Education Committee Focuses on K-12 Kids, Chamber Group Distributing Local Survey: Las Cruces Bulletin, 8/01/08

Education Committee focuses on K-12 kids

Chamber group distributing local survey

8/1/08

               Over the past several years, increased attention and awareness has been brought to bear by the media on problems confronting education nationally as well as locally in New Mexico and Las Cruces specifically.

               Problems within educational institutions are not confined only to schools, rather they have a growing impact on the workplace as baby boomers retire and young adults become the primary resource pool to replace them. Many of these young adults seeking work have not completed high school.

               Nationally, the high school dropout rate is 30 percent. That means that of each student entering their freshman year, 30 percent will not complete their fourth year and graduate. In Las Cruces, the dropout rate is also 30 percent. In addition, it is now believed that potential dropouts can be identified as early as elementary school.

               Closer to home, in December 2007, the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance conducted a survey of Las Cruces employers regarding their satisfaction with their employees. Results of this survey indicated that specific skill levels were adequate, but problems with attitude, work ethic (punctuality, absenteeism, dress, interpersonal immaturity and inappropriateness) significantly compromised and depressed on-the-job performance. The general impression was that while employees weren’t getting any worse, they weren’t getting any better either.

               In a focus group of students identified as at-risk, conducted by the Regional Education Initiative (The Bridge ), participants repeatedly stated that school content was not relevant to them, teachers often didn’t understand their questions and either didn’t like to answer questions or couldn’t offer helpful answers. Generally, these students felt disliked and “that nobody really cared.”

               These previous comments represent an incomplete snapshot view of a complex and serious problem. In much of the information generated over the past several years, when parents are mentioned they are described as vital, key players in shaping and guiding their child’s appreciation for and success during their school years. At the same time, too many parents are described as under-involved and indifferent to their child’s educational experience, apparently not regarding education as important. They have been particularly elusive and unresponsive to efforts by schools to engage them.

                As baby boomers become replaced by a younger and inadequately prepared workforce, workplaces are finding themselves hiring less than optimal applicants and are thrust into providing “remedial experiences” for new hires to bring them up to speed.

               While many workplaces find themselves preoccupied with devising ways to recruit and develop their workforce, an untapped potential already exists within the workplace. Consider that probably the majority of employees are parents or will be. Many of them are parents of very young children.

                The role of the manager cannot be overemphasized. From the employee’s perspective, the manager carries the “keys to the kingdom.” Employees watch their manager’s every move and second guess everything they say. The manager is the guide to success in the world of work and subordinates will be sensitized to all nuances of their behavior.

                This places the manager in position as a role model who both enacts and demands desired attitudes and a work ethic designed to enhance the workplace. An unanticipated consequence of this modeling is that working parents too often find themselves caught in the middle – needing and wanting to satisfy their employer and at the same time respond to their children’s needs. Those employee-parents who become conspicuous in the workplace because of a child’s acute or chronic needs or just ordinary scheduled parent-teacher events come to be regarded as exploiting their work situation and poorly skilled as parents. The school may also regard the parent as inappropriately responding to their child’s needs. The parent becomes increasingly anxious, defensive and resentful towards everyone: employer, child and school. The following excerpt is a true event described by a principal of a local elementary school.

                “Mrs. Garcia, a recently divorced mom, has three children in our school. Her youngest child is having a very difficult time adjusting to kindergarten and needs to be escorted into the building by his mother every day. One day, after about three days of this, I met the mother at the door and she was in tears. I handed the child [who was fine by that time, to his teacher] and invited Mrs. Garcia into my office to gather herself. Upon entering my office, she immediately asked to use the phone to ‘call my boss and let her know what is going on.’ I overheard part of the conversation and it was apparent that Mrs. Garcia was being reprimanded for being late again and that her employment was being threatened. When she got off the phone she said, ‘They don’t even believe me!’ She proceeded to ask me for a letter to give to her boss on school letterhead to show that ‘I am telling the truth.’ Unfortunately, I have come to find that many, many parents have similar experiences and I now keep a template letter on my desktop for easy access. How sad that grown adults are being asked to present documentation to verify that choosing to respond to their child’s needs really did make them late for work.’” The Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce Education Committee is interested in exploring ways to facilitate constructive interaction between employers, parents and schools designed to minimize existing adversarial relationships and to contribute to developing the potential of all parties ultimately resulting in:

               • A positive and relevant learning experience for all educational levels K-12

               • Reduced high school dropouts

• An enthusiastic and effective workforce

                 In July, the Education Committee will distribute a survey requesting descriptions of current efforts, (policies, procedures, special group activities, etc.) designed to address these issues. We look forward to your active participation. “ ... parents are described as vital, key players in shaping and guiding their child’s appreciation for and success during their school years.”