Greetings Friends and Colleagues-
We have been busy this fall training, traveling, coaching and working with programs to more clearly define their programs. We continue to press our thinking about 21st Century Skills and the various definitions for career and college readiness.
We were lucky to attend the Meeting of the Minds California Workforce Association conference this September in Monterey. The presenter that really blew me away and pressed my thinking about the link between academic preparedness and the need for a highly skilled and qualified workforce was Mitch Rosen from McGraw Hill Research Foundation. His presentation was based on a paper entitled "Developing Human Capital: Meeting the Growing Global Need for a Skilled and Educated Workforce.” What was so refreshing about this presentation was to see someone discussing K-12 educational reform at an adult workforce conference. The presentation focused on the need for K-12, youth workforce, post-secondary, business and adult workforce to work in coordination to meet the demand for a skilled and career-ready workforce. After 15 years in the field, moving between these service sectors, I found it refreshing to finally hear someone acknowledge that the education and workforce systems are silo-ed and far too disconnected from business.
We were lucky to attend the Meeting of the Minds California Workforce Association conference this September in Monterey. The presenter that really blew me away and pressed my thinking about the link between academic preparedness and the need for a highly skilled and qualified workforce was Mitch Rosen from McGraw Hill Research Foundation. His presentation was based on a paper entitled "Developing Human Capital: Meeting the Growing Global Need for a Skilled and Educated Workforce.” What was so refreshing about this presentation was to see someone discussing K-12 educational reform at an adult workforce conference. The presentation focused on the need for K-12, youth workforce, post-secondary, business and adult workforce to work in coordination to meet the demand for a skilled and career-ready workforce. After 15 years in the field, moving between these service sectors, I found it refreshing to finally hear someone acknowledge that the education and workforce systems are silo-ed and far too disconnected from business.
With the introduction of the Common Core academic standards in K-12 and a invigorating focus on career and college readiness in the schools, we have been looking for opportunities to align this work with Out of School Time providers, Career and Technical Education, youth workforce, and even adult workforce development. The Common Core are a new set of national, K-12 academic standards being introduced in 2013 with many districts piloting the English/Language Arts and math standards this year. The standards call for a strong link between what is taught in the classroom and what is required to be successful in college and career. Although "College and Career Readiness" is referred to throughout the standards, the Common Core State Standards are widely viewed as stronger measures of college readiness than career readiness.
In our training this fall with SF youth workforce providers entitled "What Youth Workforce Can Do to Support Educational Attainment," we worked with participants to drill deeper in the Common Core English/Language Arts Anchor Standards to 1) build projects that intentionally develop youth skills and 2) align with the new Common Core academic standards. A useful article entitled The Common Core Standards: What Do They Mean for Out Of School Time? informed some of our thinking for this workshop and provides a simple overview of the Common Core for the Out of School Time providers.
In our training this fall with SF youth workforce providers entitled "What Youth Workforce Can Do to Support Educational Attainment," we worked with participants to drill deeper in the Common Core English/Language Arts Anchor Standards to 1) build projects that intentionally develop youth skills and 2) align with the new Common Core academic standards. A useful article entitled The Common Core Standards: What Do They Mean for Out Of School Time? informed some of our thinking for this workshop and provides a simple overview of the Common Core for the Out of School Time providers.
Of course with the introduction of new national standards, practitioners across disciplines are considering how you assess career and college readiness. WestEd and the National Academy Foundation partnered to create a Student Certification Assessment System for its national network of high
schools and career-focused academies. WestEd says:
"The system is designed to measure students’ knowledge and application of key career-related technical content and foundational skills, in a nationally-recognized, industry-authenticated certificate. They will also, to some extent, assess 21st Century skills that are equally important for both college and career readiness. The NAF assessments are a valuable complement to the state assessments: they are stronger measures of career readiness and offer additional evidence of the student proficiencies needed for both post-secondary study and the workplace."
We are curious if these tools might be useful more broadly, to practitioners beyond the high school academies and pathways? The youth service providers we work with definitely struggle to create a common definition for "career and college ready."
"The system is designed to measure students’ knowledge and application of key career-related technical content and foundational skills, in a nationally-recognized, industry-authenticated certificate. They will also, to some extent, assess 21st Century skills that are equally important for both college and career readiness. The NAF assessments are a valuable complement to the state assessments: they are stronger measures of career readiness and offer additional evidence of the student proficiencies needed for both post-secondary study and the workplace."
We are curious if these tools might be useful more broadly, to practitioners beyond the high school academies and pathways? The youth service providers we work with definitely struggle to create a common definition for "career and college ready."
Our hope is that the Common Core will push to align K-12, youth workforce, post-secondary and adult workforce to a common set of industry-vetted standards for college and career readiness. Maybe these new tools from NAF and WestEd will be useful beyond the classroom to help youth and adult workforce providers develop a common agreement of what we mean by "career and job ready." We are watching and waiting...
As always, we welcome your comments and thinking on this topic.
As always, we welcome your comments and thinking on this topic.
Best,
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