# Presentation: 098716

## Welcome

**2005 Spring Conference**

**“****Creating a Vision for the **
**Aid Delivery Process”**** **

## Keynote Speaker

**	****	****Director, Office of Educational Technology**** **

## Toward A New Golden Age: Today’s Students

- Susan D. Patrick
- Director
- Office of Educational Technology
- U.S. Department of Education

## Ralph Waldo Emerson

- “Do not follow where the path may lead.  Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

**Notes:**
Emerson said, “Do not follow where the path may lead. ...

## “The people of the United States need to know that individuals in our society who do not possess the levels of skill, literacy and training essential to this new era will be effectively disenfranchised, not simply from the material rewards that accompany competent performance, but also from the chance to participate fully in our national life.” 

**-- ****A Nation at Risk, 1983 **

## ECONOMY

## Economy

- Changing
- 80% of jobs in 2010 do not exist today (U.S. Department of Labor report)
- Information-based, changing world
- Global
- Other countries are working hard, moving fast and using technology to accelerate progress. . .
- Innovation, creativity & tolerance for risk-taking is a strength of the U.S.

## Craig Barrett on the Economy

- Andy Grove's book - strategic inflection points and seminal events
- “I think one of these has happened in the world in the last few years, and that's the integration of India, China and Russia, and Russia's satellite countries into the world's economic infrastructure. Ten years ago they were absolute non-players. Today, they are active participants. If you add up their populations, it approaches 3 billion people.”

## Craig Barrett on Economy & ED

- “I don't think this has been fully understood by the United States. If you look at India, China and Russia, they all have strong education heritages. Even if you discount 90 percent of the people there as uneducated farmers, you still end up with about 300 million people who are educated. That's bigger than the U.S. workforce. So I think there's a strategic inflection point.”
- “The education system -- we do more talking, more writing, more publicizing of the non-competitiveness of the K-12 education system in the United States. But it is all talk and no action. If you look at our results relative to international counterparts, we continue to stay at the bottom.”

## Craig Barrett on Economy & ED

- The bottom line: “you have brought 3 billion new people into the workforce, and maybe the equation changes.”

## Transforming vs automating old methods.

## Aligning Environments to the Real World

- From an industrial to a knowledge-based economy . . .
- Students today are online, multitasking, highly productive.  Students learn quickly, manage and are responsible for their own learning.  They are online and ultra communicators.  They learn new communication skills, learn just-in-time, and are digital.  They are flexible, critical and creative.

## Where We Are Today

- Over the past 20 years America invested hundreds of billions of dollars in education, yet reading and math scores remained essentially flat.
- Today change is in the air. Innovative approaches. New appreciation of technology.
- We see a new excitement in the vast possibilities of the digital age for changing how we learn and teach.
*NCLB *imposes new standards of accountability and provides increased flexibility and funding.

## Arthur Conan Doyle

- Sherlock Holmes: “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.  Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.”

## Slide 15

## Fourth Grade Students 

***Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress 2003***

**Fourth Grade Students **
**Proficient in Reading**

## Fourth Grade Students 

***Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress 2003***

**Fourth Grade Students **
**Proficient in Mathematics**

## Twelfth Grade Students 

***Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress 2000***

**Twelfth Grade Students **
**Proficient in Science**

## Twelfth Grade Students 

***Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress 2000***

**Twelfth Grade Students **
**Proficient in Mathematics**

## Opportunity Knocks

- “Put your best people in your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.” *– Jim Collins, *_*Good to Great*_

- There is a new fervor in American education, a new creativity that bodes well for the future of our country.
- Driven in part by this generation of tech-savvy students and by the requirements of the *No Child Left Behind Act of 2001*.
- We are already seeing remarkable results through better use of technology.

## Impact of No Child Left Behind

- States and school districts across the country have to reexamine their standards, set targets for improvement, introduce rigorous testing and give options to parents.
- States have reported significant gains meeting AYP goals for the 2003-2004 school year.
- New York has reported improvements in math test scores in New York City and across the state for the third year in a row.
- While boosting overall performance, many schools are reporting sharp gains for poor and minority children, particularly in the elementary grades.

## Success Stories from States, Districts and Schools Leading the Way	

- Chugach School District, Alaska
- Poway Unified School District, California
- Henrico County Schools, Virginia
- Florida Virtual School
- West Virginia Virtual School
- Louisiana Online Professional Development
- Virginia Online Assessment and Data Systems
- New Mexico Reading First Handheld Assessment
- Pennsylvania school-home connections

## Toward a New Golden Age in American Education: How the Internet, the Law and Today’s Students are Revolutionizing Expectations

## What Are They Telling Us?

- “We have technology in our blood.”
- 				 **-- High School Student**

## Who Are Our Students?

- Largest generation (36% of total population).
- 31% are minorities; more diverse than the adult population.
- Have come of age along with the Internet.
- Information has been universally available and free to them; community is a digital place of common interest, not just a shared physical space.

## Family is Important

- 91% of students felt they have at least one family member they can confide in.
- If they could, 50% of students would spend more time with their family.
- 74% get along with their parents extremely or very well.
- When picking one person as a role model, 44% of students pick a family member.

## Education Beliefs

- 91% of students have a teacher/administrator who personally cares about their success.
- 60% of students report that standardized tests are a good measure of progress.
- 96% say doing well in school is important in their lives.
- 88% of students report that attending college is critical or very important to future success.

## Interested in World and Community

- 76% of students would like to learn more about the world.
- 28% of high school students use a foreign news source to learn about current events.
- After September 11, 2001, 78% of students felt optimistic and hopeful.  Two years later, 75% still look toward a future with optimism and hope.
- 70% of students report volunteering or participating in community service.

## Have Substantial Purchasing Power

- In 2002, teens (ages 12-19) spent $170 billion.
- 15.6 million college students (ages 18-30) spend almost $200 billion annually.
- Two out of three students report influencing their parents’ buying decisions.
- 20% of teens own stock.

## Internet Use by Age

## Even Young Children

- 72% of all first graders used a home computer during the summer on a weekly basis.
- Over 85% of young children with home computers used them for educational purposes.
- By 1999, 97% of kindergartners had access to a computer at school or home.
- 35% of children ages 2-5 use the Internet from any location.

## Online Teens

- 71% of online teens say they relied mostly on Internet sources for the last big project they did for school.
- 48% say their use of the Internet improves their relationship with friends.
- 94% of online teens report using the Internet for school-related research.
- 74% of online teens use instant messaging.
- 24% of online teens have created their own Web pages.
- The number of children ages 4 to 18 who own at least one wireless device (e.g. cell phones, PDAs) grew from 32% in 2002 to 43% in 2003.
- 13% of those age 7 and under own a wireless device

## 12th Graders Perceptions About School

## What Are They Telling Us?

- Today’s students feel strongly about the positive value of technology and use it in nearly every aspect of their lives.
- They are more comfortable with computers than their parents – and their teachers.
- What they are telling us is they want to help us understand this great new world of technology and its vast possibilities.
- And they want us to listen to them.

## Millennials influence the present and are the future.  Pay close attention to them, as their usage of media influences other demographic groups and they literally represent the world to come.

**Yahoo:  Born to Be Wired**

## Our Challenge

- Are our schools ready for this generation?
- How do we create the learning environments that engage this generation to help them reach their full potential?
- How do we equip these students with the skills and knowledge they need to be competitive in a global, information-based economy and contributing citizens?
- What assumptions about education do we need to question?

## Conclusions

- America’s students need the knowledge and competence to compete in an increasingly technology-driven world economy.
- This need demands new models of education facilitated by technology.
- Some of the most promising new educational approaches are being developed through e-learning.
- This is an exciting, creative and transforming era for students, teachers, administrators, policymakers and parents.
- The next 10 years could see a spectacular rise in achievement – and may well usher in a new golden age for American education.

## Thank you!

- _[www.ed.gov](http://www.ed.gov/)_
- _[www.NationalEdTechPlan.org](http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/)_

## http://www.ed.gov
http://www.ed.gov/Technology
http://www.NationalEdTechPlan.org
http://www.nclb.gov

**http://www.ed.gov**
**http://www.ed.gov/Technology**
**http://www.NationalEdTechPlan.org**
**http://www.nclb.gov**