Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

NASBE's State Education Standard Explores the 'Future of Schools'

  • 09/12/16

Alexandria, Va. – The new issue of NASBE’s journal, The State Education Standard, is boldly themed “The Future of Schools.” It challenges state policymakers and others to imagine a range of possible futures in education and to ask the “what if” questions to shape policies that can help ensure students have the opportunities to enter their own futures with confidence.

The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) inspires many of the education futures presented in the issue. In his piece on teacher evaluation, Matthew Steinberg of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education outlines key questions policymakers and administrators will have to weigh as they build multiple-measures evaluations under ESSA. On school improvement, Policy Studies Associates’ Dan Aladjem argues there is no surefire recipe for success: States can draw on some guiding principles, but largely they must chart their own road to turning around low-performing schools—and draw maps for others.

Authors in this issue also touch on key aspects of the “well-rounded education” that ESSA describes. On standards, a “what if” question that most state boards of education can decide, Gene Bottoms and Kirsten Sundell of the Southern Regional Education Board discuss the onset of computer science standards and review five actions states can take to ensure successful implementation. Tufts University’s Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg explains what Florida and Illinois have done to ensure their students receive the kind of high-quality civics education that transcends the social studies classroom to promote civic engagement, and Educational Testing Service Research Scientists Samuel H. Rikoon, Meghan W. Brenneman, and Kevin T. Petway II make the case for focusing on social and emotional learning and how to assess it.

The issue also takes a peak at new education technologies and instruction. NASBE’s Amelia Vance explores the early promise of virtual reality learning, and iNACOL’s Maria Worthen describes how personalized learning can particularly benefit students with disabilities and improve outcomes. And in the NASBE interview, the College Board’s David Coleman talks about how disruptive innovations in education need not be technology driven but must aim to “disrupt the fabric of inequality in this country” and level the playing field for all students, regardless of background.

Read the full September 2016 issue of The State Education Standard.

Featured

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • FGCU Breaks Ground on New Health Sciences Building

    Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has launched construction on a major new academic facility that leaders say will reshape healthcare education in Southwest Florida for decades to come, according to university news.

  • Dallas ISD Voters Approve $6.2B Bond Package

    Dallas ISD voters have approved a record-setting $6.2-billion bond package that district leaders say will modernize aging campuses, eliminate portable classrooms and reshape learning environments across one of the nation’s largest school systems.

  • Deferred Maintenance Issues Growing at Universities, Gordian Reports

    U.S. colleges and universities are falling increasingly behind on facilities maintenance and repair, according to Gordian’s 13th annual State of Facilities in Higher Education report. The deferred capital renewal burden has reached $156 per gross square foot, an 8% increase over the previous year.