Today's students ill-prepared for life

Today's students may be the best educated, but they are the least-prepared for life after school, a prominent education reformer warned audiences on Monday.

Recognized nationally for his ability to move education systems toward more rigorous learning, Bill Daggett, founder and chairman of the International Center for Leadership in Education, said Missouri's schools are good, but not great.

And he warned it will take great schools to avoid the abyss - a gaping chasm of poverty and low wages - that awaits today's young people.

Daggett delivered his remarks to two sets of Jefferson City Public School educators and was the keynote speaker at a luncheon for the city's civic leaders Monday.

Although Daggett's clarion call hardly fell on deaf ears, many left the meeting wondering if Jefferson City will be able to summon the resolve it will take to change how students are educated.

He noted his group examined 47,000 schools across the United States to determine the 75 best schools in the nation.

"We didn't find a single school .... a single finalist ... in Missouri," he warned.

To emphasize his point, Daggett shared a litany of alarming statistics illustrating how how poorly American teens are performing. Quoting former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he noted 70 percent of young American are no longer eligible to serve in the U.S. military, either because they lack a high school diploma, failed to pass an academic admissions exam, are too obese, struggle with substance abuse or have been incarcerated.

Daggett was seated with a group of corporate leaders who also heard Rice's remarks.

"They were livid," he recalled. "They said: "If they're not ready for the military, what makes anyone think they can do well in corporate America?"

Daggett said between 70 and 80 percent of young Americans are headed for public assistance, and it's "unsustainable" as a nation. And he warned that increasingly, people in their 20s are failing to leave the comfort and security of their parents' homes.

He proved his point by asking the room full of civic leaders - many of whom appeared to be in their 50s and 60s - if they still had children living at home. Many raised their hands.

He said the dawn of the information age has altered almost every profession and industry - with the exception of education. He warned that just as ATMs put millions of bank clerks out of jobs in the the last two decades, new computer software is on the cusp of putting other professions - telemarketers, accountants, technical writers - out of business, too.

But in the classrooms, teachers are still operating much as they have for decades. He argued that school culture has become intransigent at a time when change is necessary. And leaders who try to implement changes often only encounter noisy, obstinate rebuttals.

"Try to change the busing schedule? Try to change the room a teacher teaches in?" he asked rhetorically. "Schools haven't changed."

Daggett noted too often America is modeling European traditions, when we should be examining how up-and-coming economies - like Brazil, Vietnam and China - educate their students.

"Our problem is other nations are passing our nation by and a lot of it has to do with our education system," he said.

Daggett also warned too many high school students are graduating unprepared for college-level work, which means remediation is required for them to be successful. And he noted that the dropout rates for college students - 44.5 percent of students in two-year institutions and 34.8 percent in four-year institutions - are too high. And he complained that college tuition rates have skyrocketed - they're up some 1,200 percent since 1980.

He noted he shares such statistics not to shock or demoralize listeners, but to galvanize them to action.

"We want you talking in your community," he said. "We have to create a culture that says, "We need change.'"

He noted that America's soft economy isn't entirely due to a lack of jobs but a lack of skilled labor. He noted 13 million Americans are currently unemployed, but 3.8 million jobs in the U.S. remain unfilled.

"We have a skills gap," he said. "What you major in matters."

Ken Enloe, the director of human resources and business development for the software development firm Huber & Associates, agreed with Daggett's assessment of the status quo. Enloe has been involved with the district as a business partner supporting the district's decision to create seven professional academies for students.

"Everything he is saying dovetails perfectly with why we need the academy approach to learning," Enloe said.

He added that technology is changing the world rapidly and public education must keep apace.

"The only person I want doing something the same way is my competitor, because he or she is going to be out of business in two years," Enloe said, although he was cautious not to place the blame with educators.

"Teachers work very hard. I'm very supportive of public education," he added. "It's an extremely tough job."

Randy Allen, president and CEO of the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce, also agreed with Daggett's assessment. But he wondered: "How do you motivate for change? How do you get a critical mass of thought regarding the need to educate our kids differently?"

"Everything is changing around us," Allen added. "We have good schools. But they aren't creating the skills we need."