WYBI: Career Ready

Common Core beyond American shores is one thing. CCR (College/Career Readiness), also Common Core aligned, now reaches beyond America as well. Find out more in today’s post.

AIR (American Institutes for Research) is a well documented Common Core Standards supporter..to say the least I care to about this organization. So, to know the group is pushing CCR beyond America..that’s a ‘Would you believe it?’ Wednesday moment.

The Map:

In the screen shot from Twitter above, you’ll notice the tweet is bragging about all the places CCR is now. Yes, I understand that every state and territory mentioned is considered American, but what IF CCR were in OTHER countries? Can we find the relationship? (we’ll get back to those questions in a bit, first, let’s see what the map will reveal.
Access the map: http://www.ccrscenter.org/

Okay, you know where I’m going with this. Click on a state, for my post, we’ll use NC (since I live there) as our example. According to this website page, my state is all hooked into CCR (College/Career Readiness) (aka CCSS or CTE, Career Tech Education). But, then, why wouldn’t it be? (if you’ve been following Common Core long you’ll know why NC is so easily identifiable with CCSS). I get big topics like “AP incentives”;”Dual Enrollment” (that got a new nickname, by the way, “College, Career Promise”; “Alignment” between secondary and post-secondary schools; and more. If I am really curious enough, I can be linked to Achieve, Inc.’s website that’s exclusive to NC’s alignment in all this. Nothing says ‘objectivity’ like using pro CC bias resources, now does it? If I’m curious about all the NC students being able to graduate, I can be linked to Johns Hopkins University’s “Everybody Graduates”. What’s the purpose of “Everybody”? From my brief visit to the NC page, I’d have to say it isn’t about the ‘people’ in ‘everybody’, rather the ‘product’ of ‘everybody’. Here are their words, “With a 90 percent graduation rate, the additional graduates could deliver an estimated $97 million in increased annual earnings, $13 million in increased annual state and local tax revenues, and an increase in the Gross State Product of $173 million.” Yes, IF everybody in NC graduates, this is what the state would get: $173 million. 

There are many other CCR components AIR can offer you, if you like. http://www.ccrscenter.org/ccrs-landscape/state-profile

“Doing Better”:

AIR isn’t done with students yet. If you click on the image below, you’ll see I highlighted 2 tweets for you. In the first bubble, you’ll see education issues that span from PreK to college. The second gives you a link to access. So, I did. I got “How Can We Better Equip Our Kids for Life After High School.” Hhmmm..note the ‘we’/’our’ verbiage. Nice touch, there AIR. I doubt you’d seriously subject your students to CCR/CCSS/CTE so, why pretend to care about mine?

AIR’s View of “Our” Problem:

According to the website’s post “How We Can Better Equip…” (see: http://www.ccrscenter.org/products-resources/blog/how-can-we-better-equip-students-life-after-high-school) The entire problem America faces is “Ensuring that all students graduate high school ready for a successful academic life or career has become a national priority.” There is much more detail about the problem, but you need to read it for yourselves. Their solution? Again, very detailed AND with ’empirical evidence’ to boot, “If we want to prepare students to succeed in their educational and career pursuits, we must pay attention to the full spectrum of knowledge and skills proven to be essential for success, including those that lie beyond the core academic disciplines.”  So, how DO you solve this?? According to the author’s research and ties to AIR, we redefine WHAT CCR means. That’s so NOT how to help our students!! You cannot solve a problem simply by redefining WHAT your parameters are!

So, Is CCR in other countries?

I found this from the European Union:

To see the rest of their position: education_training_youth_and_sport_en
China’s stance for CCR is still referred to as Vocational Education (in America, Vo Tech Ed got a makeover to CCR/CTE). See China’s stance on Vo Tech Ed:
 http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/cedu/vel.php

Brazil has a whopping amount of money dedicated for education that will also help the nation’s economy. See: http://www.infobae.com/2014/06/01/1569283-dilma-rousseff-es-absurdo-decir-que-el-mundial-le-quito-dinero-la-educacion (you should be asked for a translation to English)

I’m not going to highlight every country, but I have given you a brief look at some of the biggest groupings of countries so you can get the general idea. CCR is alive all over the globe. Here’s the link to the article I wrote about “Workforce” in America that shared Europe’s “Learning for Jobs”. Be sure to access the study, the video to see what I mean.
See: http://preventcommoncore.com/?p=1201

What the U.S. Dept. of Ed Has in All This:

No article about CCSS is truly complete without the US Dept. of Ed.; especially where CCR and international matter intersect. Check their International Education website out: 

http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/internationaled/international-strategy-2012-16.html

Get the strategy plan: international-strategy-2012-16 *Note: what’s interesting about the strategy (at least from my perspective) is that while all the aligning is going on, it’s being referred back to ANOTHER study from the Council on Foreign Relations (see: TFR68_Education_National_Security). In THIS report you’ll find the statements that express the sentiment of US education being a national security issue. What’s totally ironic is that one of the leaders of the Council was Mrs. Rice (as in Condeleeza). Mrs. Rice was recently named head of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education (see: http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/condoleezza-rice-takes-reigns-jeb-bushs-education-foundation). FEE is steeped in all things CCSS/CCR/CTE

Related resources:
http://www.naviance.com/college-and-career-readiness-curriculum (CCR curricula tied to Clinton Global Initiative)

http://www.globalkids.org/#/our-programs/collegecareer-readiness (be sure to check out their “Power of Citizenship” program for the international participation)

Act, Inc’s 2011 Report for International College Readiness: AffirmingtheGoal

Closing:

Career Ready students..everywhere, but here’s the question. Is that what the students want OR what someone else wants? IF it’s what the students want, then WHY is someone else aligning the course?