Executive Summary and Reflection of the Draft Plan

The key to economic growth and prosperity in this country is the education of our youth. We must produce students that can compete in a global economy. The teaching and learning environment that must be created includes providing students with engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences for all learners that mirror students’ daily lives and the reality of their futures. Unlike a traditional classroom, this requires that we put students at the center and empower them to take control of their own learning. If teachers can support student learning in areas that are of real concern or particular interest to them, personalized learning adds to its relevance, inspiring higher levels of motivation and achievement. There must be critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication woven into all content areas. These skills are necessary to expert learners, which we all must be if we are to adapt to our rapidly changing world. Another strategy for rethinking how teaching and learning are organized involves extending the learning day, week, or year. As we seek ways to extend learning time, in addition to considering the amount of time students spend in school, we should also look at whether we can provide engaging and powerful learning experiences through other means. One way to think about that is to leverage students’ interest in technology and the time they currently spend learning informally outside the regular school hours to extend learning time in a way that motivates them even more. As schools implement online learning, they should ensure that students’ learning experiences address the full range of expertise and competencies as reflected in standards and use meaningful assessments of the target competencies.


Professional learning should support and develop educators’ identities as fluent users of advanced technology, creative and collaborative problem solvers, and adaptive, socially aware experts throughout their careers. As a 21st Century educator we must support student engagement with technology resources for learning, highlighting the important subject matter content, pressing students for explanations and higher-order thinking, tracking their students’ progress, and encouraging their students to take more responsibility for learning. This requires deep transformations of teaching practices. Professional learning should support and develop educators’ identities as fluent users of advanced technology, creative and collaborative problem solvers, and adaptive, socially aware experts throughout their careers.

We are on the path to transforming American education, but there is still a great deal of work to be done. Our upwards trajectory and the aggressive goals that we have set will take us to the outcome that is necessary to have proficient 21st Century learners.