FEBRUARY GORDON REPORT
A New
Series: "You Can’t Click for Brains"
This new series
explores the consequences of failing to recognize that maintaining and
advancing computer technology depends on raising the education and skill
levels of more Americans. The widespread illusion that your electronic device
provides all the data or answers you will ever need is causing many to question
the value of obtaining a good education, when, if fact, it is human
intelligence that produces technological innovation. If education falters, so
eventually will technology.
Part I: "A Ticket to Nowhere"
Claudia Chacon’s
two boys attend Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. While they get good grades
in English and math on their report cards, she was chagrined to learn that
neither of them met grade-level standards in these subjects on California’s
state-wide achievement tests. She is worried that their report cards inflate
what they actually have learned. Claudia thinks that her sons aren’t being
fully prepared for college or any other type of post-secondary learning.
Rather than equipping them for the future are they in fact being given a ticket
to nowhere?
The Los Angeles Times compared
district-wide spring 2022 grades in the city with the results of California’s
Smarted Balanced test scores. These findings were reported in a December 22,
2022, article:
- 73% of 11th-graders received grades of A, B or C in math; only
19% tested at grade-level.
- 79% of 8th-graders received grades of A. B, or C in math; only
23% tested at grade-level.
- 85% of 6th-graders received grades of A, B, or C in English;
only 40% tested at grade-level.
- 82% of 7th-graders received grades of A. B. or C in English,
only 43% tested at grade-level.
It appears that
report card grades are a smokescreen hiding serious gaps in student learning
skills and knowledge. Los Angeles it not an outlier; grade inflation is rampant
throughout the United States. Social promotion or advancing students by age
rather than through achieving appropriate grade-level academic attainment has
become common in U.S. elementary and secondary schools.
What does this
mean for the overall state of education across America? Our public and private
schools are central for developing the critical education mass need to support
the skill demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
A
Persisting Problem
Forty years ago,
President Ronald Reagan’s administration produced a report entitled “The Nation
at Risk.” It warned that U.S. schooling was producing “a rising tide of
mediocrity.” Has anything really changed?
Since 1990 the
U.S. Department of Education has conducted the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) commonly called the Nation’s Report Card. It tests
4th, 8th and 12th grade students in core academic subjects at 13,600
public and private schools in all 50 states. From 1990 to 2022 most student
test scores have been flat or rising very slowly. In reading and math only 33
to 37 percent of U.S. students are at or above their appropriate grade level.
This means that about 66 percent of students are not meeting grade-level
standards in reading and math. This was true even before COVID-19 closed most
schools across the nation. The 2022 NAEP testing of 4th and
8th graders in reading and math showed scores declined in both subjects at
both grade levels. A Stanford University report estimated that learning losses
could lower current students’ income over their lifetime by as much as 6
percent.
All of these test
results indicate that a significant proportion of U.S. students are not being
equipped for success for any type of post-secondary education including
certificate or apprenticeship programs, and 2- or 4-year college degrees.
Annually about 67 percent of high school graduates enroll in these programs
However, only about 33 percent graduate.
Higher
Education Disfunction
Our colleges and
universities are facing a demographic decline in the number of students at the
traditional age for beginning college studies. Therefore, the competition to
enroll and retain students has become more intense especially because federal
funding is linked to enrollment in credit-earning courses. For the past 40
years most colleges and universities offered remedial reading, writing, and
math programs to help poorly prepared students gain the skill levels needed for
the successful completion of college-credit courses. As federal funding does
not cover remedial courses, some institutions have curtailed or eliminated them
which means that such students are now immediately enrolled in credit courses.
Our informal
survey of college professors across the country indicates that many of these
students are failing in entry-level courses. Often college administrators are
pressuring professors to pass the students with a D-grade so they continue to
pursue studies at that institution. Also, courses are being dumbed down due to
skill deficiencies.
What We Face
Today and Tomorrow
The degrading of
educational standards at the K-!2 and post-secondary levels is having profound
consequences. Employers in many types of industries are reporting that finding
people with the skills needed to fill their vacant jobs is their greatest
problem. At the same time there is a significant number of people aged 18 to 65
who are not employed or seeking employment. Often in localities where the
unemployment level is high, there is an elevated level of criminal activities.
Better education of students and training in the workplace is not a total
solution to these issues. However, people with poor educational preparation or
no opportunity to be retrained with the skills needed for new technologies
often give up hope for a better future.
In his seminal
book, Future Shock,
Allen Toffler warned us about this problem. He predicted that the hardest part
of adapting to major technology change will be a societal acceptance of the
need for higher educational standards. We have now reached that crossroad.
Edward E. Gordon is the founder and president of Imperial
Consulting Corporation in Chicago. His firm’s clients have included companies of
all sizes from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations, U.S. government
agencies, state governments, and professional/trade associations. He taught in
higher education for 20 years and is the author of numerous books and articles.
More information on his background can be found at www.imperialcorp.com. As a
professional speaker, he is available to provide customized presentations on
contemporary workforce issues.
You are subscribed as: jim.mcshane@careersourcecapitalregion.com
To REMOVE or CHANGE this
address,
Imperial Consulting Corporation
220 E. Walton Place
Chicago, IL 60611
No comments:
Post a Comment