Class of 2020: Action Plan for Education
SETDA’s Class of 2020: Action Plan for Education Project includes the development of the five publications listed below designed to create a succinct message addressing technology’s transformative role in education in the hopes of informing future education and workforce development policy at the state and federal levels.
SETDA believes that we must keep the hopefulness and potential of the students in first grade who graduate in 2020 in the forefront of all discussions regarding education policy. America’s students have the potential to compete effectively in the global economy – our educational system needs to respond to the needs of America’s future innovators by supporting them as life-long learners and inquisitive creators of knowledge.
We have a huge opportunity to create effective, viable, and robust education technology policies that will improve the way teachers teach and increase student achievement. Now is the time for the education community to take bold steps for America’s students!
Intent: To create a succinct product addressing technology’s transformative role in education that speaks to Presidential Campaigns, members of the new administration, USDOE officials,education staffers on Capitol Hill to inform future policy and legislation relating to ESEA reauthorization, economic policies concerning workforce development and our nation’s success in a Global Economy.
Approach: SETDA will tie a message of hopefulness for students in Kindergarten who will graduate in 2020 to compete globally with emphasis on the economic necessity for a productive global workforce. The documents will include research, examples, and strong rationale for rapid and dramatic changes to education policy with a new Administration. This information will be critical to policy makers at the national, state, district and school levels to accelerate learning for all students. America’s students have the potential to compete effectively in the global economy – our educational system needs to support the promise of America’s future
innovators and productive workforce.
Timely: Now is the time for the education technology community to act! We have a short time frame but a huge opportunity to inform a new Administration and a New Congress on what an effective, viable, and robust education technology plan should include for 2009 and beyond. SETDA’s Action Plan Project will be deeply informed by the development of several white papers. Each will include an in-person roundtable discussion with expert stakeholders, input on content drafts through email and conference calls as well as separate dissemination. Highlights from each white paper will be incorporated into the broader Action Plan document to be shared aggressively on Capitol Hill in early 2009.
Why? The stakes have changed and America has to work to transform our education system to best meet the needs of the 21st century student.
- The Department of Labor reports that out of 55 industries, education is last in its use of technology.
- In the majority of schools, teachers and students cannot maximize the potential of technology.
- By 2010, if current trends continue, more than 90 percent of all scientists and engineers will be living in Asia.1
- In the 1990s America ranked 23rd in high school graduation rates (without GEDs) among OECD countries.
- In 2015, it is projected that ther will be 4 million high school graduates in the US, compared to over 12 million in China and over 10 million in India.
- Since the 1960s, the demand for skills has changed significantly – the demand for routine manual task skills have decreased, while the demand for non- routine interactive task skills have increased significantly.
Topic Areas
