Yesterday we talked about the challenge of getting middle schoolers ready for Algebra. Unfortunately that is only the tip of the iceberg. As USA Today reports, one-third of high school graduates require remedial studies once they get to college. Now calculate what I just said. If we are losing one-third to high school dropouts and another one-third of those that actually graduate and go to college can't do entering freshman work, then how many people in the country are we preparing for next generation jobs? Sounds like a riddle doesn't it? The bottom line is this: we have got to get serious about education. I deliberately said education not the schools. The schools are definitely part of the process but we cannot rely on them to fix everything. As I told my audience last week in Paris, TX, the high school dropout rate is the community issue that came to school. As communities we have got to "invent" new ways to teach, learn, and prepare our students to compete globally...and locally. That is the rub for me. While we talk in grandiose terms about the global economy, many of our students can't even compete for highly technical jobs that are available locally. Look at what Illinois projects for the coming years in just those kind of jobs. Enough talk already. It is time for us to be realistic, face the facts that our children are unprepared for jobs and college, and get the lead out to do something. How much more evidence do we need?
Comments