With help, schools can offer 'elite' education for all
Look at your bottom line and answer this question: How do I ensure the future success of my business, my industry, my organization? Invariably, the answer will come down to attracting and retaining well-trained, competent people.
Where will you find them? Potentially, right in your back yard -- in our public schools.
Notice I said "potentially," for unless we take action and invest today, we will not reap the benefits tomorrow.
By 2012, scientific and engineering jobs are expected to grow 70 percent faster than overall job growth. However, according to the President's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology, in 2001 China had three times as many engineers as the United States, and 39 percent of its students were seeking bachelor's degrees in engineering, compared with only 5 percent of U.S. students.
How do we prepare our students to compete in the global economy? Clifford Adelman, senior research analyst for the Department of Education, notes that the academic intensity of a student's high school curriculum still counts more than anything else in precollegiate history in providing momentum toward completing a bachelor's degree.
Adelman, in a February report entitled "The Toolbox Revisited," recommends as minimums that students complete at least four units of English; four units of mathematics including calculus, precalculus, or trigonometry; biology, chemistry and physics; more than two units of world languages; more than two units of social studies; and at least one Advanced Placement (AP) course.
Are these standards only for top students? Hardly. Adelman believes that these academic goals could be achieved by nearly everyone. Yet the reality is far different -- high school graduation requirements are inadequate and nearly 30 percent of students take remedial courses in college.
The Bellevue School District believes that every student deserves what is too often considered an "elite" college preparatory education, and has long subscribed to the idea that all students should graduate with one or more AP or International Baccalaureate courses on their transcripts.
Resources beyond what the state can provide are essential. School districts in our state do not have adequate funding to deliver the type of world-class education our students need to excel. Our state ranks 42nd in the nation in per-pupil expenditures for K-12 education, so support from the private sector is vital.
By working to provide the district with additional funds to improve curriculum, support teachers and help students, nonprofit organizations such as the Bellevue Schools Foundation, along with the support of numerous corporate partners, are a critical component as districts work to set high expectations that lead to high achievement for all students.
In Bellevue, there are many partnerships that support the curriculum Superintendent Michael Riley has been working to implement over the past 10 years. An excellent example is the Boeing-Bellevue International Math Standards Partnership. Supported by a visionary grant from The Boeing Co., the Bellevue School District is developing a K-12 math curriculum that is aligned to the highest international standards.
The objective is to create a curriculum that elevates the mathematical ability of every Bellevue student to that achieved by students in the highest performing countries in the world. Significant to your future? You bet!
Another example is the Bellevue Schools Foundation's funding of Today's Biology, a state-of-the-art, Web-based biology curriculum program for high school students. This program, founded in partnership between the foundation, the district, and Leroy Hood's Institute for Systems Biology, incorporates recent scientific advances that enable students to study biology within an authentic, real world framework -- not just book theory. This program could not have evolved if the district were left to rely on state funding. It took investment from such leadership companies as the Amgen Foundation, The Medtronic Foundation, Philips Medical Systems, Qwest Foundation, Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.
Are you starting to see the future more clearly? Providing world class education to our youth is inextricably connected to your bottom line.
PAUL BOGEL is president of the Bellevue Schools Foundation Board of Trustees and vice president of development, Lexington Fine Homes.
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