By Luke Martel
The United States is in the midst of a learning revolution, according to Tom Vander Ark, CEO of Getting Smart, an education advocacy firm.
Vander Ark shared his ideas about ways policymakers can cultivate innovation in the classroom and leverage technology to improve student performance with dozens of legislators and staff members at NCSL’s Jobs Summit in San Jose, Calif., in September.
“There are teachers doing innovative things in every school, and we must find ways to identify them and support them” said Vander Ark, citing several examples of states, such as Florida and Rhode Island, that have embraced technology and new learning strategies. The meeting sessions featured a diverse array of job creation strategies, in addition to the dialogue about innovation in education.
The Jobs Summit featured conversations with other policy experts on a range of important issues such as manufacturing, evaluating economic development tax incentives and improving workforce data. Part of the meeting consisted of breakout sessions, enabling attendees to discuss policy options in small groups with others from their same region.
During one breakout session, attendees experienced the eBay Commerce Innovation Showcase, a tour highlighting how eBay’s innovations in technology can connect consumers and merchants to transform the shopping experience.
The meeting concluded with a keynote address from Bill Eggers, an accomplished author and research director for Deloitte. Eggers spoke about how the public and private sectors are converging to form the solution economy—one where citizens, social enterprises and businesses rely less and less on government-only solutions, and instead create their own solutions for tough problems.
NCSL partnered with The Pew Charitable Trusts, Dell, Deloitte, eBay, Microsoft, Toyota and Walmart to make the second Jobs Summit possible.
Earlier this year, NCSL released three reports that focus on public policy issues related to jobs: Promoting Entrepreneurship: Innovations in State Policy, The State Role in Rebuilding the Manufacturing Sector and Workforce Development Initiatives: Collaborating to Prepare for the Jobs of the Future.
Luke Martel is a senior policy specialist at NCSL.
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