Oklahoma Educated Workforce Initiative released a report on March 31 stating Oklahoma schools are not producing enough graduates with the skills to help in the business community.
The Oklahoma Educated Workforce Initiative seeks to engage business leaders in the development of education policies that will match the education of Oklahomans to the needs of the future workforce.
“I think that our school does a better job than average,” Associate Dean of Students Jeff Bennett said, stating high placement rates in Oklahoma Christian University’s top three majors: biology, nursing and engineering.
According to the report Oklahoma’s Business Case for Education Reform, Oklahoma schools are producing half of the workers needed to fill high-skilled jobs. The report also said that by 2020 there will be over 500,000 requiring post-secondary education that Oklahomans will not be able to fill.
The report findings are listed below:
- Of the 50,220 students who entered Kindergarten in 2000, only 39,082 graduated high school in the spring of 2012.
- In fourth grade Oklahoma ranks in the bottom 10 states in math on the National Assessment of Educational Process exam.
- Only 4, 319 of those students (8.6 percent) will graduate college in four years.
- In high school only one-third of the state’s ACT test-takers earn a “college-ready” score.
- 40 percent of college-bound Oklahoma high school graduates have to take at lease one remedial class when they get to college.
- Oklahoma’s schools are producing only half the workers needed to fill increasingly high-skill jobs.
According to the report, less than one-quarter, 22.8 percent, of college students in Oklahoma’s public colleges successfully graduate in four years, ranking Oklahoma 40th in the nation.
“I plan on running my own business when I graduate, so I took steps in my own education to ensure I would be successful in doing that,” senior business major Rebecca Bloodworth said. “But if you don’t have that kind of drive then I can see how you can get lost in the system so to speak.”
On the other hand, however, the report highlighted that Oklahoma’s system of universal pre-kindergarten education has been so successful it has received praise nation wide.
Oklahoma pre-kindergarten and kindergartens students are typically more than nine months ahead of their peers in reading, about seven months ahead in writing and about five months ahead in math. Somewhere along the way this upper hand in education slips through the cracks.
The report found that in Oklahoma’s education reform effort, mathematics should be a number one concern and a key focus.
Eighth grade students in Oklahoma were ranked 45th in the nation in math, leading to nearly 40 percent of Oklahomans that must take remedial courses when they get to college, compared to the national average of 32 percent of students.
“For me, classes only became valuable once I realized I would be using everything I learned in the real world,” Bloodworth said. “I think we need to show kids that what they learn in school is really going to help them out there, it’s not just busy work and it’s not pointless.”
High school graduation is can be key indicator in the road to success and education, however, many Oklahoma students are not meeting that goal. On average, 14 students drop out of Oklahoma high schools every day.
“Because we have smaller classes, we have professors that care not only about their subject matter, but the students in general and how well they do,” Bennett said. “So I think it’s because of that caring and the preparation that’s done and such when our students get out they are ready to contribute positively to society.”
This report highlighted some major concerns that the economy is slowly returning to normal and jobs are slowly returning, but not everyone will meet the requirements or be educationally prepared to take on these new jobs.
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