Thoughts on Partnership for 21st Century Skills

To be completely honest I am still confused on what this organization does exactly. I have visited the site a few times in the past two days and while I think I understand the purpose and goals of the group, I am unsure what they are doing to achieve them. At first I was even confused about what the 21st century skills actually were, but after downloading the complete the full definitions document I understood better. The skills are basically the characteristics of what a productive successful adult looks like.

I almost feel like the language used on the site is partly to blame. As a person who doesn't learn well from reading, I felt my eyes glaze over when I started reading some of the pages. I like things that are direct, I do not need the fancy language. Tell me straight out what your goal is and what you are doing to achieve it on the home page and go in to more details with the various page. I feel like there is no one concise page to get that information and I had to do a lot of clicking reading and rereading to get the gist of this organization.

Or maybe I am just slow on the uptake? Did anyone else experience any of this confusion?

I think the most important thing this organization does is having business, education and politics comes together as one and work towards setting and achieving standards that are important for our students to become successful adults. All aspects of our society need to be on the same page. I was surprised, and impressed, by the list of organizations and corporations that are involved with the partnership. I think the variety of participants is a key in developing meaningful expectations.

I know our assignment asked if we disagreed with any information on the site, however, I keep going back to a concept I strongly agree with,and since I didn't find anything that I disagree with passionately I will discuss the positive idea. I The idea that assessments have to be readjusted as well as instruction. The site states, "Standardized tests alone can measure only a few of the important skills and knowledge students should learn. A balance of assessments, including high-quality standardized testing along with effective classroom assessments, offers students a powerful way to master the content and skills central to success." Our country relies to heavily on standardized tests as a measure of success, which is unfair to our students. Some bright students are just poor test takers. Or in my situation, I have students who come in reading at a kindergarten level and by the end of the year they are at a 1st grade level. Despite all the progress they make, the 3rd grade NJASK test is still out of many of their reach. Why do we deem them unsuccessful? The progress they made is significant and in my opinion a success for them. We need a variety of assessments that can give a more accurate picture of success.

As an educator facing these expectations of productive adults in society I think we all have to step it up a notch. I think as early as Preschool many of these skills can be addressed and built upon each following school year. All areas of the framework have aspects that can be addressed as early as age 4. Global awareness, creativity, appropriate socials skills and more are as important at age 4 as they are as adult. I think as an educator we have to up our expectations of our students. The idea of "good enough," has to disappear and replaced with an idea to always challenge them to look further into their work, into themselves.