Education Policy Fellowship Program

Experience

Mission of EPFP

• To prepare individuals for greater responsibility in creating and implementing sound public policy in education and related fields. 

• The program is designed to expose participants to a broader global perspective.

Our Changing Context

• Demographic Changes

• Technology Changes

• Global Competitiveness and The New World Wide Playing Field

Change“When the winds of change blow, some people build walls, some build windmills”

Chinese Proverb

The Demographic Changes“What is coming toward the educational system is a group of children who will be poorer, more ethnically and linguistically diverse, and who will have more handicaps that will affect their learning.” Bud Hodgkinson

The Demographic Changes• America is growing older and

healthcare will become the number one agenda item and will take most of the resources.

Changing Demographics:What are the Opportunities?

• The Federal government will not have the time to really get involved in education. This contributes to a “whatever works attitude” that will allow for a lot of different experiments.

• Diversity is an asset in this global age if we can learn to use it effectively.

Technology Changes

• People are now also living in a “virtual world”

• We’ve moved from the passive age to the active age. Technology is no longer used just for information, but now it’s used to connect/interact.

• The end of cyberspace: don’t need to be at a desk anymore, we are linked up every where.

• The consumer, not the producer, drives the market.

Technology Changes:What are the Opportunities?

• More dynamic learning environments.

• Collective intelligence and peering, sharing, and openness.

• More opportunities for students (example: MIT OpenCourseware, Virtual Classrooms).

• More potential resources.• Teachers can actually drill down

and see what's going on in the data and provide immediate remediation.

The Flattened World

“The international economic playing field is now more level than it has ever been. Whether global flatness is good for a particular country depends on whether that country is prepared to compete on the global playing field.” Friedman

Future U.S. Economy in a Flat World

From: SkillsCommission.org

• Presentation made by Adamowski, October 2008

Global Information Economy

1950 2005

Industry 58% 12%

Agriculture 16% 3%

Requires Post-

Secondary22% 69%

Service Industry

4% 16%

The Changing WorldWhat are the Implications?

“The flattened world and the virtual world require a new public, a public with clear understandings of other cultures, other people, other languages, and other tools. Our schools need to act to provide an education that will prepare them for these new worlds.” Yong Zhao

Forces Impacting FHS

Social & Demographic

Changes

Technological Changes

Economic Changes

F.H.S.

Question to Consider

What opportunities does this changing context present for

FHS?