Assignment:
Post the stakeholder role you are assuming. Then, post an explanation of how you, in the particular role you are assuming, might respond to the new information in the articles you found and in Document Set 2 for your case study. In your explanation, be sure to:
Evaluate whether the new information is based on reliable sources and whether the information is relevant to the issue.
Explain your position on the case study issue from the perspective of the role you are assuming and how this new information informs this position.
Explain the steps you might take to follow-up on this information based on your role and your position on the issue.
Examples of stakeholder's roles that you could assume:
-Educator
-Parent
-State Department of Education
-Student Attending College
Throughout the Discussion, add support for your position or add to the knowledge base on the issue by finding and sharing additional resources related to the issue you are discussing. These should include scholarly resources but may include other resources such as news articles, blogs, RSS feeds, etc. Share links to the resources you identify.
Once you have decided which stakeholders role you will be assuming, respond to the following discussion questions:
Discussion .1
The stakeholder role I am assuming is the business leader. I am in support of increasing curricular focus, funding, and new hiring for professional and technical fields. In Document Set2 for this case study, it states there are 3.3 million job openings in the U.S., many going unfilled for months on end, as roughly half of employers now say they're having a hard time finding qualified workers to hire, especially in technical fields. This information was retrieved from White House Jobs Council which is based on a reliable source. This information is extremely relevant to the issue because the solution to producing qualified workers is to equip students with the necessary skills and abilities. Those skills and abilities should align with the expectations established by industry leaders. According to the White House Jobs Council in 2012, America is losing its position of global educational leadership in ways that could put our future living standards and business competiveness at risk. This new information informs this position because without a change in focus to technical education those unfilled jobs will continue to increase.
In the PBS Newshour video, it gives examples of students who graduated with liberal arts degrees. All of them had a difficult time gaining employment directly related to their field of study after graduation. In one instance, there was a graduate who majored in anthropology and he now washes trash cans part-time. In another instance, there was a graduate who majored in history with a minor in political science who is a substitute teacher one day a week. Both of the graduates agree, that they do not regret going to college although they wished they would have pursued something more practical. This information was retrieved from PBS Newshour which is a reliable resource. This information is also relevant to the issue as it paints a picture of how the job market can be difficult for those students pursuing a liberal arts degree.
According to Tugend (2013), there's always been a gap between what colleges produce and what employers want, but now it's widening. That is because workplaces are more complex and globalized profit margins are slimmer, companies are leaner and managers expect their workers to get up to speed much faster than in the past. This information was retrieved from ProQuest Historical Newspaper: The New York Times which is based on reliable sources. This information is relevant to the issue as it recognizes the quality of education and training being given by colleges is not producing the kind of workers employer's desire. There is a breakdown of expectancy levels between colleges and employers. Expectations on both sides should be similar in order for workers to adapt to in more complex workplaces. This new information informs this position because when there is increased curricular focus, funding, and new hiring for professional and technical fields, colleges and employers can be more on the same page about what employers need and what skills are taught which will help workers meet the expectancy levels of employers.
The steps I might take to follow up on this information as a business leader are:
Research more reliable resources that support the new information retrieved
Research current White House Jobs reports and compare it to the 2012 report and analyze the trends
Request the employment rate of past graduates of Rogul College who earned liberal arts degrees and technical degrees
Collaborate with colleagues to create a top 10 list of desires from employers
Discussion .2
In this post I will assume the stakeholder role of taxpayer and community member-at-large. As such I want the schools in my community to be successful, meaning that our high school graduates will be career or college ready. In addition I want our teachers and administrators to be fully trained and supported to implement curriculum that embraces the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
For the purposes of this essay, I will regard success simply as improvement in test scores. With that established, are there states that can be considered successful in their adoption of Common Core standards? To what do they owe their success? To find answers to my questions, I needed to find the most current information available.
I was encouraged to find a recent article announcing widespread growing success across the states with the implementation of CCSS. Peterson, Barrow, & Gift (July 2016) reported that the discrepancy between state standards assessment scores and NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) scores has dwindled. "...nearly 80 percent of the states' proficiency rates are within 15 percentage points of the NAEP rates. By comparison, 25 percent of states differed from NAEP by more than 40 percentage points in 2013" . In other words, states have been raising the bar on their proficiency standards to come closer to the expectations of the NAEP.
Kentucky adopted the Common Core standards in 2012 and initially experienced a dip in assessment scores. However, scores soon began to rise and by spring of 2015, 54 percent of Kentucky's elementary school students were proficient in English and 49 percent hit the mark in math. (DeNisco, 2016)
So what is being done to result in these improved scores? Peterson, Barrow, & Gift (2016) found that incentives to fully adopt and implement the Common Core standards provided the greatest improvement. The Race to the Top initiative presented in 2009, awarded funds to states that not only adopted the Common Core standards, but also raised their proficiency standards. All but four states submitted proposals and 18 states plus the District of Columbia received awards. "Subsequently, the Department of Education further encouraged states to adopt Common Core standards by offering waivers from NCLB requirements, which many states had found increasingly onerous ..." (Peterson, Barrow, & Gift).
Writing about Kentucky's success with CCIS, Pipkin (2015) credits the formation of leadership networks to ensure that the standards were correctly integrated into their curricula. "Leadership network meetings were organized by content area, with separate meetings held for ELA and math. To make sure the standards were implemented with fidelity in every school, these meetings were facilitated by university professors and other content specialists with expertise in math and ELA, who asked the teams to translate, pace, and sequence the Common Core standards for their districts-all under their expert guidance" .
I was confident that the Peterson, Barrow, & Gift (2016) article was reliable as it provided a plethora of statistics gathered from all the participating states to support its conclusions. In addition, the source, Education Next, has been publishing grades given to state proficiency standards on a scale designed by researchers at Harvard University since 2005. It was relevant to my research because I needed recent factual information to support the answers to my questions.
Although the information provided by Pipkin (2015) and DeNisco (2016) was relevant to my research, statistical data was not provided in the articles to support their conclusions. Thus, these two articles would not be considered as reliable as the Peterson, Barrows, & Gift (2016) article.
Going forward, I will continue to check data that provides evidence of the effectiveness of the Common Core standards.