What’s Next for High School Students?
In September, as I travelled around the country visiting elementary schools, I blogged about the correlation between third grade reading levels and attendance. Now, back in the thick of our work in Philadelphia, particularly at the high school level, I am confronted with the disconnect between what our students learn in school and what employers need. I see clearly the correlation between third grade reading levels and high school achievement, but what about after high school?
Foundations, Inc. runs a program at Martin Luther King High School in Philadelphia, the Job Resource and Development Center, whose mission is to prepare students for the world of work and encourage them to pursue higher education to achieve the career of their choice. Yesterday we convened our first Business Advisory Board, a regional “mind trust” comprised of business and industry leaders. As we set priorities for the coming year, the same comments kept coming up again and again: “Our kids don’t know how to think,” and “They can’t pass a basic skills test.” Many of the observations reflected the need for a workforce that is creative, flexible, and dynamic and the inability of employers to fill that need. We owe it to students who want to become nurses to prepare them with high level biology and chemistry classes, train students to read at the high levels nursing programs will demand, and provide opportunities to participate in internships that allow for real world experience in the field. We also need to teach students to work hard, have strong communication skills, be on time, and do more than is often expected at school and the workplace.
Employers, even in this economy, are hungry for the workforce of the future. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, an advocacy organization focused on integrating 21st century skills into academics, has issued a call to action for schools, local, state, and the federal government to address 21st century skills in K-12 and higher education. As the job market becomes increasingly competitive, we have a responsibility to our young people to prepare them for the world they will enter, not the world as we know it, and certainly not the one most educators and policy-makers grew up in.
Our students are in a real crisis.Our brightest and most talented are unprepared for the future.I am so tired of hearing about MLK students who graduated in June who are sitting home watching TV all day.These aren’t the slackers or slow students,these are our brightest and most talented,including our valedictorian. We are failing these students! Please tell me how I can help change this course. I am currently mentoring our mentally gifted students.These bright,articulate students have no idea what they can do in the future.
Marsha schamber
December 4, 2008
I could not agree more, our students are in crisis. Achievement gap data confirms your assertion that our most talented students are unprepared for the future. The K-12 system as we know it is not preparing students to meet the challenges they will face. It is my hope that programs like the JRDC, Seeds for Learning, and art classes will teach students creativity and problem solving, skills they need to succeed in life. It pains me to hear that our best students are not in college due to academic or financial challenges. As you know, it will take the best efforts of the school and community to turn this tide. The fact that you are mentoring the students who are bright but need further guidance to find their way in life is exactly what you should be doing. You are right; so many students simply do not know what they are capable of! While no one person can change the system that fails these students, your willingness to mentor our best students is exactly what they need to envision a different future for themselves. Keep up the great work!
Rhonda Lauer
December 11, 2008
Your point is so important, that in the midst of economic challenges we must ensure that our education system helps kids thrive in the 21st century.
We must do more to help kids obtain the skills they need to be successful so that they graduate from high school first of all – a dismal on-time rate prevails in too many schools! – and that they reach graduation with capabilities like flexibility, self-motivation, responsibility and more.
I was glad to see that the Partnership for 21st Century Schools just offered recommendations to the new Obama administration that are a call to action for everyone who cares about preparing kids to lead successful lives.
Those of us in the after school field, like WINGS, also know the importance of long-term efforts like the Center for Afterschool Education’s initiative designed to upgrade the skills of the under-trained after school workforce with courses and certficate programs in after school education. The hours after school are a rich opportunity for helping kids get the social, emotional and academic skills they need to thrive in this new world of ours.
Ginny Deerin
December 11, 2008
Great article. Each year I look forward to the conference. This is my first time reading a blog.
SilverLady
February 3, 2009
It’s frightening to think that after 40 years I could go back to HS as a freshman and sit in classes that follow the same curriculum and course of study and feel right at home. Course, socially I’d be in “culture shock”. The point is, our schools- especially high schools- have not evolved. Kids text, twitter, “hook-up” and share on social networks. The slow pace of education with an emphasis on lecture, isolation and minute details doesn’t match their learning style or the needs of commerce today. Kids will continue to tune out and drop out until we, as educators and business leaders, change what we teach and how we teach it.
Barbara Geldersma
February 13, 2009