We ran across two items recently in business publications that are worth passing on. Both emphasize the importance of education in our world today - Approximately 45 percent of job openings in the next decade will be "middle-skill"jobs, which require an education that is more than a high school diploma but less than a four-year college degree. That would seem to indicate a continuing role of importance for two-year colleges.
- By 2050 the United States will lose 22 to 58 percent of its work force to retirement. The retirees will expect the individuals still in the work force to keep those Social Security checks coming.
Today's students in Pine Bluff are no longer competing with students from other schools in southeast Arkansas, the state or nation for jobs in the future. The competition is rapidly becoming global.
ACT results released this past week by the state Department of Education indicated Arkansas students who took the test scored 20. 1 on average in math and 21 in reading. The top possible score on the test is 36.
In English, the average score for Arkansans was 20. 7, topping the national average of 20. 6. The average science score was 20. 3, below the national average of 20. 8.
Students must score a 19 or higher on the English and math portions of the tests to avoid remedial courses in college. By that standard, 54 percent of state students will not need to take remedial math and 64 percent will not require remedial English.
Those numbers also mean 46 percent of the graduates will be required to take remedial math and 36 percent remedial English in college. Two fouryear colleges and one two-year college in southeast Arkansas have the highest remediation rates in the state.
Those numbers basically mean that we must keep the pressure on in every classroom at every grade level to prepare for the future. Testing "basic"on the Benchmark test is simply not good enough when the options are below basic, proficient and advanced.
Fifty-three percent of the state's freshmen required some remediation in college in 2007. That establishes a correlation between college preparation and rates of retention and graduation.
While Arkansas' college admission rates meet national averages, we rank 49 th in the nation in the number of high school graduates who go on to obtain bachelor's degrees, at 18 percent.
Educators are taking another look at the core courses with the thought that they are not rigorous enough. When a school district cancels a reading program, for example, because some students find it too intense, the district needs to reevaluate its role of serving its students.
A higher education task force Friday proposed a $ 95 million solution to reducing the number of Arkansas high school students needing remediation when they enter college.
The series of recommendations also proposed to raise the percentage of college graduates in the state to the regional average within seven years. About $ 36 million of the money would increase the amount of scholarship funding available.
If students from Pine Bluff, Dumas, Monticello and Sheridan want good paying jobs in the future, they must begin addressing the subjects seriously when classes resume Monday.
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