Thursday, July 10, 2014

College and Career Ready

I recently read an interesting article by Yong Zhao, author of Catching Up or Leading the Way. In the article,  College Ready vs. Out-of Basement Ready: Shifting the Education Paradigm, he highlights recent statistics that show more than half of college graduates in 2012 are either unemployed or under-employed. In short, he states that K-12 education is missing it- the new Common Core standards are missing it- and we must be more innovative with our practices in the 21st century in order to get our students, upon college graduation, out of their parents' basement and into the workforce.

I can't argue with statistics: if the students we are producing are not in turn contributing to society, we need to make adjustments in education. I believe our greatest responsibility in education is to produce productive members of society. Zhao spends some time bashing the new CC standards. In all honesty, I do not believe these are the problem. In fact, I have been highly impressed with how rigorous the standards are. We are continually raising the expectations of our students. However, we must strive to work smarter, not necessarily harder.

I plan on reading his new book, World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students, where he suggests a number of innovative practices. I will report out on the book once I have read it.

If you have read any of his books or read the aforementioned article, I would love to hear your thoughts.