Search

Today, U.S. educators are teaching in the midst of a technological revolution. Technology promises to provide innovative solutions in the nation's classrooms, just as it has transformed the way people communicate, socialize, and conduct business. In this article, the author argues that now is the time to harness technology to revolutionize the way students learn and the way teachers teach. He stresses the need to work with peers to overcome obstacles and the challenges educators face as they create digital learning environments. He also emphasizes the role of the U.S. Department of Education and discusses five goals for the federal government to advance the digital classroom: (1) learning: engage and empower; (2) assessment: measure what matters; (3) teaching: prepare and connect; (4) infrastructure: access and enable; and (5) productivity: redesign and transform.

In this paper, the Arne Duncan, the United States Secretary of Education, discusses the need for a sea change in America's schools of education, and focuses on the need to improve teacher preparation programs. Many schools of education have provided high-quality preparation programs for aspiring teachers for years. In the last decade, many education schools have also upgraded their programs or launched rigorous practice-based initiatives to adapt to the realities of preparing instructors to teach diverse students in the information age. Yet, many of the nation's 1,450 schools, colleges, and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom. America's university-based teacher preparation programs need revolutionary change--not evolutionary tinkering. Duncan contends that, to keep America competitive, and to make the American dream of equal educational opportunity a reality, schools of education need to recruit, reward, train, learn from, and honor a new generation of talented teachers. He urges every teacher education program today to make better outcomes for students the overarching mission that propels all their efforts. America's great educational challenges require that this new generation of well-prepared teachers significantly boost student learning and increase college-readiness.

For most of the last century, the United States has been recognized as having the best system of higher education in the world. No other nation has a postsecondary system that has been as successful in advancing knowledge and innovation, while also making college accessible to its citizens regardless of their financial circumstances. Yet today, higher education institutions in America face stiff challenges. If the United States is to retain its preeminence in the global economy, states U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, America's universities, liberal-arts colleges, and community colleges need to become more accessible, affordable, and successful--and in a hurry. Nearly every college president and every governing board wants to simultaneously improve quality, increase access, and yet constrain costs. To college executives, these three sides of the iron triangle--(1) quality; (2) access; and (3) cost--seem like mutually conflicting choices. Elevating quality raises costs; increasing access can dilute quality; and reducing costs impairs both quality and access. As vital as government support for higher education is and continues to be, Duncan stresses that college executives need to rethink their traditional modus operandi if America is to continue as the world's leader in higher education. He encourages university presidents and governing boards to pay more attention to efficiency, productivity, and accountability as reform tools that can help higher education break out of the iron triangle. As much as any institution in American life, higher education has shown that "Yes, we can" is not just campaign rhetoric, but rather an animating belief that has opened the doors to a better life for millions of college students. Secretary Duncan believes that higher education can adapt successfully once again.

All work to improve the quality of professional development must begin with one simple assumption: Teaching is an incredibly complex profession that draws on a wide set of intellectual and emotional skills. Even the best teachers need to continue to learn and improve their practice, and many are willing to do so. The bottom line is that all teachers--all educators--grow from professional learning experiences that sharpen their practice. However, the teaching profession in America is at a crossroads. Designed more than a century ago, in many ways teaching remains stuck in an outmoded and inadequate system of preparation and improvement. States, districts, and the federal government spend $25 billion annually on support services to develop teachers and leaders. But most of what is spent has neither improved teaching nor benefitted teachers or students. In this article, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan calls on education leaders to rethink how they support teachers to offer the world-class education children deserve.

When President Barack Obama took office, he pledged to revitalize an economy in the midst of the deepest recession in a generation. Working with Congress, he acted quickly to enact an $878 billion package to stimulate the economy in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). More than $100 billion of that will be for education, spanning from early childhood programs to college aid. The ARRA's primary goal is to help the economy emerge from the current recession. But the president is pursuing other policies, both in the short and long term, to ensure economic growth. At the heart of these policies is the goal of making college affordable and accessible to millions of students who otherwise might not be able to go. In this article, the author outlines President Obama's goal to make the America No. 1 in the world in the percentage of adults with college degrees. Increased demand, unprecedented funding and heightened expectations have placed the nation's system of higher education at the forefront of change for a better America. This is a historic opportunity to answer the president's call to action.

Social studies teachers live with the unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act every day. They understand that the law has created flawed incentives for states and school districts to narrow their curricula to English and math. This fundamentally misguided practice leaves out core disciplines that are essential to a well-rounded curriculum, including social studies. To marginalize social studies for the sake of reading and math is not only misguided, it is educational neglect. Educators and policymakers need to recognize that social studies is a core subject, critical to sustaining an informed democracy and a globally competitive workforce.

Regarding your two stories about Chicago's ending of social promotion ('Retaining Retention' and 'Teachers and Students Speak,' Features, Winter 2005), it should be noted that one of the most important [...]