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SKILLS PROGRAM
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Sept. 16 A group of prominent scholars, teachers, education reform advocates, and union leaders -- including American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, former Boston University President John Silber, New York University education historian Diane Ravitch, and Democrats for Education Reform co-founders Kevin Chavous and Whitney Tilson -- issued a statement today expressing concern about the program put forth by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) and calling for its revision.
P21, the leading advocate for the 21st century skills movement, requires participating states to reshape their standards and assessments around a framework of skills including collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving. It has been adopted by 13 states so far. The signatories are concerned that P21 promotes an approach to teaching skills that supplants education in core learning areas such as history, science, and foreign language. According to the statement: “At the present time, there is growing pressure on our schools to reduce time spent on these disciplines and subjects to make more room for what is now called ‘21st century skills.’”
“Skills are important,” according to the statement, “but P21’s approach to teaching those skills marginalizes knowledge and therefore will deny students the liberal education they need.” They call for fundamental revisions to P21’s current framework, warning that the current program “is undermining the quality of education in America.”
The statement was organized and sponsored by Common Core, a non-profit research and advocacy organization that supports parents, educators, and others who are pushing for a broad liberal education for all children. And it promotes programs, policies, and initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels that provide students with challenging instruction in literature, mathematics, science, geography, civics and government, history, economics, foreign languages, and the arts.
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Spring 2010 • The new issue of the AFT's American Educator shines a light on 21st century skills, featuring contributions from Common Core's Lynne Munson and Laura Bornfreund, eduwonk Andy Rotherham and UVA's Dan Willingham, Diana Senechal, and Diane Ravitch.
December 4 • EdWeek profile questions motives of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
November 10 • You can now read Diane RavitchÕs op/ed on 21st century skills in the Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Metro West Daily News, Lowell Sun, and Quincy Patriot Ledger.
November 3 • Education Week highlights Common Core's concerns about the appointment of a P21 leader to a key Dept. of Education post.
November • Lynne Munson and Richard Kessler explain why arts education is vital in the November 2009 issue of Parenting magazine.
October 10 • Diane Ravitch's recent op/ed on 21st century skills has been reprinted in the Providence Journal.
September 16 • A group of prominent scholars, teachers, education reform advocates, and union leaders issued a statement today expressing concern about the program put forth by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) and calling for its revision. Press Advisory (pdf)
September 15 • Common Core’s Diane Ravitch shows how dated the idea of “21st century skills” really is in the Boston Globe
July 13 • Common Core’s Lynne Munson raises concerns about national standards at convention of the American Federation of Teachers. (PDF document)
July 9 • In USAToday Common Core’s Lynne Munson argues that a comprehensive education is more likely than a STEM education to produce new scientists.
July 2 • A USAToday editorial cites and links to Common Core’s “Still at Risk”" study which showed how little our 17-year-olds know about history and literature.
June 2 • Common Core releases Why We’re Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don’t, a report showing that the nations that consistently outrank us on international comparison tests provide their students with a fulsome education in the liberal arts and sciences. Why is this news? Because the U.S. is moving further and further away from this model. Read brief excerpts from the documents featured in the report here.
