Assessment and comparison of teachers’ ability to educate, based on student test
scores, is manifestly unjust, given that school settings differ so widely. Good
teachers are of course essential in education, but cannot be expected to raise
the performance level of students in inner-city schools to that of students from
wealthier, more resource-rich communities.
There is no question that America’s education system is in mortal danger.
Senator Hancock believes that the essential responsibility for failing schools
lies not with teachers but can be traced back to the lawmakers who slash school
funding. To be blunt, money, or the lack thereof, is the underlying factor that
causes classrooms to overflow and deprives students and teachers of textbooks,
facilities, counseling, and other forms of support.
Improving education in America is not going to be easy. Reforms are needed
that will take all the factors of education into consideration, granting
teachers the respect they deserve while recognizing students’ birthright to a
public education and providing them with adequate educational resources and
community support.
The School District of Philadelphia and Microsoft joined forces in 2003 to plan, build, and support a 750-student high school that could serve as a model for 21st-century learning communities around the world and would:
Practice and promote digital inclusion.
Integrate technology into every area of the learning community, including curriculum delivery, community collaboration, office support, content creation, and sharing content and assessments.
Generate innovative education practices and new models for learning.
Create an environment that engages all learning community members and helps to inspire passionate, personal responsibility for learning.
Such schools combine “face-to-face” education in a specific place (what used to
be called “school”) with online instruction.
Rocketship is building a model in which kids learn much of their basic skills
via adaptive technology like the DreamBox software, leaving classroom teachers
free to focus on critical-thinking instruction and extra help where kids are
struggling. Likewise, teachers will be able to “prescribe” online attention to
specific skills.
Rocketship and the other school models we describe here offer a vision for what
deeply integrated technology can mean for children’s education, for the way
schools are structured, and for the promise of greater efficiency amid a lengthy
economic downturn
“Our schools must prepare all students for college and careers—and do far more
to personalize instruction and employ the smart use of technology.”
This is much more than simply taking a class online
The classroom is an open space that runs the length of the building wing, but is
subdivided by bookshelves into workspaces where small groups of students work
with the teacher or individually with laptops
Rocketship and other schools of the future will prove more structre, greater efficiency, and enhanced engagement for student learning. They will also require less money to be paid to st aff and allow teachers more time to plan critical thinking activities.
The Article" The Classroom is Obsolete" discusses the idea that school buildings may not be the appropriate places to educate our students for the future.