[Vision2020] Fwd: Reality of Poverty in Idaho
keely emerinemix
kjajmix1 at msn.com
Sat Nov 25 11:07:47 PST 2006
I'm still planning to be there, Bruce, and I appreciate the MCA's interest
in this.
keely
From: "Bruce and Jean Livingston" <jeanlivingston at turbonet.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fwd: Reality of Poverty in Idaho
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 10:56:03 -0800
Some of the ideas Jerry expresses here are going to be the topic of an MCA
forum on Monday night, Nov. 27 at 7 pm, at the 1912 Building on Third
Street. The topic is how to improve professional technical education in
Moscow.
Dr. Weitz has been a prolific commentator on local education issues. Many
other important opinion leaders from a variety of education, business,
legislative and community perspectives will be joining Jerry at the MCA
forum on Monday evening. Our goal is to work toward understanding current
educational offerings and ways to improve them, either within the current
financial constraints or by creatively finding new ways to avoid or
eliminate some of those constraints through public and private partnerships.
We hope to see many of you there to discuss this important community
issue.
The list of local leaders scheduled to attend includes Representative Tom
Trail, Representative Shirley Ringo, Dr. Jerry Weitz, Marsha Royer
(Schweitzer vice president of human resources), Barry Ramsay (owner of D8 in
Potlatch), Jeff Martin (CEO, Gritman Medical Center), Ken Medlin, Shirley
Greene (chair of Rotary Club's vocational education committee), Dean Paul
Rowland (UI College of Education), Dean Steve Daley-Laursen (UI College of
Natural Resources), Dean Rob Lohrmeyer (Lewis-Clark State College
Professional Technical Programs), Cindy Bechinski (Moscow School District
curriculum director), Bob Celebrezze (principal of Moscow High School),
Carole Jones (principal of Moscow's alternative high school), and other
administrators, teachers and school board members from Moscow School
District.
These community leaders and others in attendance will participate in an
in-depth discussion that seeks innovative solutions to the quandary of
improving educational offerings within or by lessening current budgetary
constraints. The community discussion follows an initial presentation by
three panelists, Mike Rush, the Idaho State Director of Professional
Technical Education, Paul Kimmell, Executive Director of the Moscow Chamber
of Commerce, and Jim Gregson, Chair of the University of Idaho Dept. of
Adult, Career and Technology Education.
Here is an article previewing the forum from the Friday edition of the
Moscow-Pullman Daily News:
Panel To Explore Tech Ed Options
By Kate Baldwin, Daily News staff writer
Friday, November 24, 2006 - Page Updated at 11:53:58 AM
Debby LeBlanc remembers a time when Moscow High School had more
professional
technical classes available through its marketing department as well as
its
agriculture department.
The business teacher said those programs were cut years ago, and the
state's
newest changes to the education system now have her worried that her
business program might go someday too.
"It's really nobody's fault," she said. "We're being forced into a road
with
all academia."
The recent changes in high school graduation requirements increase the
number of required math and science courses. When overall course
requirements increase, the number of student-chosen electives decrease.
Along with those changes, the students' opportunities for electives are
limited by the need to take extra classes for remediation in order to
pass
the ISAT, or the Idaho Standards Achievement Test.
LeBlanc said people are trying to stop the loss of professional-technical
classes, but she doesn't know if that is possible.
She said she is going to attend a forum on Monday about
professional-technical education to find out more.
The Moscow Civic Association is hosting the event, "Education for a Flat
World: Creating Opportunities for Moscow Students and Business." It will
bring three panelists to talk about the issues that face professional
technical education programs in agriculture, mechanics and shop, business
and accounting, and computer applications, among others.
"If people have an interest in making learning more relevant, interesting
and engaging to youth, I would encourage them to attend," said Jim
Gregson,
a panelist and the chairman of the Department of Adult, Career and
Technology Education at the University of Idaho.
Gregson agreed with LeBlanc that school districts have had to make very
difficult decisions as resources have become increasingly scarce.
He suggested that the area universities, businesses and the schools could
merge their resources.
Internships and job shadows are just a few ways to provide students the
hands-on experience and applied learning that are the hallmarks of
professional technical education, he said.
Gregson said he hopes to find out the level of support across the
community
for reviving and modernizing these programs. He also is interested to
find
"in a pragmatic sense - how we can make one or more of these efforts
happen."
Panelist and Moscow Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Paul Kimmell
said
attendees of the event will be able to participate in the discussions.
"What we're hoping to do is flush out some possible actions in the
future,"
he said.
Kimmell said the Moscow School District is open to introducing new
programming but it remains "very constrained financially and
curriculum-wise."
"They are challenged to make any room in their existing school schedule,"
he
said.
The system is doing a good job now, Kimmell said, but that doesn't mean
there can't be more improvements.
"We've got all the right people here," he said. "It's not going to happen
over night, that's why we have got to keep raising the issue and raising
the
awareness."
INFO BOX
The Moscow Civic Association's Forum on Professional Technical Education
* WHAT: A three-person panel will discuss enhancing professional
technical
education in the area. The panel members are Mike Rush, Idaho state
director
of professional technical education; Jim Gregson, chairman of the
University
of Idaho's Department of Adult, Career and Technology Education; and Paul
Kimmell, executive director of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce.
* WHEN: 7 p.m., Monday
* WHERE: 1912 Center, Moscow
Kate Baldwin can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, and by e-mail at
kbaldwin at dnews.com.
Bruce Livingston
MCA President
----- Original Message -----
From: Jerry Weitz
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 11:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fwd: Reality of Poverty in Idaho
At 11:29 PM 11/24/06, Gerald Weitz wrote:
Skills (Learning by doing) education: A thumbnail perspective
Changing American secondary education around the needs of the students in
the present and the future requires honesty, courage, and a willingness to
accept that the status quo is not working optimally. Real change, made for
the right reasons and toward the right mission, will yield dramatically
better results and a bright future for all our young people, for our
national economy, and our cultural well being.
In a recent speech Bill Gates made a provocative case about American high
schools. "American high schools are obsolete. By obsolete, I mean that our
high schools, even when they are working exactly as designed, cannot teach
our kids what they need to know today. Training the workforce of tomorrow
with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today's
computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. It's the wrong tool for the times."
WSU's President Rawlins, in his recent State of the University speech,
detailed the effects for the University in having to remediate math and
communication skills that should have been accomplished by k-12. Too many
Colleges and Universities grapple with the same dilemma.
Many students are currently disengaged and leaving, or have already left
the traditional high school. Idaho's graduation rate is 84% and MSD's, as
reported, is 86%. Many go to college only to drop out. UI is focusing on
retention as the University has had an almost 1100 student enrollment
decline in the past two years.
Educational reform has been an enduring topic since the beginning of the
republic. At the start of the twentieth century our system was the best in
the world and had the longest school year based on the 180-day agricultural
model. We are a country that believes in positive and forward change.
Everyone gets a chance and the tools to succeed.
By mid century, with a strong influx of skilled labor from Europe,
America was at the top. In 1950, America represented 75% of the world's
economic pie. 30% of our workforce in 1950 could join the middle class by
working at a factory. Yet, danger loomed with the Soviets going nuclear, the
fall of China to the communists, Europe requiring the Marshall Plan to avoid
collapse, and the Korean War. To beat the communists, America (starting
with President Truman) invested in our colleges and universities at an
unprecedented level. America transferred its research, technology, and
systems freely to the non-communist world. The GI bill, instituted in 1944,
and the tremendous growth of public colleges/universities served America
well. Focus was not on k-12. Thus other nations observed our k-12 system
and vastly improved their own with higher expectations and standards.
Today, our research universities are unreservedly the best in the world.
In a recent Economist feature reviewing the importance of education as a
driver of prosperity, the American community college was ruled as a
distinctly American world-class innovation. America's economy is the most
successful in the world, even with Katrina, the challenge of Iraq, and the
national debt. We are dynamic, creative, entrepreneurial, flexible, and
innovative. In every field, U.S. firms are at or near the frontier of
technological advance. Unfortunately, our high schools are not the world's
best.
Despite 25 years of strong competition from Asia and Europe, our giant
economy has remained resurgent. U.S. unemployment is one of the lowest in
the world. The advantages of this onrush of technology are obvious. But
there are major social costs as well. What is called a two-tiered labor
market has evolved in which those at the bottom lack enough skills and
education to compete, failing to get pay raises, health coverage and other
benefits. In the lower and middle-income quintiles stagnation or declines
in incomes have become the norm. The days of checking into the local
factory and entering the middle class is in steep decline. For example, GM
and the UAW have recently agreed to start workers at $12/hour with
diminished health benefits. Further, downward adjustments may still be
required according to both GM and the UAW. Non-skilled labor is not the
future. Adjustments in the minimum wage, while meritorious and fair, may be
helpful for some, however, in many cases worsen the hiring levels of the
non-skilled/inexperienced. (An unintended opposite effect).
There has been a strong k-12 movement to catch up to our international
peers in science, math and communication skills. Standards and testing have
been instituted. Spending levels on education in the US are among the
highest in the advanced economies. Public sentiment in Idaho is not on the
side of just adding more money into the system as evidenced by the defeat of
prop. 1. (Although Latah County bucked the trend).
Many commentators assert that Globalization will transform the world
economy in the 21st century, leaving no national products, no national
corporations, no national industries and no national economies. To succeed
in the global marketplace, countries will have to depend entirely on the
skills of their inhabitants, and will have to deal with powerful external
forces that could create an ever widening gulf between skilled, globally
aware citizens and a growing unskilled out-of touch underclass. The slogan
"think globally, act locally" may prove to be the correct framework for our
k-12's prosperity and our rural region's future.
Learning by doing (skills) is not a new concept. During the Dark Ages the
city states (Genoa, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Milan) of Italy forwarded
education and skills. Italy became very prosperous. For example,
eyeglasses became a defining industry for Venice during the dark ages. Even
today, the best eyeglass frames come from Italy. From Dark Age Italy,
western philosophy of individual betterment through education and skills
formed the basis of democratic capitalism, individual rights, higher
education, trade, and property rights.
Resistance to change is not new. For example, Isaac Newton pushed
against the establishment by forwarding the concept that math ought to be
taught to orphans. John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix, was
literally discredited and run out of California for forwarding the idea that
we're entering the computer age and non-traditional educational models must
be employed for non-traditional students.
Recommendations:
1) Increase the number of days (not necessarily hours/day)
instruction. Our major
trading partners average 211 days. MSD is about 170days. Canada has a
200-day school year and consistently is in the top 4 in science, math and
communication skills far outpacing U.S. counterparts. Thus the obstacle of
not having enough time can be overcome.
2) Increase teacher training outside of instructional days (UI could
be pivotal). Thus having a qualified staff is obtainable.
3) Institute skills curriculum for the non-college bound (Recall
Virginia under former Mark Warner offered 50 certifications in 50 trades at
Virginia's community colleges for the non-college bound. Virginia's
graduation rate = 94.6%. Idaho, by its size and population, must co-use
local high schools as community colleges. Ely Nevada High School serves as
a high school/community college. Recall that community colleges evolved from
local Boards of Education. The demand for workers with postsecondary degrees
and certifications has outpaced the supply. Jobs that require an
associate's degree are growing the fastest and those requiring professional
doctorates and Ph.D.'s are the second fastest.
4) Study the Finnish model: Finland, with 5.3 million, has one of
the best-educated workforces in the world. In a land of snow and ice, 1/3rd
of its landmass in the artic, 60,000 major lakes and zillions of B-52 sized
mosquitoes, Finland has a remarkable economy. (from cell phones to high end
medical/dental equipment.)
Finland consistently scores in the top 3 internationally in science and
math.
Ireland has one of the most educated workforces and it has an impressive
high tech economy. New Zealand has rebound from a low performer to a high
performer in science and math.
5) Establish a system where every student should be led through a
process of academic and career awareness exploration, and planning. Make
sure our system re-engages/reconnects students that are about to drop out or
have. Extending the school year would help.
6) Be resurgent as the US economy. Present a definitive plan to the
patronage, build alliances with the UI, private schools, and the business
community, then run a supplemental levy. Prop one was too broad and
non-specific. The public is not at all convinced that adding money is the
sole answer. Make our system the best and accept no less. Think Globally,
Act Locally.
Gerald Weitz, D.D.S.
=======================================================
List services made available by First Step Internet,
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
http://www.fsr.net
mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================
_________________________________________________________________
Share your latest news with your friends with the Windows Live Spaces
friends module.
http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://spaces.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mk
More information about the Vision2020
mailing list