Welcome
Lately I have been hard on North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and State Board of Education (SBE). My report on community college remediation and graduation rates was not well received by state education officials.
In this week’s CommenTerry, I want to highlight a positive step initiated by DPI and the SBE — the decision to administer the WorkKeys assessment in 2012.
Bulletin Board
- The John Locke Foundation is sponsoring a Citizen’s Constitutional Workshop on Saturday, November 12, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Kaplan Auditorium, Henderson County Library, in Hendersonville, N.C. Historian Dr. Troy Kickler and political science expert Dr. Michael Sanera will discuss "What would the Federalists and Anti-federalists say about the current political and economic crises?" The cost is $8.00 per participant, lunch included. Pre-registration is strongly suggested. For more information or to sign up for the event, visit the Events section of the John Locke Foundation web site.
- The John Locke Foundation is sponsoring An Evening of Living History with special guests John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. "Jefferson and Adams: A Debate on the Future of the United States of America" will be held at the North Carolina Museum of History on Monday, November 21, at 7:00 p.m. A reception will follow the debate. The cost is $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for students. For more information or to register for the event, visit the Events section of the John Locke Foundation web site.
- The North Carolina History Project would like educators and homeschool parents to submit lesson plans suitable for middle-school and high-school courses in North Carolina history. Please provide links to NC History Project encyclopedia articles and other primary and secondary source material, if possible. Go to the NC History Project web site for further information.
- Visit JLF’s research newsletter archive. Elvis has.
CommenTerry
Next year, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction will administer the WorkKeys assessment to qualified public school students throughout North Carolina. Testing company ACT describes WorkKeys as "a job skills assessment system that helps employers select, hire, train, develop, and retain a high-performance workforce." I describe it as a very positive step toward strengthening the state’s workforce.
Career and technical education students who take the WorkKeys test receive scores in three areas – Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information. Based on their WorkKeys scores, students can determine if they have the skills needed for a given job or profession.
For example, students interested in a career in accountancy should score a six or above in applied math, a five or above in locating information, and a five or above in reading for information. Students who want to become accountants after high school, but who fall short in attaining the requisite scores in one or more of the three areas, can recognize their weaknesses and improve upon them in their remaining years in high school.
In addition, students who meet WorkKeys standards can earn a National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC). The certificate shows that the individual has met basic requirements for entry into a profession. It is the first step in the process of "stacking" industry-specific certification, on-the-job training, and/or a degree from an institution of higher education atop the NCRC. Charlotte Allen of Minding the Campus explains the concept of "stackable" credentials,
For example, an 18-year-old armed with only a high school diploma (or even a GED) plus an NCRC certificate could attend a community college or technical institute part time to obtain a short-term technical certificate in welding, take and pass the AWS’s [American Welding Society] basic welding test, and go to work as an entry-level welder at around $16 an hour. The next step up the ladder might be a one-year technical certificate, also from a community college or technical institute, plus a safety certificate from the MSSC [Manufacturing Skills Standards Council], which would qualify the young welder for a larger array of skilled manufacturing jobs. After that might come a two-year associate degree in applied science and more advanced certificates from the American Welding Society and then after that might come a two-year associate degree in applied science that, coupled with more advanced certificates from the AWS and the MSSC, would mean access to an even greater array of skilled, better paying jobs. The final step might be an engineering degree from a university — a bachelor’s, master’s, or even a doctoral degree.
Of course, high school graduates who have a NCRC may choose to forgo higher education altogether, particularly if they had a history of struggling in formal classroom settings. Instead, they may choose to pursue various industry certifications or credentials. In this way, they acquire the skills and knowledge to be successful in their career without wasting valuable time and borrowing thousands of dollars to attend community colleges, technical schools, or universities.
In his National-Education-Association-published children’s book, Look Out, College, Here I Come!, Gov. Mike Easley wrote, "When you’ve finished high school then where do you go? You must go to college — there’s much more to know." It is time to abandon Easley’s mantra that every high school graduate needs to go to college. Nevertheless, he was right about one thing. There is much more to know after high school. Fortunately, state education leaders appear to recognize that colleges are not the only place to get it.
Random Thought
Calvin Johnson, the outstanding wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, has the coolest nickname in the NFL — Megatron. Bearded Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick’s nickname — the Amish Rifle — is a close second.
Facts and Stats
The following are sample questions from the Applied Mathematics WorkKeys assessment:
Applied Mathematics Level 5 Sample Item
Quik Call charges 18 cents per minute for long-distance calls. Econo Phone totals your phone usage each month and rounds the number of minutes up to the nearest 15 minutes. It then charges $7.90 per hour of phone usage, dividing this charge into 15-minute segments if you used less than a full hour. If your office makes 5 hours 3 minutes worth of calls this month using the company with the lower price, how much will these calls cost?
- $39.50
- $41.48
- $41.87
- $54.00
- $54.54
Applied Mathematics Level 6 Sample Item
You are preparing to tile the floor of a rectangular room that is 15 1/2 feet by 18 1/2 feet in size. The tiles you plan to use are square, measuring 12 inches on each side, and are sold in boxes that contain enough tile to cover 25 square feet. How many boxes of tiles must you order to complete the job?
- 11
- 12
- 34
- 59
- 287
Applied Mathematics Level 7 Sample Item
The farm where you just started working has a vertical cylindrical oil tank that is 2.5 feet across on the inside. The depth of the oil in the tank is 2 feet. If 1 cubic foot of space holds 7.48 gallons, about how many gallons of oil are left in the tank?
- 37
- 59
- 73
- 230
- 294
(Correct answers: 2, 2, and 3)
Mailbag
I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].
Education Acronym of the Week
NCRC — National Career Readiness Certificate
Quote of the Week
"As the foundation of the Manufacturing Skills Certification System, the National Career Readiness Certificate clearly provides the emphasis on basic academic skills and general workplace skills that ensure young adults are ready for additional postsecondary education and ready for work."
— Emily Stover DeRocco, president of The Manufacturing Institute and senior vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers
Click here for the Education Update archive.
