Common Core

P21 National Summit-Obama education advisor Roberto Rodriguez has just described the administration’s priority as being concerned with “college and career readiness.”  He says that there are “different pathways” to that goal, including “innovative charter schools” (channeling Arne’s recent comments there) and that the ultimate goal is for students to obtain “a level of knowledge [and] skill” that prepares them for the world.  Might he realize that kids can only acquire skills or learn anything if they have a base of knowledge to build on?  He was also just channeling the Fordham Institute in mentioning that we need to “be honest with ourselves” about levels of rigor among the states so that what’s considered college and career ready is not “two grades” apart in different states.

Lynne Munson

P21 National Summit-Okay, we’re 45 minutes into the second and final panel of the day and most of us are undoubtedly interested in hearing more from Obama administration representative Roberto Rodriguez.  But he’s said nothing since his initial comment.  Hmmm.  He’s not striking us as eager to be here.

Lynne Munson

P21 National Summit-Now here’s the All-Stars.  P21′s second panel features Stanford prof and equity advocate Linda Darling-Hammond, NEA president Dennis Van Roekel, and Obama’s special assistant for education Roberto Rodriquez.   Suarez still moderating.  In Rodriguez’s initial comment he fell short of completely embracing the P21 agenda in this sense:  He called on the national standards (currently under development by NGA/CSSO/ACT, etc) to be “high, rigorous, and deliver important content.”  And when he mentioned a need for students to learn skills he avoided the typical P21 litany (critical thinking, problem solving, media literacy, etc.) and instead talked about the ability to analyze and synthesize information.  He points out that President Obama has talked about the need for children to have a “complete and competitive education.” Wonder what he means by “complete” …

Lynne Munson