Students lack some skills after graduation

At a recent meeting of the Holton school board, there was some discussion about the district’s plans to be part of an education-redesign pilot program in the state.

This year, it was announced Holton teaching staff and administrative leaders are formulating the plan for redesigning education here starting next school term primarily at the high school level.

The “No Child Left Behind’’ era of public education, including stringent tabulation of test scores and progress graphs showing improvement by numbers, is behind us now and there is a concerted effort at the high school level and middle school level – at least – to include more and more focus on possible future career pathways for our young people.

The school board learned at its meeting that business and industry leaders continue to report that three skills continue to be lacking in high school grads, two-year college grads and four-year college grads.

Those three skills that are reported to be lacking in the new additions to the workforce are the following:

*Professionalism/work ethic.

*Teamwork/collaboration.

*Verbal communication.

“We need to make some changes in education because 56 percent of our kids being successful is not good enough,’’ Supt. Bob Davies said to the board, referring to studies that track kids’ five-year graduation averages, success averages and effectiveness averages.

“Too many kids are still going through the system just to get through,’’ Davies said. Schools can do a better job of helping kids find careers that they are passionate about, are good at and can make a good living wage with,’’ he added.

The key to happiness in adult life is finding a good career that you are passionate about, are good at and can make a good living at.

Supt. Davies is right about how 56 percent of our kids being successful after five years is not good enough.

Davies said the Kansas State Board of Education defines school success as providing a high school graduate with the following:

*Academic preparation.

*Cognitive preparation.

*Technical skills.

*Employability skills.

*Civic engagement.

School redesign focuses on student success skills, community parternships, personalized learning with structure and real-word applications, Davies said.

These are things that, as a community, we can all support.

One thing that our area schools continue to have going for them is a high level of student participation in extracurricular activities. The importance of these extra activities like sports, clubs, band, school play, etc. in the overall development of our young people cannot be overstated.

Growing up in smaller communities like ours has its educational values. It’s good to learn that even more focus is going to be made on helping kids explore possible careers in high school and middle school.