Special Board Meeting on 21st Century Skills Task Force Report
| To: | Members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education |
| From: | Maura Banta, Chair |
| Date: | December 8, 2008 |
This memo is designed to let you know my plans for conducting the December 15 meeting at which we will discuss the recommendations of the 21st Century Skills Task Force. Additional background materials for the discussion will be included in the Board book that you will receive in a few days.
At our November meeting, Gerald Chertavian led us through a presentation of the recommendations that came from the work of the Board's Task Force on 21st Century Skills. At the conclusion of the presentation we agreed to hold a special meeting this month to discuss the report recommendations and next steps. This special meeting will be held on Monday, December 15 from 6-9 p.m. in the third floor Board rooms at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Dinner will be available from 5-6 p.m. on the fifth floor.
To help guide our discussion I have invited three experts to join us: Richard Murnane, a Harvard University professor of education and society; E.D. Hirsch, Jr., who is the founder and chairman of the Board for the Core Knowledge Foundation; and Michael Cohen, president of Achieve.
I plan to begin the meeting with a period of open Board discussion on the report, and then invite the three experts to comment both on the report's recommendations as well as on issues that surface during the Board's discussion. For the remainder of the session I would like the Board discussion to resume. Before we conclude the evening we will identify next steps.
Thank you for setting aside the additional time this month for this important meeting. As I have said before, this is an important topic as it will help us define the next phase of education reform for the Commonwealth.
  | Enclosure: White Paper
School Reform in the New Millennium: Preparing All Children for 21st Century Success |
 | Presentation: Moving the Massachusetts Public Schools into the 21st Century |
last updated: December 8, 2008
|
