History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
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Past Educational Opportunity Reports
21st century skills: Education’s new cliché
- 12-08-2009
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By Mike Rose/Truthdig
In all the current talk about school reform, there is one phrase that you will hear in every proposal, whether it comes from the president or the local school board. That phrase is 21st century skills. Provide students with 21st century skills for a 21st century economy. The label is a powerful one, heralding a new era, high-tech and prosperous. But like so much in education reform, an idea that has some merit can quickly get reduced to a cliché. In one document I read, the phrase 21st century skills was repeated 25 times in less than two pages. And once you make your way through the cant, the 21st-century-skills approach has some troubling implications for education. What are these skills? There are a number of definitions and lists, some running up to nine pages. (more...)
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