CGHS Sophomore (or Other Interested) Parent Enrollment Meeting

On March 1 (7:00 p.m.) Council Grove High School will hold a parent meeting to discuss upcoming enrollment for 2017-18, your child’s Individual Plan of Study, and the various options available for your child to move towards their respective post-secondary goal.  Our target audience is parents of current sophomore students however the information we will share is actually pertinent to any parent who will have a child I high school next year.  A list of topics that will be covered at this meeting are as follows:

• Review of graduation and post-secondary completion data as well as information on current job market trends.
• A review of course offerings available for a student’s junior/senior year.  This includes many new on-line course offerings for students.
• A review of your child’s Individual Plan of Study along with assessment results for your child that help to illustrate their current academic standing in relation to entry level assessment requirements for Butler County and the Flint Hills Tech College.   Directions in regards to the enrollment process that will take place in March.
• Representatives from Butler County Community College and the Flint Hills Technical College will also be present to meet with any parents and/or students who would like to, after the administrative presentation to parents.

In regards to employment trends, and in keeping with my portion of the March 1 meeting, recently I came across an article in the New York Times* that reinforced a message that I have shared with parents for several years now.  The message bears repeating since the impact on our children can be significant.  The focus of this report and additional comments I will add is all about the current and future U.S. job market.

Not too long ago, Siemens Energy opened a gas turbine production plant in North Carolina.   They had a need to hire workers for approximately 800 jobs at the new plant.  Somewhere around 10,000 people showed up at the job fair where all applicants were given a screening test that measured reading, writing, and math abilities.  This test was geared toward 9^th grade educational skills.  Fewer than 15% of the applicants were able to pass this test at a level sufficient to work in this plant. 

Said Eric Spiegel, former chief executive of Siemens U.S.A., “There is a computer every 20-30 feet in their factories.  People on the plant floor need to be much more skilled than they were in the past.  There are no jobs for high school graduates at Siemens today.”  The same can be said for John Deere dealerships where the toolbox for the maintenance of farm machinery is a computer says Andy Winnett, director of the company’s agriculture program at Walla Walla Community College in the state of Washington.

The National Skills Coalition calculates that middle-skill jobs, in computer technology, health care, construction, high-skill manufacturing and other fields, account for 54% of the labor market today.  Yet, only 44% of today’s workers are sufficiently trained.  The point being that a growing percentage of jobs in America today requires more than just a high school diploma.  It is also true that the number of jobs that require a 2 or 4-year college degree is growing.  Jobs available for those with just a high school diploma are fewer than there once were and they are typically the lowest paying jobs.

Since the Great Recession, graduate degree holders (past a Bachelor’s degree) gained 3.8 million jobs, Bachelor’s degree holders gained 4.6 million jobs, and Associate’s degree holders gained 3.1 million jobs, compared to workers with a high school diploma or less, who added only 80,000 jobs.  Projections of future employment trends show that some form of post-secondary education is critical for our students today.  Post-secondary does not only mean a 4-year degree.

Making a wise decision in regards to that post-secondary education can save a lot of time and money for our children.  Data shows the following about post-secondary enrollment and completion rates (using 2009 student data):

^  Statistics pulled from KSDE and the National Center for Education Statistics

There are a couple of points I want to summarize regarding the article I initially cited.  First, the labor market has been, and continues, to value workers with post-secondary education.  This is not going to change.  Wages are higher for workers with some level of post-secondary education and unemployment is lower.   Second, levels of enrollment in post-secondary education are relatively high compared to the past, but the levels of completion are low compared to current employment trend and projections.   Using 2009 data, USD 417 performs similar to the state of Kansas in regards to the data on post-secondary enrollment and completion.

We want all of our students to have the opportunity to find experience success at some secondary level of education.  Too, we want them to have the skills to be successful in the current and future workforce.  To this end, the USD 417 curriculum is challenging our students so we can improve their math, reading, writing, critical thinking, and soft skills.  We no longer think in terms of the completion of high school as being good enough.  We are just one step on an educational continuum with our ultimate goal being post-secondary completion for our students.

*  Selingo, Jefrey J., Wanted: Factory Workers, Degree Required.  The New York Times, January 30, 2017.