools across the country and 10 more in the works, is taking the first steps toward determining the effectiveness of its program in preparing students for higher education and the workplace. A survey of graduates from the first NTF school, New Technology High School in Napa, California, found that 89 percent of the responding alumni attended a two-year or four-year college/university or professional or technical institute. Most (92 percent) of the respondents have applied some or a great deal of what they learned during high school to their postsecondary education or career.

New Technology High School Learning Outcomes Technology literacy Citizenship and ethics Critical thinking Career preparation Collaboration Written communication Oral communication Curricular literacy

Clearly, more work needs to be done for conclusive evidence of the program's effectiveness for the workplace. But the student-centered nature of the curriculum has been a unique and groundbreaking contribution to public education.

Empowering Students

Founded in 1996, New Technology High School is one of the earliest experiments in education focusing on skills needed for the digital world of work. High schools in the New Technology Foundation network offer a truly student-centric learning environment in which the standards are written in language for the students. For example, the learning outcome for oral communication says: "Oral communication skills are very useful in school and are of particular importance when entering and advancing in a career. In an interview and on the job, you will need to present information and ideas effectively." The standard then goes on to define specific objectives.

The learning outcomes are embedded into projects and used for grading. Students create a digital portfolio to demonstrate their progress, including work samples, grades, collaboration scores, and commendations. "They have a report card for each course that shows each learning outcome from the kid's point of view," says Bob Pearlman, director of strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation. "This is assessment for learning rather than school accountability." The curricular literacy outcome (one of nine) includes succeeding in standardized tests as one measure of a student's abilities.

"People talk about personalization," says Pearlman, "but that's not possible unless kids are acting on their own juices, have their own tools, and an environment and a framework to orient them."

The Next Wave of Reform

As policy makers consider reauthorization of No Child Left Behind legislation in the coming year, those schools, districts, and states taking the first steps toward integrating 21st century skills represent the pioneers in the next wave of education reform. Issues such as how to define and measure the new essential skills, whether to standardize them nationally, and how to determine their impact on workplace success remain very much works in progress. "It's crucial to teach kids the critical thinking skills they need to adapt and compete in the future," says Paine. "Because borders and boundaries are a thing of the past."

Karen Greenwood Henke is founder of Nimble Press. She writes a blog about funding for classrooms and technology in education at blog.grantwrangler.com.