21st Century Skills and McGraw

McGraw and 21st Century Skills – a Perfect Match

When introducing his education plan on March 10, 2009, President Obama stated, “I'm calling on our nation's governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking and entrepreneurship and creativity.”  21^st century skills are those agreed to be vital for success in society and the workplace by a broad coalition of education, business, community and government leaders. Colorado is one of many states currently revising its K-12 academic standards to highlight the development of 21^st century skills.

A recent survey conducted with 96 teams of educators from across the US, Australia and South Korea revealed that while mastery of core academic content is still essential for every child’s education, the following were considered to be most vital for students’ success in the world we now live in:

• critical thinking and systems thinking
• communication skills
• interpersonal and collaboration skills
• adaptability
• self-direction
• information literacy and media literacy skills
• accountability
• social responsibility

You may be wondering, “How is McGraw helping my child to develop these skills, in addition to academic skills such as reading, math and writing?” As the McGraw staff learned at our April 20 collaboration day, 21^st century skills are not an “add-on” to the curriculum, but instead represent a different approach to teaching and learning than the model used in public schools since the turn of the 19^th century.

As an IB Primary Years Program (PYP) school, McGraw has for more than ten years been engaging students in learning using an approach that naturally leads to the development of the skills listed above. The following PYP-defined skills and attributes are embedded within PYP units and learning across the school day at McGraw: 

- thinking skills - communication skills - research skills - social skills - self-management skills - creativity - - cooperation - independence - curiosity - respect - integrity

- the ability to take thoughtful and appropriate action to make a difference in the world

What correlations did you notice with the “21^st century” skills?

It is our goal in coming years at McGraw to be even more intentional about how we teach and assess these skills as the vehicle by which students will develop mastery of academic content. McGraw stands poised to lead Poudre School District as a model of 21^st century learning in action.

Please visit the following website for more information on 21st Century Skills:

http://21stcenturyskills.org/