Colleges, Careers Requiring More Education & Achievement

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak at one of our local Rotary Club meetings as part of my effort to ready the community into becoming committed to students. I told them that my dream for our District is for it become the premiere destination for education innovation. I want to see a county where folks from other states and nations come in order to see what we’re doing.

In order for us to come together, we must first acknowledge where we are today and be committed to getting where we need to be. We are providing a great education to some of our kids, and I have met many that are going to be highly successful in their lives. My concern – and this should be a concern for every employee and community member in Bibb County – is that education and those opportunities are not being provided to all children.

By 2018, 90% of the jobs in our country will require some sort of a post-secondary education. What that means for our students today is that, with a 44.6% graduation rate, 56% of our students will be competing for 10% of the jobs.

Countries such as China are graduating students that are fighting for places in our colleges and our jobs. In a recent article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech provided the following statistics: "About 10 percent of the freshmen admitted to Tech are from foreign countries. Tech received about 900 applications from China and about 400 of them earned perfect math scores on the SAT. About 12 percent of UGA's freshmen came from other states and countries."

That's 400 students at one college with perfect math scores on the SAT. There is no way we can compete with places like China where students go to school from 6:30a.m. to 10:30p.m., 6 days a week for a longer school year.

Our schools need an international focus so our students can be competitive globally.  We need to offer them a portfolio of highly effective schools in order to keep them engaged, whether that’s an International Baccalaureate school, a fine arts school, an engineering school, or a sports academy.

We must seriously consider year-round school with quarterly assessments. This will combat the “brain drain” of the summer months; it will also allow us to meet students’ academic needs throughout the year as opposed to waiting for state-mandated testing.

Our students need to be proficient in three languages when they graduate – English, technology, and Mandarin Chinese – if they are going to be successful. We need them to be competitive in THEIR world not ours.

Dr. Dallemand speaks to the Rotary Club on Monday, August 29.

To determine where we need to be and the path that will get us there, a Strategic Plan must be created that is supported by the full will and support of the community. A commitment to students is required by every member of this community if they are going to be successful and if our community is going to move forward

Contact your school about how you can join us on September 19 and October 10 for our first two Strategic Planning sessions. We must leverage the resources of our entire community to support our students’ future.