Expert: Society – not students – changing

Dr. Bill Daggett speaks to local educators

By Charlotte A. Graham, countyreporter@laurelleadercall.com

Forget what you have heard. The nation’s schools are not failing to educate students. The real issue is that society is changing.

That’s the message delivered Monday to Jones County educators by Dr. Bill Daggett, one of the nation’s premier education consultants. Daggett was the keynote speaker at a district-wide staff development session at South Jones High School for the Jones County School District.

“What we have to do is figure out how to accept change,” said Daggett. “Things are different for my children’s generation than they were in my generation.

“This generation of students had higher and different skills from the students in the past. Each generation acquired a different set of values and expectations than the ones before.”

President of the International Center for Leadership in Education, Daggett is recognized worldwide for his proven ability to move education systems towards more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for all students. He has assisted a number of states and hundreds of school districts with their school improvement initiatives, many in response to No Child Left Behind and its demanding adequate yearly progress (AYP) provisions.

Daggett has also collaborated with education ministries in several countries and with the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Governors Association, and many other national organizations.

On Monday, Daggett enlightened educators on the four major trends impacting the United States in general and students in particular. He said these trends are globalization, changing demographics, technology and changing values and attitudes.

According to Daggett, these four trends “must be addressed to assure that our nation and our students are prepared to meet the challenges of the near and distant future.

“Globalization and rapid technological advancements are having dramatic effects on our lives as we experience the transition from an information-based society to one based upon bio and nanotechnology,” continued Daggett. “As the pure information technologies that made companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and Cisco the world’s most successful, new companies based on bio and nanotechnology will emerge.”

Unfortunately, however, Daggett said the United States is not doing very well in recruiting young people to compete for jobs in these technology sectors.

Consider the following. Daggett reports that:

• Bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering make up 60 percent of the total degrees earned in China.

• Five percent of the degrees earned in the United States last year were in science and engineering.

• This year, China alone will graduate 350,000 engineers.

• By 2010 it is predicted that 90 percent of all the world’s scientists and engineers will be in Asia.

• In the United States, student enrollment in science and engineering has dropped by 12 percent in the last five years.

• Nearly one-half of all United States enrollments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are students who are non-U.S. citizens.

• In 1975, the United States ranked third in the world in the percentage of its students who received degrees in science and engineering. Today the country is 17th in the world.

“In a world in which science and engineering will become the cornerstone of what is needed to know and be able to do in the 21st century, the United States is being outpaced by India, China and Eastern Europe,” Daggett told the educators. “The decline of U.S. enrollment in science and engineering, combined with the fact that scientists and engineers will be even more coveted in the work force in the coming years, places the United States at a great disadvantage as a nation.

“Continuance of these trends will result in severe human and economic consequences to our country.”

Daggett said the United States must start making positive changes in its educational system. He said the country is so tied up in teaching a long list of objectives, but not spend time teaching them how to think.

“They have a lot of technological skills, but unfortunately, American students don’t have knowledge,” he said. “But there is hope. We just have to figure out what’s more important.

“I commend this school district and it’s administration for saying it’s time for a time-out,” added Daggett. “They are focusing on what is really important — how to think.”

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