Jessie Woolley-Wilson, President, K-12, Blackboard
In today’s Information Age, education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success – it’s a pre-requisite. A communications and technology revolution has created a global economy of high-tech, high-wage jobs that can be located anywhere there's an Internet connection. As a result, countries who out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow.
Our current education climate places an increased emphasis on the need for data and the ability to interpret that data to make informed instructional decisions that positively affect student achievement. Some of the largest challenges facing educators today, such as closing the achievement gap, ensuring student mastery of standards, and preparing students for success in the global economy, require data to identify areas of strength and areas of concern, allowing classroom time to be maximized on the instruction each student needs most.
In light of these challenges, we recently collaborated with ProjectTomorrow on two reports. One report, titled "Leadership in the 21st Century: The New Visionary Administrator," focuses on our educational leaders. A second report, "Online Learning Policy and Practice Survey: A Survey of the States," takes a look at online learning and how each of the 50 states are funding, developing policy and supporting online learning from a state-led perspective.
