Alabama Education in the 21st Century

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Alabama Education in the 21st Century

• Kristan Van Hook, Infotech Strategies
• Alabama Department of Education
• February 18, 2004

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Alabama in the 21st Century

• Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?
• What are 21st Century Skills?
• What must Alabama do?
• Summary

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Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?
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The needs of Alabama and the Alabama economy
have dramatically changed. The needs of
Alabama and its economy will continue to change.
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?
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How is our world different from our parents
world?
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?
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Parents World vs. Our World
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?

• Parents
• 1.5 jobs over lifetime
• Subject mastery was most important to keep single
  job over lifetime

• Today
• 9.6 jobs between ages 18-40
• Subject mastery is not as important- employees
  need broader skills to handle the diversity of
  the workforce.

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What has changed
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?

• Today, people have more than 10 jobs during their
  lifetime.
• Core subjects are not enough- employees need to
  know
• How to communicate
• How to use 21st Century Tools
• How to collaborate
• How to problem-solve

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Our needs have also changed
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?

• We are in a Global Skills race- Alabama students
  need to be able to compete in the 21st Century
  workforce that requires globalization of skills
  and knowledge

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The Global Skills Race is on
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?

• Montgomery must be able to compete against cities
  like Bangalore, India for positions in a
  knowledge economy.

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As our needs change, our education must change
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?
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Competing Education Models
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?

• Traditional Student
• Core Subject Mastery

• 21st Century Student
• Core Subject Mastery
• 21st Century Skills, such as
• Thinking and Problem Solving Skills
• Information and Communication Skills
• Interpersonal and Self-Direction Skills

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As we consider these two models
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?

• Who would be a better citizen?
• Who would be a better employee?
• Who would be best prepared for a changing
  economy?
• Who would be a better leader?

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What does a 21st Century Student Need?
Why 21st Century Skills in Alabama?

• In order to master the 21st Century, a student
  needs
• The ability to use 21st Century Tools
  appropriately
• The ability to apply 21st Century Tools to their
  core subject learning.
• The ability to be ICT Literate.

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What are 21st Century Skills?
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What are 21st Century Skills?

• 21st Century Skills are
• the full integration of core subjects
• with learning skills,
• 21st Century tools and
• 21st Century content
• as taught in 21st Century contexts.

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Traditional View of Education
What are 21st Century Skills?
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Vision for the future
What are 21st Century Skills?
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What is ICT Literacy?
What are 21st Century Skills?

• ICT (information and communication technologies)
  Literacy is competency in enacting learning
  skills via the application of 21st Century
  Learning Tools.

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What are Learning Skills?
What are 21st Century Skills?

• Information and Media Literacy Skills
• Communication Skills
• Critical Thinking and Systems Thinking
• Creativity and Intellectual Curiosity
• Problem Identification, Formulation and Solution

• Interpersonal and Collaborative Skills
• Self-Direction
• Accountability and Adaptability
• Social Responsibility

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Why is ICT Literacy Important?
What are 21st Century Skills?

• It is better than the technology literacy model,
  as it gives students broader skills for the 21st
  Century.
• ICT Literacy is an effective way of teaching core
  subjects to allow students to apply both core
  subjects and 21st Century Skills to all areas of
  students worlds.

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How are communities applying ICT Literacy?
What are 21st Century Skills?
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Maine Township, Illinois
What are 21st Century Skills?

• Maine Township has formally adopted information
  literacy goals and systematically integrated them
  into core academics in the high school. By their
  senior year, students are expected to know how to
  formulate questions efficiently to meet the
  requirement of a problem, identify appropriate
  resources, analyze and organize identified
  resources, build arguments and problem solve
  based on the resources.
• Visit them at www.maine207.k12.il.us

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Lawrence Township, Indiana
What are 21st Century Skills?

• The district hired a full-time director of
  professional development and an internal
  initiative coordinator and trained 40 master
  teachers to serve as digital age literacy leaders
  and coaches. In addition, the district created
  the framework for an online learning environment,
  a professional development council and have
  assessed the self-direction skills of their
  students.
• Visit them at www.msdlt.k12.in.us

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Napa, California
What are 21st Century Skills?

• Napa New Technology High School features
  performance-based assessments, daily shared
  planning time for staff, state-of-the-art
  technical facilities for project-based learning,
  internships for all students and close links to
  high-tech workplaces. All core subjects are
  integrated and assessments are portfolio-based.
  In addition, the school teaches and assesses such
  learning skills as collaboration, critical
  thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Visit them at www.nths.nvusd.k12.ca.us

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What must Alabama do?
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Nine Steps to Build Momentum
What must Alabama do?
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The Nine Steps
What must Alabama do?

1. Build a Powerful Vision of Education
2. Build Capacity for 21st Century Skills
3. Take a Self-Assessment
4. Develop Priorities for 21st Century Skills
5. Develop a Professional Development Plan
6. Ensure Equitable Access
7. Develop Student Assessments for 21st Century
   Skills
8. Collaborate with Outside Partners
9. Plan Strategically for Ongoing Improvement

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Step 1 Build a Powerful Vision of Education
What must Alabama do?
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Building a Powerful Vision
What must Alabama do?

• Does your vision of education include 21st
  Century Skills?
• Is your vision broader than just core subjects?
• Does your vision include learning skills and 21st
  Century Tools?

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Step 2 Build Capacity for 21st Century Skills
What must Alabama do?
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Building Capacity
What must Alabama do?

• This cannot be done from the bottom up- everyone
  must be excited about incorporating 21st Century
  Skills.
• Everyone must commit to incorporating 21st
  Century Skills into standards, assessments,
  professional development.
• Students, teachers, principals, superintendents
  and other stakeholders must be aligned in their
  efforts to learn and promote 21st Century Skills.

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Step 3 Take a Self-Assessment
What must Alabama do?
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Take a self assessment
What must Alabama do?

• Use our MILE Guide for 21st Century Skills to
  gauge schools current capacity for preparing
  students to succeed.
• Share the results with stakeholders.

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The MILE Guide for 21st Century Skills
What must Alabama do?
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Step 4 Develop Priorities for 21st Century
Skills
What must Alabama do?
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Develop Priorities
What must Alabama do?

• Using your results from the MILE Guide, focus on
  the gaps between the current realities and your
  vision.
• What are your short-term and long-term priorities?

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Step 5 Develop a Professional Development Plan
What must Alabama do?
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Professional Development Plan
What must Alabama do?

• 21st Century Skills must be a critical part of
  professional development.
• Money must be put aside for professional
  development.

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Step 6 Make Sure Students Have Equitable
Access to a 21st Century Education
What must Alabama do?
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Equitable Access
What must Alabama do?

• All students need highly qualified, effective
  teachers and regular, reliable access to 21st
  Century Tools.
• Education leaders and stakeholders must be
  vigilant about providing underserved students
  with equitable access.

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Step 7 Develop Student Assessments for 21st
Century Skills
What must Alabama do?
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Assessments
What must Alabama do?

• Develop assessments to measure 21st Century
  Skills.
• Assessments must be embedded in core subjects and
  project-based.

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Assessments
What must Alabama do?

• The Educational Testing Service (ETS) is
  currently working with higher education to create
  to conceive, design, and build assessments that
  gauge whether students possess the ability to use
  digital technology to solve problems in order to
  function in an information society. Learn more
  at http//www.ets.org/ictliteracy/index2.html

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Assessments
What must Alabama do?

• Microsoft and the International Society for
  Technology in Education (ISTE) have collaborated
  to create a formative, online technology learning
  assessment tool. Available in pilot programs
  starting in 2004, the tool will offer schools the
  ability to legitimately document their
  progression toward and support their
  implementation of technology standards. Learn
  more at www.iste.org.

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Step 8 Collaborate with Outside Partners
What must Alabama do?
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Collaborate
What must Alabama do?

• Business
• Communities
• After school Programs
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• Infotech Strategies

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Step 9 Plan Collectively and Strategically for
the Future
What must Alabama do?
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Plan
What must Alabama do?

• Work with stakeholders
• Articulate a long-term vision
• Work on continuous innovation
• Develop an improvement agenda

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Summary

• Those of us dedicated to the future of Alabama
  must make a commitment to ensuring that students
  have the 21st Century Skills that they need to
  succeed.
• This is a daunting challenge- we simply cant
  afford not to take it on.

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The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

• www.21stcenturyskills.org