Posted by: By Beverly Wheeler
As a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have unveiled the Race to the Top initiative. The $4.35 billion fund is intended to help revitalize and reform the American education system and challenge states to address the four following areas:
· Adopting benchmarked standards and assessments
· Recruiting and retaining effective teachers and principals
· Building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices
· Turning around lowest-performing schools
As you can imagine, states are scrambling to get a piece of this grant at a time when approximately 48 of the 50 states are dealing with significant budget cuts and deficits. However, there’s only so much to go around and to qualify each state is required to apply individually for the grants and will be considered based on how well their applications integrate and address the four areas above.
There are just a few things that states should remember as they begin the application process and struggle to determine what policies to enact, which paths to follow to improve schools and get students passionate and active in their educations.
At the end of the day, education not only opens children’s minds, but teaches the skills and abilities they will need later in life when they enter the workforce. Tailoring the educational experience to the needs of the job market would provide a significant boost to both the American education system, and an American workforce that CEOs themselves claimed is becoming diluted.
By investing in workforce intelligence and aiming to better understand the skills needed in the current and future job market, states can tailor the educational experience to prepare young students for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
A great example of this are STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, math), which are imperative in today’s hi-tech and hi-demand job market, but seeing decreasing emphasis and interest in today’s schools. If a state knows that engineering, research or other skilled positions are available in the job market, or if a state is actively looking to attract more hi-tech jobs, getting students interested and educated in STEM subjects should become a main priority.
Equally important for improving low-performing schools is getting students excited and invested in their education. During the course of a student’s academic career, the concept that school is preparing them for their future is sometimes forgotten. An investment in programs and initiatives designed to highlight the fact that education is the first step towards their future careers and employment can have a significant impact in getting students more passionate and active in their educations.
Monster’s very successful Making It Count Program is a great example of how these initiatives can provide positive results and embolden students to work to become better, more invested students. Making It Count is a series of educational, mandatory presentations to high school and college students across the country that help to focus students on their goals and ensure that they’re making the most of their education. There are more than 10,000 of these live, interactive programs held per year that reach over 1 million students and challenge them to set and reach their goals.
Identifying which knowledge areas and skills are important for future employment and driving students to reach their goals are imperative to revamping and improving any educational system. As states work to identify which road to the top to take with their education system, it’s important to remember that future careers depend on the education of today, and that students need to be reminded of that fact to be driven to succeed.
Fri, Dec 4, 2009
Education