The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) explores key elements of policies that support deeper learning in schools – including policies that state boards of education must seriously consider to ensure their state’s students are prepared for college, career and civic life.
In Deeper Learning: Policies for a 21st Century Education, NASBE’s Ace Parsi explains that while many states have articulated and supported policies to enable deeper learning, they are at different stages of implementation, and challenges remain in connecting various initiatives cohesively. He adds that there is no one policy solution that supports deeper learning.
States that have made significant progress, such as Delaware, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Kentucky, have focused on a more cohesive approach that includes the following:
- Approving standards, curriculum, and materials used in classrooms that reinforce deeper learning;
- Developing high-quality professional learning systems that reinforce deeper learning;
- Ensuring that evaluation structures of effectiveness highlight deeper learning competencies;
- Providing flexibility to schools and educators to innovate in facilitating deeper learning while ensuring high standards of quality; and
- Facilitating systemic change necessary to enable deeper learning.
Parsi examines each of these state policy actions while providing policymakers with the foundational principles that underlie deeper learning and state examples of successful implementation.
This report is intended for state boards of education that are working on providing significantly more students with deeper learning opportunities and facilitating board-level conversations on key related topics. The report provides foundational principles that underlie deeper learning, explores issues, provides state examples, and includes worksheets that boards can use to facilitate discussions and come to solutions that make sense given the unique needs of each state.
See more at: http://www.nasbe.org/education-leader/deeper-learning-policies-for-a-21st-education/
