The impact of outcomes-based education on workforce preparedness
Outcomes-based education has become a driving force in American education today, influencing everything from the rise in standardized testing to the federal No Child Left Behind legislation. However, one component that seems to be missing from the current outcomes-based education paradigms are tangible measures for just how these educational models are translating into jobs and careers once American students have completed their educations.
There is currently a political movement toward setting national education standards, which was begun in part by the federal No Child Left Behind legislation of the early 2000s. The Bush-era No Child Left Behind legislation sets national targets for math and reading skills, while President Obama has made raising the number of American college graduates a national priority. But does setting one national education standard make sense? Not everyone thinks so.
Sherry Robinson is a public high school teacher who works with at-risk students at the Jackson Country Transitional Unit in McKee, Ky., a largely poor rural district, and she has strong opinions when it comes to how public schools are preparing their students for the world of work. “I have students in my class that will never leave the state of Kentucky, much less live in a large city,” Robinson says. “Should they be expected to know the same thing as a student who will live in a city apartment all his life? Why are we not teaching our students how to survive in the real world? Not every student will attend college. There is nothing wrong with that.”
While there remains a strong commitment by many stakeholders to outcomes-based education principles, there continues to be a disconnect between the skills traditionally taught in schools and actual skills needed in the workplace. With that in mind, many high schools and institutes of higher education are moving away from rigid traditional curricula and more toward a practical, application-based curricula model. In addition, despite the push for national standards, over the past decade or so curriculum standards nationwide have become more fragmented, with greater variations by state and region. “Three main states set the standards for curricula and textbooks — California, Texas and Florida,” says a manager in the American textbook publishing industry who prefers to remain anonymous. “And each of these states sets very different standards within their borders. We in the textbook industry generally tailor our products to meet these three states’ needs first, then adapt that material accordingly for other states.”
And while these three states drive much of the nation’s public school curricula, whether the standards those states are setting meet the need of actual workplace demands remains a murky question. “Corporations and other major employers in a knowledge-based economy truly value critical thinking as a job skill,” says Kevin Gazzara, DM, and a member of University of Phoenix’s School of Business faculty, as well as a University of Phoenix School of Advanced Studies (SAS) alum. “And yet, critical thinking skills in the United States are almost completely deficient, and becoming more so, because our educational system simply isn’t placing a high value on them anymore. We’re placing value on standardized test scores and memorization at the expense of critical thinking and creativity, and that is a big mistake.”
How might the American education system address this deficiency? Daniel W. Rasmus is a Liberal Arts Fellow at Bellevue College in Bellevue, Wash., and the author of the books "Listening to the Future" (Wiley, 2008) and "Management By Design" (Wiley, 2010). An independent management consultant and a former director of business insights for Microsoft Corporation, Rasmus offers a number of innovative ideas for how the U.S. education system can reshape itself to become more relevant to employers and the 21st-century workplace. Rasmus’ ideas are shaped from a concept called New World of Work, which he created while working at Microsoft and continues to drive his ideas today. “The distribution of American work has changed, and expectations for workers have evolved,” Rasmus says. “As we consider the future of education, we need to design solutions that aren’t about bricks and sidewalks ... but about turning the knowledge economy — through education — into the driver for the next economy.”
Rasmus believes that in order for education to remain relevant, it needs to become more student-centered. “I like the idea that learners need to build their own model of learning,” he says. “My role as an educator is to help guide their development and inform their model.”
That said, Rasmus also believes that one of the best ways to make education relevant to the workplace is to blur the divisions that currently exist between the two. “Think holistically about facilities, and drive toward a breakdown of boundaries between K-12, vocational school and community college,” he says. “Hire the retired or skilled out-of-work professionals to complement teaching, including coaching educators on what is new and different about learning models from the business perspective. Rather than thinking about schools as single-purpose facilities, transform them into cross-generational learning hubs.”
University of Phoenix already incorporates several of Rasmus’ ideas into its own degree programs, especially when it comes to advanced studies in education. Mark Fontaine, MAT, EdD, a University of Phoenix School of Advanced Studies (SAS) alum who teaches in a public charter school (TIMES2 Academy, www.times2.org) in Providence, R.I., is quick to point out the added value he received obtaining his doctoral degree from University of Phoenix. “What I loved most about University of Phoenix was the fact I was in class with people from literally all over the world,” says Dr. Fontaine. “For example, one student in my class taught in Japan, who shared his experiences with the Japanese grading system. In Japan, did you know that report cards are sent not home to parents, but to apartment building managers, where they are posted in apartment building lobbies for everyone to see? It really changes the effect of receiving a poor grade from a private family issue to a matter of public interest. That was very compelling to me and my work as an educator.”
Indeed, Dr. Fontaine’s experience getting his doctoral degree at University of Phoenix led him on a career path very different from most American teachers. “Before I got my doctorate, I was working in a private Catholic high school in a middle-class suburb,” he says. “It was the kind of school where most teachers would covet a job, and once they got it, would continue to work there until they retired.” Dr. Fontaine taught in this so-called “comfortable” environment for many years, but upon completing his doctorate he wanted more. He now teaches poor inner-city students in a public charter school, which he finds immensely rewarding. “I did more good as a teacher in six months in the inner-city than I did in six years at my former school,” he says. “Teaching is not a job; it’s a vocation. You can’t do this job for a paycheck, but rather because you want to make a real difference in the world.”
With that in mind, Dr. Fontaine makes a point to remind his students that what they do in his class will make a real impact on their future lives. “I hold my students accountable every single day,” he says. “I don’t give them a million deadline extensions or incompletes — I make them do the work, and do it right. Because that’s the way the real world works.”
