Policy Brief: Preparing for an Uncertain Future

Author(s): Kirsten Miller and Laura Lefkowits

Contact: Kirsten Miller

Audience(s): Administrators and Policymakers

Product Description:

This policy brief provides an overview of McREL's own application of the scenario planning process, and offers information on ways in which policymakers and educators might begin thinking about the future of education in their states as well as nationally.

Key Ideas:

Based on a more comprehensive McREL report, The Future of Schooling: Educating America in 2014, this report explains that scenario planning process requires the identification of “drivers of change” and two “critical uncertainties,” with two outcomes each. This results in a quadrant that shows four possible futures, which the authors assert policymakers need to not only consider but make action plans for.

APA Citation:

Lefkowits, L., & Miller, K. (2005). Preparing for an uncertain future (Policy brief). Denver, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.