Knoxville's workforce and education initiatives are being noticed by bloggers around the country.
Ed Morrison of Cleveland, Ohio, praises in his "Brewed Fresh Daily" blog the Knoxville Chamber and local business community's initiatives in workforce development and education.
Morrison writes, "When it comes to leadership in education and workforce, here’s what chamber involvement looks like. The Knoxville Chamber and its volunteers have developed a framework of the skills and attributes that will be required to ensure the economic advancement of this area. They are now beginning to build an education process that drives in that direction."
The (Maryville) Daily Times recently had an article about Dr. Matt Murray, Chairman of the Economic Development Board, who wrote a book called "Education Crossroads" about the economic and social benefits of a good education.
Ultimately, according to the Daily Times, the book describes that, "a better-educated workforce means greater regional prosperity. The book found labor force participation and population growth are stronger in counties where educational attainment is high."
The News Sentinel, in its weekly series of community columnists on education, carried a piece from Mitch Steenrod, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Pilot Corp., who discussed raising the bar in academic preparedness for students.
He writes that the current market in East Tennessee hits the mark for some industries. But, he says that many of the higher wage providers are choosing other areas due to the available workforce. East Tennessee, he says, lacks an abundance of workers with the necessary skills to meet these companies' needs.
Steenrod finishes, "This retooling and re-engineering of the educational curriculum must begin and it must begin quickly. The bar must be raised in the educational high jump. We need to continually challenge our youth to set the next goal after accomplishing the immediate goal. We need to instill a learning environment that continually pushes for higher accomplishment."
The television program "Good Morning America" today highlighted a documentary called "2 Million Minutes" that looks at how high school students in the United States, China and India allocate time during their four high-school years. The title refers to that period of time.
Ultimately, the film showed that students in India and China were more prepared for careers in math, science and engineering and that more emphasis in their lives was placed on academic excellence. In America, in contrast, Bob Crompton, the filmmaker, notes that emphasis is placed on sports and other skills.
"What I saw in the K-12 schools absolutely shocked me in both India and China. … I became very concerned about the competitiveness of my own daughters' education," Compton said on "Good Morning America." "Between the cultures, students allocate their time quite differently. The difference is the parental expectations of the students, the community's expectations."
Members of the Knoxville business community and Knox County Schools are partnering to initiate students' interest in math and science fields.
In January, the Knoxville Chamber, Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers, Knox County Schools and the Partnership for Great Schools launched an Internet-based clearinghouse at Vols4STEM.org which will pair educators with science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals to share expertise and work with students on projects relating to their field.
They recently held meetings to organize the project and gain volunteer professionals for the partnerships.
"Vols4STEM is a model for aligning the work force and education," said Cheryl Kershaw, executive director of the Great Schools Partnership.
You’ve heard it again and again from the Knoxville Chamber… improving education and workforce development is critical to the economic future of the region. But what can you do about it?
You can attend the Workforce and Education Summit hosted by Innovation Valley Inc.
Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale recently challenged the Knoxville Chamber to plan the regional workforce development and education summit to identify strategies and tactics that will lead to the development of the workforce of the future. The summit, which will take place on March 24th at the Knoxville Convention Center, will include educators, businesspeople, parents, community leaders, faith-based institutions, and students throughout Innovation Valley. The education and workforce summit will begin at 8 AM.
The event is an opportunity to rollup your sleeves and dig into the work of improving the region’s educational systems, which ultimately determines the quality of the workforce.
“For the last couple of years, the Chamber has argued that education and workforce development must be improved,” says Mike Edwards, the Chamber’s president and CEO. “I think the organization has done a good job of convincing businesspeople that this is a critical concern. But, I don’t think I’ve done a good enough job of demonstrating how to get involved and how individuals can have an impact on the improvement of education, the increase of academic rigor, or the skills that students have when they leave high school."
The goals of the daylong summit are to outline what the region's future workforce looks like, to identify the barriers that may be standing in the way of achieving such a workforce, and for each attendee to leave with a plan of how he or she can individually contribute to the overall goal of developing a skilled and educated workforce.
The opening session will include a discussion of the future workforce and will lay out what the future workforce would look like. Following that general assembly will be a series of breakout sessions focused on K-12 education issues. Later sessions will focus on workforce development issues including bridging the gap between higher education and business, improving existing training programs, accessing the under utilized workforce, and attracting and retaining recent college graduates and other quality employees. Attendees will be challenged to be apart of breaking down all identified barriers.
Registration for the summit will be available online beginning February 22. Please visit the events page.
Summit agenda.
Summit registration form.
Summit breakout descriptions.
Tom Donohue, President of the U,S, Chamber of Commerce, remarks this week that the presidential candidates have been shunning educational issues in favor of discussing the Iraq war, health care and the economy.
Donohue said that what has been noted from the candidates has been a rejection of No Child Left Behind, which he credits with helping raise math and reading skills. The U.S. Chamber favors increasing the No Child Left Behind program and holding the education system more accountable for preparing students for the workforce.
"If we don’t bring urgent change to our K-12 system, how will we compete with India and China? Who will fill the high-tech jobs of the 21st century knowledge economy, especially as baby boomers begin to retire? What will happen to the dreams and potential of our kids?" Donohue wrote.
Donohue praised the Tennessee system and Governor Bredesen's action in education reform.
"Fortunately, the silence of our presidential candidates on education is sharply contrasted by substantial action at the state and local level. Officials like Chancellor of the D.C. Public School System Michelle Rhee and Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen are rejecting a system that fails students, parents, and taxpayers. They are bringing innovation, accountability, and competition to schools with outstanding results."
Tennessee will soon kick off a million-dollar effort to teach educators the new standards that will be implemented as part of the American Diploma Project requirements voted on last month, according to a Tennessean article.
The standards involve additional math, science and foreign language requirements, among others. Conferences with school administrators and supervisors will be the first step in teaching the new curriculum. Then, these educators will share with their colleagues what they have learned so that all teachers are aware of the new policies.
"That's exactly what I want us to be able to provide our teachers: good teaching practices, great examples they can model and any additional knowledge about the content they will teach," said Susan Bunch, assistant commissioner of teaching and learning for the state Department of Education.
In a continuing series of columns on education, the Knoxville News Sentinel this weekend had a column from Pete Stevens about individual teachers and their effect on the education system as a whole.
Stevens placed teachers in one of three categories, wonderful, adequate but in need of mentoring, and terrible. He polled upper-level college students and found that through their experiences, up to 50 percent of teachers fall into that last category.
Former superintendent Charles Lindsey's recommendation was to ensure that students did not have two bad teachers in a row. Stevens' recommendation was to, "kill government schools."
Add comment