Task force tackles state's education challenges

Published on July 29th, 2010

By ROSE COX

A task force of Alaskans from major organizations that deliver education services in the state is grappling with ways to improve access to postsecondary education for Alaska students, and better prepare high school graduates to enter the workforce.

The Legislative Task Force on Higher Education and Career Readiness, created under Senate Bill 221, is co-chaired by Senate President Gary Stevens (R-Kodiak) and House Speaker Mike Chenault (R-Nikiski).

"This is the result of a lot of discussion and some legislation this past year," Stevens said at the task force's first meeting, July 22-23 in Anchorage. "This task force is extremely important to help us figure out what the Legislature can do to solve some of the problems we face as a state. Once we have fully identified the real problems, we can work toward solutions."

Today's students are tomorrow's workforce. But of every 50 ninth-graders in Alaska, just 31 will graduate from high school, according to national data provided by the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education.

Of those 31 students who get a high school diploma, 14 will seek a college degree. Nine of those students will still be enrolled in their sophomore year.

Just three will graduate college within six years.

"The university is perfectly good at bringing students into college," Stevens said. "The problem we face is one faced throughout the nation - getting students out the other end."

The 20-member task force includes experts in secondary education, vocational/technical training and financial aid, legislators, and Alaska Native and student leaders. Their main task is to deliver a report with their recommendations to the Legislature by April 1, 2011.

"The stated mission is to make sure our students are prepared to enter Alaska's workforce," said Larry LeDoux, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. "Our students fill every job in the state. They are our doctors, our lawyers, our legislators. They build roads and feed us, they take care of us."

Over two days, task force members aired the gamut of challenges facing the Alaska education system, from early learning readiness to raising school standards, from engaging students in the learning experience, to funding postsecondary education.

They talked about student health, teacher development and retention, and parental involvement. They hashed out low K-12 standards that result in remedial classes in college, gaps in the statistical data, and the difficulties faced by Alaska's rural schools.

"We had 68 schools last year with between 20 and 10 students," LeDoux said. "We had eight that were under 10 students. How do you deliver a comprehensive education program at schools that have only one high school student, or one or two teachers? That's an important challenge."

The lack of jobs in rural Alaska is a disincentive for many Alaska Native students who might consider college, said former Mountain Village resident Lolly Carpluk, coordinator of the Alaska Native Teacher Preparation Project at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

"There are more than 200 communities off the road system. After they graduate, there are no jobs in their communities to pay back their loans."

And students who leave college without a degree may not land a lucrative job to help pay back loans.

Encouraging students to plan for their future should begin early, said Barb Angaiak, president of the National Education Association-Alaska.

"There is a need to make sure kids are getting an idea about where they want to go in the future early on, as soon as preschool and kindergarten when they're playing dress-up with things in the costume box that would be typically worn by people in different careers. We need to identify aptitudes and give kids a real opportunity to explore and think about things."

Just changing the way we talk about postsecondary education could make a difference, said Diane Barrans, executive director of Alaska Student Loans/Financial Aid.

"Postsecondary education and college should be synonymous, we need to blend that. That's one of the things the commission's outreach and early awareness staff struggles with. When they use the term 'college,' the shutters fall down."

Mike Andrews, executive director of Alaska Work Partnership, said career and technology training is key to Alaska's local and global success, and can be a factor in high school retention.

Out of 49 states who reported for school year 2004-2005, Alaska ranked No. 1 in drop out rates for grades nine through 12, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

"It's well-documented that students who take two or more career and technical or vocational technology education classes, whether in middle school or high school, have increased math scores and increased science scores. They are more likely than their counterparts to complete high school and advance into post secondary education or college."

Task force co-chair Chenault said Alaska is failing students by not emphasizing vocational training opportunities.

"They'll be your mechanic, carpenter, welder, craftspeople who are all very needed in today's society. We need to focus on the vo-tech issue, to give kids an opportunity so they'll be interested in staying in school."

Alaska's resource-based economy has historically offered relatively high-wage, moderate-skill jobs in fishing, timber, mining and construction. But the way resources are mined today requires technical and job training, Barrans said.

For example, of the 113 occupations that have been identified as critical for the Alaska Gas Pipeline, 60 are high-skilled, high-wage positions that require extensive training, including a certificate or degree. Fifty-three require training of less than one year.

"The common element here is they all require training beyond high school," Barrans said.

Society doesn't prepare its young people for reality, said Carl Rose, executive director of the Alaska Association of School Boards, who filled in at this meeting for AASB president, Tammy Fowler-Pound of Unalaska.

"Fiscal viability is a tremendous personal advantage. I don't think we've explained that to kids very well," he said. "Academic and career and technical preparation is critically important, but we don't reinforce that message as a society."

Not only are there personal risks in failing to improve student performance in Alaska, but there are also public risks, Barrans said.

"Numerous studies have looked at individual behavior, at things as basic as using seatbelts, healthy lifestyles, civic engagement," she said. "The charts ramp at a steep peak to increased education. And there are huge jumps between high school, some postsecondary, certificated degrees, and on up.

"Ultimately, it's going to be a drain on our resources if we can't grow that segment of the population who knows how to parent, who is engaged civically, who owns property, who feels like they have skin in the game."

Rose Cox can be reached at 907-348-2419 or 800-770-9830, ext. 419.