Global competence requires more than knowledge and skills; it also requires that students know when the situation calls for using these abilities and an ongoing, long-term inclination to do so. Boix Mansilla describes a number of global competence thinking routines, developed by her research team at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which…

For centuries, education has been seen as an antidote to intolerance and conflict. In a world rocked by violence, much of it across cultural borders, developing students' cultural understanding has become more important than ever. In this article, Asia Society vice president Anthony Jackson discusses how two high schools in the Society's…

Before the end of this decade, almost 5 billion people will carry mobile devices. Will Richardson asserts that because this technology creates ubiquitous, complex, immediate connections to the world, the most important skill is the skill of being able to learn. "Students moving into adulthood today," he writes, "need more than…

To be prepared for the new world of work--one that outsourcing and automation have transformed--U.S. schools need to set a higher bar. Students need high-level cognitive skills, strong technical skills, character, good communications skills, a well-developed ethical frame, and the ability to relate to a wide range of people from all over the…

Critiques the first two volumes of E.D. Hirsch, Jr.'s Core Knowledge Series, "What Your 1st Grader Needs to Know" and "What Your 2nd Grader Needs to Know" (Doubleday, 1991), for thin coverage of core curriculum fundamentals, highly condensed format, and unbalanced content. Parents should realize there is no substitute for a…

Examines the Oregon program in which each school district establishes and measures its own set of competency standards. (Author/IRT)

Setting minimum competency levels for teachers is a symptom of what is wrong with educational attitudes in the United States. Without an adequate commitment of education, and in light of the entrenched position of the educational establishment, the nation's stopgap efforts will not serve education's critical need for fundamental change. (PGD)

Text from a speech delivered by the past president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development declares that a liberating education offers students abundant knowledge, that content by itself does not liberate individuals, and that individuals employ knowledge in their own liberation. (MLF)

Describes Oregon's experience with developing and implementing new requirements for high school graduation, based on minimum competency standards defined by local school districts. (JG)

Reviews history of the use of the concept "core curriculum" and its decline. Includes a discussion of educational ethics and excellence centering on the need to evaluate the push toward a more academic curriculum and the effect it is having in pushing some students out of the system while developing excellence for a smaller group of…