Future Skills Students Will Need to be Successful

by Jim Sandy, Executive Director, Michigan Business Leaders for Education Excellence

Our economy is in transition, and students in the K-12 system need to prepare differently to meet the challenges that will face them in the near future. Gone forever are the days of dropping out of high school and walking onto the factory floor to earn a good middle-class income. The change has occurred because technology has made it possible to be more productive with fewer workers. Just as the tractor replaced the horse and transformed agriculture, the robot and computer are doing the work today that used to take many people to perform.

Employers Demand “New Basic Skills”

Educational researchers tell us that the gap is closing between the set of technology skills needed for success in business/industry and those needed for higher education. At the same time, job requirements for high-tech skills have risen much faster than schools’ ability to teach them. In fact, most employers agree that technology is changing too quickly to ever allow schools to keep up with it. So, many of the jobs at which today’s elementary students will some day be working have not yet been created. That fact alone makes preparation a difficult challenge. Instead of highly developed technical skills, employers call for high school graduates with some basic skills. They want students who have studied advanced math and science and who can reason, solve problems, learn quickly, and adapt to changing technologies. In other words, employers say it’s not so important what devices and software students master. It’s more important for them to have some “new basic skills.”

What Are the “New Basic Skills?”

Economists Richard Murnane of Harvard and Frank Levy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have completed one of the most comprehensive and widely respected reviews of the gap between technology skills needed in the workplace and schools’ ability to teach them. They believe high-wage jobs require, at a minimum, these “New Basic Skills”:

• The ability to read at the ninth-grade level.
• Mastery of fractions, decimals, and line graphs.
• The ability to solve semi-structured problems in which hypotheses must be formed and tested.
• The ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• The ability to work in groups with people of various backgrounds.
• The ability to use personal computers to carry out simple tasks like word processing.

These findings—and their impact on education—need to become ingrained in our thinking. The two- or three-track system that schools used in the past is a dinosaur and didn’t provide students with the preparation they need to be successful. Even “college prep” is not yet what it needs to be.

Start Early to Help ALL Students Aim High

So what approach should parents, students, and teachers take in getting ready for the future? As a former high school counselor who now works with business and industry leaders, I can only recommend this: aim high and elevate expectations. I believe every student should participate in a core course of study, embedded with technology skills, that prepares her/him well for almost any situation. The following is today’s minimum course of study for almost all students:

• 9th - English I, Algebra I, Biology I, and World Geography
• 10th - English II, Geometry, Chemistry I, and World History
• 11th - English III, Algebra II, Physics, and US History
• 12th - English IV and US Govt./Economics
• 2 years of the same Foreign Language

The evidence is clear: the strongest predictor of a successful future is a rigorous and challenging high school course of study. The work required, however, begins well before the high school years, and the education system and culture of our society needs to catch up. If we are to prepare students for success, the effort needs to reach into the pre-school years. In this regard, I believe Michigan is on the right track and preparing to meet the challenge.

Grade Level Content Expectations Set a Course

The adoption of Michigan’s grade level content expectations (GLCE) in math and English language arts will provide parents, educators, and students with a clear set of expectations at each grade. Properly implemented, these new expectations will eliminate guesswork and confusion about what students need to learn and be able to do. In addition, many forward-looking school districts have initiated efforts to reach parents of pre-schoolers in order to communicate how parents can help their children build a solid foundation for learning during the formative years.

However, the talent pipeline for research and innovation in the United States, especially in engineering and physical sciences, is in jeopardy. To protect it, business leaders support efforts aimed at improving math and science education and believe these efforts must top the list of state and federal education priorities. We cannot expect our students to fully participate in the future if we don’t adequately prepare them for the future.

For more information, contact: Jim Sandy, Executive Director, Michigan Business Leaders for Education Excellence, an affiliate of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce; 600 S. Walnut St., Lansing, MI 48933, (517) 371-2100, jsandy@michamber.com.

Top of Page