Education and the New Economy: A Policy Planning Exercise.

This paper describes a policy exercise on education and the new economy held in Aspen, Colorado, in June 1997. The exercise was designed to help the National Center for Research on Vocational Education understand the development of education and training in the near future. The exercise took advantage of expertise in social gaming developed at RAND, one of the Center's host sites. Participants included about two dozen education researchers and decision makers from across the United States. The paper describes the motivation for the policy exercise, its basis in earlier exercises, its structure and outcomes, and lessons for educational policy and further gaming. The discussion on system design focused on the improvement of standards, better coordination between the academic and vocational education systems and between human-resource-development systems and the private sector, and the use of performance-based criteria for teacher development. The federal government is recommended to encourage the establishment of standards, generate support for standards, and identify ways to coordinate work-force development. Appendices contain exercise materials and information about the allocation-outcomes model. (LMI)