Report identifies problems with education

Interesting perspective on American Education from the Department of Education.

Education is vital to America’s individual and collective economic growth and prosperity, and is necessary for our democracy to work. Once the global leader in college completion rates among young people, the United States currently ranks ninth out of 36 developed nations. – Arne Duncan, US Secretary of Education

As indicated in the must-read The National Education Technology Plan (NETP), Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology published by the US Department of Education, to achieve President Obama’s goal that “By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world,” basic educational assumptions must be re-thought at the K-12 level.

If primary education is not strong, resources and efforts are wasted at the secondary level. The NETP report calls for “revolutionary transformation rather than evolutionary tinkering.”

Problem with Today’s Educational System

The NETP report identifies several problems with today’s educational system:

• Lack of focus on 21st century skills like problem-solving, online interactions and critical thinking and creativity within the curriculum.
• Time-based or “seat-time” measures of educational attainment.
• Confinement of learning to the four walls and time frame of the traditional classroom.
• Lack of technological infrastructure for learning and teaching.
• Failure to incorporate innovations from consumer, business and entertainment into education.
• Disparity between students’ experiences with technology in and out of school.
• Lack of research informed technology-based interventions.
• Minimal assessment of students’ thinking during learning so teachers can help students learn better.
• Need for educational experiences that create engaging, relevant, and personalized learning for all learners that mirror students’ daily lives and the reality of their futures.

Additionally, the report calls for tapping into the education R&D currently happening at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in terms of learning initiatives and for tying the revolutionary transformation to specific learning standards and objectives.

The problem has been recognized, now how to get to the solution.