New Expectations for a New Century: The Education Imperative Susan Sclafani, Assistant Secretary Office of Vocational and Adult Education United States Department of Education, May 2004

Skill Level Changes Unskilled 60% Skilled 20% Professional 20% Skilled 65% Unskilled 15% Professional 20% National Summit on 21 st Century Skills for 21 st Century Jobs

Fastest Growing Jobs Require Some Education Beyond High School

High Learning = High Earning SALARYSALARY

Credentials Matter Returns to:MaleFemale 1 year of postsecondary CTE courses 8%--- Postsecondary CTE certificate --16% CTE associate degree30%47% Percentage Difference in Earnings Between Postsecondary CTE Students and High School Graduates (2000) NAVE 2004: Forthcoming

Four Year Degrees? On average, workers with associate degrees earn less than those with bachelor’s degrees, but 83 percent of workers with associate degrees earn the same as workers with bachelor’s degrees. Carnevale and Desrochers, Standards for What?, 2003.

American Diploma Project “Successful preparation for both postsecondary education and employment requires learning the same rigorous English and mathematics content and skills. No longer do students planning to go to work after high school need a different and less rigorous curriculum than those planning to go to college.”

Education for All: The American Ideal If the condition of man is to be progressively ameliorated, as we fondly hope and believe, education is to be the chief instrument in effecting it. -- Thomas Jefferson (1818)

Education for All : The American Ideal Universal secondary education Land Grant colleges The GI Bill Community and technical colleges Higher Education Act of 1965

Percentage of population with a postsecondary credential Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2003 Losing Our Edge?

% Change U.S % China % India % Students Enrolled in Postsecondary (in thousands) Losing Our Edge? UNESCO, 2003

NAEP 2002 Math Assessment 12 th Graders Scoring “Below Basic” 35 percent of all students 56 percent of Hispanic students 69 percent of African-American students 60 percent of low-income students Losing Our Edge?

Questions “Below Basic” Students Answered Incorrectly Chris wishes to carpet the rectangular room shown below. To the nearest square yard, how many square yards of carpet are needed to carpet the floor of the room if the closet floor will not be carpeted? (1 square yard = 9 square feet)

Reading performance of 17-year-olds Source: NCES. NAEP 1999, Trends in Academic Performance: Three Decades of Student Performance, p. 9.

Disconnect Between Student Aspirations and High School Preparation Students Source: NCES, The Condition of Education, 2000, p. 151.

College remediation rates Entering freshmen, 2000 All28% Public Public 2-year42% Public 4-year20% Private 4-year12% Source: NCES, Remedial Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions in Fall 2000,

4-year colleges 26% 2-year colleges 45% Source: Mortensen, T. (November 1999), Postsecondary Opportunity as presented by The Education Trust. College “drift-out” rates: students not returning for year 2 A Drag on College Productivity

21-23 percent (40 to 43 million) of the 191 million American adults at Level 1- lowest level of prose, document, and quantitative proficiencies percent (about 50 million) at Level 2. ( source: National Adult Literacy Survey, 1992) Literacy skills of American adults

NALS Levels Level 1. Able to perform simple, routine tasks involving brief and uncomplicated texts and documents. Level 2. Able to locate information in text, to make low-level inferences using printed materials, and to integrate easily identifiable pieces of information. Levels 3-5. Able to integrate information from relatively long or dense text or long and complex documents.

The Costs of Low Literacy Adult without high school diploma earns 42% less than an adult with a high school diploma. Limited literacy skills cost business and taxpayers $20 billion in lost wages, profits and productivity annually.

The Costs of Low Literacy 50% of the chronically unemployed are not functionally literate % of adults who scored in Level 1 on the National Adult Literacy Survey (1992) were in poverty (federal guidelines), compared with 4 -6% of adults who scored in the highest level.

New Expectations for a New Century: The Role of the Office of Vocational and Adult Education

Complementing No Child Left Behind Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (WIA title II) Community College Initiatives Jobs for the 21 st Century Preparing America’s Future High School Initiative Perkins III and Perkins Sec Tech Reauthorization Regaining America’s Edge – OVAE’s Role

The Bush Administration’s Key Education Principles Increase accountability for student performance Focus on what works Reduce bureaucracy and increase flexibility Choices for students and parents

A shared vision for Adult Basic and Literacy Education. Adults will have opportunities to improve their basic and literacy skills in high-quality, research-based programs that will equip them to succeed in the next step of their education and employment.

ABLE Key Strategies Hold local programs and State agencies accountable for student achievement; Require State-developed or adopted content standards and aligned assessments; Focus on what works by promoting local use of research-based practice; Provide increased options for basic skills acquisition;

Key Strategies, continued Expand appropriate technology options; Promote collaboration and resource sharing across agencies that serve under educated adults; Connect GED programs to community college programs leading to credentials/degrees; and Coordinate the delivery of services through the One-Stop Career Center System.

The U.S. Department of Education funds initiatives that support community and technical colleges to fulfill their potential as engines of education, career preparation, and economic development. OVAE Community College Initiatives

Community-based Job Training Grants: $250 million to strengthen the role of community colleges in workforce development. The new competitive grants would fund programs in colleges that are linked with local economic development needs. Jobs for the 21 st Century

Striving Readers Initiative: $100 million in grants to 50 to 100 school districts to implement effective reading interventions for middle or high school students. Math and Science Partnerships: $120 million in grants for interventions to increase achievement in mathematics for secondary students. Adjunct Teacher Corps: $40 million to recruit mid-career professionals to teach math and science in middle and high schools. Jobs for the 21 st Century

Advanced Placement (AP): $28 million for professional development for AP teachers in high-poverty high schools. State Scholars Initiative: $12 million to expand the State Scholars program to all interested states. Enhanced Pell Grants: $33 million to enhance Pell Grants to reward low-income students who participate in the State Scholars Program by taking a rigorous high school curriculum. Up to an additional $1,000 per year to students in the first two years of college. Jobs for the 21 st Century

Preparing America’s Future High School Initiative National High School Leadership Summit, October 8, 2003 Resource Guide -- Resource Guide -- Regional Summits, Winter-Spring 2004 Technical Assistance Corps Web-based and Electronic Resources

Perkins Sec Tech -- Key Policy Objectives Ensure that career and technical education programs complement the academic mission of No Child Left Behind and workforce mission of the Workforce Investment Act. Help every youth in a CTE Pathway Program receive an challenging academic core that prepares them for future education and career success.

Perkins Sec Tech -- Policy Objectives Ensure that every CTE program offers a clear pathway into a postsecondary program leading to a credential, apprenticeship, associate or baccalaureate degree. Make high-quality CTE pathway programs widely available to both youth and career- changing adults through a variety of institutions and delivery models. Strengthen national and regional workforce quality and economic competitiveness.

CTE Pathways Partnerships between high schools and postsecondary partners Challenging academic core Non-duplicative technical courses leading to degree, certification or apprenticeship Career pathways that are in-demand and lead to economic self-sufficiency Flexible delivery models that focus on “what” not “where”

Education : Our Competitive Edge “Productivity in the United States has increased generation after generation, creating ever-rising standards of living…Our knowledge-based skills in a business environment, supported by a rule of law, have enabled our workforce to create ever-greater value added--irrespective of what goods and services we have chosen to produce at home and what and how much we have chosen to import. “ -- Alan Greenspan (2004)