0.2 Newell, p. (march 2010). technology disconnected: teacher  (Page 3/10)

1. making modern computer technology an integral part of every classroom;
2. providing teachers with the professional development they need to use new technologies effectively;
3. connecting classrooms to the proposed National Information Infrastructure [an early name for the Internet being developed for use in the United States); and
4. encouraging the creation of excellent educational software (Leiken, 1996).

The goals expressed in this Executive Order resonated with (and encouraged) students, families, and many involved in education; however, as with many political actions, these goals had their roots in a number of prior policy issues and meetings. In 1989, national political leaders and governors (including then-Governor Clinton) met at what came to be known as the Charlottesville Summit, to discuss bipartisan plans for school reform. One of the key ideas that emerged at that meeting was that of developing national goals for education. A number of new foundations and groups were formed at that meeting, including the New American Schools Development Corporation, a private foundation formally instituted in 1991 with financial support from groups like the Annenberg Foundation, AT&T, Exxon, IBM, and the U.S. Department of Education (Cassidy, 2004); the focus of most of the business-backed coalitions included business-oriented outcomes for education. Soon after these meetings, technology industry representatives stated their need to build a coalition with schools to wire all student desktops with a workstation; showing a direct effect of A Nation At Risk , the reasons of preparing a workforce to maintain the nation’s economic competitiveness was the main impetus stated (Hedelman, 1989).

Education and the focus on its reform through the implementation of information technology continued well into the next decade. In the beginning of the 1990s, Goals 2000, a program to achieve national learning goals that originated at a governors’ summit (that included then-Governor Clinton) was championed by then-President George Bush. The strategic objectives proposed in Goals 2000 included that within a set (but unspecified) period of time, all students start school ready to learn, that the high school graduation rate increase to at least 90 percent, that all students leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency in English, mathematics, science, history, and geography, and that every adult American be literate and have the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy as well as exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Technology was seen as a centerpiece that would enable this proposed program (Knapp&Glenn, 1996).

Approximately at the same time as the Goals 2000 legislation was being discussed came the formation of the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS), formed by the Secretary of Labor to “examine the demands of the workplace and whether our young people are capable of meeting those demands.” SCANS delivered its first report in June of 1991 declaring that: