Our children aren't ready for jobs of the future
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As the nation's economy struggles to recover from the recession, how is our region doing in preparing children to compete for the jobs of the future?
Not very well, unfortunately.
State test scores for 2010 show that more than one-fourth (28 percent) of our 11th graders can't read adequately and more than one-third (37 percent) aren't proficient in mathematics. That means southwestern Pennsylvania schools are sending nearly 10,000 young people into the workforce every year without the minimum skills they need to compete for the jobs of the future.
It's not just the high schools that are failing. The problem starts all the way back in elementary school. Nearly one-third (32 percent) of the fifth graders in the region can't read at grade level, and nearly one-fourth (22 percent) aren't proficient in math.
No business could survive if a third of its products were defective. Our region can't expect to succeed, either, if 30 percent of our workforce lacks basic skills.
If you think this isn't a problem in your local schools, think again. Only one high school in the entire region (Upper St. Clair) had 90 percent or more of its 11th graders proficient in both mathematics and reading, and only 11 of the region's 319 elementary/middle schools had 90 percent or more of their 5th graders proficient in both mathematics and reading.
In fact, if we graded schools the way they grade kids, more than half of the elementary schools in the region would get a "D," "E," or "F," and nearly three-fourths of the high schools would get a "D" or worse. (If you'd like to see your local schools' grades, go to www.pittsburghfuture.com/schoolgrades.html.)
Although news media tend to focus on the Pittsburgh Public Schools because of its size, fewer than 10 percent of the non-proficient students in the region are from the City of Pittsburgh. Most of the problems ares in the other 123 school districts, and we won't have a competitive workforce unless every school district improves.
First Published November 7, 2010 12:00 am
