Education

According to the 2011 U.S. Census Bureau, African Americans comprise more than 13% of the U.S. population. The rest of the population is composed of 78% Caucasians, 16% Hispanics or Latinos, 5% Asians, and 1% Native Americans. A language other than English is spoken in about 20% of households.

Logically, students in U.S. schools come from various economic, social, racial, cultural, and academic backgrounds. Because of this diversity, preparing these students for life in the twenty-first century is challenging. Introducing strategies to support success for all learners and engage them in productive classroom experiences is critical. As an educator, you must explore various ways to build an effective, dynamic system of twenty-first-century American education in order to best support your students’ success.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Describe a variety of ways that diverse students engage with curricular materials to construct meaning
• Describe elements of culturally relevant pedagogy
• Propose a curriculum review process that considers the needs of early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school students; English language learners; and special education and general education students
• Defend the implementation of Response to Intervention as a reform strategy

Today, the amount of information available to most students on the Internet seems infinite. A student interested in learning about World War II can execute a search on Google and find more than 2 billion links on that topic. The results are staggering, and students must learn how to sift through the plethora of data available.

King and Frick (1999) observed that twenty-first-century schools must redesign teaching and learning approaches to prepare students as “knowledge workers” (Drucker, 1994). The challenge, then, to develop twenty-first-century skills in today’s climate of accountability in American schools requires focused and innovative leadership. School administrators must regularly gather and examine student achievement data to provide meaningful instruction to a diverse population of learners. The best practices in the instructional approach must be based on data-driven decision making and systems thinking to meet the needs of all learners.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Explain how school leaders create a data-informed learning culture
• Describe approaches used by effective school leaders to design standards-aligned instruction that improves teaching and learning for every learner (students and adults)
• Illustrate how systems thinking provides a framework for leaders to build capacity for an organization
• Articulate a process that makes rigorous, research-based instruction accessible for every student within the high stakes context of accountability

We each possess philosophies of education, regardless of whether we acknowledge their existence. Major life philosophies include idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism. Each worldview affects how teaching and learning are interpreted. Over time, however, specific educational philosophies, such as perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, and reconstructionism, have evolved. Each philosophy supports or undermines the prevailing notion of curriculum.

As educators determine whether learning is successful through appropriate measures and standards, they must also explore their beliefs about how students learn best. It is important for you to plan well to ensure successful learning in your school.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Analyze ways that curriculum influences educational outcomes
• Summarize curriculum trends in four different educational philosophies
• Describe major contributions of several educational philosophers

The twenty-first century offers both challenges and opportunities for American schools. Educators must now answer questions such as “What are the risks and benefits to new media and digital technologies?” and “How can you effectively implement specific technologies in your lessons?”

To reshape curriculum for the twenty-first century, educators must redefine the democratic process and social expectations. In addition, they must establish effective instructional practices to develop the skills necessary for success. Finally, they must explore educational reform approaches to support equity and quality for all learners. You should examine these areas with an eye toward specific strategies to embed twenty-first-century skills in the classroom. Educators must now ask themselves what role technology should play in the classroom. How might technology detract from the learning outcomes? What benefits might it bring to the classroom and to student achievement?

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Summarize the proficiencies referred to by the phrase twenty-first-century skills
• Explain the impact of twenty-first-century learning models
• Describe strategies that provide opportunities for digital natives to apply twenty-first-century skills
• Use digital tools in PK12 classrooms to solve real-world problems

Providing a quality education for all students is the goal of the U.S. educational system. Educational measurements and assessments allow policy makers and other stakeholders to determine whether students learn core standards. To this end, achievement testing has become an important industry. Organizations—such as the Education Testing Service—help to satisfy the public’s demand for schools to be held accountable.

However, school leaders must recognize that in order to accomplish quality education, students who live in poverty need greater levels of support. Educators should examine how communities can create innovative solutions to meet the needs of all learners. Only by doing so can the educational system close the long-standing achievement gap in American schools.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Explain the purpose of testing that began during the early twentieth century
• Identify strategies that engage the community and the school successfully
• Describe challenges facing schools with growing minority and immigrant enrollment

Still a relatively young country by historical standards, the United States has undergone remarkable changes since its first settlers arrived. From colonial society, through the fight for independence, and on to the challenges of an industrial economy and world wars, Americans have remained committed to public education.

In the twenty-first century, the challenges of a digital age—like the revolutions of the past—have forced Americans to evaluate and reform schools. It is important to explore the history of the American educational system through three movements related to U.S. growth that affected education. It is equally worthwhile to explore the impact of digital technologies on teaching and learning in the present and in the future.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Identify three educational movements
• Explain the relationship between American historical and social foundations
• Describe several implications of the 1966 Coleman Report for today's American public schools
• Implement a technology-rich lesson in place of a traditional lesson
• Analyze the changes that happen in classrooms when teachers engage students in technology-rich lessons

What do U.S. schools lack? Some argue that students and teachers lack a commitment to learning. Others argue that education devalues personal experiences and creative ways of learning. Whether systems use outdated, industrialized learning formats or disregard students, reform is necessary. Even in effective learning environments, reforms must be geared toward the changing culture and society of the United States.

Instigating and sustaining meaningful school reform involves school leaders, teachers, students, parents, and community members. As one of these constituents, you should examine how effective school leaders use a variety of resources and strategies to lead successful initiatives. Understanding community involvement, social capital, twenty-first-century skills, and diverse student needs will help you support positive school reform in the Digital Age.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Describe the use of social capital as a prerequisite to organizational change in schools
• Provide examples of school reform strategies over the past 60 years, including a description of the effectiveness of each
• Describe changes in society that impact public schools

In The Educational Imagination (1994), Elliot Eisner explored the ways we create and assess school curriculum. In one section, he analyzed the meaning of teaching. For Eisner, teaching achievement related to content instruction and the actions a teacher completed to encourage student success. Which concept do you adhere to in your teaching and learning approaches? Is one “correct” or more effective than the other?

Whatever concept you favor, one point is clear: school curricular choices have multiple influences. Social, historical, psychological, and philosophical pressures exert tremendous pressures on school leaders. State and national governments have interests related to education, so navigating the politics can be a formidable enterprise.

In the United States, the standards movement, the focus on testing, the No Child Left Behind Act, and reports such as A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform combine to create vigorous debates about the work of schools. As an educator, you must examine the various political viewpoints on improving education and determine how to implement them in the classroom.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Summarize methods used by effective teachers to align student work with rigorous standards
• Identify research-based models used by effective school leaders that link curriculum, assessment, and instruction to improve teaching and learning
• Describe indicators of effective PK12 literacy instruction
• Describe indicators of effective PK12 math instruction
• Describe indicators of effective best instructional practice based on theories of learning across domains
• Distinguish between assessment of learning and assessment for learning

The American curriculum is an exchange in which students learn not only practical information but also the traditions and cultural expectations of their homes, communities, and future work environments. Educators must provide an environment in which students may engage in “broader cultural traditions and schooled knowledge” (Applebee, 1996). The question is: How do they engage?

Curriculum is heavily influenced by historical and social conditions. To add to the complexity, educational philosophies diverge over what and how to teach. For example, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers have developed the national Common Core State Standards to help educators follow consistent standards and benchmarks in teaching and learning. However, not all 50 states have adopted these standards because educational leaders and other stakeholders disagree on what students should learn. As an educator, you must foster students’ allegiance to democracy while balancing cultural and social constraints. It is important to examine the impact local and national governments have on how public schools are created and managed. In doing so, you will gain an understanding of society’s impact on American education.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Determine the relationship between school and community
• Compare the role of the teacher in American schools with the teacher's role in other countries
• Describe changes in the purpose and role of schools in society
• Distinguish among the roles of various stakeholders within a school (teachers, students, parents, and community)

The motto of the United States, e pluribus unum, is a Latin phrase meaning “from many, one.” It reminds us that Americans are people from diverse backgrounds and beliefs. Schlesinger (1998) asserted that U.S. citizens are “tied together, in Martin Luther King’s phrase, into ‘a single garment of destiny.’” However, much like the country as a whole, educators continue to face the challenge of achieving unity while respecting diversity.

The United States evolved as a diverse nation over hundreds of years, but prejudice and inequity remain problematic, despite a foundation of “liberty and justice for all.” In the quest for quality academic opportunities, educators must examine how schools facethe challenge of educating diverse populations to incorporate workable solutions that will benefit all children.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Determine strategies used by effective principals to eliminate predictable differences in student achievement which persist in schools across the country
• Explain how some students continue to be privileged while others struggle to succeed in American schools
• Compare the impact of using aggregate and disaggregate student performance data to inform decision making
• Describe how achievement gaps reflect differentials of societal power

The real work of curricular development focuses on how teaching and learning are accomplished in the classroom. As Eisner observed (1994), “Teaching can be done as badly as anything else…wooden, mechanical, mindless, and wholly unimaginative.” Likewise, educators and school leaders know that the practical application of effective approaches is more complicated than is portrayed in the media.

Previous reliance on textbook-based instruction has led many people to assume that the textbook is the curriculum. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Contemporary education is based on classroom-based research. Instructional strategies that provide a venue for successful curricular implementation are grounded in adopted standards and twenty-first-century skills.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Identify the role of curriculum as a filter in classroom instruction
• Describe instructional improvement using research-based best instructional strategies
• Explain the purpose of the Common Core Standards

How would you define the term curriculum? Is it permanent courses such as grammar, mathematics, biology, or history? Is it a syllabus, a product, a process, a performance, or simply the boundary between formal and informal education?

The term curriculum has been defined in many ways. It can refer to a content-specific set of lessons and their assessments, or it can apply to a much larger system with both internal and external influences on decisions about improving teaching and learning. Most often, it refers to a specific course of study.

When you explore the dimensions of a school district’s curriculum, you infer a great deal about the district’s norms, values, and assumptions. You also delve into the social, historical, and political forces affecting curricular decisions. Traditionally, the main question pertaining to this concept is this: Does the curriculum promote democracy? As an educator, you must examine your mental models of schooling and curriculum.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• Compare three definitions of curriculum
• Analyze ways that curriculum is constructed socially, historically, and politically
• Generate a definition of curriculum based on your own personal experience in schools
• Defend this statement: Curriculum promotes democracy