Education

Parents: Schools Not Preparing Students for Digital Age

By Katie Ash — October 30, 2009 1 min read
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A new report examines the responses of parents from the 2008 Speak Up survey, conducted by Project Tomorrow, and finds that less than one-third believe that schools are adequately preparing students for jobs in the 21st century. The report analyzes responses from more than 21,000 parents of K-12 students.

Parents are also disappointed by the amount of technology in schools and how well it is integrated into lesson plans, says the report. They want higher quality technology available to students and more professional development to help teachers competently integrate technology into the classroom.

One place where parents and students who participated in the survey differed in their opinions was the importance of media and information literacy. Parents ranked those skills as slightly more important than students did, but a significant number of parents--68 percent--believed that those skills should be taught in schools while 40 percent of 6th-12th grade students believed they would pick up those skills while exploring technology on their own.

It’s pretty fascinating to hear what parents have to say about technology in education, especially in how it differs and parallels what students, teachers, and principals have to say. See for yourself by downloading the report here.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Digital Education blog.