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News and Notes: News
Release
August 22, 2008
Topeka:
Commissioner Posny, Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Highlight KLFA Agenda
The Kansas
Learning First Alliance met August 21 and 22 to kick off its
2008-2009 year of work with a renewed focus on action to bring 21st
century learning opportunities to every public school student in
Kansas. Joined by numerous guests from the Kansas State Board of
Education and the Governor’s Preschool-Grade20 (P20) Council,
Alliance members received welcome from Commissioner Alexa Posny.
Two members of the national Partnership for 21st
Century Skills Board, Kathy Hurley (Pearson Education) and
Lillian Kellogg (Education Networks of America) outlined key
initiatives to infuse a rigorous basic curriculum with the 21st
century skills students will need for success. More than 50
representatives and guests from over 25 of its organizational
members attended the meeting, held at the Kansas NEA office.
Friday morning
included significant work time for strategic planning by the three
work groups of KLFA. Community Engagement, Professional
Development, and Student Achievement workgroups each developed
both short-term action ideas and initiated long-term planning.
Ideas for action included:
-
building
community readiness for change in our schools
-
infusing
curriculum standards and indicators with 21st century knowledge,
skills, and dispositions
-
developing
a new vision for teaching and learning with school faculty
-
creating
the infrastructure to support new outcomes and strategies
-
instituting professional learning communities for collaboration
and integration
-
advocating
for assessment of what matters, integrated in ongoing
teaching/learning rather than as an add-on event.
Schools and
districts are encouraged to contact KLFA leaders to schedule
workshops or presentations to engage communities and school
faculties in deep conversations about the needs of students and
the resources for schools and teachers in the 21st
century.
Working along
with staff from the Kansas State Department of Education, KLFA
will meet in October to review descriptions of what the graduate
with 21st century skills should know and be able to do…
and what kind of learning environment is needed for our schools
and classrooms to achieve these challenging results.
The next
meeting is October 9, 2008 at KASB. |
