Education Weekly recently released their Quality Counts 2007 “From Cradle to Career: Connecting American Education from Birth through Adulthood” featuring a state-by-state reference detailing the different positive and negative attributes of their findings. The QC 2007 looked at several factors including: the ways in which states K-12 educational systems connect with early-childhood education, postsecondary schooling, and the future workplace.
Some important numbers from their findings include:
Parent Education: 31.4% w/postsecondary degree
Parental Employment: 62.5% w/one parent working full time, year-round
Kindergarten Enrollment: 76.5%
Middle School Math: 16.1% proficient
High School Graduation: 60.6%
Postsecondary Participation: 43.1% of the state’s young adults in postsecondary or with a degree
In comparison with the other states, the QC 2007 found:
Louisiana was on par with 42 other students concerning early-learning standards signed w/K-12 standards.
Louisiana student readiness assessment for public school entrance is on the level of 16 states.
Along with 45 other states, Louisiana has Kindergarten learning expectations aligned with elementary standards.
Our career-tech diploma, industry certification, and portable credits programs are all potent parts of the state’s education plan and are comparable with 35-38 states.
The negatives found, in my opinion, are vital in consideration to this study. The study has found that:
On the whole, the state lacks any definitive plan on linking K-12 programs with that of post-secondary programs. Also, Louisiana is sorely lacking in terms of work-readiness and work-ready distinction.
These two areas are vital in relation to the furthering success of our state. Post-secondary readiness and portability are vital in producing an educated populace. Work-readiness is also an important fixture that Louisiana has to work on. Preparing students to become members of the workforce is necessary as we all know and by failing in this, we are precluding our future citizens from becoming productive in our workforce.
Louisiana, in all its glory, was ranked 49th overall just above New Mexico. If we wish to improve our stock the state and its citizens need to address the negatives found in this study. For those who wish to view the full report, it is located at: http://www.edweek.org/media/ew/qc/2007/17shr.la.h26.pdf
*Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat to view*
CenLamar 