session5

Dr. Willard R. Daggett, President, International Center for Leadership in Education July 2, 2007 Model Schools Conference 2007 – Washington D.C.

Workplace Skills for the Global Economy – Session 5

The academic skills needed for the workplace are higher than and different from those needed for college. Dr. Daggett will describe the skills that are required in our technologically based, globally driven society. He will then show how the nation’s most successful schools are helping all students to develop these skills.

Skills gap We are working hard, but are we working hard at the right things? Are we working hard to get the kids ready for the past or the future?

Globalization and technology – these two have created 40 million new jobs (__The 2010 Meltdown__ – Gordon 2005)

1983 – The Nation at Risk = it was business that demanded higher standards Three national school reform initiatives since 1983

Academic skills of the workplace have surpassed academic skills of higher education (higher and different)

Problem solving vs. critical thinking Reflective thought PS – get and analyze data CT – innovation, creativity, design

Tests that measure left-brain knowledge – this was our solution to demand for higher standards Tests have become end-line of public schools, thus, effectively lowering standards – we are testing the WRONG things

Labor shortage Too few workers Wrong majors

Most advanced nation needs the most competitive workforce – being driven by mega-trends

Information technology has merged w/nano technology (SPOT = smart personal object technology)
 * Jan. 6, 2007 = total computer in a watch
 * Integrated projection system and integrated keyboard

Bio technology
 * DNA code – breakthroughs avalanching since then
 * Medicine will help cure more diseases
 * Ethical and moral debates

Nano technology
 * Materials becoming stronger and smaller

DNA- based computing (artificial technology) Wireless electricity Plastic for blood Stem cells to grow human organs Light switch for brain to treat epilepsy

Lives will be changed and enriched – what are the implications for preparing children to compete in this world?

Globalization
 * 9/11/01
 * 11/9/89 (fall of the Berlin Wall – communist block now part of the global economy)
 * 1995 – China enters free enterprise system while remaining philosophically communist
 * 1997 – India votes out socialist government and brings in democratic free enterprise government
 * //3.6 billion consumers and competitors added since A Nation at Risk//

WWW – send work to worker

Microsoft – April 2007 – moved R/D center to India (why? Well trained and cheap workforce) 1/5 of Fortune 500 companies have moved R/D centers to India Most of the companies who move their R/D centers will also move their corporate head quarters (tax base erosion)

Chinese school and teacher certification reforms – Ed Week 6/6/7

Equity costs money – can only afford equity because of our extraordinary economic success in the global economy

Losing the Competitive Advantage – source

India
 * 50% of population under the age of 25
 * If India’s preschoolers were a nation the y would be the 4th largest on the planet
 * 550 million teens by 2015
 * 40% of world’s poor live there – willingness to work very heard to escape poverty (eagerness is a threat to the USA) – danger of affluence in America
 * Infosys – largest information technology firm
 * Average age is 27 (66,000 employees)

Earth cannot sustain people consuming finite resources at American levels

Cities w/1 million people
 * USA 9
 * Europe 36
 * China (2006) 100+
 * China (2020) 160+
 * //The USA have become a small fish in a big ocean//

Geriatrics and Genetics (G&G) studies – life expectancy data

Longevity has increased, but working life term has shrunk

Demographics / Economic
 * 1910 – 3.0 / 100
 * 1946 – 4.6 / 100
 * 2000 – 1.4-1.8 / 100
 * //Need 2.1 / 100 for zero growth//

Distribution of Wealth – USA Today (Age-wealth disparity – net worth v. income)

Half of the people who have every lived past 65 are alive today By 2040, 5.5 million Americans will live in nursing homes 12 million will require ongoing home care

The average 21st century American will spend more years caring for parent than for children

55 is no longer a liable age for retirement

Barclay Global Investment – October 2005 = public pension catastrophe

1901-41 = G.I. 1925-45 = Silent 1946-60 = Boomers 1961-81 = Gen X 1982 - ___ = Millennials