Report: Schools not aligned with economy Report: Schools not aligned with economy (August 11, 2004)

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

One way to start a conversation is to provoke one. The status quo gets some rough treatment in the recently released massive four-volume report on the state of California's government, and it may get people talking.

The 2,500-page report, prepared by a 275-member team appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was released August 3. One of the report's principal targets is the state's education system.

Citing a nonpartisan, nonprofit 2002 survey, for every 100 ninth-graders, 30 don't graduate from high school, 32 don't go on to college and of the 37 who do, only 19 graduate with an associate's degree within three years or a bachelor's degree within six years, the report said. There is also a mismatch between the skills learned in school and the skills needed for jobs that employers in the state are trying to fill, the report said.

High schools and colleges "do not track the overall and ongoing alignment of their programs with the state's economic and labor market needs to assure California's continued competitive advantage," the report said. "The state's education system can serve its workforce preparation function more effectively if it is synchronized with the state's economic growth and labor market trends."

Among the report's 33 recommendations for the education system are proposals to give the department a new name -- the Department of Education and Workforce Preparation -- and establish a council that would include top state education executives and a new Secretary of Labor and Workplace Development. The council's task: "Achieve consensus on the vision, goals, and strategies to ensure that California's education system produces the skilled workforce needed for the state's economic development."

The report also recommends raising the age for entering kindergarten by three months, replacing the 58 county offices of education with 11 regional offices, considering using electronic textbooks rather than paper, and balancing the focus in high school between college preparation and career technical education.

A delicate balance?

The report takes the state education system to task for encouraging all students to focus on coursework that fulfills University of California requirements.

Indeed, in a March 14 editorial in the Sacramento Bee, state Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell called for high schools to "begin requiring all students" to complete UC course requirements. Creating a less challenging curriculum for students "who show little early motivation or curiosity about possibilities beyond high school" condemns them to a life of limited opportunities, he said.

The report called such a policy flawed, saying that it "does not respond to the California economy and labor market, it risks increasing an already substantial dropout problem, and it ignores the fact that career technical education leads to college at least as often as the statutory high-school curriculum. Career technical courses can be challenging, demanding and rigorous, an effective pathway to both college and employment."

"This is an old discussion," said former M-A principal Eric Hartwig in an interview. "Various notions come around and go around. ... It's not a bad thing to be educated liberally, even though you might be doing a very narrow job." Mr. Hartwig noted the amateur scientists found among English parsons and stonemasons, and Shakespeare scholars among train conductors.

"I would worry if the (state) Department of Education were altered to give the impression that the sole purpose of education is to provide marketable skills," he said. Education provides "an intellectual and cultural scaffolding on which kids can hang their future experiences, their aspirations and their refined interests."

Mary Perry, the deputy director of EdSource, a nonprofit education research organization in Palo Alto, chose a Shakespeare course as a case in point. If a student doesn't care about Shakespeare and if studying his plays will drive that student away, options should be available, she told the Almanac.

Preparing students for the University of California is one approach to high-school, Ms. Perry said. Another is a "rigorous curriculum" with "applied course work that leads to a vocational track." "I can hook him there," she said of the vocational student. "I can keep him engaged. That's the other side of that argument."

"This is a very big debate in California right now," Ms. Perry said. "It's a question of what (the) kids need to be successful. ... There is lots of good-paying work that doesn't require a four-year degree but demands a set of skills that kids are not getting today." High schools need to do a better job, particularly for the two-thirds of students who won't go to college, she said. "We need to have this discussion."

The state report claims that only 22 percent of California's jobs require a bachelor's degree or higher, while 33 percent require education or training below a bachelor's degree. The other 45 percent require previous work experience or short-term training of one month or less.

Mr. Hartwig agreed on the need for the conversation. "We need to have options for them that are stimulating and meaningful." But he warned against the "slippery slope" that leads to tracking -- segregating students into college or vocational programs.

The two most frequent comments he said he hears from longtime M-A alumni are: "I should have studied harder," and "I didn't know I would like that (later in life)."

E-mail a friend a link to this story.