We are pleased to announce the vibrant vote of confidence (see announcement) of New South Wales (Australia) in its joining of the Center for Curriculum Redesign.  Minister of Education Hon. Adrian Piccoli stated: “By joining with you on this initiative we will… promote a new and shared global understanding of curriculum issues”.  NSW is the seventh key PISA jurisdiction to join the CCR.

CCR members and invitees gathered on June 4-6 at the OECD in Paris for its first plenary meeting.  The event was sponsored by the Fondation Henri Moser, BIAC and the OECD, to which CCR is most grateful.

Here’s the agenda, the list of participants, and the synthesis paper of the meeting.

Most of the presentations can be found linked below:

• CCR Plenary intro – Charles Fadel (CCR)
• Skills strategy – Andreas Schleicher (OECD)
• What does it mean to Redesign? – Jennifer Groff (CCR)
• Impact of technology – Charles Fadel (CCR)
• Why standards/curricula? – Keri Facer (Bristol U.)
• CCR Jurisdictions: Alberta, Finland, Ontario, Singapore – sharing progress to date, concerns, difficulties.
• The importance of  Character – Attilio Oliva (BIAC, TreLLLe)
• The Oivallus project: what do employers want and need? – Marita Aho (BIAC)
• What do economies want and need? – Charles Fadel (CCR)
• PISA’s development – Andreas Schleicher (OECD)
• Why Robotics? – John Abele (Founder, Boston Scientific and Former Chairman, FIRST Robotics)
• What Mathematics do people really use? – Merrilea Mayo (Mayo LLC/Kellogg Foundation)
•  Innovating the Curriculum – Dirk Van Damme (OECD/EDU)
• Stop Teaching Calculating, Start Teaching Math – Conrad Wolfram (Co-Founder, Wolfram Research)
• Why Journalism? – Esther Wojcicki (VP Creative Commons)
• What does Neuroscience tell us about What should be taught? – Jennifer Groff (CCR)

CCR very sincerely thanks all the participants for their significant contributions, and looks forward to continued joint work and progress.