Getting to work
The Every Student Succeeds Act holds promise
The new federal education law gives states more latitude in deciding how to gauge school performance. As Pennsylvania sets standards for performance and accountability, it should consider language that would rate schools partly on how well their curricula, especially career and technical education programs, match local employers’ needs. The state should take this opportunity to build up the school-towork pipeline, a step with the potential to strengthen the Pennsylvania economy.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education issued final regulations for the Every Student Succeeds Act. The ESSA replaces the No Child Left Behind Act, the deficiencies of which included the unrealistic — and unmet — goal of 100 percent student proficiency in reading and math by 2014.
The ESSA requires continued assessment of student math and reading skills, and the results will continue to inform school performance, though the structure and number of exams may change. The law’s defining feature, however, may be the flexibility that states have to incorporate other criteria into analyses of school performance. These include access to advanced courses, school climate and college and career readiness.
Pennsylvania should take pointers on career readiness from a May report commissioned by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, “Inflection Point: Supply, Demand and the Future of Work in the Pittsburgh Region.” It warned that the region could be short as many as 80,000 workers by 2025 because of retirements and lagging recruitment. Each year, 29,000 workers are retiring and employers are adding roughly 5,000 jobs. The worker shortage will include jobs that require advanced skills, but not necessarily college degrees — a reason that career and technical education programs are vitally important.
The report asserted that “a much tighter education and industry connection must be created to align supply and demand” and that “a future workforce with digital fluency must begin with the K-12 system.” It also noted that many future jobs will require some skills traditionally learned in college plus others more often gained through career and technical education programs. Public schools should take the lead in helping students make this adjustment.
Construction and operation of Shell Chemical Appalachia’s ethane cracker in Beaver County will create thousands of jobs, and spinoff businesses will create thousands more. Education and development leaders should work collaboratively to meet workforce projections. By incorporating this type of collaboration into performance ratings under ESSA, the state would help to ensure that schools are doing all they can to help students hit the ground running.
The impulse behind self-betterment by going to college, long considered the ticket to the American Dream, is a noble one. The enlightenment and fulfillment promised by higher education should be widely available, not just the province of elites, as it was structured in older European societies. But creating a path to rewarding employment in skilled trades or other specialized fields is an imperative for the new economy. Traditional four-year colleges are not for everyone and should not be held up as the sole ticket to a respectable way of life.