This article was reprinted with permission from the Team PA Foundation. It was originally published on www.teampa.com on February 14, 2013.
Manufacturers believe implementation of the Common Core Standards will help prepare students to either enter the work force or college upon graduation from high school.
It’s a simple math question asked of job applicants at Erie-based Sunburst Electronics: How many degrees are in half a circle?
Few jobseekers get that question right, ensuring that they won’t get a job with the electronics manufacturer.
It’s a process that’s both upsetting and frightening to company President and Chief Executive Officer John Cline.
“It’s very, very clear that our current educational system is not satisfying the needs of all the students,” Cline said. “If it is not satisfying their needs, then we’re getting employees who are not adequately educated or trained to move forward in positions we have open today.”
For far too many students, postsecondary remedial education is a dead end.
About 40 percent of all students entering postsecondary education in recent years have required remedial courses prior to enrolling in credit-bearing courses. The problem is significant at all institutions but exceptionally dramatic at two-year colleges where about 60 percent of entering students require remediation, according to Complete College America.
That’s why Cline and 4,500 other manufacturers who are part of the Manufacturer & Business Association have endorsed the internationally benchmarked Common Core Standards, whose adoption was strongly supported by Team Pennsylvania Foundation in 2010.
Cline said the standards are designed to be robust and focus on the relevant skills needed to be prepared for 21st century employment. It will give teachers the tools they need to support students. He noted that Common Core emphasizes mastery of subject material before a student is advanced to a higher level.
“The Common Core Standards teach mastery of every skill set,” Cline said. “The way school systems are set up today, they teach many different subjects over many different grades. The Common Core teaches mastery of one activity, and builds on that throughout the grade levels. It is about skills mastery.”
Dale Deist, founder, Deist Industries, Inc., and Team PA board member, said the standards are a proven Best Practice and a common-sense approach to learning for our children.
“I particularly like the focus of an educational approach that keys on a narrow scope of the basic subject, like math, until the student masters it before progressing to the next level, which builds on that foundational knowledge,” said Deist.
Matt Zieger, president and chief executive officer, Team PA, said 46 states and territories have adopted the standards, which will improve consistency in education in public schools and lead to a better-prepared work force.
“These standards are more rigorous and provide deeper knowledge of content in math and English language arts,” said Zieger. “They have been developed by education experts with the involvement of business leaders to ensure that they will lead to a job-ready work force.”
Many jobseekers at Sunburst Electronics have the basic skills needed to manufacture product at the Erie-based company.
Cline sees consistent standards benefiting both businesses and employees.
“We are a more mobile society and as employees move from one place to another, or a company moves a worker from one location to another, the standards have a lot of value because it levels the playing
