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For those of us 1,200 ISEN colleagues involved in improving pre-college
formal education, here's an article by Stan Litow, a colleague many of us
work with at IBM corporate affairs.  Good quotes we can use here.
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*Today's Students Stuck in Yesterday's Programs**

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**1st century students are caught in a 20th century system*

By *Stan Litow* <http://www.usnews.com/topics/author/stan_litow>

July 8, 2013 *RSS Feed * <http://www.usnews.com/rss/opinion>*Print
*<http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/07/08/how-to-reform-the-perkins-act-to-get-real-education-results_print.html>

As we pass through another celebration of  Independence Day, Americans can
marvel at the fact that – whether a war for independence, a civil war,
world wars or depressions large and small – the history of the nation has
been to turn adversity and despair into hope and promise. As we hopefully
emerge from the latest economic duress begun a half dozen years ago, we can
at least take some comfort from the signs of hope.

Housing starts, the stock market and some retail sales show signs of
promise. However, the skills crisis the nation faces is a problem  that has
yet to be addressed. The facts are that U.S. competitiveness largely rests
on our ability to confront and address the mismatch that currently exists
in the between the skills needed to fill 21st century jobs and the
education currently being provided to our young people.

Before heading into a debate over the future directions we must take, there
are some facts we need to review. First off, middle-skill jobs, those jobs
that carry middle-class wages and the promise of middle-class lifestyles
and the ability to climb the steps of the economic ladder, currently
provide employment to 29 million Americans. Labor Department projections
tell us that over the next 10 years these jobs are likely to increase by 50
percent, providing opportunity to about 15 million Americans. Increasing
high school graduation rates in a majority of U.S. states, coupled with the
availability of these jobs, ought to give us comfort.

But they don't. Currently the graduation rate for two-year community
colleges, even at the end of six years, hovers at about 25 percent. For the
vast majority of young people who drop out, their wages are likely to top
off at about $15 per hour for life, with many earning less.

In the middle of the 20th century, education policy in the U.S. changed
markedly, and those changes turned problems into economic opportunity for
generations of Americans. High school, which had been optional in virtually
all states, became mandatory, and high school completion rates skyrocketed.
Concurrently, the GI Bill of Rights offered higher education to scores of
returning veterans, and college completion skyrocketed as well.

We were at an inflection point, and millions of Americans found their
skills directly connected to the skills required for solid careers offering
economic hope and opportunity. But that hope depended on the two policy
changes outlined. Without them, it is questionable that their future and
the future of the U.S. would have been so bright.

[*See a collection of political cartoons on the
economy*<http://www.usnews.com/cartoons/economy-cartoons>
.]

*
There are two changes, if embraced at this point, that could provide that
kind of opportunity today. In the United States, what we used to refer to
as vocational education, of late called career and technical education, was
funded by federal, state and local education funds. The federal money, well
over $1 billion last year provided to states and localities via the Perkins
Act, provided a good deal of this support.

And yet it funded and supported education programs that look a lot like
what the U.S. embraced more than 50 years ago. These funds provided
equipment, instruction and related costs to connect education to careers,
but the careers they connect to often no longer exist. The Perkins Act is
up now for reauthorization and without spending new money, it could produce
new value for millions of students.

First, the funds ought to require business involvement to link education to
careers. Second, the funds ought to require connection to higher education
coursework and curriculums so students can have the workplace skills and
the educational preparation and credentials required. Finally, these funds
ought to require connection to where the jobs are and are likely to be, as
opposed to careers that no longer exist.

With these criteria and metrics that measure success and provide
accountability for results, we could gradually see this investment produce
returns in the form of well prepared young people able to take the jobs of
tomorrow. This modest change in Perkins Act funding, which currently is
distributed with no criteria and no metrics for performance, would be step
one.

Step two also requires a "Back to the Future" history lesson. In the
1960's, as part of efforts to help young college-age students afford their
tuition costs, which then were a fraction of today's costs, the federal
government passed the College Work Study Program, which survives to this
day. Last year, it too involved over $1 billion in federal funding allowing
students to earn, on average, $2,500 to offset tuition costs. These "jobs"
largely take place today in college cafeterias and college libraries,
providing little skills.coupled with the Perkins Act change outlined above
would take $2 billion in federal investment that currently misses the mark
and focus it squarely on the problem.

[*See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and
deficit.*<http://www.usnews.com/cartoons/deficit-and-budget-cartoons>
]

Why would this produce the needed results for our youth and address the
issue of skills and competitiveness? Here is our last proof point. In his
last State of the Union address, President Obama called out for praise the
success of a new model for career education. In New York City, under Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, a school called P TECH, a collaboration between IBM, the
Department of Education and the City University of New York, began
providing an six-year program for students where school, college and career
were integrated, and the end of the road would be an Associates Degree and
a promise to be first in line for jobs at IBM. The students who began this
program are already achieving unprecedented results, with most 10th graders
already achieving college readiness and nearly half obtaining more than 15
college credits.

Several schools in Chicago, under the leadership of Mayor Rahm Emanuel,
adopted the model; at Sarah Goode, a P TECH modeled school in Chicago,
attendance and achievement results are particularly strong. Interest in
replicating this model is beginning to take hold, and one Governor, New
York's Andrew Cuomo, has set forth a state-wide agenda to adopt this model
with schools starting in each of the state's 10 economic development
regions.

By cobbling together existing resources Cuomo, Bloomberg and Emanuel will
see to it that thousands of students get the opportunity to have a clear
pathway from school to career, with strong and challenging curriculum tied
to workplace skills, internship and job opportunities and mentorships
provided in an integrated fashion.

[*Read the U.S. News debate: Should the Lower Interest Rate on Stafford
Loans Be Extended?*<http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-the-lower-interest-rate-on-stafford-loans-be-extended>
]

This is a difficult time in the U.S., and it has been especially difficult
to achieve legislative agreement on even those actions that would benefit
the majority of Americans. But these are two changes that could unite
forces on both sides of the argument. Business groups, labor, student
organizations and education advocates of all stripes could embrace these
changes. And it is not a budget buster, and does not threaten anything
other than the status quo.

A review of the facts tells us that change is essential if we are going to
address the skills crises and make the U.S. more competitive. Competition
from India, China and elsewhere is real, and solutions born of the middle
of the 20th century are hardly going to cut it when juxtaposed against 21st
century facts. The time for change is upon us, and we can meet the
challenge.

*Stan Litow is IBM's vice president of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate
Affairs and president of the IBM International Foundation.*

__________________________________________________________

Donna Mattoon
Communications
Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs                     1 New Orchard
Road
IBM Corporation
        Armonk, NY, 10504

Office: 914-499-4603
Cell:    518-852-3113
[log in to unmask]




-- 
Interesting bit:
...*rural America...15% of the population ... spread across 72% of the land
area*
 Norma Cohen, Financial Times, 6/5/13.

Marilyn Hoyt
110 Sixth Avenue
Pelham, NY 10803
914-815-0671*


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