The Ohio Senate is contemplating a risky jump onto the 21st Century skills bandwagon. But before they do, they should read Checker Finn's Columbus Dispatch editorial, which explains just how rickety that wagon really is. Incorporating the key tenets of the P21 movement would, in fact, end Ohio's standards, assessments, and accountability system as we currently know it--and turn a reasonable system into a poor one. One problem of many, Finn explains, is that "one cannot think critically unless one has something to think about. You need the core skills and knowledge at least as much as you need ‘cultural awareness.'" Compounding this issue, of course, is that schools are unequivocally more adroit in providing the former than they are the latter. And that's just the beginning. Read the rest of his argument here.
