"H.S. Graduation Standards, Higher Education, and Gaining the Competitive Advantage"

A couple of recent reports link several themes relevant to the competitiveness of our state and nation.

Education Week (free registration required) reports that states that have tied their accountability standards to high school graduation face increased calls to relax the requirement.

Though 26 states have adopted such mandates?most of them since 2000?that number has remained static since last year, according to a report scheduled for release this week by the Center on Education Policy, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization that has tracked the trend for the past seven years.

And for nearly a dozen states, compliance deadlines that once seemed far off have begun to bite, leading Arizona, Alabama, Maryland, and Washington, among others, to soften their mandates by offering alternative paths to a diploma, or by also weighing factors such as a student?s grade point average.

Chester Finn, a supporter of standards-based accountability, aptly frames the challenge.

Mr. Finn, the Fordham Institute president and an assistant U.S. education secretary in the Reagan administration, said the struggle for states is to strike a balance between enforcing a rigorous policy and understanding students? needs.

?I really do think a kid shouldn?t have his entire life blighted because he can?t do well on a particular kind of test,�� Mr. Finn said.?Yet at the same time, you allow too many alternative paths and too many exemptions and you dilute the meaning of having a graduation test.��

It's a good overview of the national debate, a debate mirrored in this year's OSPI campaign.

Three valuable reports by AeA underscore the value of education to our state's economic competitiveness. 

Cyberstates, an annual state-by-state overview of the high tech industry, looks at the  contributions of technology to state economies. Washington regularly ranks near the top, led by software publishing.

"Washington?s tech industry remains strong, experiencing it's third year of job growth with average wages that are more than double those of the private sector,�� said J.D. Hammerly, Vice President, Energy Infrastructure. "While many people associate Washington state with the software industry, they may not realize how fast it continues to grow. This growth runs on the knowledge and intellectual capital of some of the smartest and most skilled workers in the world. Washington's challenge is that we are not graduating enough scientists and engineers to maintain this growth. All you have to do is look at the websites of our technology companies? large and small? and you?ll find thousands of positions going unfilled."

"Our Evergreen state needs to do more to prepare our workforce for careers in the tech industry, from the K-12 system to our universities,�� continued Hammerly.

Cybercities, the metro area equivalent, reports Seattle is now the ninth largest "cybercity" in the nation by employment. Again, Hammerly cites the education challenge.

"... future growth depends on our ability to make high-tech careers attractive to our children. We need to spark more excitement and enthusiasm for technology, sciences, and math. These skills are critical to prepare young students for an increasingly technical world, providing them with the foundation to become highly paid tech workers.��

In We Are Still Losing the Competitive Advantage, a March 2007 update of a previous study, AeA clearly lays out the challenge.

The United States trails other countries in the number of people graduating with bachelor degrees in engineering.  While the United States is the largest economy in the world and the third most populous nation, it only ranks seventh in the number of bachelor degrees awarded in engineering.  China graduates almost six times as many engineers as the United States, according to the most reliable data available.  Japan, with less than half the population of the United States, graduates 60 percent more engineers.?

On a country-by-country basis, the United States still leads in the number of science and engineering (S&E) doctoral degrees granted by a wide margin.  But significant portions of these are awarded to foreign nationals who increasingly cannot or choose not to stay in the United States after graduation. Between 2001 and 2005, U.S. S&E doctorates awarded to foreign nationals increased by 25 percent and comprised nearly all of the overall growth in S&E doctorates awarded over this time period.

While our state - like many states - faces a significant budget shortfall, technology has been the key to our strong economic performance during these tough times. We cannot afford to see our position erode because of a failure to adhere to standards and make critical investments in higher education a priority, even during these straitened days.