The Future of K-12 Education

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Editor – Adolf Gundersen

The education project discussions explored the nature of education and learning, asking–and attempting to answer in different ways–a number of key, foundational questions, including–

• What do we want education to achieve for individuals? And for society? For example, life skills, job skills and economic opportunities for individuals, economic growth & development for society, support and encourage morality/ethics, support democracy and good citizenship? And which goals might be most important and why?
  
• With those goals in mind, what skills or content knowledge should education focus on? For example, academic skills, creativity, discipline/maturity, learning to learn?
  
• What factors contribute most to achieving these goals and learning these skills and content? For example, parents/family, peers, teachers, individual genetics, funding, broader societal setting, school organization, teaching methods, etc.?
• How might public policy be used to affect positively these contributing factors?
• Who and how should we govern and administer K-12 education? Experts, parents, teachers, local, state, federal, citizens generally, etc.?

The discussion report on the Future of K-12 Education grew out of a longer-term project discussion in 2006-2008 that produced an initial set of more conceptual or theoretical possibilities for education in general. These possibilities were eventually re-rafted to make them somewhat more practical or policy oriented. And the revised possibilities were then tested in four additional public discussion series in the fall of 2010. Overall, six different discussion panels (meeting in four regions of the country) and seven IF facilitators/fellows contributed to the development of this report.

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You can download a copy of this report from our “Discussion Reports” page (also listed in the sidebar to the right), which lists all of our published reports, or, to download a copy directly, you can click on either of the following links:  The Future of K-12 Education, or en Español, El Futuro de la Educación, Kinder-Prep (20 páginas/2.6 MB).