The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

http://www.p21.org/index.php

I had the opportunity to spend some time reading through this website and found some very interesting information.  I also found quite a bit of the information to be of the types of strategies and ideals that are already in place.  There is plenty of information about how you can work with this organization and lobby for change in your state.  This is where I think the roadblock is with my state.

The State of Washington has repeatedly shown that they do not value education and that spending money on education is a low priority.  It has also been the case that our state only cares about operating at the minimum standard and that the only things that are important are those that help our students pass standardized tests and raise AYP scores.  When we have had the opportunity to step up and challenge our students to reach for a higher level in the areas of math and science, we have crumbled when we couldn't get the score results that we wanted.  Passing scores in these areas are no longer on the table for graduation requirements.  Social Studies entered the conversation briefly but didn't make it very far down the road before being squashed as well.

What does this have to do with the previously mentioned website?  If the State of Washington is unwilling to fund and/or pursue the most basic of education areas, why would they think that the four Cs (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation) are worthy of funding or time?  I think that there is a great deal of value in having students that can perform the four C's at a high level.  I agree with the website and the idea that our business leaders are looking for employees that can do these things and do these things well.  I just don't see that working its way into the education environment in this state.  Our state has voted down numerous education reform options (you don't want to hear about the charter school debate).  We don't like how it is now and we are afraid of change so the easy thing to do is to keep it the same.

I would love to see some of these ideas put into place in my classroom and in other classrooms like mine.  I think that there is a lot of positives that can come out of changing what we do to help students be better poised for success in their future.  The question is:

What's holding us back?