business community, parents, and students. This common vision
helps the key stakeholders sustain the long-term commitment it
takes to transform the education system over time.
To help create that common vision, the P21 Learning Framework,
consensus-building activities such as the Four Questions
ex ercise described in the Introduction, effective community information
campaigns, and sustained local public communications
efforts can all be helpful.
Coordination
All the educational support systems—standards, assessment, curriculum
and instruction, professional development, and learning
environments—must work together in a coordinated way to support
21st century learning.
Often changes are made in one support system, such as a new
curriculum, without coordinated changes being made in all the
other linked systems: the learning environment, teacher professional
development, aligned assessments and standards, for ex -
ample. These isolated changes may generate enthusiasm for a
while, but without the support necessary from the other systems
to sustain the change, they almost always become short-lived
“experiments.”
Offi cial Policy
Successful initiatives that are making 21st century education im -
provements stick have their new innovations codifi ed into the
education systems’ governing policy documents; into the offi cial