People and Events
Partnership for 21st Century Skills hosts 2009 National Education Summit on 21st Century Skills
By USBE
Jun 12, 2009, 14:58

More than 300 prominent national leaders - policymakers, CEOs and educators - from across the country will gather for the 2009 National Education Summit on 21st Century Skills.  

The two-day Summit, which is sponsored by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, is the first to focus on the critical need to combine rigorous core subjects with 21st century skills such as critical thinking, communication, innovation and creativity. The National Summit follows the Cyber Summit on 21st Century Skills – an online interactive forum where approximately 3,000 education stakeholders gathered from June 1 – 12 to discuss important education reform initiatives.  

The opening plenary session of the Summit will focus on “The Economic Need for 21st Century Skills in U.S. Education,” and will be moderated by Ray Suarez, senior correspondent, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The discussion will feature Dr. Steven Paine, superintendent of schools, West Virginia; Patrick Gaston, president, Verizon Foundation; Lydia Logan, vice-president, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Tony Wagner, co-director, Change Leadership Group, Harvard University; and Emily DeRocco, senior vice president, National Association of Manufacturers. 

During the Summit's second plenary, Suarez will moderate a distinguished panel including Dennis Van Roekel, president, National Education Association; Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University School of Education; Roberto Rodriguez, special assistant to President Obama on education; Gary Knell, CEO, Sesame Workshop; Lisa Nutter, CEO, Academies Inc-program; and James Williams, superintendent of schools Buffalo, New York. The panel will discuss the importance of providing a world-class education for all children, and most notably investigate how 21st century skills relate to every child’s educational rights. 

"Quality education for everyone is, perhaps, the most important thing a government can provide," said West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Dr. Steven Paine. "It has become clear that to have a prosperous community, state and country our children must obtain the knowledge and skills required for success in today’s world. This Summit provides an extraordinary example for the nation and states as to how to build 21st century education systems.”

In addition to the distinguished panels, Summit participants will take part in breakout sessions focused on an array of issues including: standards, assessments, professional development, health literacy, global awareness, civic literacy and financial literacy. These sessions will detail how states and districts redesign K-12 education to combine academic rigor and 21st century skills.  

“To succeed in the workplace of tomorrow, today’s students need to master traditional subjects such as math and science, while also gaining 21st century skills such as critical thinking and communication skills,” said Patrick Gaston. “Ensuring that our future leaders master these skills is critical to ensuring that our country maintains its role as a global leader.” 

The closing plenary speaker will be James Shelton, assistant deputy secretary of innovation and improvement, U.S. Department of Education. During this session, Ken Kay, president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, will detail the National Action Agenda, which will be commented on and formed throughout the National and Cyber Summits. The Action Agenda will become a national, state and local guide for updating standards, assessments and professional development to ensure every child in the nation graduates with deep content knowledge and 21st century skills. 

"The way we educate students hasn’t changed much in the last several decades, yet the world has changed tremendously. We cannot wait for the rate of change to slow so we can catch up," said Ken Kay. "Reform is not going to be easy, but the luminaries gathered here – policymakers, business leaders and educators – must accept this challenge. I can safely predict that this Summit will be credited for being a major reform catalyst in the months to come." 

The Summit will also mark the release of several videos that demonstrate the positive aspects of combining 21st century skills and core subjects. The videos, produced by the Partnership in conjunction with Pearson, will show how educators can infuse core subjects with 21st century skills without diluting content.  

The 2009 National Education Summit on 21st Century Skills is sponsored by the Partnership in conjunction with the Nellie Mae Foundation, AT&T, Dell, Intel Corporation, Apple, Sun Microsystems, Verizon, the American Association of School Librarians, Blackboard, Measured Progress, Quarasan!, 21st Century Skills, LLC, Scholastic, the National Education Association, Cisco Systems, EF Education and Pearson.