The second panel is wrapping up, 3 hours into the conference, and we are sad to report that there have been no additional mentions of specific content areas. Well, at least not ones that really count .. Ray Suarez wondered what’s the use of reading Plato or learning a foreign language….
Laura Bornfreund
P21 National Summit-A questioner of panel #2 raised the issue of American students’ impoverished writing skills. He made the point that writing well is a key component of achieving in a wide range of skills. He didn’t point out that P21′s agenda doesn’t stress writing in any way, but we’ve certainly noticed it. Linda Darling-Hammond points out that students’ writing skills started going down after America embraced multiple choice tests in the 80s. In our recent report “Why We’re Behind,” we recently found–and Darling-Hammond pointed to this, too–that many high-performing nations that have national tests utilize writing and long essay questions extensively. Does any of the states’ tests under NCLB do the same? We think not.
Lynne Munson
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
P21 National Summit-We’re keeping a running count of the number of times each of the core subjects is mentioned at today’s cyber-summit. So far only Intel’s Paige Johnson (P21′s current chair and previously Paige Kuni) has mentioned any of these subjects, and it was in a list she marched through during her opening remarks. Here’s the running tally:
History 0
Social Studies 1
English 1
Literature 0
Art 0
Geography 0
Science 1
Math 1
Foreign Language 0
It continues to amaze us that an organization so concerned with boosting our competitiveness abroad has, by all appearances, absolutely no interest in the study of foreign languages. None.
Keep checking back and see if the count grows!?!
Lynne Munson