Technology & Learning - September 2008 - (Page 16)

news trends OPEN LETTER TO THE NEXT PRESIDENT David Warlick has four things the POTUS ought to know about making U.S. schools better. Last month I posted a manifesto of sorts to my Web site. I was following a meme started by a group of other edubloggers called “Five things policymakers ought to know!” T&L editors asked me to tweak it a bit to give our next President some big-picture twenty-first-century education advice. Here’s my take. 1. Keep politics out of education. I remember when the 1983 Nation at Risk letter was published by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, stating that our children were attending mediocre schools. I said, “This is fantastic. With this, our government has to start investing more in education.” Little did I know that their political interests would not come from paying for better classrooms. Instead it would be in redefining education—and as a result, the institution was taken over by amateurs. Teachers are among the most educated professionals in the United States. It is critical that teachers be empowered with resources, infrastructure, and time to creatively craft new learning experiences for their students that are relevant to today’s digital and networked information environment. National leaders must support and empower teachers to work smarter, not just force them to work harder. 2. Widen the definition of accountability. As we examine any listing of twenty-firstcentury skills (collaboration, innovation, information literacy, etc.), we see nothing new. These are skills that have long been century conditions. High-stakes testing is an industrial-age solution to an information-age problem. 3. Recognize that the greatest assets of ours schools are in its people. The greatest gain to education will not come from modernizing our classrooms with projectors and digital whiteboards, though these are crucial refinements. The greatest gain will come from the collective knowledge and experience of the education community. Infrastructure must be invented and implemented that cultivates an ongoing professional conversation across the entire education landscape. 4. We skimp on the arts at our own peril. It is equally critical that our students become full citizens within their entire physical, cultural, societal, and political environment. This means that greater investment must fall to the entire curriculum: health, physical education, communication, literature, ethics, and the social studies. The real problems of the world are not problems of science and math. They are problems of communication, people, communities, and values. Anyone who reads this and is inspired to share their list can consider themselves tagged. “High-stakes testing is nothing more than an industrial-age solution to an information age problem.” valued. What is new, as revealed by the report from The Conference Board called “Are They Really Ready to Work?” and others, is that these are entry-level skills. Traditionally they were skills gained “on the job,” by a few, and they usually led to promotion. Today, they will best be gained in our classrooms through on-the-job style learning experiences—and these learning experiences will best occur as a result of performance-based assessments that are authentic to twenty-first- DAVID WARLICK will be speaking at the TECH FORUM on October 24 at the Palisades Executive Conference Center in Palisades, New York. Find more information at www.techlearning.com 16 | TECH & LEARNING http://www.techlearning.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Technology & Learning - September 2008

Technology & Learning 9/08 Contents Editor’s Desk News & Trends Put to the Test Lessons on Leadership What, You Worry? Back Office Business How to Get your MEd Online What’s New Student Response Systems Get Smarter Leader of the Year Profile: She’s Got Game

Technology & Learning - September 2008

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