Business seen playing key role in education plan

Businesspeople counted for only a sliver of a recent public education survey, but the R.I. Department of Education says the numbers are likely skewed and that the business community is playing a persuasive role in the development its new five-year plan.
The Council on Elementary and Secondary Education last month selected 26 Rhode Islanders, dubbed the Ambassador Design Team, to participate in writing and developing a five-year “strategic plan” for elementary and secondary education in Rhode Island.
The team includes two members of the business community. They are Mike Grey, vice president of Sodexo Food Services, and Chris Semonelli, co-director of the Newport County Mentor/Co-Op Group.
The strategic plan is being developed differently than it was five years ago. Deborah A. Gist, commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, created the last one with her team based on information she gathered while touring the different school districts throughout the state. She says she met with some businesses during those tours, but there was no formal attempt then to gather widespread input from the business community.
“This time, we’re actually asking the community [at large] to develop the plan themselves,” Gist said, adding that the survey highlighted the need for close collaboration between education and business communities.
The survey was conducted by RIDE and its results will act as a starting point for the design team moving forward. A few weeks before the survey closed on Jan. 1, there had been dismal participation levels from the business community. The lackluster contribution sparked the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce to send out an email to its members urging them to take the survey.
“One of the Chamber’s top priorities for 2015 is to continue to advocate for an education system aligned with the labor demands of not just today’s employers, but a system which prepares students to be lifelong learners so they can adapt to the types of jobs perhaps not even envisioned yet,” Laurie White, Chamber president, explained in a statement. “Rhode Island must make sure we’re competitive in education and [a] dynamic talent pipeline will likely remain a leading consideration for starting, growing or locating a business in our state – or not.” It’s unclear whether the Chamber’s call to action had any real impact on the results, but respondents tended to lean toward answers that match some of the needs of the business community.
On the surface, just 288 participants – 3.4 percent – identified themselves in the survey as businesspeople, but RIDE spokesman Elliot Krieger thinks the numbers are probably somewhat skewed due to overlap.
“Many respondents would probably identify as something else, like a parent, or even a community member,” Krieger said. “If you are a businessperson and have kids in school you would probably respond as a parent.”
The Chamber is partnering with state education leaders to provide information for the strategic plan, which will act as a blueprint for Rhode Island public schools through 2020. In the email to its members, the Chamber urged businesses to “make the case that your ability to hire qualified workers has a huge impact on the overall success of your business.”
Just 4,000 people had responded to the survey when the Chamber sent its email, but the overall response jumped to more than 10,000 by the time the survey closed.
In one survey question, more than 40 percent of participants said “career readiness and employability” should be set as a priority to meet the needs of students and state.
In another question, more than 36 percent of participants said the purpose of public education was to support and develop Rhode Island’s future workforce. Nearly 70 percent said it was to prepare every student for future economic success. Participants were allowed to choose up to three answers. “I think [the results] we’re seeing here – early on – is underscoring the need for us to have a close relationship between the business community and education community,” Gist said.
Gist says she hears from businesses that they want people exiting the school systems and entering the workforce equipped with different qualifications. Some businesses want workers equipped with STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), while others just want workers to have basic skills, like the ability to show up for work.
“ ‘They need to come to work every day.’ I hear it quite a lot from the business community and we have some chronic absentee problems [in the schools],” Gist said. “There is a connection there and some districts are addressing it.”
The designated design team is broken up into two groups: a 12-member “core team” and a 14-person “extended team.”
The core team will ultimately be responsible for writing and producing the strategic plan, which will be presented for approval in June. The extended team will provide research support and act as a “sounding board,” according to Krieger.
“This plan will guide our work over the next five years and I can assure these are not plans that sit on a shelf,” Krieger said. “We all have goals that are aligned with the goals of this plan.”
Gist says the teams will be conducting additional interviews and will likely hold focus groups over the next few months with different organizations and communities, including business.
“This design group is going to look at all these different challenges and take what they’re hearing and what they’ve seen in the survey data and put together a plan to lay out what we want to accomplish and how,” Gist said. •

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