Conley's Standards for Success: Transforming Education for the 21st Century

1. Conley and his colleagues conducted a landmark, in-depth study of the skills and content students need to succeed in college. The study’s findings are based on a review of hundreds of college syllabuses and interviews with hundreds of students and professors. These “standards of success,” operate as both thinking and literacy skills for all disciplines. • Coney and his colleagues found that the following four intellectual standards were paramount, within and among the disciplines: • Read to infer/interpret/draw conclusions. • Support arguments with evidence • Resolve conflicting views encountered in source documents. • Solve complex problems with no obvious answers. • These four simple habits of mind can powerfully inform student reading, writing and talking in every discipline. “Plain Old Reading and Writing” in the 21st Century Thomas Friedman, author of The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, concludes that the most successful people in this century will be those who can acquire and use knowledge to develop and communicate creative combinations of ideas, applications, and strategies to solve problems. How are these 21st century abilities acquired? From something he sees as in alarming decline: “plain old reading and writing”. Fewer students than ever can read the kinds of “lengthy complex texts” required to learn and innovate. The reason for this is simple: Our schools simply don’t require students to read texts of increasing length and complexity, starting with textbooks. This pattern begins in the earliest grades, and it persists right up through graduation. Conley’s Standards for Success! How to Select Essential Standards The following criteria was developed by Doug Reeves: Endurance. Will the standard provide students with knowledge and skills beyond a single test date? Leverage. Will the standard provide knowledge and skills that are of value in multiple disciplines? Readiness for the Next Level. Will the standard provide the students with essential knowledge and skills that are necessary in the next grade level? FOCUS “What We Teach” Mike Schmoker Presented by the C.T.E. Department

2. . We acquire knowledge and thinking skills best when we learn them reciprocally. As Elena Silva notes, “there is no reason to separate the acquisition of learning core content—from more advanced analytical and thinking skills, even in the earliest grades. Willingham found that we learn and retain information best when we have a chance to evaluate or think about it. He suggests that we give students “simple tasks” that allow them to intellectually engage with the content they are learning. Advanced literacy can be acquired by all, using simple, endlessly repeatable activities. Think of literacy as a spine; it holds everything together. The branches of learning connect to it, meaning that all core content teachers have a responsibility to teach literacy. Content-Rich Curriculum and Literacy for All As Phil Schlechty, notes, “Too many children leave school without having developed the skills, attitudes and habits of mind that will equip them for life in the 21st century”. The civic, intellectual, and workplace demands of the new century, will require that all students can “read, write, cipher…think and solve problems…draw upon a rich vocabulary based on a deep understanding of language and the human condition”. Our current system, doesn’t even attempt to provide this kind of rich, rounded education for all. Reflecting on this, Schlechty observes, “There is a crisis and it is real”. Skills for the 21st Century The authors report that we have never provided an intellectually demanding, content-rich curriculum to most students. In the 21st century, schools must ensure that all students become “citizens who are flexible, who embrace new ideas, who can reason well when faced with complex new ideas. All students need abundant opportunities to speak, write, and listen-to make and evaluate logical arguments, and solve problems. What we teach-matters immensely. Curriculum may be the single largest factor that determines how many students will learn (Marzano, 2003). A powerful combination of the following strategies are needed for all students: Adequate amounts of essential subject-area content, concepts, and topics; Intellectual/thinking skills (e.g., argument, problem solving, reconciling opposing views, drawing one’s own conclusions): and Authentic literacy-purposeful reading, writing, and discussion as the primary modes of learning both content and thinking skills. None of this is “new”. What is new is the recognition that now, more than ever, all studentsneed and deserve-such an education. “21st century learning is not new but represents what our best educators have been teaching us for centuries.” Jay Mathews