It's been said before but I'll say it again. To rebuild this economy, we need workers who have the skills needed to be productive and innovative to lead us back to prosperity. But far too many young people drop out of school before even getting the chance to work. We need a strong education system to build a strong workforce. And it can't be done alone.
That's why I'm encouraged to learn of the latest research just released by our partners, America's Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University. The report, entitled "Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic," finds that progress is possible when resources and determination are applied, even in low-income, urban school districts.
While these numbers show improvement, we have a long way to go to get all of our young people ready for careers. With data in hand, we can now take the next step forward.
As with any good report, many solutions are provided. But the solution that attracted me the most was the proposed Civic Marshall Plan. Much like the Marshall Plan of the 1940s-50s, this plan is designed to rebuild and create, but this plan won't be about infrastructure. It will be about young people -- the future leaders of our country who will be the foundation for a prosperous economy. This plan will require coordination at the local level, evidence-informed strategies, data, and accountability structures, and will need support at the state and national levels. In other words, it will take a full scale commitment to propel this movement forward.
The best part about this plan is that we know it can work. The National Academy Foundation has been applying the same principles in our academies for nearly 30 years. Our career academies often start with determined teachers, career and technical directors, principals, and superintendents, and then spread to local business leaders who bring even more community members on board. In 30 years, we have seen some impressive results. 90 percent of our students already graduate from high school -- a goal the Obama administration is trying to reach for all American young people by 2020. Four out of five NAF graduates go on to post-secondary education. More than half of whom, are the first in their families to go to college. Fifty-two percent of NAF graduates earn bachelor's degrees in four years, compared with 32 percent of college-goers nationally.
Teachers are not solely responsible for educating young people. It is time to set agendas aside, place students and their success as our primary driver and invite the larger community to the table for the sake of tomorrow's economy.
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Education reform that will bring results necessitates developing alternative, non-college academic tracks for those students who have no interest or ability to succeed in abstract academic subjects.
Rigorous and vocation education will give many students opportunity and hope to gain necessary skills and quickly achieve gainful employment.
This will also take the pressure off those students who have the talent and drive to prepare for college.
At this time high school teachers are heroically struggling to work with groups of students some of whom actively impede class work due to boredom, disinterest or cognitive inability to keep up.
Some of those students would extremely enthused to become high paying nurses or certified auto mechanics and within 2 years make very decent wages, far surpassing those of a terminally under- under-employed PhD adjunct prof.
We don’t manufacture much of anything anymore not because we haven’t the people with skills to work in manufacturing, but because those in authority chose to seek short-term results rather than commit to investing in quality for the long-term.
Did the financial meltdown happen because we haven’t people with skills to be productive and innovative? No! It happened because those in authority sought to maximize their (personal) wealth by gaming the system.
Is our educational system in decline because of an absence of attention to results? No! We’ve placed so much attention on results (i.e. test scores) that all we do is train people to take the test.
It is reported that half of the incoming freshman to University of California require remedial courses even though they present excellent high school grades (see http://www.racetonowhere.com/ ).
It is time we stop training people for careers and begin educating them for life. (www.forprogressnotgrowth.com/2010/11/02/getting-education-right/ )
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