A Nation on the Move
“The people of the United States need to know that individuals in our society who do not possess the levels of skill, literacy and training essential to this new era will be effectively disenfranchised, not simply from the material rewards that accompany competent performance, but also from the chance to participate fully in our national life.”
A Nation at Risk, 19831
Twenty-one years ago, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Commission on Excellence in Education published the landmark report, A Nation at Risk. It warned that “the educational foundations of our society are being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.”2
It made the case that 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.3
But change is in the air. Clearly, we must innovate for our country to succeed in this time of rapidly increasing global competition. This innovation is occurring. We see dramatic changes taking place in the educational landscape – a new excitement in the vast possibilities of the digital age for changing how we learn, how we teach, and how the various segments of our educational system fit together – a ferment for reform that is bringing changes undreamt of even five years ago and unparalleled in our nation’s history.
With one notable exception, No Child Left Behind, these changes are being driven by forces in the field. They are being driven by the new realities of the digital marketplace, the rapid development of “virtual” schools, and the enthusiasm of an amazing generation of students weaned on the marvels of technology who are literally forcing our schools to adapt and change in ways never before imagined. As one high schooler put it, “we have technology in our blood.”4
In education, this is a nation on the move and the pace is accelerating. Without seeking to overlook the very real challenges that remain, we feel the present evidence suggests strongly that we may be entering a new golden age in American education.
Improvements Will Be Dramatic
This report was undertaken by the staff of the U.S. Department of Education in response to a request from Congress for an update on the status of educational technology. As the field work progressed, it became obvious that while the development of educational technology was thriving, its application in our schools often was not. Over the past 10 years, 99 percent of our schools have been connected to the Internet with a 5:1 student to computer ratio.5
Yet, we have not realized the promise of technology in education. Essentially, providing the hardware without adequate training in its use – and in its endless possibilities for enriching the learning experience – meant that the great promise of Internet technology was frequently unrealized. Computers, instead of transforming education, were often shunted to a “computer room,” where they were little used and poorly maintained. Students mastered the wonders of the Internet at home, not in school.6
Today’s students, of almost any age, are far ahead of their teachers in computer literacy. They prefer to access subject information on the Internet, where it is more abundant, more accessible and more up-to-date.7
Progressive teachers, principals and superintendents understand this. As examples cited in this report demonstrate, they have successfully adapted the endless opportunities presented by computer technology and married them in creative and challenging ways to the high-level technical capabilities and motivation of their students. Students and teachers become partners in the exploration of this new universe.
Thus students, teachers and technology are driving a return to educational excellence. But complementing these is what will surely be seen as the single most important driver of educational progress in the coming decade: the No Child Left Behind Act, passed in Congress in 2001 with strong bipartisan support. This seminal legislation with its 2014 deadlines is breathtaking in its scope and poses powerful goals to the education community. Within 10 years it aims to abolish illiteracy and bring millions of children currently “lost” to the educational system into the mainstream of learning and achievement. It is comparable in many ways to this country’s 1960s quest to put a man on the moon. Combined with the increased use of new technologies and the motivated expertise of today’s students, it means that 10 years from now we could be looking at the greatest leap forward in achievement in the history of education. By any measure, the improvements will be dramatic.
Where We Are Today
Why do we need systemic change? It is important to understand the national crisis that underscores the demand for accountability in education.
Today, the United States spends more money on education than any other nation except Switzerland, averaging more than $8700 per student (federal, state and local) in constant dollars for elementary and secondary education.8
Over the past 20 years, America has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in education. For the 2003-04 school year alone, expenditures at local, state and federal levels on elementary and secondary education exceeded $500 billion.9
Despite this investment, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scores have remained essentially flat during the same 20-year period, with 31 percent of our nation’s 4th graders scoring at or above proficient on the assessment.10
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is beginning to reverse the trend as the nation rises to the historic challenges of access and quality set forth by both Brown v. Board of Education and “A Nation at Risk.”
No Child Left Behind created new standards of accountability. Students have to demonstrate improvement over time and be proficient in reading and mathematics. Importantly, achievement gaps between different socio-economic backgrounds must be identified – and closed – so that all children regardless of race and income level can read and do mathematics at grade levels by 2014. This single piece of legislation has fundamentally altered the education landscape. Its premise – that all children can learn – is profound in its simplicity but multifaceted in its implementation.
President Bush’s FY2005 budget for education represent continuing increases of federal education spending to historic levels with a 49 percent increase (from FY 2001-2005) for elementary and secondary education, including but not limited to:11
• $13.3 billion in Title I funding for disadvantaged students, for a total that represents a 52 percent increase since FY 2001.
• $1.2 billion for reading programs, totaling four times the amount spent in 2001.
• $11.1 billion for special education programs, for a 75 percent increase since 2001.12
No Child Left Behind’s four main principles are:
• Holding schools accountable to show students are learning;
• Increasing flexibility for schools in reaching goals;
• Providing more options for parents to choose outside of lowperforming schools;
• Using research on what works best for student learning.
Twenty years of national data show gaps in achievement despite spending increases, reflecting low expectations of performance, especially along the lines of racial and ethnic groups. Never before have we held schools accountable for how different demographic groups are achieving compared to peers in the same schools. For 4th grade reading, only 41 percent of Whites and 38 percent of Asians are proficient readers. Racial and ethnic breakdowns of which students can read show that only 13 percent of African Americans, 15 percent of Hispanics and 16 percent of Native Americans are proficient in reading at their grade level.
The numbers are truly disturbing. Put another way, more than 85 percent of African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are not proficient in reading in the 4th grade, according to data from NAEP.13 The numbers are similar in mathematics with 90 percent of African American students not proficient in mathematics in the 4th grade.14 This highlights the importance of using data to understand and inform how we make decisions.
The trend of low expectations compounds as students are passed along to the next grade level. By 12th grade, only 3 percent of African Americans are proficient in mathematics, only 4 percent of Hispanics, 10 percent of Native Americans, 20 percent of Whites and 34 percent of Asian Americans. Few students have competence in science or mathematics.15
We must not choose who succeeds. We must ensure that all students are expected to learn in schools.
Who Are Our Students?
America’s students are our ultimate constituents. We need to listen to them. They have demonstrated that they have a better understanding of the intricacies and opportunities presented by the technological revolution than many of their elders, notably including a generation of teachers and administrators who did not have the advantage of growing up with the Internet.
The nearly 50 million students in our elementary, middle and high schools today represent the largest and most diverse student body in our history.16 Thirty percent are minorities, meaning that our school population is more diverse than this country’s adult population.17
A number of studies, confirmed by field research and feedback from students – including nearly a quarter of a million students providing input to the U.S. Department of Education – portray a capable, conscientious, concerned and optimistic generation, determined to succeed. We have data collected from a variety of sources to help create a portrait of today’s students. The data will surprise you – it is representative of all groups. As one student put it, “We’re the kids who are going to change things.”18
Following are some recent statistics which help to define this generation of students (sometimes referred to as the Millennial generation, or “The Millennials”):19
• 96 percent say that doing well in school is important to their lives.20
•94 percent say they plan to continue their education after high school.21
• 88 percent say going to college is critical.22
• 49 percent say they may be interested in pursuing a career in technology, 47 percent in business, 41 percent in medicine, 35 percent in law, 34 percent in entertainment and 33 percent in teaching.23
• 74 percent say they get along with their parents extremely well or very well.24
• 70 percent participate in community service or volunteer work.25
• 76 percent want to learn more about the world.26
• 28 percent of high school students access foreign news sources via the Internet.27
• 90 percent of children between ages 5 and 17 use computers.28
• Teens spend more time online using the Internet than watching television.29
• 94 percent of online teens use the Internet for school-related research.30
• 24 percent have created their own web pages.31
• 16 percent of teens are shareholders in the stock market.32
• Teens and college students combined spend nearly $400 billion a year.33
Millennials’ use of information and communications technology reaches to the youngest ages. The largest group of new users of the Internet from 2000-2002 were 2-5 year olds.34
The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics found that 72 percent of all first graders used a home computer on a weekly basis during the summer35 and by 1999, 97 percent of kindergarteners had access to a computer at school or home.36 Even students from low-income groups without access to technology at home seek and find it – using computers at schools, libraries or at friends’ homes.
Millennials feel that education is important. Eighty-eight percent of students reported that attending college is critical or very important to success in later life; and 91 percent of today’s students report having a teacher or administrator who personally cares about their success.37
These studies on the current generation of American students suggest a determined generation for whom the Internet appears to have stimulated interest in learning in general and, in particular, a revival of interest in researching and innovating using technology.
These are clearly exciting times for both teachers and students. As expressed by one superintendent, “The future is now. Our children can’t wait.” 38
What Are They Telling Us?
NetDay, a national nonprofit organization that promotes the effective use of technology in schools to enhance student achievement, enlisted 210,000 K-12 students representing schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and on American military bases worldwide to go to http://www.netday.org over a ten-day period in October and November 2003, to complete an online survey as part of its first Speak Up Day for Students. In March 2004, these findings were issued in a national report partially funded by the U.S. Department of Education, entitled Voices and Views of Today’s Tech-Savvy Students, to support the inclusion of students’ perspectives in the development of the National Education Technology Plan.39
Major themes emerged from the students’ comments:
• Today’s students are very technology-savvy, feel strongly about the positive value of technology and rely upon technology as an essential and preferred component of every aspect of their lives.
• Students are not just using technology differently today but are approaching their lives and their daily activities differently because of the technology.
• As students get older, their use of technology becomes more sophisticated, but, comparatively, the younger students are on a fast track to becoming greater technology users and advocates.
• The access point for technology use, particularly for older students, is home-focused, not school-focused.
• Today’s students are ultra-communicators.
Student comments from the survey of grades 6-12:
“We would like to have one computer per student, possibly a wireless laptop. Software needs to be updated, as well as hardware. Infrastructure should be improved to accommodate these upgrades. Access is vital, with before and after school hours open for use.”
“Hire people to keep the computers running, give us more bandwidth and less firewall, enable hookups from home, give the teachers more training and give us more computer classes. We’re also interested in ITV and online classes.”
“I would like them to let us kids sign laptops out of the library and there would be enough for everyone in the school. Or they could give us a laptop for the year.”
“Students should be allowed to have free access to online tutoring.”
Student comments from grades 3-6:
“I think that teachers should be required to go to a technology course and extra classes should be available to kids who need help working with computers, want to learn more about technology, or who just want to have fun.”
“Teachers could show more videos and web sites to show kids more information in social studies and science.”
“I think that students should have laptops to do everything in class. We can type our homework, schoolwork, copy notes and things like that. We should not have to carry heavy books all day long and bring all of our books home.”
“I think that we (schools) could give technology classes to students and teachers because our teachers are falling behind the students, as they aren’t good with computer programs and software.”
“I think the teachers could use technology better by learning more about it. I think if they learn more about it they could help the students better and help them do projects and stories.”
“I really think that we should go to computer lab more often so that we can learn more about the world around us and what’s going on.”
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