Message from education conference: Businesses must help schools

They ate barbecue for lunch and statistics for dessert, and amid the numbing numbers presented Friday during the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce 2015 State of Education conference, approximately 60 local business and education leaders heard alternately daunting and encouraging words from the chief of an organization dedicated to boosting Georgia's student performance and, as a result, workforce development.

The overall message from Steve Dollinger, president of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, was that businesses must help bridge the achievement gap by closing the opportunity gap -- because, he asserted throughout his presentation, schools can't fix the problem by themselves.

Dollinger showed a graphic depicting the birth-to-work pipeline, requiring the community services of transportation, health, housing and finance as well as the educational and social support of childcare providers, afterschool programs, civic programs, academic assistance and job training to insulate that pipeline.

"Your challenge as community leaders," he told those gathered in the Robert L. Wright Jr. Health Sciences Center at Columbus Technical College, "is to help weld these pieces more tightly together so the kids don't fall out."

Dollinger, a former superintendent of the Fulton County School System, said he often is asked why Georgia's education ratings lag behind states with similar demographics, such as North Carolina or Texas or Virginia. He responds, "They've had these five things in place longer than we have."

Those five things are:

Higher standards

Rigorous curriculum

Clear accountability system

Statewide student information system

Leadership training.

In the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress, the latest results available from the largest assessment of U.S. public schools, Georgia's percentage of fourth-graders reading at or above the proficient level has increased from 26 percent in 2005 to 34 percent in 2013 - finally reaching the national average, Dollinger noted, but still 3 percentage points behind the 20th-ranked state. Georgia's NAEP score for eighth-grade math also significantly has improved, from 23 percent at or above the proficient level in 2005 to 29 percent in 2013 - but still 5 percentage points behind the national average and 8 percentage points behind the 20th-ranked state.

"So we're finally in the game," Dollinger said. "We've got all the tools, but it's going to take us a while to catch up."

Meanwhile, the state's public school teachers are trying to educate a vastly different group of students compared to the business executives expecting them to produce effective employees. From 2001 to 2010, Dollinger said, Georgia's population has grown by 49 percent among Hispanics, 45 percent among Asians, 38 percent among those living in poverty, 20 percent blacks and 8 percent among whites.

Although the state's graduation rate has improved from 68 percent in 2011 to 73 percent in 2014, Dollinger said, students from low-income families graduated at 63 percent and English language learners at 44 percent.

"The fastest-growing groups are graduating the least from high school," he said.

And the ACT's 2015 report deemed only 46 percent of Georgia's graduates this past year as college-ready in reading and 38 percent as college-ready in math.

Dollinger illustrated the predicament another way. According to the Atlanta Regional Commission's analysis of 2012-13 data, out of 100 Georgia public school students who enter ninth grade, 73 will graduate from high school, 54 will enroll in higher education, 12 will graduate from college and 3 will be ready to work in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering or math.

The task to prepare students for college and careers gets tougher as the demand for highly skilled labor rises, the demographics change and the academic rigor and expectations increase. That's a formula for a perfect storm or a positive collective impact, Dollinger declared.

"We're not going to eradicate poverty," he said, "but we can address some of those issues."

Now that an estimated 60 percent of the jobs in 2020 will require some higher education, Dollinger said, and only 42 percent of Georgians have a postsecondary degree, he asked the persistent question: "What can we do about it?"

He offered an easy approach. "Mentoring and tutoring is one of the least expensive, most impactful strategies you can have," he said.

For example, Dollinger said, when he was superintendent in Fulton County the successful Westlake High School boys and girls basketball teams read to elementary school students. He said, "You don't think those kids thought it was really cool for a basketball player to read to them and make them aware that it's a neat thing to do?"

In Albany, he said, some high school students work once a week at a fast-food restaurant and put their paychecks toward funding Advanced Placement exams.

Following the presentation from Dollinger, a panel of Columbus area school district superintendents expressed some of the needs and strategies in their systems. Several mentioned the dual enrollment programs with Columbus Technical College and Columbus State University. Columbus Tech president Lorette Hoover said the college has grown its dual enrollment program from 285 two years ago to more than 900 this semester and another 500 starting in the spring.

"It's an awesome opportunity," she said. "(Without) the partnership with CSU, we couldn't do what we do, because you accept our credit."

Just traveling to Columbus is an accomplishment for some local children. Marion County superintendent Ricky McCorkle said a fourth-grader came up to him after a field trip to the city and exclaimed, "I went to Columbus! He'd never been out of Marion County. That gives you an idea of what a lot of our kids are facing, what poverty can do to you."

Muscogee County superintendent David Lewis called the business-education partnership a "social return on investment. It starts to break down a little bit in the poverty cycle."

Talbot County superintendent Jack Catrett, who serves a district with 100 percent of its students eligible for free lunch, emphasized that point.

"We have some of the most wonderful teachers," he said. "Our kids are absolutely marvelous. But what they don't have is what you can give them. They don't have an opportunity, and they don't have hope."

Without a car or access to other transportation, even some of the district's high school graduates are hanging out on the street corner while the school buses drive by, Catrett said, prompting the current students to wonder, "Why should I spend the last couple of years in school if I'm going to end up on the sidewalk selling drugs or having a baby, whatever it takes to survive?

" So please, please, please take a hard look at my kids," he added. " Just give them a chance."

As of August 2014, the Work-Based Learning Program in Muscogee County had 48 high school student apprentices working full-time and earning salaries at local companies while also earning academic credit.

"With your help," Lewis concluded, "the best is yet to come."

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Message from education conference: Businesses must help schools ."