Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, Colleges and universities have been profoundly changed by the huge influx of "non-traditional" students who have increasingly characterized campuses--women, people of color, and part-time and older students. Projections suggest students will continue to increase in diversity far into the future.

After more than a decade of marginally effective reform, diverse stakeholders are coming to the same conclusion: Demanding more from our schools is not enough--the system itself must be fundamentally changed.

Systemic reform is proposed as an alternative to tinkering and add-on programs that, critics say, will not meet the demands of business, parents, communities, and students for fundamental change and significant improvement in schools.

Can today's students learn? Given our students' diverse backgrounds, frequent under preparation, and limited academic success, with about half withdrawing before graduation, some faculty believe many lack the ability to learn. However, in elementary and high schools, striking success with students of modest academic origins, and, in college, high-quality methods of instruction, both demonstrate students' potential for high achievement. The higher the quality of instruction, the lower the correlation between assessed student ability and the quality of their learning.

Of course, education involves more than teaching students how to survive in a changing job market. Equally important, is helping students develop means of making sense of today's information-rich environment. Knowledge is changing so rapidly that teaching an established body of facts is of little value.

What are the critical competencies and how do they develop? The skills most frequently identified as essential to society's economic success include among them the capacities for critical thinking and complex problem solving, respect for people different from oneself, principled ethical behavior, lifelong learning, and effective interpersonal interaction and teamwork.

How well do we guide our students' development? Academic advising is widely agreed by authorities to be a powerful tool for improving student success. Today, high-quality advising focuses on each student's specific developmental needs. High-quality advising is correlated with increases in students' self-esteem, satisfaction with college, and persistence in school. Yet national surveys reveal on most campuses, when it occurs at all, academic advising tends to be primarily clerical in character rather than developmental, focusing as it does on registration.

Some topics in this essay:
, Information Age, Diego I'm, Century Skills, White House, Information Officer, systemic reform, lifelong learning, academic advising, educational institutions, Bart Hays, 21st century skills, skills required, student outcomes, students learn, colleges universities, student learning, technical support,