The three primary components of an effective 21 st century educational program
that have been defined in the study are the areas of rigor, relevance and resources. The
literature stressed that teaching high level thinking skills need to be cultivated in student
centered classrooms where students see the relevance to the real world learning as well as
the seamless integration of technology in the tasks (Daggett, 2005; Noddings, 2008;
Oblinger, 2005; Pletka, 2007). Although there was some evidence of teachers using some
of these components, there was no demonstration that the teachers were trained on
making the 3 R’s work together in an educational context much how the MILE Guide
recommends. Therefore classrooms using technology did not integrate it in a way that
employed high level thinking skills such as problem solving or critical thinking. When
analyzing the responses from the teachers in their interviews and interactions with them,
the researcher discovered that the reason for this disconnect lies in how differently the
stakeholders view 21 st century education and the school’s journey to accomplishing that
goal.