NCLB is Proving The Need for 21st Century Skills

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:03:55 -0700

As the results of the standardized tests given this past spring are coming back to our school districts, we are seeing the same old story being told. Our students struggle with higher order thinking skills.

The chart that I have included above is called a Pareto Chart. Each bar indicates a different area of a state standardized test. The larger the bar, the more errors students made on that particular area of the test. The smaller the bar, the fewer errors students made. This particular chart is very typical of the types of errors made on standardized tests, and it just so happens to make the case that our kids continue to struggle with higher order thinking skills. This is due mostly to the fact that they are very rarely used in schools.

It’s no secret that to be successful in life, you have to have a pretty firm grasp on higher order thinking/21st Century skills. It is our responsibility to teach this in school so that our kids don’t have to struggle to learn it later. By focusing more on these skills, not only are you doing right by your kids and their future, they will score better on those pesky tests... and that makes everyone happy!