World Ready Committee Meeting – S³

Recommendations to the Fremont Board of Education

Executive Summary

Committee composition: The S3world Ready Committee consisted of the following members: John Hruby, Cindy Hruby, Koni Howell, Linda Blais, Ed Wosinski, Cathy Obitz, Jim Hieftje, John Kingsnorth, Ex Officio.

Proceedings: The committee met on two separate occasions, December 10, 2007 and again on January 30, 2008. The committee discussed the document “Framework for 21^st Century Learning” and the perceived gap between the current reality and preferred future of the district’s schools relative to 21^st Century Learning. The Framework identifies the following skills as essential for student success and to also strengthen the American educational system:

• Core subjects. The core subjects to be taught are English/Language Arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics, government, economics, arts, history and geography.

• 21^st century content. Several significant, emerging content areas are critical to success in communities and workplaces. Among them are:
• Global awareness
• Financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy
• Civic literacy
• Health and wellness awareness

• Learning and thinking skills. Students need to know how to keep learning and make effective and innovative use of what they know throughout their lives. Learning and thinking skills are comprised of:
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Communication skills
• Creativity and innovation skills
• Collaboration skills
• Contextual learning skills
• Information and media literacy skills

• ICT literacy [Information and Communications Technology]. ICT is the ability to use technology to develop 21^st century content knowledge and skills, in the context of learning core subjects. Students must be able to use technology to learn content and skills – so that they know how to learn, think critically, solve problems, use information, communicate innovate and collaborate.

• Life skills. Effective teachers have always incorporated life skills into their pedagogy. The challenge today is to incorporate these essential skills into schools deliberately, strategically and broadly. Life skills include:

  - Leadership	Personal responsibility	Ethics
  - People skills	Accountability	Self – direction
  - Adaptability	Social responsibility	Personal productivity

• 21^st century assessments. Authentic 21^st century assessments are the essential foundation of a 21^st century education. Assessments must effectively measure the results of the five essential skills.

Recommendation: The committee unanimously supports the following recommendation to the Fremont Board of education:

Implement a “school within a school” pilot program at Fremont High School that would serve as a research and development initiative. The program would serve as a prototype and designed to integrate 21^st century skills as part of the curriculum as well as a focus for instructional design and delivery. The pilot program could incorporate but not be limited to the following components:

• Identifying a cohort group of students that would represent a cross section of the demographic and achievement variables of the student body. The program would initially begin with a freshman class of 25 students and increase in enrollment each year over a four year span [25 new students each year].
• Teachers selected for the pilot program would be provided the necessary professional development to meet the objectives of the program.
• Learning will be focused on content learned through multiple modalities. Learning will not be constrained by traditional “seat time.” Content will be delivered not only by teachers, but also online opportunities, “hybrid” classes [teacher/online], distance learning, internships and access to dual enrollment with partnering colleges and universities.
• Partnerships providing technical, material, and monetary support would be established with both higher education institutions and the private business sector.
• Grants would be written to request the necessary technology necessary to achieve the goals of the program.
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of the program would be conducted by an outside agency.

Implementation: The target date for implementation of the project would be fall of the 2010-2011 school year.