The purpose of education is to prepare people for a changing economy.

1
The purpose of education is to prepare people
for a changing economy.

• Competitiveness
• 21st Century Skills
• Globalization
• Workforce Readiness
• Innovation

2
Education Pays
3
The Great Divide, 2004-14Jobs in the Top 30 on
Both Lists

• Job Number Rate
  Pay Education
• College Teacher 524 32.2 VH
  Doctorate
• Home Health Aide 350 56.0 VL S
  OJT
• Personal Care Aide 287 41.0 VL S
  OJT
• Software Engineers 222 48.4 VH
  Bachelors
• Medical Assistants 202 52.1 L
  M OJT
• Computer Systems
• Analysts 153
  31.4 VH Bachelors

4
Why are we losing medium skilled jobs and what
does it mean for education?

• How Computerized Work and Globalization Shape
  Human Skill Demands
• Frank Levy , MIT
  
• Richard J. Murnane
• Harvard University

5
Two kinds of Rules

• Rules-based logic ( Does this credit card number
  match a number in the airline reservation data
  base? Yes/No)
• Pattern recognition (Using statistics to estimate
  the risk of a making a housing loan based on
  responses to 14 questions on an application form)

6
Hollowing Out the Job Market
7
The Changing Job Market
8
What state and federal policy encourages.

• Breadth, not depth, in a narrow range of
  disciplines
• Standardized test taking skills
• Rules-based skills
• Facts and information

9
What the economy wants

• Knowing more about the world
• Portable Skills problem solving, creativity,
  innovation
• Interdisciplinary thinking, seeing relationships
• Critical thinking, assessing the quality of
  information.
• Emotional Intelligence, people and communication
  skills

10
Education and the EconomySome Players

• Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• Business Roundtable
• The Education for Innovation Initiative
• Business Coalition for Student Achievement
• Center on Education and the Economy
• New Commission on the Skills of the American
  Workforce

11
Partnership for 21st Century Skills

• Member organizations include (among others)
• Adobe Systems Incorporated, American
  Association of School Librarians, Apple,
  BellSouth Foundation, Corporation for Public
  Broadcasting, Dell, Educational Testing Service,
  Ford Motor Company Fund, Intel, McGraw-Hill
  Education, Microsoft Corporation, National
  Education Association, Oracle Education
  Foundation, Texas Instruments, Verizon.
• Funded by the U.S. Department of Education

12
21st Century Skills

• Information and communication skills
• Thinking and problem-solving
• Interpersonal and self-direction skills
• Global awareness
• Financial, economic and business literacy, and
  developing entrepreneurial skills to enhance
  workplace productivity and career options
• Civic literacy

13
Business Roundtable

• 160 member companies represented by their chief
  executive officers.

14
Business Roundtable Members

• 4.5 trillion in annual revenues
• More than 10 million employees.
• Nearly a third of the total value of the U.S.
  stock market
• Over 40 percent of all corporate income taxes
  paid
• Paid 112 billion in dividends to shareholders
  and the economy in 2005. 
• Give more than 7 billion a year in combined
  charitable contributions -- nearly 60 of total
  corporate giving.

15
Business Roundtable

• Standards, assessments, accountability, teacher
  quality, parental involvement, school autonomy,
  learning readiness, school safety and discipline,
  and technology.

16
A Few State Affiliates of Business Roundtable

• A Education Foundation (Alabama)
  www.aplusala.org
• Prichard Committee (Kentucky) www.prichardcommitte
  e.org
• Partnership for Successful Schools (Kentucky)
  www.partnershipforsuccessfulschools.org
• Council for A Better Louisiana www.cabl.org
• Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education
  www.mainecee.org
• MS Economic Council www.msmec.com
• Mississippi Public Education Forum www.mec.ms
• Public School Forum of North Carolina
  www.ncforum.org
• New Mexico Business Roundtable for Educational
  Excellence www.nmbree.org
• Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition
  www.obecinfo.com
• Tennessee Business Roundtable www.tbroundtable.org

17
Tennessee Business Roundtable

• The Tennessee Business Roundtable believes
  that the future of Tennessees economy is
  directly tied to the health and performance of
  our public education system. Without a
  better-educated and well-prepared workforce, we
  cannot expect to attract the high-tech industries
  of the future. It is imperative that businesses
  across the state expand their partnerships and
  alliances with public education. We can no longer
  sit back and criticize the system without being
  part of the solution.

18
Center for Education and the Economy

• It helped shape state standards for over half of
  all public school students.
• Played important role in the framing of the Goals
  2000 legislation, the National Skills Standards
  Act, the School to Work Act and the Workforce
  Investment Act, as well as legislation in over a
  dozen states

19
Center for Education and the EconomyState
Programs

• Americas Choice -- carefully aligned
  instructional materials, assessments, management
  systems, professional development, coaching and
  consulting.
• Works with many states on Workforce Development
  programs, including AL, KY, LA, ME, MS, OK, SC
  among others.

20
New Commission on Skills and the American
Workforce

• Bipartisan
• scholars
• business leaders
• school chancellors
• education commissioners
• former cabinet secretaries
• governors

21
New Commission on Skills of the American
Workforce

• Funders
• The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Lumina Foundation for Education
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

22
First Commission on Skills of the American
Workforce -- 1990

• Worldwide market developing for low-skill labor
• U.S. should abandon low-skill market.
• Compete in market for high value-added products
  and services
• Adopt internationally benchmarked standards for
  education.

23
The Problem According to Tough Choices or Tough
Times

• Teachers are recruited from among the less able
  of the high school students who go to college.
• We waste resources by failing to focus on early
  education.
• Standards movement has helped but gains have been
  modest compared to increased costs.
• Growing inequality in family incomes is
  contributing heavily to the growing disparities
  in student achievement.

24
The Problem According to Tough Choices or Tough
Times

• Teacher pay system rewards length of service.
  Does not attract the best college students or
  reward the best teachers.
• Testing system rewards students good at routine
  work. Does not encourage students to display
  creative and innovative thinking and analysis.
• School Bureaucracy -- people who have the
  responsibility do not have the power, and the
  people who have the power do not have the
  responsibility.

25
Tough Choices or Tough Times

• There is not enough money available at any level
  of our intergovernmental system to fix this
  problem by spending more on the system we have.
  We can get where we must go only by changing the
  system itself.

26
The Solution According to Tough Choices or Tough
Times

• Get teachers from top one-third of high school
  students who go to college.
• Early childhood education for all 3 and 4 year
  olds.
• More money for poverty students.
• Develop testing systems that require construction
  of answers.
• Every school must affiliate with a helping
  organization -- teacher training institution,
  profit or non-profit organization to provide
  assistance.

27
The Solution According to Tough Choices or Tough
Times

• School boards no longer own schools. They
  contract to operate them, keep data, report to
  the state.
• Schools operated by independent contractors,
  maybe teacher-owned companies.
• Teachers employees of the state.
• Schools funded directly by state using pupil
  weighting system.
• College board exams for every student by 10th
  grade or earlier. Must pass to get out of high
  school.

28
The Solution According to Tough Choices or Tough
Times

• Choice of any contract school in the district.
• Every adult worker has right to get the education
  needed to pass the College Board Exam.
• Personal Competitiveness Accounts created at
  birth and funded by federal government, with
  voluntary contributions by the individual and
  employers. Used to pay tuition for continuous
  upgrades in education after high school.
• Regional Economic Development Authorities

29

• What is YOUR vision of the role of schools and
  education in the economy?

30
Some questions

• What is the role of government in job creation,
  wage regulation, health care and retirement?
• Can the earth sustain a global standard of
  consumption equal to that of the U.S.?
• Is that all there isto education?

31
The purpose of education is to prepare people
for a changing economy. Or The purpose of
education is to prepare people to change society,
to overcome injustice, and to improve the human
condition.
32
Education and the Just Economy

• Competitiveness with Cooperation
• 21st Century Skills with 21st Century
  Consciousness
• Globalization with Social Responsibility
• Workforce Readiness with Workforce Organizing
• Innovation with Loyalty and Security