National Education Technology Plan
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- Date Submitted: 02/02/2012 12:29 PM
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National Education Technology Plan
In 1983, the United States Department of Education’s National Commission on Excellence in Education published A Nation at Risk. This report detailed the Commission assessment of the state of education in America, and set in motion a maelstrom of political posturing that continues today.
The original Nation at Risk study is reported to have been a bipartisan effort to find out how American students measured up to students in other developed countries. The results of the study stunned Americans and set in motion educational reforms that have changed the educational landscape in ways that might surprise the original authors of the Nation At Risk document.
The study purported:
…students are not being challenged with high quality mathematics and science curricula and many students are not learning the basic skills. A majority of our secondary school students still are not grade-level proficient in reading, mathematics, or science. The data for minority students remain alarming (National Education Technology Plan, 2004, p. 9)
One of the most notable responses to the study became No Child Left Behind (NCLB); an educational reform program passed in Congress in 2001 with the lofty goal of eliminating illiteracy and bringing all children to an exceptional level of achievement by the year 2014. Supporters of the program argued that students who were growing up with technology would be accepting and willing partners in an educational structure that demanded achievement. It was determined that student achievement would be measured through national testing standards.
It is the position of this researcher that No Child Left Behind has not improved education, nor resulted in the high levels of achievement that its’ authors hoped. Indeed, it may have done more harm than good in the long term. The goals of the program were well intentioned, but the program has done little more than hogtie the hands of good teachers, ignore mediocre...
In 1983, the United States Department of Education’s National Commission on Excellence in Education published A Nation at Risk. This report detailed the Commission assessment of the state of education in America, and set in motion a maelstrom of political posturing that continues today.
The original Nation at Risk study is reported to have been a bipartisan effort to find out how American students measured up to students in other developed countries. The results of the study stunned Americans and set in motion educational reforms that have changed the educational landscape in ways that might surprise the original authors of the Nation At Risk document.
The study purported:
…students are not being challenged with high quality mathematics and science curricula and many students are not learning the basic skills. A majority of our secondary school students still are not grade-level proficient in reading, mathematics, or science. The data for minority students remain alarming (National Education Technology Plan, 2004, p. 9)
One of the most notable responses to the study became No Child Left Behind (NCLB); an educational reform program passed in Congress in 2001 with the lofty goal of eliminating illiteracy and bringing all children to an exceptional level of achievement by the year 2014. Supporters of the program argued that students who were growing up with technology would be accepting and willing partners in an educational structure that demanded achievement. It was determined that student achievement would be measured through national testing standards.
It is the position of this researcher that No Child Left Behind has not improved education, nor resulted in the high levels of achievement that its’ authors hoped. Indeed, it may have done more harm than good in the long term. The goals of the program were well intentioned, but the program has done little more than hogtie the hands of good teachers, ignore mediocre...