Everyday during the school year, 2,500 students drop out of high school in the U.S. Are you aware of this alarming statistic?
We need to get our school principals hopping mad about this.
Summer is here and the last thing most people are probably thinking about is school and education, but while you are on vacation, 18,000 top educators are congregated in San Antonio, Texas presenting exceptional ideas to improve education. They are attending the largest educational technology conference in the world -- the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) that started yesterday and runs until July 2.
These educators are offering some realistic answers to how to make the curriculum more relevant and more effective and how to cut the 50% high school dropout rate in our fifty largest cities.
What is their answer, in brief? Make the curriculum more relevant to students and more effective by integrating what the students want -- technology in the curriculum.
This morning at 8:30 a.m.hundreds of dedicated teachers were in a ballroom waiting for the release of the new version of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS.T) released by ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)
Now, I am sure you are asking how this can help your school or your children. One way is that it will give teachers a guide to change the way they teach, the way they work, and the way they learn in this increasingly connected global and digital society. CEO of ISTE, Dr.Don Knezek said that "teachers must be ready to perform at a world class level in order to have our students competing in this flat world."
Former President of ISTE Jan Van Dam said "We need to light a fire under our school administrators to get them to see the importance of integrating technology in the curriculum."
"Schools are changing slowly because of the little people that walk in the doors. We need to change that so that the people who are in charge are the agents of change," she said.
We need models for teachers to follow in their classrooms and that is what the ISTE conference provides -- hundreds of successful models. Check out their website and show it to your principal and your child's teacher.
Why should you as parents and community members be pushing technology in education? One important reason is that the schools need to a better job preparing students for the 21st century job market. Not an insignificant reason.
A second but equally important reason is that it improves student performance in all areas of instruction. There are literally hundreds of papers that document the effectiveness of technology and many of them can be accessed on the ISTE website.
So now getting down to what you can do this summer to improve education this fall. Give the principal of your school a copy of the just released National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS.T). Let them read it over the summer.
And for your superintendent, you can give him/her a free booklet called Empowering the 21st Century Superintendent by going to this website and ordering it. Or you can simply go into the office and talk to them and give them the web address. Superintendents are open to community input. Don't be hesitant. You as a citizen have the right and responsibility to speak up.
ISTE even developed a free tool with the support of Hewlett-Packard to measure the level of technology integration in the classroom. Give this information to your principal and superintendent.
Schools respond to suggestions and pressure from the community and so you as a parent and community member have the power to make a difference.
Remember the world is hungry for tech savvy workers, and students are hungry for classes that effectively integrate technology and teach meaningful skills. Perhaps together communities can change our sad dropout statistics and help students lead more productive and satisfying lives.