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After Opening Olympic Weekend Americans Ranked 25th (in Education)

The Olympics began on Friday with an opening flourish that few will soon forget.  Thousands of individual performers, turning in nothing less than perfection. Unbelievable technical achievements, including the world’s largest LED screen. In one of the acts, two-thousand and eight drummers counted down to the official opening of the games. It was summed up rather well by NBC commentator, Matt Lauer, who said it was, "Awe-inspiring and perhaps intimidating."

Well, if you are just now getting intimidated by the talents of the Chinese, you simply are not paying attention, which unfortunately seems to be a large part of the problem. 

As of today, we are currently ranked first in the medal count, with China lurking just one medal behind.  However, if we were to swap our athletic standing with our academic standing, we would currently be between Azerbaijan and Slovakia, ranked somewhere around 25th in the world according to the most recent international testing benchmarks. (By the way, both of those nations scored higher than the U.S. on the latest mathematics PISA tests.)

Doubtlessly, if we ranked 25th in medals, we would have woken up this morning to fervent debate, endless handwringing, and zealously-heeded calls to action. To wit, when our Olympic basketball team won the bronze in 2004, getting back to the top was the subject of a national debate that was as vast as it was hyperbolic.

However, upon learning about where we stood academically with the rest of the world, Americans across the country shrugged silently and moved on with their lives, if they ever heard the news at all. There was little hand-wringing, less debate, and the calls to action have thus far gone largely unheeded. Unlike with our basketball team, there was almost no discussion as to how we could find ourselves back on top, and our educational decline was far more precipitous. 

China and India do not participate in the PISA international education assessment, but is there any doubt that they too would rank higher than the United States at this point? Where is the academic version of our so-called basketball "Redeem Team"? Do we, as a nation, really want to hold company with the Azerbaijans and Slovakias of the world, or do we not still pride ourselves with being world leaders? 

If we do, we must begin to take our education as seriously as we do our athletics. Because if you think you’re intimidated by the Chinese now, just wait until they have talent pool of a half-billion highly educated people. Within our lifetimes, they could feasibly have more engineers and researchers than we do people.

But at least we routed them in basketball, right?

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Originally published 13 August 2008. Reprinted by permission, uschamber.com, August 2008.
Copyright© 2008 U.S. Chamber of Commerce - All Rights Reserved.


Chamber Recognizes 16 Area Employers for Exemplary Workplace Flexibility and Effectiveness Practices

The Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce recognized nine winners and seven honorable mentions of the 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility on Thursday, June 19, at an awards recognition breakfast at the Rochester International Event Center. These organizations have distinguished themselves as leading practitioners of workplace flexibility in Rochester and across the nation.

Local winners and honorable mentions of the 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility announced on June 19 include:

Number of High School Graduates Expected to Decline, Diversity to Increase

The U.S. production of high school graduates is set to begin a long decline in total numbers while experiencing increasing student diversity, according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. These projections present both significant challenges and opportunities for state K-16 education systems and state economies.

The report includes the following three major findings:

Related Link:

House Passes Resolution Recognizing Career and Technical Education Month

Late on February 25, the U.S. House of Representatives approved House Resolution 930, recognizing February as national "Career and Technical Education Month." The resolution was approved by a vote of 380-0.

The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) and Rep. Phil English (R-PA), co-chairs of the Congressional CTE Caucus, resolves that the United States House of Representatives:

This is the first time in recent history that Congress has recognized the annual CTE celebration.

Source: NGA Center for Best Practices Workforce Update

New Publication: Workplace Flexibility -
Employers Respond to the Changing Workforce

Two irreversible demographic trends are adversely affecting the workforce: First, for the first time in the nation's history, four distinct generations are working side by side. Second, over the next decade, an entire generation of Baby Boomers is expected to retire. These two trends spell a worker shortage on an unprecedented scale. Therefore, employers must develop new recruitment and retention policies. In fact, many companies have begun to institute innovative workplace practices. Whether it means developing strategies to attract the best talent or implementing incentives to retain workers who already have important skills and valuable experience, employers are striving to make their workplaces as effective as possible.

Through the When Work Works initiative, ICW, in partnership with the Families and Work Institute and the Twiga Foundation, has released Workplace Flexibility -- Employers Respond to the Changing Workforce. This new publication describes the principles of effective and flexible workplaces, outlines strategies for implementing flexible workplace practices, and features case studies of winners of the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. Focusing on the principles of workplace flexibility can help employers and chamber of commerce members meet the challenges of finding and retaining the best worker talent.

Originally Printed January 2008 by ICW's Workforce and Education Newsletter, a monthly publication of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for a Competitive Workforce

Rochester selected as one of 30 regions in country to promote business excellence in workplace flexibility

The Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce and the Workforce 2020 coalition have been selected as one of 30 regions across the country to promote business excellence in workplace flexibility.

When Work Works is an ongoing, recruitment and retention initiative sponsored by the TWIGA Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, an affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce. This initiative will nationally highlight and acknowledge Rochester area businesses that are finding new ways to create effective and flexible workplaces to enhance their competitive advantage in a global economy.

The “When Work Works” one-year grant cycle began in September of this year and culminates with an awards ceremony recognizing award winners. These national, locally-based awards recognize exemplary employers of all types and sizes for their innovative workplace effectiveness and flexibility programs and practices. Rochester Area Chamber businesses will have the opportunity to apply for this recognition through the Chamber website and through local business visits.

As a part of this initiative, The Rochester Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the Chamber’s Business Learning Network, look forward to provide educational and training forums to the business community on the changing workforce. Topics will range from intergenerational dynamics in the workplace to talent management.

The Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce strongly encourages business to use workplace flexibility as a cutting-edge tool to benefit employers and employees in the 21st century workplace.

Special thanks to the community leaders and Workforce 2020 coalition members who made this opportunity possible: Karel Weigel, Tim Geisler, George Thompson, Barbara Porter, Gary Smith, Steve Thornton, Jennifer Ridgeway, Rick Roy, Randy Johnson, Dan McElroy, Jeff Korsmo, Eric Cleveland, Audrey Groteboer, John Wade and Jess Ihrke.

Past WF2020 Newsletters