Education in the Twenty-First Century

America's multiple educational systems are its major long-term mechanism for shaping the future, but this infrastructure for human resource development has remained static rather than shifting its mission as the societal environment has changed. The emergence of a global economy with a shift toward cognitive partnerships with intelligent tools, and the growing challenge of diversity when excellence and quality depend on a pluralistic understanding of a worldwide market are underscoring the decline in the effectiveness of America's instructional environments. Building on societal discontent with traditional educational models, the evolution of advanced technologies for teaching, learning, and management and the initiation of a restructuring movement for educational reform both provide contexts for innovation that may foster the implementation of new paradigms for education. Nonetheless, a future of little or no change in American education is all too probable; similar opportunities for innovation always slipped away in the past.