Post K-12 Readiness Research Post K-12 Readiness Research

Research What’s Happening? What Do US Employers Need? What Do Colleges Need? What are Future Needs? How do we solve this?

What’s Happening? We have low expectations for American students: ◦American students rank 25 th in math and 21 st in science compared to students in 30 industrialized countries ◦America’s top math students rank 25 th out of 30 countries when compared with top students elsewhere in the world ◦By the end of 8 th grade, U.S. students are two years behind in the math being studied by peers in other countries ◦Sixty eight percent of 8 th graders can’t read at their grade level, and most will never catch up.

What’s Happening? Too many students drop out. More than 1.2 million students drop out of school every year. The national high school graduation rate is only 70 percent Graduation rates are much lower for minority students.

What’s happening? Dropping out has dire consequences for the dropout... The poverty rate for families headed by dropouts is more than twice that of families headed by high school graduates Nearly 44 percent of dropouts under age 24 are jobless, and the unemployment rate of high school dropouts older than 25 is more than three times that of college graduates. Over a lifetime, dropouts earn $260,000 less than high school graduates The health of an 18-year-old high school dropout is similar to that of a more educated person over two decades older

What’s Happening? Dropping out has dire consequences for society… Dropouts from the class of 2007 will cost our nation more than $300 billion in lost wages, lost taxes and lost productivity. ◦Dropouts contribute about $60,000 less in federal and state income taxes. Each cohort of dropouts costs the U.S. $192 billion in lost income and taxes. ◦Sixty five percent of U.S. convicts are dropouts and lack of education is one of the strongest predictors of criminal activity. ◦A dropout is more than eight times as likely to be in jail or prison as a high school graduate and nearly 20 times as likely as a college graduate. ◦For each additional year of schooling, the odds that a student will someday commit a crime like murder or assault are reduced by almost one-third. ◦Each year, the U.S. spends $9,644 per student compared to $22,600 per prison inmate. ◦Increasing the high school completion rate by just one percent for all men ages 20 to 60 would save the U.S. up to $1.4 billion per year in reduced costs from crime.

Employers Why are Employers concerned? Over half (57 percent) of U.S. CEOs report education and workforce preparedness is a “very important” or “most important” policy issue. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent)of those CEOs who report having difficulty finding qualified workers in the U.S. rate global competitiveness as “very important” or “most important.” Between 2000 and 2010, the number of workers ages will decrease by 10 percent and those aged 16–24 will increase by 15 percent Between 2000 and 2015, about 85 percent of newly created U.S. jobs will require education beyond high school

Employers What Deficiencies do Employers See? In collaboration, The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management conducted an in-depth study of the corporate perspective on the readiness of new entrants into the U.S. workforce by level of educational attainment. Four hundred thirty-one employers, representing a combined workforce of over 2million U.S. based employees, responded to the survey (a response rate of 4.8 percent). Underwriters: ◦ Dell ◦ Ford Foundation ◦ MiroSoft ◦ Pearson Education ◦ Phillip Morris ◦ State Farm

Employers Employers See Inadequacies in both Basic skills and Applied Skills Applied Skills refer to those skills that enable new entrants to use the basic knowledge they have acquired in school to perform in the workplace. Applied skills include those based on cognitive abilities such as Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, as well as more social and behavioral skills such as Professionalism/Work Ethic. Some of the other applied skills, such as Oral Communications and Teamwork/Collaboration, combine both cognitive abilities and social skills. Basic Knowledge refers to (1) basic skills—English Language (spoken), Reading Comprehension, Writing in English, and Mathematics, and 2) other academic subjects: Science, Government, Economics, Humanities/Arts, Foreign Languages, and History/Geography. These are the basic skill and knowledge areas normally acquired in school and, for the most part, are the core academic subjects identified by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Employers Many Report “Deficiencies” in 3 Basic Skills: 1. Writing in English—72.0 percent of employer respondents rate new entrants with a high school diploma as “deficient.” Almost half (49.4 percent) of them say basic Writing in English, including grammar and spelling, are “very important” for high school graduates’ successful job performance. 2. Mathematics—53.5 percent of employer respondents report high school graduate entrants as “deficient.” Almost one-third of respondents (30.4 percent) say knowledge of Mathematics is “very important” for this group of entrants. 3. Reading Comprehension —38.4 percent of employer respondents report high school graduate entrants as “deficient.” Nearly two- thirds of respondents (62.5 percent) say Reading Comprehension is “very important” for high school graduate entrants’ success in the workforce.

Employers Many Report “Deficiencies” 3 Applied Skills: 1. Written Communications—80.9 percent of employer respondents report high school graduate entrants as “deficient.” More than half (52.7 percent) say Written Communications, which includes writing memos, letters, complex reports clearly and effectively, is “very important” for high school graduates’ successful job performance 2. Professionalism/Work Ethic—70.3 percent of employer respondents report high school graduate entrants as “deficient.” Professionalism/Work Ethic, defined as “demonstrating personal accountability, effective work habits, e.g., punctuality, working productively with others, time and workload management” is rated “very important” for high school graduates’ successful job performance by 80.3 percent of employer respondents. 3. Critical Thinking/Problem Solving—69.6 percent of employer respondents report high school graduate entrants as “deficient.” More than half of the employer respondents (57.5 percent) indicate that Critical Thinking/Problem Solving abilities are “very important” to successful performance on the job for this group of new entrants.

Employers Rank Skill 1. Oral Communications* % 2.Teamwork/Collaboration* Professionalism/Work Ethic* Written Communications* Critical Thinking/Problem Solving* Writing in English English Language Reading Comprehension Ethics/Social Responsibility* Leadership* Basic and applied skills rank ordered by percent rating as “very important.” Number of respondents varied for each question, ranging from 382 to 409. * Indicates an applied skill 11. Information Technology Application* Creativity/Innovation* Lifelong Learning/ Self Direction* Diversity* Mathematics Science Foreign Languages Government/Economics History/Geography Humanities/Arts

Colleges What Colleges Want From Applicants: Grades in college prep courses (83.4% of colleges evaluate this) Strength of curriculum (65.7%) SAT or ACT scores (59.3%) Grades in all courses (46.2%) Essay or writing sample (26.6%) Student's demonstrated interest in the college (23.0%) Class rank (21.8%) Counselor recommendation (19.4%) Teacher recommendation (19.0%) Subject test score (AP, IB) (9.6%) Source: want-f_n_ html#s451126&title=10_Subject_test want-f_n_ html#s451126&title=10_Subject_test e/whatcollegeslookfor e/whatcollegeslookfor

Colleges How do we prepare students for college to address college admittance criteria? Parent Accountability (Better Parents Article!) Ingrain values into students…. ?Grit Perseverance Environment expects that every child will go to college Teachers relate lessons to applicable “real-world” scenarios (magnet schools) ?Seed School Info ?

Future Needs Emerging Content Areas ◦ Make appropriate choices concerning health and wellness, e.g., nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, work-life effectiveness % ◦ Exercise personal financial responsibility, e.g., balancing a checkbook, budgeting skills, retirement planning ◦ Use entrepreneurial skills to enhance workplace productivity and career options ◦ Understand economic issues and the role of business in the U.S. and global economy ◦ Demonstrate understanding of global markets and the economic and cultural effects of globalization ◦ Participate effectively in community and government as an informed citizen ◦ Use non-English languages as a tool for understanding other nations, markets, and cultures

How do solve this? Create the right learning environment ◦ Parent Accountability ◦ Teacher enthusiasm ◦ Longer school days/year –round school ◦ Every child believes they will go to college (seed schools)