P21 Unveils New Guide to Help Districts Gauge Success

By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 11/11/2009

Just how well is your district or school integrating 21st century skills into current and future policies and practices? The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) has a new tool designed to help answer that question.

The “Milestones for Improving Learning and Education (MILE) Guide,” released last week during the Association of School Librarians' (AASL) 14th National Conference in Charlotte, NC, includes a self-assessment tool that that allows districts to plot where they are today and set a course for future integration of 21st century skills into teaching.

It provides three benchmarks (early stage, transitional stage, and 21st century) to help ensure students have the knowledge and skills required to succeed in today's world. For example, an early stage indicator shows when student work primarily demonstrates rote factual knowledge in core academic subjects, while a transitional stage indicator shows student work that demonstrates mastery of core academic subject knowledge. The two indicators that show students have reached the 21st century stage is when their work demonstrates mastery and understanding of core academic disciplinary knowledge and over 75 percent of their work demonstrates the ability to think critically, problem solve, create, innovate, communicate and collaborate.

The guide rates them in the areas of student knowledge and skills; education support systems; leading and teaching; policy-making; partnering; and continuous improvement/strategic planning.

"The MILE Guide is another example of the Partnership's goal to provide practical resources to help educators,” says Kathy Hurley, senior vice president of strategic partnerships for Pearson, the education services and technology company, and P21 executive board and strategic council chair. “We are happy to provide this invaluable resource to our current and future state partners to assist them in supporting teachers as they prepare students to succeed in life and work in today's ever-changing world.”

After completing the self-assessment, districts and schools are encouraged to consider the recently released Implementation Guiding Recommendations, which are geared largely toward state leaders. The guide recommends districts develop intensive teacher professional development programs that focus on enhancing skills and knowledge in the teaching of core subjects. Two examples include Iowa's Authentic Intellectual Work and the New Literacies Collaborative at the Friday Institute in Raleigh, N.C. Another recommendation is for districts and schools to work with educators to create a more collaborative and progressive learning environment.

"No skills implementation can be successful without developing core academic subject knowledge and understanding among all students. For this reason, core academic subjects are a bedrock component of the MILE Guide Self- Assessment Tool," said Ken Kay, president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. "Our state partners asked us to update this tool so they could better help their districts and schools ascertain where they are today toward implementing a knowledge and skills initiative. We are pleased to be able to support our 14 state partners in this way."

P21 is an advocacy that brings together the business community, education leaders, and policy-makers to encourage schools, districts, and states to advocate for the inclusion of these skills in education and to provide them with tools and resources they need to do so. So far, 14 states—Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and West Virginia—have signed up as 21st Century Skills Leadership States.

Organizations or states interested in joining the Partnership should contact info@21stcenturyskills.org.