Students Deserve a 21st-century Education: News of the Day
WASHINGTON – Today, Politico published a joint op-ed by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, on the need for greater investment in education technology.
In February, Miller introduced the Transforming Education through Technology Act that would require states and school districts to develop plans and policies that put the best technology in the hands of students and teachers to support learning and achievement for all students.
We encourage you to read the entire op-ed below.
Education demands tech upgrade
Technology has changed lives in a number of meaningful ways. It has unleashed a great transformation that has allowed access to information and services through a swipe or a click. While the new technology has fueled innovation in the consumer sector, widespread and effective usage in our nation’s public schools lags dangerously.
Families can order dinner with the click of a button on a smartphone or computer, but teachers are still wiping chalk off blackboards. Newspapers and magazines are delivered to tablets every morning, but students study from texts that become outdated as soon as they are released. Co-workers work in real time to complete complex tasks on opposite coasts, but classrooms often cannot effectively connect subject areas.
Unfortunately, the U.S. education system is a decade late on entering the new century. It must catch up, and quickly, in order to ensure that all students — especially low-income students and students of color — graduate from high school ready for college and a career.
Education is dramatically different today than when we were in school. Learning is no longer limited to the classroom. To keep pace with our ever-changing world, students today must be complex problem solvers, capable of tackling real-time, real-world issues.
That’s why a meaningful national approach to education technology is essential.
Ensuring the opportunity for all children, no matter their background, to access a good public education is a moral and economic imperative. By 2018, two-thirds of all U.S. jobs will require post-secondary education degrees or certificates, and projections show that America will be 3 million degrees short.
But there remains a persistent achievement gap among our nation’s children. The United States has yet to realize the vision of an effective and equitable system of public education for all children. Children of color are still being left behind. Too many urban and rural school districts are woefully underfunded and have to deal with their own unique hurdles to educate their students.
To transform education and our nation’s future, we have to also take care of the needs of the students we have done the worst job of educating. These communities represent a significant proportion of our nation’s present, and even more of the future. They cannot be ignored.
Unfortunately, there are fewer financial resources available. Today, 35 states provide fewer dollars per student than they did five years ago. Meanwhile, the pressure to reduce the nation’s budget deficit means that federal education programs are facing cuts that will only exacerbate the problem.
No single solution exists for these problems, but an effective use of technology can be a tool to increasing access to educational opportunities for disadvantaged students and closing the achievement gap. It can also empower teachers to design an educational experience that extends beyond the four walls of the classroom.
The promise of technology is both great and within the nation’s reach. It can increase equity and access to educational opportunities to more children than ever. It can enhance the impact and reach of great teaching. It can help re-envision how education is delivered, making learning more student-centered and recognizing teachers as education designers. It can lower costs and increase efficiency and productivity. And the federal government has to play an important role.
In Congress, the “Transforming Education through Technology Act,” introduced earlier this year, presents a critical step forward in meeting our federal obligations. This bill would update and modernize learning systems by supporting teachers and principals in the use of new technology to redesign curricula, incorporate technology into classrooms and provide assistance with real-time data and assessments. The bill also would seed the creation or expansion of new technologies that have the potential to transform teaching and learning the way the Internet, GPS and robotics have transformed commerce, travel and the way we live our daily lives.
The legislation is the right step to take toward a national strategy to improve technology. But school districts cannot wait for Washington gridlock to break to effectively use technology in classrooms. They need help now.
That’s why the Alliance for Excellent Education has announced Project 24, a national effort to connect school districts to the latest technology and tech support to help students learn.
Over the next 24 months, the alliance will help school districts to implement a strategic plan for strengthening education outcomes through the use of technology at no cost. The alliance will help participating districts through a comprehensive planning process around seven interconnected areas where technology and digital learning can improve student achievement: teaching and professional learning, use of time, budget and resources, data systems and online assessments, curriculum and instruction, technology and infrastructure, and academic support and resources.
While the nation’s students are by definition the future of our country, too often their education is stuck in the past. The fact is that Americans live and work in the 21st century. It is past time that American students and classrooms join this promising new century with effective use of technology.
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