Despite near-universal consensus that No Child Left Behind is overdue for change, the path toward reauthorization remains uncertain. What is certain, however, is that the global demand for high level thinking skills accelerates daily, and the U.S .must make serious changes to keep up.
To that end, the Learning Policy Institute and Jobs for the Future have invited policymakers, advocates, practitioners and business leaders to begin a dialogue on how we can create 21stcentury learning opportunities for all students, particularly those who have been underserved. The inaugural event will kick off this Friday morning at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill.
The challenges are immediate and acute. The top skills needed for jobs in 2020 are not following directions and counting change, but the abilities to make sense out of complex information and events, to think creatively to solve novel problems, to engage effectively in cross-cultural contexts, and to manage quantitative data in sophisticated ways.
People who do not get access to these skills will increasingly find themselves unable to join the workforce and participate effectively in society. This has enormous implications for everyone, as our social contract cannot survive if all of the younger generation cannot gain productive employment, support themselves, and pay taxes to help support the health care and social security of our burgeoning seniors.
Efforts have been underway to develop assessment systems that can support and evaluate student progress toward the new college and career-ready standards. These new standards and assessments may ultimately help raise achievement, but this fall’s release of data revealed an even wider chasm between the skills of disadvantaged students and their wealthier peers than was previously apparent.
Simply put, focusing on new standards and tests will not be enough to close these gaps. A wide range of structural inequalities contribute to ongoing learning and achievement gaps, and these must be addressed if we are to make serious progress.
Read the entire op-ed on The Hill website.
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