21st+Century+Skills

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Measuring 21st-century skills
To remain competitive in an increasingly global, knowledge-based economy, today’s employers need graduates who are adept at so-called “21st-century skills” such as using information and communications technology (ICT) to gather and assess information, collaborate, innovate, think critically, and solve problems. Yet, in meeting this need, educators face a few key challenges: How can they teach these skills to students in the context of the core curriculum? And, how can they measure students’ attainment of these skills? With the generous support of Learning.com, the editors of eSchool News have compiled this collection of stories from our archives, along with other relevant resources from around the web, to help you and your staff best answer these questions in your own schools.

**--The Editors**

News Stories
> This fall, school libraries across the country will be working to implement new standards for learning in the 21st century--but many will be doing so with fewer resources at their disposal. [ [|Read More] ] > For the first time ever, technological literacy will become part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card, the test's governing board has announced. [ [|Read More] ] > Creating a 21st-century education system that prepares students, workers, and citizens to triumph in the global skills race is the central economic competitiveness issue currently facing the United States, according to a new report from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The report provides a sobering wake-up call for the nation's civic and education leaders. [ [|Read More] ] > Social studies teachers now have a new resource to help them integrate 21st-century skills into their lessons: a free online document that maps various social studies projects, tasks, and outcomes to corresponding skills—such as problem solving and critical thinking—that are becoming increasingly important for 21st-century success. [ [|Read More] ] > The Arizona Department of Education saw the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as a window of opportunity to add accountability to the competitive grants it awards through the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology block-grant program. In preparing for the 2005-06 round of competitive grants, Arizona decided to require an assessment of fifth- and eighth-grade students’ technology literacy. [ [|Read More] ] > Schools looking for a framework to help guide their teachers' use of technology in the classroom have a new resource at their disposal: The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has issued new technology standards for teachers. [ [|Read More] ] > Transformation and collaboration were the central ideas of the 2008 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in San Antonio, which kicked off June 29 with a call to fundamentally change education and continued with several other sessions that repeated this theme. [ [|Read More] ] > The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) stipulates that all students should be technologically literate by the end of the eighth grade. But how to assess technological literacy has proven to be a complex challenge for school leaders. [ [|Read More] ] [|U.S. educators seek new ideas abroad] > With increasing anxiety, advocates of American education have been looking at other countries around the world and asking: What do //they// know that //we// don't know [ [|Read More] ] > Nearly three out of five states say they have defined what it means for students to be "media literate" and have implemented media-literacy standards, according to a recent survey—a result suggesting that states are beginning to address the importance of preparing students for an information-rich society, but they still have more work to do. [ [|Read More] ] > We often think of today's students as technology-savvy—and while that might be true, to a certain extent, when it comes to using hardware and software devices, a recently published report shows how little know-how students display when it comes to information literacy, or the ability to use technology to find the information they're looking for. [ [|Read More] ] > Today's high-stakes tests are inadequate tools for measuring the kinds of skills students will need for success in the global, technology-driven workplace, according to a group of key business and education leaders. The group, called the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), has issued a report calling on national and state policy makers to ratchet up efforts to design and implement new assessments that can effectively measure these skills. [ [|Read More] ] > ETS, the nonprofit group that created the SAT and a number of other standardized tests, has worked with educators, information technology experts, and other institutions to develop a new test designed to measure what it means to be literate in the digital age. [ [|Read More] ] > With its focus on testing for proficiency in reading, math, and now science, it's easy to forget that the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) also says all students should be technology literate by the end of the eighth grade. [ [|Read More] ]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/images/libraryresized.jpg height="75" caption="Students in computer lab"]] [|School libraries try to do more with less]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/studentsatcomputers.jpg height="75"]] [|On the way: Nation's first tech-literacy exam]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/112806.jpg height="75"]] [|Report: Retool instruction, or U.S. will fail]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/teachersupport.jpg height="75"]] [|New resource helps teach 21st-century skills]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/KyreneBP1.jpg height="75"]] [|Arizona raising students’ technology literacy]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/iste%255Fnets%252Dresized.jpg height="75"]] [|ISTE unveils new tech standards for teachers]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/Surowiecki.jpg height="75"]] [|NECC highlights tech's 'transformative' power]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/110606kidscomp.jpg height="75"]] [|States struggle with assessing tech literacy]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/SmilingChildWithLaptop2.jpg height="75"]]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/052307girlscomputer.jpg height="75"]] [|Groups push for media-literacy education]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/112806.jpg height="75"]] [|Report: Students struggle with information literacy]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/107039datasm.jpg width="75"]] [|P21: Rethink testing for future success]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/051707boycomputer.jpg height="75"]] [|New test gauges ICT literacy]
 * [[image:http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/rte-import/teacherscreen.jpg height="75"]] [|States erratic on IT literacy]

Additional resources
//Learning.com Case Study: Arizona Department of Education// @http://www.learning.com/casestudies/arizona.htm //Learning.com Case Study: Vineland Public School District// http://www.learning.com/casestudies/vineland.htm