July 26, 2010--The U.S.: 12th Among 36 Developed Nations
I have a friend here who owns a company that manufactures very sophisticated, high-tolorence manways. From their Website these are--
They are doing quite well and recently moved to hire a few more workers. Over coffee the other morning John told me what they are finding. I assumed, considering the locally very depressed economy, that many would apply for these well-paying positions and that he would thus have an easy time finding well-qualified applicants.
"We're looking to hire younger people so we can train them in our ways and they'll be able to stay with us for many years."
"That sounds smart," I said. "How's it going?"
"Not very well," he said. "More than half are not even minimally qualified. Among other things, we ask them to show us that they can use a tape-measure."
"A tape-measure? The ones you get in a hardware store?"
"Indeed, those. I ask them to show me 5 and 7/8ths"
"To measure something that long?"
"Yes. But, as I said, at least half can't. They can show me 5 but when it comes to fractions they have no idea what to do. And I'm not taking liberal-arts-type people."
Later in the day I read a disturbing report in the New York Times (linked below) about a study by the College Board about college degree attainment in the United States. Though until not very long ago the U.S. lead the world in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees, now we rank only 12th among the 36 so-called developed nations.
Canada leads the world with about 56 percent of its young having at least an associate's degree while here the completion rate is just 40 percent. To give you an idea of how we are doing in comaprison to other countries, in second place is Korea (I assume South) and after that, in 3rd place, is Russia, of all places. Just below us, and rising fast, are Denmark, Sweden, and Spain. So we now embarrassedly find ourselves, the country that first articulated the notion of expanding access to higher education for all and invented the community college, we find ourselves now situated between Russia and Spain.
I say this not because I am jingoistically upset that we are lagging in winning gold medals at the Olympics, but because the future viability for developed countries is very much dependent on having a well-educated population. Yes, there are the Bill Gateses who drop out of college and whose brilliance and entrepreneurship is all they need to eventually build companies such as Microsoft and Google that employ thousands and fuel the national economy. But for the employees they require and for 21st century forms of business formation appropriate for the United States as well as to supply the needs of the professions, we need many more, much better educated young people. We, though, are heading in the wrong direction.
Of course, as the College Board points out in its full study, which is worth looking at, the problem does not primarily reside with the colleges. They share the blame in that they continue to do a woeful job of providing remediation for those who enter needing it and their student services and counseling in general are less than adequate; but the real failure occurs at the K-12 level, where more and more students are studying in dysfunctional schools. If you enter high school years behind in reading and don't know what 7/8ths is, you have almost no chance of doing well and completing even an associate's degree.
This is our biggest national challenge. More important than expanding health care, reducing our carbon footprint, and chasing after the Taliban. All important to do, but they should not be our top priority.
And though the Bush and Obama administrations put a spotlight on the crisis, the money that has been deployed, the ideas that have been pressed, what has been required, and what has been accomplished is inadequate to the task. The resistance to systemic change, largely led by local anti-government interests and the powerful teachers unions, have reduced the effort to a pittance of what is required to get the job done.
Rather than sending more troops to South Korea and seeing if we can out-macho North Korea we should get over there and see what they are doing in their schools and colleges. We have a lot to learn from countries we helped defend and which are now outcompeting us.
In-Swing and Out-Swing watertight doors that offer safe, dependable quick-opening access into steel, concrete and poly storage or processing tanks.
Our primary product, the Quick-Opening Hidden-Hinged Manway, provides immediate access for personnel and equipment into OSHA Permit-Required Confined Spaces such as tile-lined chests, steel tanks and processing vessels.
They are doing quite well and recently moved to hire a few more workers. Over coffee the other morning John told me what they are finding. I assumed, considering the locally very depressed economy, that many would apply for these well-paying positions and that he would thus have an easy time finding well-qualified applicants.
"We're looking to hire younger people so we can train them in our ways and they'll be able to stay with us for many years."
"That sounds smart," I said. "How's it going?"
"Not very well," he said. "More than half are not even minimally qualified. Among other things, we ask them to show us that they can use a tape-measure."
"A tape-measure? The ones you get in a hardware store?"
"Indeed, those. I ask them to show me 5 and 7/8ths"
"To measure something that long?"
"Yes. But, as I said, at least half can't. They can show me 5 but when it comes to fractions they have no idea what to do. And I'm not taking liberal-arts-type people."
Later in the day I read a disturbing report in the New York Times (linked below) about a study by the College Board about college degree attainment in the United States. Though until not very long ago the U.S. lead the world in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees, now we rank only 12th among the 36 so-called developed nations.
Canada leads the world with about 56 percent of its young having at least an associate's degree while here the completion rate is just 40 percent. To give you an idea of how we are doing in comaprison to other countries, in second place is Korea (I assume South) and after that, in 3rd place, is Russia, of all places. Just below us, and rising fast, are Denmark, Sweden, and Spain. So we now embarrassedly find ourselves, the country that first articulated the notion of expanding access to higher education for all and invented the community college, we find ourselves now situated between Russia and Spain.
I say this not because I am jingoistically upset that we are lagging in winning gold medals at the Olympics, but because the future viability for developed countries is very much dependent on having a well-educated population. Yes, there are the Bill Gateses who drop out of college and whose brilliance and entrepreneurship is all they need to eventually build companies such as Microsoft and Google that employ thousands and fuel the national economy. But for the employees they require and for 21st century forms of business formation appropriate for the United States as well as to supply the needs of the professions, we need many more, much better educated young people. We, though, are heading in the wrong direction.
Of course, as the College Board points out in its full study, which is worth looking at, the problem does not primarily reside with the colleges. They share the blame in that they continue to do a woeful job of providing remediation for those who enter needing it and their student services and counseling in general are less than adequate; but the real failure occurs at the K-12 level, where more and more students are studying in dysfunctional schools. If you enter high school years behind in reading and don't know what 7/8ths is, you have almost no chance of doing well and completing even an associate's degree.
This is our biggest national challenge. More important than expanding health care, reducing our carbon footprint, and chasing after the Taliban. All important to do, but they should not be our top priority.
And though the Bush and Obama administrations put a spotlight on the crisis, the money that has been deployed, the ideas that have been pressed, what has been required, and what has been accomplished is inadequate to the task. The resistance to systemic change, largely led by local anti-government interests and the powerful teachers unions, have reduced the effort to a pittance of what is required to get the job done.
Rather than sending more troops to South Korea and seeing if we can out-macho North Korea we should get over there and see what they are doing in their schools and colleges. We have a lot to learn from countries we helped defend and which are now outcompeting us.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:20 AM
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