America’s Promise, Crisis In Education
(UPDATE for readers-there is the beginning of a good conversation here. Be sure to visit the related links, check out the comments to this post and add your thoughts!)
While I do have an Education category I don’t post nearly as much about education issues as I’d like. But this caught my eye. You business and industry leaders who frequent this blog, take note if you want to pay more than lip service to Corporate Social Responsibility. Get involved in Education….this is our future workforce that is at risk, and I at least want to do my part to raise the awareness level of the business community. Don’t let the downturn and high unemployment lull you to sleep. There is a real and significant near-term workforce shortage looming ahead. And what there is in the labor pool is woefully unprepared. We need to get serious!
Gen. Colin Powell was just in the news lamenting our poor (US) graduation rate. As this is right up my alley, I dug a little deeper. Powell and his wife are both involved in America’s Promise Alliance. The organization’s statement of purpose:
We are an alliance born of the recognition that when too many children are at risk, we are a nation at risk. With less than one-third of America’s young people receiving the essential resources they need for success, we’re witnessing today an increased risk of substance abuse, crime and school drop outs. We can’t afford this loss of human potential and reversing this tide must be a national priority.
One of the Alliance’s National Action Strategies is Ready for the Real World… Engage every middle school student in service-learning and career exploration by designing “real-world” experiences relevant to them.
Why is this important? From America’s Alliance: “Many students who ultimately drop out of school say they become disengaged during the middle-school years. The choices young people make at this age could set them on a course for active citizenship and engaged learning – or down a path of risky behavior and potential failure.”
The Alliance has partnered with Gallup, which conducted the Gallup Student Poll. See the Gallup Student Poll Report. Gallup is a leading proponent of engagement in the workplace, and the design of the study and content of this report shows it. I’ve posted elsewhere that a key issue in education is disengagement, of both students and teachers. (see Engagement Goes to School) We’re simply not hitting the right student hot buttons.
The issues facing education, and especially pertaining to engagement, are something I can really sink my teeth into as a business person, parent, grandparent, educator and camper who wants to leave this campground in better shape than I found it.
How about you?
I have great respect for Gen. Powell’s effort and the mission America’s Promise is trying to accomplish. However, as a teacher and otherwise, I’ve seen the effect of trying to coerce students to stay in school when school is making them miserable.
I feel it would be more effective to diversify the school system and provide more options for students who have trouble within our traditional school structure. Our one-size-fits-all classrooms are usually only suitable for students who would do fine no matter what environment they were learning in. A variety of alternative public schools with different methodologies, especially in low-income or troubled areas, might go some way toward solving this problem.
I also think there needs to be a shift in social attitudes supported by a change in the system, so that it is easier and more acceptable for students to leave school if they are unhappy and not learning, spend some time in the work force, and return to school whenever they are ready.
If disadvantaged students had a wider array of options when it came to their educational trajectory, I think many more of them would complete school.
I’ll cross-post this comment on my blog and see what others have to say!
Siobhan Curious
June 19, 2009 at 8:03 am
[...] are worse things than dropping out of school June 19, 2009 Craig Althof over at In Pursuit of Excellence emailed me the other day with an article from CNN about “dropout prevention programs” [...]
there are worse things than dropping out of school « classroom as microcosm
June 19, 2009 at 8:48 am
Here’s my post; let me know your thoughts.
http://siobhancurious.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/there-are-worse-things-than-dropping-out-of-school/
Siobhan Curious
June 19, 2009 at 8:52 am
Hi SC-good to see you and thanks for the on-target thoughts. My concern is that the efforts are not addressing the root cause(s) of the issues. High on that list is, I think, the engagement issue. So let’s do the 5-year-old routine….actually, the “Five Whys” root cause analysis tool. Ask “WHY” til you’re told by a parent (or boss) “because I’m the parent (or boss), that’s why!”
WHY are students disengaged?
Because they see little relevance in their coursework.
WHY is the coursework irrelevant (or, WHY do students feel the coursework is irrelevant?)
Because there is little direct connection to their needs, current or future.
WHY is there little connection?
Because the needs have not been clearly identified, then acted upon.
(ALSO, because there have been other priority targets set for academia…No Child Left Behind etc)
Also high on the list, as SC alludes to, is curriculum that does not strike a chord with all levels of achievers. God forbid if you are a highly gifted, creative student. Pink Floyd’s “Brick In the Wall” comes to mind.
Also, societal issues. Parents don’t have time to parent.
Also, business and industry’s lack of leadership in partnering with academia to make education value-adding. Come on, folks, we are stakeholders on several levels! Get your noses out of the annual reports.
Also, teacher incentives (or lack thereof). Bless their hearts, their rewards are NOT in line with the importance of their role!
I don’t have the time to really dive into this at the moment but will be back. PLEASE…educators and business persons alike, continue the thought process. I truly feel this issue is so much more critical than the general public cares to think. Ostriches?
Craig
Craig
June 19, 2009 at 12:41 pm
[...] America’s Promise, Crisis in Education. From America’s Alliance: “Many students who ultimately drop out of school say they become disengaged during the middle-school years. The choices young people make at this age could set them on a course for active citizenship and engaged learning – or down a path of risky behavior and potential failure.” [...]
Tribes, Society and Engagement « In Pursuit of Excellence
August 10, 2009 at 3:29 am