New+Learning+for+a+New+Age

By Rachel Hurst

// Revision of what is taught - and how - is key to unfolding the picture of education for 2025. //

Since the introduction of the Common Core standards in June of 2010, 47 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to replace their state content standards with the recently developed Common Core Standards. Forty-five of these states have joined the assessment consortia trying to replace their existing standardized tests with new assessments that fit the standards. These allow the US schools to move beyond the sometimes shallow learning that comes with overly test-prep based instruction that has reached great proportions in recent years with a need to boost test scores from No Child Left Behind. The hope is that the common standards and new assessments can move over low-level test prep education and towards the goal of higher outcomes and expectations for all students that will make them stronger candidates for success.

The Common Core was developed by the National Governors Association and the council of Chief State School Officers. Its main focus is on English language arts and mathematics; in high school, they expand to literacy standards in history, social studies, the sciences and technical subjects. The idea is to help students develop literacy skills in those subject areas that match the level they have in their language arts classes. (Conley, 2011)

Addressing the roles of values and authority in educational policy involve identifying the key competencies that are needed by today’s learners, an understanding which of these are more sustainable, versus peripheral (Ryder & Banner, 2010).

**Emergent practices and their focus in curriculum and instruction:**

In individual content areas: **Literacy**: Language instruction itself has been spread among the content areas, in the Common Core State Standards for grades 6-12, with the idea that technical knowledge of language and vocabulary should not be the sole responsibility of the writing teacher - and skill sets should converge for a unified approach to building linguistic development (Love, 2005). **Math**: More technological focus, and practical applications. The STEM program should continue to expand to include more career-oriented focus on math's function in daily lives and jobs such as architecture, engineering and applied chemistry. **Science**: A focus on applied sciences. Instructional methods include more scientific inquiry and creating a career-focused practical methodology in fields such as technology and engineering. Courses focusing on the triangular integration of science-society-technology help students see practical applications of principles in their own lives. **Special ed**: Gesture based computing and assistive technology helps scaffold students into more mainstream curriculum. This includes systems designed to read signs and produce visual/ verbal input.

The consortia that are revising assessments to fit the new standards have proposed designs including:
 * more frequent, real-time measures
 * feedback on how well students are progressing throughout the school year (i.e. portfolios)
 * deeper, more complex learning will be assessed, including: online simulations, performance tasks and project-like “assignments” or learning vignettes (Conley, 2011)

Next: Multimodal Instruction