Employers are unhappy with your education - so take the PARCC!

Eugen G Tarnow  April 7 2016 09:56:09 AM

By Eugen Tarnow, Ph.D.
Avalon Business Systems, Inc.
http://AvalonAnalytics.com

I just went to hear a presentation about why my child should be participating in the PARCC testing by Donna Egreczky of the NJ Chamber of Commerce.

Here data included:

• 49% of employers dissatisfied with high school students entering workforce
• 76% of college instructors report students were not prepared at all for college expectations
• 76% of college students report SOME gap in overall preparedness.  47% report LARGE gaps.
• Armed forces reject 75% of applicants
• College degree not predictive of career success
• High grades in high school not predictive of college degree attainment

This is a fascinating "big data" analytics problem.  

And the devil is in the details.

I do not think participating in the PARCC testing is the "nugget" that will lead to improvements in the data she presented.

Rather, it is to do a knowledge census of the working population every ten years, see what of this can be taught in grade school and stop the mandatory education in 8th grade.  After all, the working population, on average, probably functions on the 8th grade level just fine.  And the school curriculum set after World War II is not relevant anymore.  And neither high school nor college teach "critical thinking" - perhaps it cannot be taught at all.
 

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