A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Challenges and Solutions (continued)

Preparing the Next Workforce

The Challenges

By 1994, 62 percent of the U.S. workforce was composed of knowledge workers whose primary job responsibilities focused on creating, organizing, and communicating information?and demand for such workers is growing, according to the McKinsey Quarterly. About 22,000 of these workers were teenagers, ages 16 to 19, who worked in the computer and data-processing industry in 1997?more than four times the number three years earlier.^[13]

Businesses are addressing current and long-term needs for skilled, qualified workers who can demonstrate their technical skills as well as the creativity, problem-solving, and the lifelong learning skills required in the new economy by focusing on issues such as recruitment, retention, productivity, competition, employee and family well-being, quality of consumer life, and consumer loyalty. Two recent reports on employer needs in Virginia and Maryland put these concerns regarding knowledge workers into proper perspective.

Knowledge workers lacking in northern Virginia. A recent study by Ryan McGinn Samples Research, Inc. finds there is a current need for more than 19,000 technology employees in northern Virginia and an additional 112,000 technology employees over the next five years (at a cost of $400 million in recruitment expenses). The greatest demand is for computer programmers, information management specialists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and structural engineers.

Currently, only 38 percent of applicants who apply for technical positions have the skills necessary to fulfill requirements for available jobs. Of the firms surveyed:

• 50 percent indicated that individuals with a four-year college degree represent their greatest need;

• 25 percent said their greatest need is for individuals with some college, technical training, or an associate degree; and

• 22 percent indicated their greatest need is for people with a post-graduate degree.

Bottom-line effects of insufficient knowledge workers in Maryland. A 1997 survey by the Maryland Business Research Partnership found that nearly 80 percent of Maryland firms that hire manufacturing or skilled-trades workers reported either some or a great deal of difficulty in finding qualified workers, particularly for high-tech jobs. The greatest demands are for qualified graduates from high school vocational programs and from college and university scientific and technical programs.

• 38 percent of the 335 employers surveyed reported that a lack of skilled workers has had a negative impact on their ability to do business in Maryland in 1997.

• 84 percent reported that worker shortages reduced productivity.

• 64 percent reported reduced ability to meet deadlines.

• 43 percent reported that skilled-worker shortages have prevented their company from expanding its facilities.

• 9 percent reported that worker shortages may force the firm to close or move some operations out of state.

• 73 percent reported experiencing problems with the communications skills of high school level workers.

• 69 percent reported problems with writing and reading skills.

To increase worker productivity or improve technology/technical skills, 68 percent of surveyed employers provided some form of employee training that ranged from $2,300 for training a new employee to $2,250 for training a professional employee to $1,375 for training a nonprofessional employee.

Job growth and education requirements. The U.S. economy is expected to add 18.6 million new jobs by 2006. From 1996? 2006, service-producing industries will account for virtually all of the job growth, including net gains of 3.6 million in business services, 3.2 million in health services, and 2.3 million in retail trade. Computer and data processing services is the fastest growing sector, expected to add 1.3 million jobs, twice the number previously projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.^[14]

Education requirements and earnings of workers are quite varied among the 30 occupations that are projected to grow the fastest. It is estimated that 60 percent of jobs by 2000 will require skills with information technologies. These jobs are expected to pay 10 to 15 percent more than jobs that do not require such kills. ^[15]

Projections also show that differing growth prospects among occupations have important implications for education. While the economy will continue to generate large numbers of jobs at all education levels, the increasing role of technology means that at least half of the fastest-growing job opportunities (jobs that are higher paying as well) are most likely to require more extensive education and training and experience. More specifically, employment in occupations requiring an associate degree or higher will grow considerably faster than those with lesser education requirements. Growth rates from 1996-2006 will range from 7.4 percent for occupations generally requiring post-secondary vocational training to 25.4 percent for those requiring a bachelor's degree.^[16]

It will be an enormous task to meet the current and future education and training needs of U.S. business. Changes in industry needs require new approaches to education; the extent of these changes will exceed those required when the U.S. education system was organized to meet the needs of the industrial age 100 years ago.

The Solutions

Technology plays an essential role in creating, guiding, and supporting the conditions of effective learning for all students. Technology tools can:

• help students take advantage of the ongoing rapid evolution of telecommunications and multimedia technologies;

• realize high standards;

• engage students in complex and meaningful problem-solving tasks;

• bring vast new resources to schools from libraries and other centers of learning;

• connect schools with homes and communities;

• help students learn the necessary skills to use these tools;

• support improved management and delivery of instruction through the professional development of teachers;

• extend workforce preparation at schools and business sites (for students and educators); and

• expand additional opportunities for career and workforce preparation at community colleges and other post-secondary institutions, libraries, and community centers.

Not only is there a need to prepare post-secondary students for further education and training to meet business needs for a qualified workforce, but also to retrain and upgrade skills of existing workers. Business is using technology tools to develop necessary knowledge and skills and to ensure a better match between workplace requirements, expected worker qualifications, and the knowledge and competencies of high school, community college, and four-year college graduates.

Supporting Special Populations

The Challenges

As cited earlier, many parents are uncomfortable and lack self-confidence in school settings; this may be particularly true of parents with language communication problems and/or families of children with disabilities. These parents may require additional support from their workplace to support their "special" children, and that support may be limited or non-existent. School schedules that foster parental involvement are often inconvenient. Those parents who need greater assistance may also have little knowledge of the special management and instructional methods and materials required of them to support their children at home. Teachers who work with special student populations are often isolated and do not have access to the newest instructional technologies and materials to ensure expanded and improved student learning.

The Solutions

Technology is used to support educational opportunities and improvement for special populations, especially for the disabled and students and families with limited command of English. Business is paying particular attention to the use of technology tools that can more effectively meet these special needs through the development of adaptive technology, programs and software, resource and referral services, and multilingual hotlines.

Making Technology Integral to Learning

The Challenges

Technology is not integrated as a tool to manage, deliver, and inform instruction throughout and across academic disciplines, even though teachers who have been given the time and flexibility to integrate technology into curriculum and instruction have done so successfully. A Global Strategy Group Poll found that although 71 percent of teachers said that computer training was available, only 48 percent reported that they had access to training for integrating technology into classroom instruction. Only 19 percent of high school English classes, 67 percent of math classes, and 3 percent of social studies classes integrate technology into learning.^[17]

The Solutions

Technology is made essential to learning through the curriculum, the management and delivery of instruction, strategic planning, and school governance. The importance business places on integrated learning is demonstrated by its support of the Internet, long-distance learning, maintenance and upgrade of software and hardware, and maximizing the Universal Service Fund for schools and libraries. The approach focuses on bringing technology from the position of supplemental or tangential to central.

Results of Technology Link Still Scant

The Challenges

Knowledge about the kind and amount of technology used in schools, how it is used, the results of its use, the kind and degree of training and support teachers need, and its cost has been severely limited by a lack of any major studies that have demonstrated the tie between technology and improved student achievement. The success of technology applications is also understudied, as is the question of whether policy-makers spend the amount and quality of time needed to make decisions about investments in new technology infrastructures, hardware, and software, as well as maintenance and upgrading efforts. Too often, even the amount of technology that is already in schools and the ways it is used is unclear.

The Solutions

Despite the tremendous deficiency in information, some basic knowledge does exist. For instance, the quality of both local and state plans varies widely and limited resources of total technology budgets have been allocated for professional development. Also, some schools and school districts have established indicators to determine what is working. They are developing tools to monitor costs, time tables, and performance related to technology, its use by staff, and its impact on teaching, learning, and achievement.

Existing research on technology and education appears to demonstrate mixed results. Most users feel that it is too new to evaluate outcomes related to student achievement. But limited findings do indicate that motivation soars, attendance rates go up, and classroom isolation is reduced when students are able to use technology for interactive learning activities. Other positive results demonstrate the improvement of basic skills.

The first U.S. Department of Education-funded study of nine technology-rich schools concluded that the use of technology resulted in educational gains for all students regardless of age, race, parental income, or other characteristics. Key features of these schools' success are:

• concentrated, conscious, and explicit planning among school leaders, families, and students to create "learner-centered" environments;

• clearly articulated goals and challenging standards for student achievement;

• restructuring of the school to support the learner-centered environment and achievement of standards; and

• nearly universal access to computer technology.

The Challenges

Almost 60 percent of U.S. schools are considered low-tech, lacking adequate classroom technology and at best having only outdated and inadequate technology.^[18] In 1995, nearly 50 percent of school computer purchases were used to replace old and outdated computers, resulting in only a marginal increase in the number of machines available to students. ^[19] Only 3 percent of schools have fully integrated technology in the classroom.^[20] On the human side, only 13 percent of all public schools reported that technology-related training for teachers was mandated by the school, district, or teacher-certification agencies.^[21] Fifty percent of teachers cited the lack of time to train as the greatest barrier to integrating the Internet into the classroom.

Schools face common barriers:

• Technology is just one of a number of competing school needs and priorities.

• Local community resistance to higher taxes limits districts' ability to raise additional revenue.

• Districts lack staff to expedite fundraising efforts.

• Some funding sources have restrictive conditions/requirements that make funding difficult to obtain.

• Technology components that are hardest to fund are maintenance, training, and technical support.

• Limited business contributions are often attributed to a lack of business understanding of the extent of schools' needs and/or the large number of competing demands on its resources from the community.^[22]

The Solutions

Breaking down the funding barrier. Funding is still a major barrier to achieving technology literacy goals, particularly in urban and rural schools. However, there is a growing bipartisan political commitment to investing in technology to support educational improvement. In 1994, 69 percent of schools said funding was a barrier; in 1995, the count fell to 55 percent.^[23]

U.S. schools are projected to have spent an estimated $5.2 billion on educational technology during school year 1997?98, a 21 percent rise in spending from 1996?97. Increased spending on instructional software is projected at 49 percent and on hardware (mostly personal computers and servers) at 41 percent.^[24] In 1995, schools spent $6 million for online and subscription-based services; this is expected to double by 1998.^[25]

Concerns have been raised that school districts are throwing money away through one-time technology expenditures, expecting quick solutions to technology needs. In reality, funding challenges related to the planning, allocation, use, and monitoring of resources will be long-term and include:

• infrastructure investment (e.g., external connections, hardware, software, etc.);

• system maintenance, replacement, and upgrading of infrastructure, hardware, and software;

• telecommunications access;

• technical support and coordination;

• technology training to prepare new teachers and provide professional development for experienced teachers and school administrators;

• associated building improvements (wiring, access, connectivity); and

• the involvement of families and other community stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

Collaboration among federal, state, and local stakeholders. The federal government has been addressing the enormous investment and costs required for technology efforts at local, state, and national levels. Through its Telecommunications Act of 1996 (in effect in January 1997), federal legislation provides "E-Rate" discounts, administered by the Schools and Libraries Corporation, a not-for-profit organization established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The legislation allows for up to $2.25 billion in annual discounts for Internet access, internal connections, and local and long-distance phone rates to schools and libraries. Moreover, the Technology Literacy Challenge, announced by President Clinton and Vice President Gore in February 1996 (and totaling $531 million in 1998), is designed to energize the nation to make young Americans technologically literate by the turn of the century through achievement of four goals:

• All teachers will have the training and support they need to help students learn to use computers and the information highway.

• All teachers and students will have access to modern multimedia computers in their classrooms.

• Every classroom will be connected to the information highway.

• Effective software and online learning resources will be an integral part of every school's curriculum.

A January 1998 report to Congress by the U.S. General Accounting Office, School Technology: Five School Districts' Experiences in Financing Technology Programs, relates how rural, suburban, and urban school districts are addressing technology needs through local, state, and federal collaboration. All five districts, which included two cities, chose to allocate from 16 to 77 percent of district funds from operating budgets for technology. The two cities competed for and won federal five-year Technology Innovative Challenge Grants. All of the districts figured out how to use federal and state program funding that was not specifically designated for technology, but could be used for this purpose. All districts recruited assistance (grants, and monetary and in-kind donations) from businesses, foundations, and individuals. District/school fundraising activities and parent-teacher activities rounded out recruitment activities to support technology efforts.

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[Challenges and Solutions--Part 1 of 2]

[Conclusion: Business-Education Partnerships]