College & Career Symposium Uncovers Under-Prepared Work Force

Young adults are not only being insufficiently prepared for the rigors of higher education, but upon graduating and entering the workforce, employers find that new hires are woefully under-prepared. This was just one of the themes highlighted by student reporters Brian Callahan (University of Maryland, Class of 2010); Grace Peeler (University of North Carolina, Class of 2012) and Emily Smith (George Washington University, Class of 2011) during the recent McGraw-Hill College & Career Symposium in Washington, D.C.

All three students summarized their experiences and the thought leadership expressed at the symposium in a series of journalistic articles and video interviews. The videos can also be found on McGraw-Hill Education’s YouTube channel.

Throughout the daylong event, each student reporter was given full access to the noted educational leaders and policymakers in attendance, including Harold McGraw III, chairman, president and chief executive officer of The McGraw-Hill Companies; keynote speaker Greg Darnieder, special assistant and senior advisor on college access to the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; and leaders of esteemed organizations such as the American Association of School Administrators, the GED Testing Service, Unigo.com and the National Center for Women and Information Technology.

Callahan, who interviewed and reported on the opinions of McGraw and Darnieder, discovered the strong connection between America’s educational and economic success. As Callahan reported, McGraw questioned how a country that set the modern global standard for educational and economic success could lag so dramatically in both sectors. In fact, McGraw characterized the lack of recent growth in both the economy and education as “unacceptable.” In a video interview with Callahan, McGraw noted that college and career readiness is “an issue that’s important to our whole country – it’s about our growth and our competitiveness. If we don’t find a way to get all of our young people in to the workforce with the right kinds of skills, we aren’t going to be able to find a way to achieve the kind of growth that we’ve had in the past.”

During the symposium, the students explored this and several other key areas of discussion including:

• How to identify and address the factors contributing to our nation’s alarmingly high dropout rates in both high school and college, as only 70 percent of American students receive a high school diploma and 53 percent of those that make it to college require remedial help
• How to prepare high school students for the many academic, personal and financial demands of college
• How to protect America’s economic future by providing students with an education that fosters the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in both academia and the workforce.

Discussing the achievement gaps that exist in primary and secondary education in particular, Darnieder explained that schools’ strong focus on high-achieving students and their desire to maintain high test scores often means that a certain proportion of students go unrecognized in the classroom and fall through the cracks. “We have not mandated in any way curriculum, wraparound services or extended learning opportunities” to address these gaps – an issue, as Callahan put it, that requires national attention.

Reporting on the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and 21st-century skills in making the U.S. competitive in a global economy, Peeler reported: “Discussions at the symposium suggested that the high school and college dropout rate is paralyzing the U.S. economy. … Young adults are not only being inadequately prepared for the demands of higher education, but upon leaving universities for the workforce, employers find that new recruits are woefully under-prepared in both hard and soft skills.”

Smith showed a particular interest in the disparity between being “college eligible” and “college ready” and the need for greater acceptance among educators and parents that college is not the only option for graduating high school seniors. “The idea that schools must prepare students for both college and alternative routes, and that educators must focus on both academics and personal growth to fully prepare students, are clearly the most pressing issues facing the nation,” she concluded.

When interviewed on camera by Callahan, Jeff Livingston, senior vice president of McGraw-Hill Education’s College and Career Readiness Center, said, “We have to move away from the notion that students are prepared in high school to be eligible for college admissions and for careers and move toward the notion that they should be ready for being successful in college and successful in careers when they graduate from high school.”

In response to the student reporters’ participation in the symposium, Livingston commented, “We are very pleased that this symposium could include the perspective of this emerging generation. Our main challenge in achieving the Obama administration’s goal of have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 is to understand how our current policies and programs are impacting today’s students, and responding with an equally dynamic approach.”

Additional information from this event, including insights from symposium participants, streamed live throughout the day on McGraw-Hill Education’s Twitter account.