No Child Left Behind, the achievement gap grows. Will there be a No American Left Behind as the international learning gap grows?

As I mentioned in my discussion post for this week, this week the school district I teach in will be having an in-service about the “Partnership for 21st Century Skills” (P21), core curriculum, and rigor and relevance. From my understanding after today’s professional development time will be spent on discussing standardized assessments, implementation of P21,and restructuring existing units to meet both P21 and the “Iowa Core Curriculum.” Presently, Iowa is the only state that does not have state standards/benchmarks created for statewide implementation. Iowa has been the only state across the U.S. that has never had state standards, the state government has always allowed districts to create and implement standards/benchmarks on a district-by-district basis.

The above information relates to some of the information I was looking at on the P21 web site. When I looked at the page for the state of Iowa, the Iowa Department of Education speaks of the Iowa Core Curriculum, P21, and 2007. The interesting thing is (as I understand it), the Iowa Core Curriculum was approved by the governor for implementation within the last year. In addition, the Iowa Core Curriculum has not been completed, let alone introduced to all the school districts across Iowa. Interesting isn’t it?

To see information on P21 and the state of Iowa the link is: http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=148&Itemid=237

To see Iowa's Core Curriculum: “Iowa Core Curriculum” information: http://corecurriculum.iowa.gov/

With the unknown core curriculum coming into the inter-workings of education in Iowa there are also problems that have arisen in relationship to No Child Left Behind. With this law comes “Districts in Need of Assistance” (DINA). The district I teacher in is on this list. With DINA comes numbers and reasons why competencies are important.

Questions that go unanswered:
What competencies?
Why are these competencies important?
Should teachers know these “competencies,” because at the moment there has not been a clear concise definition for the “competencies,” that are being discussed.

To recap, there are numerous acronyms, standard assessment is key, and acquiring the skills needed to be a skilled, informed, complex communicator may or may not be included in the undefined competencies. This is the issue, concrete examples of how new methods, theories, skills, etc. are wonderful but only if teachers understand why and how this will help students be successful. This is the never-ending circle (much like a hamster wheel) that teachers face when discussing P21, rigor and relevance, and core curriculum.

In the school district that I teach in there have many hours spent on Rigor and Relevance (R4) and as the year goes on many hours will be spent on Iowa Core Curriculum and P21. Although it may not sound like a support P21, I do, it because a never-ending struggle to be able to put any of the P21 and/or R4 into practice when the state government and the district have yet to give us the core standards let alone the tools for implementation of the unknown skills we are to teach.

Another unnerving part about the condition of school districts across the U.S. is, that are so many countries lapping the United States in the P21 skills, the education gap, as well as, the technological gap almost seem cavernous at this point. Today when a couple of people where speaking of P21 in a meeting he/she was referring to P21 skills that our students would need...WOULD NEED?! WE NEED THEM NOW! WE SHOULD HAVE THEM IN PLACE NOW!

Our students continue to be left behind by other students around the world. P21 is not something to begin planning for, it is happening NOW!