Evaluating 21st Century Skills

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills has revived the effective connections that schools once had with society. They have developed “partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders.” These connections are valuable to education because they bring the outside world into the normally closed school building. Opening up the world to our students is becoming more imperative every year; American students are falling behind as they enter the global workforce. P21 has identified six key areas as a focus for educators to train our students for the 21st century.

As I perused the website, I easily related to the visual representation of their framework. P21 offered clear, concise descriptions that were categorized by “student outcomes” and “support systems.” This type of support is most effect for me – clear expectations with the help to achieve those goals. While my initial reaction to the site was excitement, I struggled to understand the organization of the resources. I also did not find the “resources” to be helpful. Maybe I did not know how to search and I would require training to fully benefit from the “Route 21” support site.

I was not necessarily surprised, but encouraged to see P21 recognize the effectiveness of businesses and the community can have on a school body. If we expect our students to enter the community as intelligent adults, shouldn’t we start building those relationships before they need a job? P21 has bridged gaps between themselves and other education initiatives; they do not want to replace systems already in place – they hope to support our students through collaboration of existing programs. They remind teachers that NCLB has an expectation of technological literacy by the end of eighth grade. P21 framework/standards/outcomes will come alongside NCLB to provide tech. literacy.

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills will hopefully come to South Carolina. I know my students and I could greatly benefit from the support and resources from their framework. I struggle to know the specific ways to help my students become proficient in 21^st century skills. The standards presented are easy to understand, as well as assessments that focus on student performance and demonstration of 21^st century skills. For my students to keep up with the global economy, they must be trained to handle fast pace of this new century. To be effective, there must be distinct expectations for me, the teacher, and for them, the future employees.