As a long-time educator, I am hearing resonant echoes in Rocky Mountain News editor John Temple's comments on the metamorphosis of the newspaper industry in reaction to new Internet-based media ("Reading future of newspapers," Aug. 18). He uses the terms wrenching change, hyper-local, providers of news, platform agnostic and multidimensional. He says that the future will see a few best-seller newspapers, but mostly more and smaller ones with more specialization. "Instead of producing one paper for everybody, a newsroom might produce 10 newspapers for 10 different audience types, or maybe more."

Is it any different for public schools?

There are a huge number of variables involved in teaching (and testing) children - diversity of culture, differences of income, language and vocabulary, family values, and so forth. Although schools can't control the variables brought through the schoolhouse door by children, schools can control how they adapt to these variables.

Moving from universal opportunity to universal proficiency does, indeed, involve wrenching change for schools. With the advancement of 21st century learning tools, schools are moving toward hyper-locality, and to personalizing curricula for all children, with an intriguing bonus of student engagement as they direct their own learning via self-paced online courses.

Schools are becoming even more multidimensional than in the past. The blurring of lines between secondary and post-secondary is a positive sign. Important questions relate to the speed at which Colorado can move its graduation paradigms from seat-time to proficiency, and to providing meaningful career and technical learning as part of the high school experience.

Public education must also become, if not platform agnostic, at least platform diverse. The means by which students are educated could be as varied as the students themselves. For many, this might mean traditional classrooms. For others, it might mean online classes. For still others, money-earning apprenticeships or other career opportunities. And for others, combinations of these methods . . . and more.

Educators will move from single delivery models to being "providers" willing to bring to bear all tools and platforms in behalf of reaching and teaching every student.

Young people who have hope for the future are more likely to strive for success. They will engage themselves in ways that overcome their obstacles. Schools can change to offer more hope; they can adapt to meet the needs of the times - and the future.

Timothy D. Snyder is a member of the governor's P-20 Council and Council on 21st Century Learning. He is the retired superintendent and executive director emeritus of Colorado Online Learning.