Guess what, Graves Co Time is running out

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Guess what, Graves Co?Time is running out!

• Tom Welch
• Department for Innovation and Commercialization
  for a Knowledge-Based Economy

Graves Co. Admin. Retreat July 21, 2004
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The Harsh Realities

• Education attainment data
• Business climate data

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• Jim Collins in Good to Great
• (p. 1, first full paragraph, first sentence)
• We dont have great schools, principally because
  we have good schools.

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• Our current line of progress has us solidly on
  the road . . .
• From Good . . .
• . . . To Gooder

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• Shopping mall high schools?
• What we have is closer (at best) to
• a Super Walmart

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Myth 1

• High Schools need to be reformed

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(No Transcript)
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• College entrance based on one of two criteria
• Examination
• Credentials

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• Carnegie Unit came to be accepted as the
  standard for credentialing

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• High Schools do a superb job of doing what they
  were designed to do ---
• Deliver credits to students in certain courses
  until they have enough to graduate.

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Myth 2

• Increasing requirements will educate students at
  the desired level.

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• 4 credits in English
• 3 credits in math (algebra I, geomety, algebra
  II)
• 3 credits in basic lab science (biology,
  chemistry, physics)
• 3.5 credits in social studies
• 2 credits in the same foreign language

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Suggestions from State Scholars Initiative 2004
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• We must institute a rigorous curriculum for all
  students, whether or not they are going on to
  college
• 4 years of English (including a writing and
  literature emphasis)
• 3 years of Social Studies (Civics, US
  History, World History)
• 3 years of Mathematics (Algebra, Geometry,
  Trig)
• 3 years of Lab Sciences (Physics, Chemistry,
  Astronomy)
• 3 years of the same Modern Language
• Plus

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4 years of Latin or Greek
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From the suggestions of The Committee of Ten
1893
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• 4 years of English
• 3 years of Mathematics
• 3 years of Social Studies
• 3 years of Science
• 2 years of the same Modern Language (dropped at
  the suggestion of a social studies teacher)
• 2 years of Electives

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• From
• Colorados Proposed Rigorous
  Curriculum for all students beginning with the
  class of 2008

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• We must institute a rigorous curriculum for all
  students, whether or not they are going on to
  college
• 4 years of English (including a writing and
  literature emphasis)
• 3 years of Social Studies (Civics, US
  History, World History)
• 3 years of Mathematics (Algebra, Geometry,
  Trig)
• 3 years of Lab Sciences (Physics, Chemistry,
  Astronomy)
• 3 years of the same Modern Language
• Plus

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4 years of Latin or Greek
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From the suggestions of The Committee of Ten
1893
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• The Carnegie Units
• Fatal Error
• If No Time No Learning
• Then Time Learning

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• In 1904 it took 1432 m/p/v to produce a car
• In 1908 it took 750 m/p/v to produce a car
• In 1929 it took 450 m/p/v to produce a car
• In 2004 at the Saturn plant in Smyrna, Tn, it
  takes 15 m/p/v to produce a car
• And a 2000 Ford Taurus has more than 120 computer
  chips . . . More computing power than the Apollo
  lunar excursion modules.

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• In 1904 it took 125 hours to earn a credit in
  Algebra I
• In 1908 it took 125 hours to earn a credit in
  Algebra I
• In 1929 it took 125 hours to earn a credit in
  Algebra I
• In 2004, with all the technology, all the brain
  research and all we know about best practices, it
  still takes 125 hours to earn a credit in Algebra
  I

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• We must come to grips with the truth of the
  concept that increasing requirements even
  with rigorous-sounding titles will NOT help
  student achievement or foster academic success.

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• The notion has not worked to increase student
  knowledge in over 100 years of trying and
• wont work now.

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• A recent study by KDE showed that Kentucky led
  the nation in of high school graduates who
  completed Algebra II
• ANDnearly led the nation in of students taking
  remedial math in college.

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• A fanatic is someone who redoubles his efforts
  when he has forgotten his aim.
• Postman Weingartner

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Myth 3

• High Schools are about learning.

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• A subject is something you take and when you
  have taken it, you have had it, and if you have
  had it, you are immune and need not take it
  again.
• Postman Weingartner

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• The uncomfortable truth. . .
• High Schools are about the economics of the
  diploma

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• Students buy a diploma with X number of
  credits.
• Each credit is purchased with 125-130 hours of
  class time.
• Credits are not dependent on learning.

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• Grade inflation is inherent because grades are
  not tied to any standards
• Who has not heard of extra credit for NCAA pools?
  Cans of food at Thanksgiving? Attending
  regularly or turning in homework, regardless of
  its correctness?

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• When students accumulate enough credits they can
  cash in credits for their diploma.

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• We should make sure the diploma covers are ornate
  and beautiful
• because these are ornamental diplomas.

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• Mystified by
• Senior Year Lite?
• We offer a special deal to our best and brightest
  . . .

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• Instead of spending 25 credits for your diploma,
  we think you should spend 30 or 32!
• AND . . .
• you can . . .

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• Take courses we warn you will be very difficult
• Will take a lot of your free time
• Endanger your GPA
• Have the potential for negative financial rewards
  by endangering your scholarship (and KEES) money

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• Who are the slow learners??

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There are NO easy solutions

• Its not about requiring more credits
• Its not about block scheduling
• Its not about larger schools
• Conants solution
• Its not about smaller schools
• Gates solution
• Its not about schools of choice
• BRIIs solution

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Do we have to change?

• NO!!!!
• We can go right on the way we have
• Our students can continue to do fine in our
  system . . .
• And fall farther and farther behind the rest of
  the country.

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• The key asset on the balance sheet on most New
  Economy companies is
• human capital.

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Regions that accumulate the most human capital
will prosper in the 21st century economy.
Source Strategic Plan for the Office for the New
Economy 2002
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• Kentuckians are not educated to take part in the
  New/Next/Knowledge Economy

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With regards to the number of adult Kentuckians
with less than a 9th grade education . . .
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• Graves Co. 10.7
• KY average 11.7
• US average 7.4
• 110 KY counties below the national average.

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Counties exceeding the national rate (7.4) for
more than a 9th grade education among adults 25
10/120 counties
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With regards to adult Kentuckians who have at
least a high school diploma . . .
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• Graves Co. 73.4
• KY average 74.1
• US average 80.4
• 109 KY counties below the national average

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Counties at or above the national average (80.4)
for adults 25 with a high school diploma.
11/120 counties
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With regards to the number of Kentuckians with a
college degree . . .
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• Graves Co. 12.6
• KY average 20.8
• US average 24.4
• 115 KY counties below the national average

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Counties exceeding the national average (24.4)
of adults ages 25 with 4 or more years of
college. 5/120 counties
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EQ 1

• Would knowing what the future holds change the
  way you administer schools in Graves Co., and the
  way you broker learning for your students?

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Some observations about today and tomorrow

• 20 of what we know will be obsolete in one
  year
• (Ed. Barlow futurist)

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• This is due in part because of the information
  explosion.
• Moores law
• Presidential Libraries example

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• Many countries states/school systems continue
  to invest primarily in stuff they can see and
  touch, even though two-thirds of the global
  economy is already a knowledge economy.

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• They do not invest in, or attract, smart people
  who are science-literate
• Juan Enriquez
• As the Future Catches You

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• The most important thing in the knowledge economy
  is . . .
• Knowledge!

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• The lack of ability to generate knowledge
  reinforces itself . . .
• The most entrepreneurial folk want to be where
  the action is.
• So they move
• And when they move the overall wealth of a region
  also increases or decreases
• -Enriquez

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• Countries and states who cannot produce a lot of
  new knowledge will have to sell their labor at
  lower and lower rates.

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• Graves Co cannot compete in the world labor
  market
• U.S. has 150 million workers
• China has 800 million workers
• India has 150 million workers
• Combined 1.5 Billion workers
• The 1.5 billion are willing to work longer,
  harder and cheaper.

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Whats tomorrow look like for science?

• KSTC Survey of Critical Technologies
• From the Preface
• The economy is being transformed by many
  exciting new technologies emerging from research
  labs worldwide which must be introduced
  appropriately into learning experiences at
  various levels throughout the education
  enterprise . . .

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• . . .Such a routine infusion of new knowledge
  will help excite young people to learn about some
  technologies or perhaps their new applications
  that may not have existed even just a few short
  years ago. . .

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• Only by deliberate infusion strategies to keep
  pace with technological changes will we be able
  to prepare coming generations of scientific and
  technologically savvy people for the research
  labs and start-up companies fueling the knowledge
  economy.

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Kentucky New Economy niches

• Biosciences
• Environmental and Energy Technologies
• Human Health and Development
• Information Technology and Communications
• Materials Science and Advanced Manufacturing

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Biosciences

• Astrobiology
• Biomaterials
• Biotechnology
• Natural Products
• Recombinant DNA

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Environmental and Energy Technologies

• Alternative Fuels
• Bioremediation
• Fuel Cell
• Green Technology

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Human Health and Development

• Biodefense
• Bioinformatics
• Gene Therapy
• Genomics
• Proteomics
• Stem Cells

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I.T. and Communications

• Artificial Intelligence
• Algorithms
• Data Mining
• E-business
• Intellectual Property
• Quantum Computing

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Materials Science and Advanced Manufacturing

• Biopolymers
• Celestial Mining
• Nanotechnology
• Smart Materials

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Responses from 214 KY teachers

• of teachers currently teaching concept
• Alternative fuels 42
• Gene therapy 26
• Natural Products, recombinant DNA 25
• Stem Cells 24
• Fuel Cell 21
• Bioninformatics, data mining 2
• E-business, proteomics, quantum comp 1

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Responses from 214 KY teachers

• 47 of MS teachers were not teaching any of the
  concepts.
• 19 of HS teachers were not teaching any of the
  concepts

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Questions to consider

• What are the implications for Graves Co.
  teachers?
• What are the implications for your students?
• How do we define a 21st century education?
• How can we best prepare students for 21st century
  careers?

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• What are the consequences for your students if
  you fail?
• What are the consequences for our communities and
  the Commonwealth if we fail?

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• What does that mean for Graves Co. school?
• What are some possible ways to start?

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• Dont forget though . . .
• The bad news is you dont have to anything
  differently
• You can continue to offer students a good, and
  even a gooder education.

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EQ 2

• How can Graves County administrators lead by
  example as learners in the New Economy?

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Key to success

• We must transition to responsive, adaptive
  systems.

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To live in an evolutionary spirit means to engage
with full ambition and without any reserve in the
structure of the present, and yet to let go an
flow into a new structure when the right time has
come. -- Erich Jantsch From Leadership and the
New Science M. Wheatley
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• Make no mistake . . .
• Time is running out.

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• Kentucky cannot afford to have good schools.
• We cant even afford to have gooder schools.
• If our citizens and our state are to succeed
• Our schools will need to be great.

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• In times such as these, it is no failure to fall
  short of realizing all that we might dream the
  failure is to fall short of dreaming all that we
  might realize.
• -- Dee Hock