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| Why This Effort?The FrameworkSummits & Regional MeetingsView Plan DocumentsInitiative Tracker |
Initiative Tracker -- Education and Workforce
Goal: For Oregon to succeed in the 21st century, all Oregonians in all their diversity must be educated at higher levels than ever before. Oregon should embrace the ambitious education benchmarks proposed by the Governor and adopted by the Legislature:
40 percent of Oregon adults should have a bachelor's degree of higher (compared with 28 percent now), another 40 percent should have at least an associate's degree or other technical credential, and the remaining 20 percent should have a high school diploma that represents a high level of academic and work readiness skills.
Initiative Leaders: Eileen Drake, PCC Structurals, Inc. Sam Brooks, S. Brooks & Associates; Chair, Portland Business Alliance; Chair, Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs. Kirby Dyess; Austin Capital Management; Chair, Board of Higher Education
In order to achieve the appropriately aggressive goals state above, business leaders call for both broad systemic change to the PreK-20 education system as well as a number of targeted interventions. Many of the system change recommendations below come from the work of the Oregon Education Roundtable and are described in a series of six white papers that can be reviewed here. 1. Embrace the new high school diploma. The new diploma will require students to meet standards to prepare them for postsecondary study, work and citizenship. 2. Support improvement of learning programs and delivery systems to help student meet the new graduation requirements. 3. Improve cooperation and communication among Prek-20 institutions, workforce organizations, and employers in implementing high school graduation standards and meting the job skill requirements of career fields. 4. Remove the financial barrier to postsecondary education for all Oregonians. The Governor's "Shared Responsibility Model" for the Oregon Opportunity Grant is a great start. Now, the challenge is to communicate this opportunity widely throughout Oregon, to connect it to the new diploma, and to ensure that the effort has sustainable funding. 5. Prepare a unified, transparent, student-centered budget, Prek-20 for review by the 2009 Legislature. The 2007 legislature passed HB 3141, establishing the "Education System Design Team" to reform the legislative policy and budget making process in order to meet the 40-40-20 goals. The design team is Chaired by the Governor's Education Policy Advisor James Sager. The next meeting of the design team is in early June, 2008. In 2007, a report was released exploring a new budget framework for the Prek-20 education enterprise. Read "Re-thinking the Budget Framework" 6. Advance a work on a seamless, engaging Prek-20 curriculum and integrated students data system. Review the chart: "The Impact on Oregon: An Aligned PK-20 Education System." 1. Respond to urgent needs of targeted industry clusters. Specifically, work to fill immediate needs in manufacturing, engineering, health care and clean tech professions. In 2006, the Governor created a Manufacturing Workforce Strategy. Updates and progress on the strategy can be reviewed at www.oregonmanufacturing.org. In 2007, the Oregon Legislature invested $_ in engineering related programs to help meet the state's goal of doubling engineering graduate output from Oregon Universities by 2009. For the latest information on engineering workforce needs and investments, visit Engineering and Technology Industry Council at www.etic.org. In 2008, the Governor's office began convening Clean Tech executives to discuss the workforce needs of various clean technology industry clusters. A first meeting was held on April 23, 2008. Stay tuned for results and next steps. 2. Invest in K-12 practices validated by rigorous research. The 2007 School Improvement Fund was a good start. Oregon must continue to invest its limited education dollars where they are proven to make the biggest impact. 3. Investigate professional compensation models for teachers. Chalkboard Project is currently working on the CLASS project, a new and expanded career architecture created locally by teachers with the aim of enhancing their students’ achievement. Three pilot school districts are engaged, including Forest Grove, Sherwood and Tillamook. To learn more about this program, click here. 4. Revamp K-12 teacher professional development 5. Support innovative workforce development models 6. Support efforts to achieve a drug-free Oregon workforce. Learn more 7. Support efforts to increase inclusion of people with disabilities in the competitive workforce. Learn more To achieve this bold vision, Oregon needs a dialogue among policy-makers, educators business and community leaders and with the largest public. With this in mind, we call for 1. A Statewide Education Summit it in 2008 to bring together key stakeholders 2. Abroad-based engagement with the public to help refine the vision and earn support. Tell us what you think about these recommendations View Oregon's list of accomplishments on this initiative since the Oregon Business Plan launched in 2002. Key Links - Documents, Websites, News, & Bills: Documents
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Tell us what you think about the Education and Workforce Initiative
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