[House Hearing, 109 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
HOW THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS HELPING STATES AND COMMUNITIES IMPROVE HIGH
SCHOOL EDUCATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATION REFORM
of the
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
June 28, 2005
__________
Serial No. 109-23
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/
house
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
JOHN A. BOEHNER, Ohio, Chairman
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin, Vice George Miller, California
Chairman Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, Major R. Owens, New York
California Donald M. Payne, New Jersey
Michael N. Castle, Delaware Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
Sam Johnson, Texas Robert C. Scott, Virginia
Mark E. Souder, Indiana Lynn C. Woolsey, California
Charlie Norwood, Georgia Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Carolyn McCarthy, New York
Judy Biggert, Illinois John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Ron Kind, Wisconsin
Patrick J. Tiberi, Ohio Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Ric Keller, Florida David Wu, Oregon
Tom Osborne, Nebraska Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Susan A. Davis, California
Jon C. Porter, Nevada Betty McCollum, Minnesota
John Kline, Minnesota Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Marilyn N. Musgrave, Colorado Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Bob Inglis, South Carolina Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
Cathy McMorris, Washington Tim Ryan, Ohio
Kenny Marchant, Texas Timothy H. Bishop, New York
Tom Price, Georgia John Barrow, Georgia
Luis G. Fortuno, Puerto Rico
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana
Charles W. Boustany, Jr., Louisiana
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Thelma D. Drake, Virginia
John R. ``Randy'' Kuhl, Jr., New
York
Paula Nowakowski, Staff Director
John Lawrence, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATION REFORM
MICHAEL N. CASTLE, Delaware, Chairman
Tom Osborne, Nebraska, Vice Lynn C. Woolsey, California
Chairman Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Mark E. Souder, Indiana Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
Judy Biggert, Illinois Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Virginia
Ric Keller, Florida Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Ron Kind, Wisconsin
Marilyn N. Musgrave, Colorado Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana Susan A. Davis, California
John R. ``Randy'' Kuhl, Jr., New George Miller, California, ex
York officio
John A. Boehner, Ohio, ex officio
------
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on June 28, 2005.................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Castle, Hon. Michael N, Chairman, Subcommittee on Education
Reform, Committee on Education and the Workforce........... 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
Woolsey, Hon. Lynn C., Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Education Reform, Committee on Education and the Workforce. 4
Statement of Witnesses:
Hudecki, Dr. Phyllis, Executive Director, Oklahoma Business
and Education Coalition, Oklahoma City, OK................. 23
Prepared statement of.................................... 25
Shore, Bill A., Director of U.S. Community Partnerships,
GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, NJ................ 6
Prepared statement of.................................... 8
Sterling, Sarah Revi, Program Manager, University Relations,
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA......................... 15
Prepared statement of.................................... 17
Watson, Mike, Vice Chairman, BellSouth Foundation, Atlanta,
GA......................................................... 20
Prepared statement of.................................... 22
HOW THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS HELPING STATES AND COMMUNITIES IMPROVE HIGH
SCHOOL EDUCATION
----------
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Education Reform
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Washington, DC
----------
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 3 p.m., in room
2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Mike Castle [Chairman
of the Subcommittee] Presiding.
Present: Representatives Castle, Osborne, Ehlers, Woolsey,
Scott, Hinojosa, Kind and Kucinich.
Staff Present: Amanda Farris, Professional Staff Member;
Kevin Frank, Professional Staff Member; Jessica Gross,
Legislative Assistant; Lucy House, Legislative Assistant;
Kimberly Ketchel, Communications Staff Assistant; Deborah L.
Samantar, Committee Clerk/Intern Coordinator; Alice Cain,
Minority Legislative Associate/Education; Lloyd Horwich,
Minority Legislative Associate/Education; Ricardo Martinez,
Minority Legislative Associate/Education; and Joe Novotny,
Minority Legislative Assistant/Education.
Chairman Castle. Good afternoon. A quorum being present,
the Subcommittee on Education Reform and the Committee on
Education and the Workforce will come to order. We welcome
obviously those who are going to be speaking with us today and
all the visitors who are in the room as well. Our meeting today
will hear testimony on how the private sector is helping States
and communities improve high schools.
Under Committee Rule 12(b), opening statements are limited
to the Chairman and the Ranking Minority Member Ms. Woolsey.
Therefore, if other Members have statements, they may be
included in the hearing record. I ask unanimous consent for the
hearing record to remain open 14 days to allow Members'
statements and other extraneous material referenced during the
hearing to be submitted in the official hearing record. Without
objection, so ordered.
STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION REFORM, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
Chairman Castle. Today marks the third in a series of
hearings our Committee will hold to examine the status of
secondary education and various efforts to strengthen high
schools across the country. This Committee has already heard
from Governors about their high school reform efforts and from
a variety of nonprofit organizations about the partnerships
they have across the country and the innovative ways in which
they are driving changes in our high schools. Today we will
hear from some of the private sector corporations and business
partnerships that are increasing innovation and improvement in
our Nation's high schools.
During our last hearing, I mentioned a number of statistics
to suggest high school reform is surfacing as a necessity. For
those of you who were at that hearing, I apologize for being
redundant, but I think it is important to note this recent
research that indicates one-quarter of America's high school
students read below basic levels. America's 15-year-olds
performed below the national average in mathematics, literacy
and problem solving, placing 27th out of 39 countries. Thirty
percent of students do not graduate from high school. And 50
percent of African American and Hispanic students do not
graduate. These are unacceptable statistics and are very
similar to the challenges we saw in our elementary schools
prior to the enactment of No Child Left Behind.
High schools no longer are about simply moving students
from ninth grade to graduation. We must now ensure all students
are leaving their secondary education with the skills necessary
to reach their next goal. Whether that goal is college, the
military or the workforce is irrelevant. All students now need
a strong foundation of skills and knowledge to excel in life
after high school.
The testimony that today's witnesses will provide makes the
important point that the modern workplace is very different
than it was when America's high schools were first designed. In
many cases even the most basic job applications must be
completed on computers--good thing I am not applying--requiring
almost every person to have at least a basic understanding of
technology.
Technology is only one piece of the pie. A student
graduating from high school must have a broad skill set of
reading, analytical skills, communication and technology in
order to succeed postgraduation. I am sure that every person in
this room has heard me say more than once that I am an advocate
on behalf of No Child Left Behind. It is the right thing to do,
and the law is making significant headway in closing the
achievement gap, particularly in elementary schools when all
children should be learning basic skills like reading and math.
I commend the President, the States, the National Governors
Association, local school districts and both nonprofit and for-
profit organizations for recognizing we need to address our
Nation's high schools. I am not yet sure there is Federal role
or what that role should be, but I remain committed to learning
more and doing whatever I can to make high schools part of the
education reform dialog.
The private sector is uniquely qualified to help address
the challenges of high school reform, because businesses
recognize the importance of a strong secondary education in
preparing students for future success. That is why so many in
the business community have joined with States and local
communities to encourage innovation and meaningful reforms that
will strengthen high schools and better prepare students for
the future.
We have begun to hear fascinating stories about what is
currently happening across the country with respect to high
school reform. I look forward to hearing from today's witnesses
concerning the need for reform and the partnerships they have
formed. I thank the witnesses for joining us today, and I look
forward to hearing your testimony.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Castle follows:]
Statement of Hon. Michael N. Castle, Chairman, Subcommittee on
Education Reform, Committee on Education and the Workforce
Today marks the third in a series of hearings our Committee will
hold to examine the status of secondary education and various efforts
to strengthen high schools across the country. This Committee has
already heard from governors about their high school reform efforts,
and from a variety of non-profit organizations about the partnerships
they have across the country, and the innovative ways in which they are
driving change in our high schools. Today we will hear from some of the
private sector corporations and business partnerships that are
increasing innovation and improvement in our nation's high schools.
During our last hearing, I mentioned a number of statistics that
suggest high school reform is surfacing as a necessity. For those of
you who were at that hearing, I apologize for being redundant, but I
think it is important to note this recent research, which indicates:
One quarter of America's high school students read below
basic levels;
America's 15-year-olds performed below the international
average in mathematics literacy and problem-solving, placing 27th out
of 39 countries;
30% of students do not graduate from high school; and
50% of African-American and Hispanic students do not
graduate.
These are unacceptable statistics, and are very similar to the
challenges we saw in our elementary schools prior to the enactment of
No Child Left Behind. High school is no longer about simply moving
students from ninth grade to graduation. We must now ensure all
students are leaving their secondary education with the skills
necessary to reach their next goal. Whether that goal is college, the
military, or the workforce is irrelevant--all students now need a
strong foundation of skills and knowledge to excel in life after high
school.
The testimony that today's witnesses will provide makes the
important point that that modern workplace is very different than it
was when America's high schools were first designed. In many cases,
even the most basic job applications must be completed on computers,
requiring almost every person to have at least a basic understanding of
technology. Technology is only one piece of the pie. A student
graduating from high school must have a broad skill set of reading,
analytical skills, communication, and technology in order to succeed
post-graduation.
I am sure that every person in this room has heard me say more than
once that I am an advocate on behalf of No Child Left Behind. It is the
right thing to do, and the law is making significant headway in closing
the achievement gap, particularly in elementary schools when all
children should be learning basic skills like reading and math. I
commend the President, the states, the National Governors Association,
local school districts, and both non-profit and for-profit
organizations for recognizing we need to address our nation's high
schools. I am not yet sure if there is a federal role, or what that
role would be, but I remain committed to learning more and doing
whatever I can to make high schools part of the education reform
dialogue.
The private sector is uniquely qualified to help address the
challenges of high school reform, because businesses recognize the
importance of a strong secondary education in preparing students for
future success. That's why so many in the business community have
joined with states and local communities to encourage innovation and
meaningful reforms that will strengthen high schools and better prepare
students for the future.
We have begun to hear some fascinating stories about what is
currently happening across the country with respect to high school
reform. I look forward to hearing from today's witnesses concerning the
need for reform, and the partnerships they have formed.
I thank you all for being here this afternoon, and look forward to
hearing from our witnesses.
______
Chairman Castle. I will now yield to the gentlelady from
California, the Ranking Minority of the Subcommittee,
Representative Woolsey.
STATEMENT OF HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY, RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE
ON EDUCATION REFORM, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
Ms. Woolsey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding today's
hearing, and thank all the witnesses for being here. I look
forward to hearing what you have to say.
We are going to hear from various corporations that have
been on the front line of high school reform, knowing full well
that your corporations and all corporations have a huge stake
in the success of our education system, and we appreciate that,
and we know that is where you are coming from.
As we move forward, I hope that we will also hear from
school administrators, from teachers, from parents and students
about their experiences and what they think we can do
differently. Certainly our high school system needs reform and
greater resources if our country is to compete in the 21st
century economy. There are also many outstanding high schools
and educators who can and will lead the way, and I think it is
essential that we listen to them also.
There isn't much doubt that high school reform is a
critical issue. As we will hear today, about one-third of
entering ninth-graders do not graduate from high school. Among
minority students, barely half graduate from high school. Only
about half of the students who do graduate go on to college,
and many of them are not really ready for college. About one-
third need remedial courses. And of those students who go
directly from high school to the workforce, nearly half do not
have the skills that they need. That might have been OK in the
industrial age, but it is not nearly good enough for today's
knowledge economy. And regardless, it is not good enough to
just meet the moral obligation that each generation has to
educate its children.
In his recent article, It's a Flat World After All, Thomas
Friedman explains that America's historical and economic
advantages have disappeared now that the world is flat, and
anyone with smarts, access to a Google and a cheap wireless
laptop can join the innovation fray. But it will be impossible
for our country to continue to lead the world in innovation if
our high school system is not among the best in the world.
There are many aspects to high school reform, but I am
especially pleased that two of our witnesses include the
importance of increasing girls' interest in science and math so
that our technology workforce can draw from the greatest
possible pool. As Dr. Susan Hockfield, the president of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said recently,
squandered talent is one of the key issues of women in science
and engineering.
Another thing we should do right off the bat is to fully
fund the No Child Left Behind Act. The vast majority of NCLB,
we call it, funds go to elementary schools. But if we fully
funded NCLB this year, we would increase support for high
schools by 79 percent. Unfortunately, the education
appropriations bill that the House recently passed cut funding
for No Child Left Behind by about 3 percent and cut funding for
education technology by about 40 percent.
This issue is about both resources and reform, and I look
forward to hearing our witnesses talk about the efforts that
their companies have undertaken to reform America's high
schools and how a private-public partnership will help every
high school student achieve to the level required for the
student's success and for the success of the United States
economy. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
Chairman Castle. We have a very distinguished panel of
witnesses before us, and I thank them for coming today. Mr.
Bill Shore serves as director of U.S. Community Partnerships at
the GlaxoSmithKline Corporation. In this capacity, Mr. Shore is
responsible for building relationships with key external
stakeholders. He also heads the corporate contributions
committee, which determines GlaxoSmithKline's corporate
investments in the U.S. Mr. Shore has served on the board of
directors for groups, including the North Carolina Business
Committee for Education and the North Carolina Public School
Forum. He is a former member and chairman of the board of the
Durham Public Education Network and is currently chair of the
U.S. Business Education Network for the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce.
Ms. Sarah Revi Sterling serves as senior program manager of
university relations at Microsoft. She currently leads
Microsoft's efforts to increase participation of women in
computer-related majors and improve retention of women with
technical expertise. Ms. Sterling also chairs the Workforce
Alliance of the National Center for Women and Information
Technology, a team of senior-level employees from the
technology sector, including Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Cisco,
IBM, Google and Microsoft.
Mr. Mike Watson, a senior director of community relations
for BellSouth Corporation and vice chairman of the board of the
BellSouth Foundation. In his capacity, he is responsible for
all community programs for the corporation, including the
BellSouth Foundation community relations programs, corporate
giving program, volunteerism as well as executive customer
relations and customer information programs. Mr. Watson's
telecommunications career spanned over 30 years. Prior to his
telecommunication career, he served his country for 4 years as
an officer in the United States Navy.
Dr. Phyllis Hudecki is the executive director of the
Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition, a business-led
nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public education
in Oklahoma. This organization is sponsored by 31 of the
State's leading corporations, which allows them to support a
number of initiatives, including the Oklahoma Scholars Program,
to encourage students to take rigorous courses in high school.
Prior to her current position at the Oklahoma Business and
Education Coalition, Dr. Hudecki has served in a number of
roles, including associate director of the National Center for
Research and Vocational Education at the University of
California, Berkeley; State director for career technical
vocational education at the Iowa State Department of Education,
and program specialist at the U.S. Department of Education in
Washington, D.C.
I would like to remind the Members we will be asking
questions after the entire panel has testified. Committee rule
2 imposes a 5-minute limit on all questions. I think you all
understand the rules, too. You are going to get lights, green
for 4, yellow for 1, and when it gets to red, you want to start
thinking about wrapping up if you could.
I have introduced you individually. Let me just welcome you
collectively and thank you for being here. You are all part of
what we hope will be the solution in dealing with education in
America perhaps from a different angle than what we are used
to. We deal with a lot of teachers and administrators, but the
private sector has gotten more and more involved very
beneficially, and we are delighted to hear what you have to
say, and I am sure we are going to have a few questions.
We will go across, and we still start with Mr. Shore.
STATEMENT OF BILL A. SHORE, DIRECTOR OF U.S. COMMUNITY
PARTNERSHIPS, GLAXOSMITHKLINE, RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC
Mr. Shore. I am with a high-tech company, can you tell?
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, good
afternoon. I am Bill Shore, director of U.S. community
partnership for GlaxoSmithKline. Thank you for inviting me to
speak today on an issue that is very important to our company
and very important to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and very
important to businesses, large and small, reform of high school
education in America.
Let me begin by telling you why the issue of K-through-12
education and specifically high school education is so
important to my company, the U.S. Chamber and to me personally.
I work for a company that is headquartered in the Research
Triangle Park in North Carolina, and as you may know, that
Research Triangle Park is pretty well known and well respected.
We have IBM's largest facility in the world there. We have
GlaxoSmithKline, and we have other companies. And it is
critical to our continued success to have a top-notch high
school education system in that area to be able to draw talent
from.
We have been very fortunate that North Carolina continues
to be a leader in the U.S. in terms of educational improvements
due to the excellent leadership by former Governor Jim Hunt and
our current Governor Mike Easley. We have strong leadership. We
are very fortunate to have strong leadership in the business
community in our area. And GSK, I am proud to say, has been in
the forefront of leading a coalition of public-private partners
to focus on school reform efforts.
I have in my written testimony a lot of the details
associated with what we have been doing as a company over the
years, and it really is quite a list. I do want to mention the
philosophy that draws our involvement to public schools. As you
would imagine, we are asked to fund a lot of projects and
programs. We contend that we are not--if we are not making a
difference in the classroom, we are wasting our time and
resources. We learned through experience years ago you just
can't write a check and expect to make a difference. The money
is gone quickly, and the impact is sometimes minimal.
If anyone asks why high schools must reform, the answer to
that question lies in the presentation that was made by the
superintendent of public schools in Durham, North Carolina,
recently, and it mirrors what we have already heard this
morning. 30 percent of high school students fail to graduate.
Fifty percent of minority ninth-grade students failed to
complete high school in 4 years, and over 2,000 U.S. public
U.S. High schools the senior class is 60 percent smaller than
the freshman class that entered 4 years earlier. Thirty-three
percent of freshman must enroll in remedial courses. We have
situations where in companies, in community colleges and
university systems, high school graduates have to take remedial
programs.
GSK is a high tech company that relies on being able to
hire the cream of the crop. We have to be able to compete
globally. We would love to able to home-grow our talent as
opposed to hiring them from other places. We have to have top-
notch high schools to be able to do that. We draw a parallel
between our business and the world of K-through-12 education.
It takes an average of 14 years and around $800 billion to get
one drug on the market. That is the length of time it takes a
child to enter first grade and complete all the way through 2
years of college.
We think putting resources on the front end of this
education issue is so critical. Currently we spend somewhere
between 30,000 and $60,000 to keep one person in prison a year.
That is a lot more than we spend to pay teachers on an annual
basis, and more than it costs for a college education in some
cases.
The most important element to me is leadership. We are
lucky. We have strong leadership by the business community. We
have strong leadership by elected officials, and it shows in
them being able to see our State increase as well as it has.
How is our company contributing to K through 12? K-through-
12 education is the No. 1 social issue that almost every
company looks to. There are public-private partnerships, and
about 70 percent of the Nation's schools are providing goods
and services to about 35 million students.
The most important way a private sector can improve high
schools is not by writing a check, but being willing to have a
dialog and be a partner in the process of improvement. One of
those things we are doing in the U.S. Business Education
Network is creating an organization that is going to build
relationships and capture the information on a national basis
that is going on in every State. Three thousand local Chambers
of Commerce and the business community are going to be able to
interact in that way.
I was at the national education summit 2 years back hosted
by IBM. Lou Gerstner, who is the current CEO, said--talking
about how the U.S. ranks in the world in terms of science and
math. Of course this is going to be important to our company.
We are like 18th or 19th. He said, if we rank the same in the
world in Olympic basketball, we would quickly bring the pros
in. I have to agree with him. We need a little outrage and the
same kind of rallying around the flag that we had during the
1960's for the space race, because I think this issue is that
important. We have to fix our high schools, and as a company we
want to be able to be a partner in doing that. Thank you very
much.
Chairman Castle. Based on our how Olympic basketball team
did the last time, we may need to bring in somebody else. Thank
you for your testimony.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Shore follows:]
Statement of Bill A. Shore, Director, U.S. Community Partnerships,
GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, NC
Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee on Education Reform, I
am pleased and honored to be here today. Thank you for your kind
invitation. My name is Bill Shore and I am the Director of U.S.
Community Partnerships for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) pharmaceuticals.
GSK is a world leading research-based pharmaceutical company with a
powerful combination of skills and resources that provides a platform
for delivering new medications for today's rapidly changing health care
environment. GSK's mission is to improve the quality of human life by
enabling people to do more, feel better, and live longer. Our social
investment focuses on both health and education.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom and with U.S. operations based
in the Research Triangle Park, NC and Philadelphia, PA, the company is
one of the industry leaders with an estimated seven percent of the
world's pharmaceutical market.
GSK has leadership in four major therapeutic areas--anti-
infectives, central nervous system (CNS), respiratory, and gastro-
intestinal/metabolic. In addition, it is a leader in the important area
of vaccines and has a growing portfolio of oncology products.
The company has a consumer health care portfolio comprising over-
the-counter (OTC) medicines, oral care products and nutritional health
care drinks, all of which are among the market leaders.
GSK has over 100,000 employees worldwide in 110 countries. The
company has a leading position in genomics/genetics and new drug
discovery technologies.
It is interesting to note that it takes an average of 14 years and
$800 million to get one drug to the market. . .the same length of time
it takes for a student to enter first grade and complete two years of
college.
I am here today to testify on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, the world's largest business federation, representing more
than three million businesses of every size, sector and region. Chamber
members, like GSK, are concerned about advancing the education of our
high school students and strengthening the economic base of their
communities. Through greater education reform of our high schools comes
the strengthening of our skilled workforce. Local and state Chamber
members represent broad networks of employers across the nation. This
network, unlike any other entity, is uniquely positioned to bring
together people and business to assist in the advancement of high
school reform. The Chamber is committed more than ever to quality
education issues and workforce development.
I serve on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Corporate
Citizenship (CCC), a 501(c)3 nonprofit Chamber affiliate that supports
businesses helping out their communities. The CCC is an instrumental
arm of the Chamber in championing the need to strengthen U.S. student
achievement.
In addition to representing the Chamber, I will provide a personal
and corporate perspective on the subject matter of today's subcommittee
hearing, which is the critical role of education reform at the
secondary education level, its impact on our country's global
competitiveness, and preparing our workforce for the 21st century. I
have spent much of my career working on education issues and reform for
GSK and more recently in conjunction with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
I have been on the board of trustees for North Carolina Central
University in Durham, a historically black university. I have chaired
Public Education Network programs and committees at the local, state,
and national levels. Additionally, my wife and one of my daughters are
educators, with my daughter teaching students with learning
disabilities. Corporately and personally I believe I have a perspective
on American education that is hands-on and current.
As we all know, the primary focus of the past 20 years has been on
grades K-8, and rightfully so. If students can not read, write, and do
math at the 8th grade level, when they leave middle school, their
chances of succeeding in high school are greatly diminished. Now, it is
time for us to focus on the high school experience. We need to ensure
that a high school diploma is more than a certificate of attendance.
There are many organizations, educators, elected officials, and
businesses that have been shining a spotlight on this issue over the
past few years, and now the center of our attention is on how to
provide an excellent K-12 education for all students.
Currently, companies, community colleges, and universities on a
national level have to provide remedial training for many high school
graduates who are not adequately prepared to be successful in the next
step of their education or in their jobs. The efforts of this
subcommittee on high school reform, hopefully, will help address the
problem.
In my opinion, the most important element of being successful in
helping states and communities improve high schools is leadership. We
must have strong leadership from the business community, the
educational community and from elected officials to ensure strong and
effective public-private partnerships. We need leadership to agree on a
vision of where we want to be as an educated society. We need to focus
on high standards, effective accountability measures, and rewards for
excellence.
In North Carolina we have benefited from that leadership. Thanks to
the vision and determination of former Governor Hunt, current Governor
Easley, and the strong leadership of the private sector, North Carolina
has developed a reputation as a state that is making great strides in
K-12 educational improvement over the past 10 years. The business
community has been critical to this success.
GSK is proud to be one of the companies that has provided strong
leadership to help ensure the type of partnership environment that
exists in our state will help students be successful. On behalf of GSK,
a number of employees have put a great deal of time, effort, and
resources into our role as a community leader. For example: The Vice
Chairman of our pharmaceutical business, Robert Ingram, attended two
National Education Summits, as the guest of Governor Hunt. These
summits were hosted by Lou Gerstner at IBM and were coordinated by the
National Governors Association. Each governor invited one CEO from his
or her state. I was fortunate to be included with the small contingent
from North Carolina.
GSK and IBM led the effort to conduct a North Carolina Business
Education Summit following the national summit. Governor Hunt and Mr.
Ingram were Honorary Chairs and I served as co-chair of the planning
committee along with my counterpart at IBM. We brought leaders in K-12
education, business, elected officials, and the statewide university
system to discuss reform efforts in our state.
In addition to the statewide summit, I have been fortunate over the
years to serve as chairman of the Durham Chamber of Commerce Public
Education Committee, the North Carolina Communities in Schools Board of
Directors, the Durham Public Education Network, and now the U.S.
Chamber's U.S. Business Education Network Task Force.
I have been privileged to serve as a board member of the North
Carolina Business Committee for Education, the Public School Forum of
North Carolina, the North Carolina Standards and Accountability
Committee, the Durham Technical Community College Foundation Board, the
North Carolina Central University Board of Trustees, the Conference
Board's Business Education Council, and a number of other local and
statewide initiatives that have addressed K-12 education improvement
efforts. I served in these roles because GSK cares very deeply about
the education of our students, the quality of our teachers, and the
role of our company in helping these students to succeed. I do not
think we can spend our time, resources, and leadership skills on a more
important issue. For us, it is the right thing to do. As a high-tech
company with long-term requirements for a highly-educated workforce, it
is in our best interest to make K-12 education one of our top
priorities. Mary Linda Andrews, my colleague here today, continues to
serve along with me and others on education boards and serves as
advisor on education-related efforts in North Carolina and
Pennsylvania.
Overall, you might ask--how are companies contributing to K-12
education? Companies rank education as the number one social issue that
they should help to address.\1\ According to a study by The Council for
Corporate and School Partnerships, they contribute approximately $2.4
billion dollars to K-12 education.\2\ By way of comparison, this is
more than is spent on all corporate public policy advocacy and lobbying
combined. And this does not take into consideration the leadership and
volunteer time that companies and their employees provide to schools.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The 2003-2004 Survey on the State of Corporate Citizenship In
the U.S. was conducted by the CCC and Boston College with a grant from
Hitachi. The survey examined attitudes and expectations of leaders of
small, medium and large companies regarding the definition and role of
corporate citizenship and its alignment with standard business
practice. This survey showed that education was the number one issue in
which the business community felt it should be playing an active role.
\2\ The Council for Corporate & School Partnerships Guiding
Principles for Business & School Partnerships at 4, available at http:/
/www.corpschoolpartners.org/pdf/guiding--principles.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are public-private partnerships in approximately 70% of the
nation's school districts, providing goods and services to 35 million
students. Individual companies focus on different education needs. Some
focus on math and science (GSK, Bayer, Siemens, Westinghouse), others
on history (Siemens), others on ethics (Deloitte), others on social
studies and cross-cultural skills (Target), and still others on
literacy (GSK, Coca-Cola and Verizon).
Companies also engage with students throughout the learning
process, whether at pre-K (GSK), after school (Wachovia and GSK), in
high school (Microsoft and GSK) or in college, MBA, and Ph.D. programs
(KPMG).
Companies also focus on the enabling environment for teachers and
students. Organizations like Communities in Schools--which provides
social services to needy students so that teachers can focus on
teaching--receive corporate support in over 30 states. Office Depot
distributes over 250,000 backpacks full of essential school supplies to
needy children. TimeWarner works with teachers and superintendents with
organizations like New Leaders New Schools.
Chicago-based QuamNichols' CEO Bill Little, and many other
corporate leaders like him, works with Janet Knupp and her group, the
Chicago Public Education Fund, in a partnership that addresses a broad
range of education issues in Chicago. Other geographic-based public-
private partnerships have developed in other cities around the
country--most notably the Boston Compact and the Washington Compact.
While there are a wide range of success stories, there is an
increasing feeling in the business community that more needs to be done
at a national level. That is why a group of leading companies like GSK,
and others have come together to create the U.S. Business Education
Network (USBEN). USBEN is a new business coalition staffed by the CCC
of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. USBEN is dedicated to harnessing the
power of the business community to address issues facing the U.S.
education system as it prepares our children for the future. USBEN is
working to build relationships between partners, share success stories,
and link practices to policies to ensure lasting change. I am
privileged to chair this task force.
The point is, business support for education is not about
philanthropy--cash contributions are just the tip of the iceberg.
Business engagement with education can span a wide spectrum, including:
developing/understanding the skills required to be
successful at companies like GSK;
advocacy;
advice about process management;
motivation;
mentoring;
standards and accountability;
capacity building; and
encouragement.
Already some of the top business supporters of education have
started to come together, but more needs to be done. We fully recognize
that students are ultimately responsible for their own success, and
that teachers are on the front lines of making that happen. GSK, the
business community, and the Chamber are deeply concerned about the
future of our educational system. It affects our society and our
economy in so many ways. We want to continue to increase our engagement
and support for improving student achievement and the effectiveness of
our education system to respond to 21st century workforce requisites
and economic conditions.
I should also note that the Chamber is already involved in specific
educational efforts to promote education and skills training of our
workforce after graduation from high school. The U.S. Chamber of
Commerce Center for Workforce Preparation (CWP)--in partnership with
local chambers, other workforce development organizations, and
funders--has been instrumental in defining and demonstrating the unique
role of local chambers in workforce development and education. CWP's
priority goals include promoting and supporting effective education and
training initiatives concerning workforce excellence; conducting and
supporting research that will develop more effective worker training
programs; initiating and documenting promising education and workforce
preparation programs that can be replicated by chambers of commerce and
their small business members at the local level.
Now, I'd like to share why GSK has been a supporter of education
and its continued reform for decades. There are many reasons for this
support:
1) It is part of our corporate focus to give back to the
communities where our employees live and work.
2) We want to help ensure that our employees have the best
education possible for their families (all corporations want this).
3) We need a highly-educated workforce for our business.
4) We believe that education is the key to helping resolve many of
today's social issues. It is much less expensive to proactively educate
a child than to have that child live in poverty with potentially
enormous future societal costs, including incarceration, if that child
cannot become a productive adult member of the workforce. Estimates of
the cost per year in prison range from $30,000 to $60,000 per year.
That is more than we pay teachers per year in many of our communities.
The magic bullet for education reform does not exist. There must be
a concerted effort at the local, state, and national levels. In
conjunction with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Department
of Education, GSK is helping to lead the way as we jointly take a more
meaningful look at how education can be reformed and how that will
impact the U.S. position in our global economy. Our nation's education
system forms the basis for skills that the U.S. workforce develops. It
is the bedrock for research and development, and it contributes
fundamentally to the development of our communities and the
cohesiveness of American society.
I will highlight some of the ways GSK is partnering on the state
and local levels in North Carolina.
The North Carolina New Schools Project--an initiative of North
Carolina Governor Mike Easley and his Education Cabinet funded in part
with an $11 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation--
aims to create 40 to 50 new and redesigned high schools across the
state. The New Schools Project will reform high schools and better
prepare students for the workforce and college. GSK has provided
leadership on the Advisory Board and has underwritten town hall
meetings with superintendents and business leaders in school districts
that will benefit from these efforts.
The first round of funding from the New Schools Project is focused
on health science schools. Each of the grant recipients is committed to
creating new high schools and schools within existing schools that have
a focus on the health sciences. They will be developed in conjunction
with regional health care and higher education partners. These schools
will be academically rigorous. GSK will continue to support the next
round of schools, which will focus on middle college and early college
high schools in partnership with the community colleges and public and
private colleges and universities.
Many school systems in the U.S. have experienced their share of
struggles: 30% of high school students fail to graduate; 50% of
minority 9th grade students fail to complete high school in four years;
in over 2,000 public U.S. high schools the senior class is 60% smaller
than the freshman class that entered four years earlier; only 32% of
high school graduates are ready to attend a four year college; 33% of
the freshmen must enroll in a remedial course; and 50% of the freshman
class fail to earn a degree in six years.
The number and types of industrial working class jobs have
dramatically decreased. Good middle class jobs now require skills
acquired through high levels of education, and almost all jobs require
complex problem-solving, effective communication skills, and the
ability to exercise independent judgment while working in groups.
How will communities resolve this situation? In Durham, NC, Dr.
Anne Denlinger, superintendent of Durham Public Schools (DPS), is
focused on high school reform because there is stagnant growth in
student achievement, unacceptably high suspension and dropout rates,
too few students graduating in four years, increased state graduation
requirements, and there are too few students--particularly African-
American and Hispanic--in higher level classes.
DPS created a High School Reform Committee, with teams from each
high school that will meet twice a month for one year to develop
strategies for high school improvement. The goal is to ensure that all
students will graduate from high school ready for the next level of
their education or ready to work at a skilled job.
This results-oriented committee will collect and analyze data,
determine best practices, and design strategies. They will examine
current and historical data and ``benchmark'' against national
standards. They will increase academic rigor and expand support;
increase relevance and improve relationships; align structure,
calendar, and schedule for more personalized education; involve
parents, community agencies, and businesses in high school reform; and
recruit, retain, and develop highly qualified teachers.
Further, they will adopt three measurable goals and after nine
months' work, will agree on five broadly focused areas. They will
brainstorm and agree upon high-leverage district strategies for each
area. Schools will develop action plans to align with districtwide
strategies, and school teams are expected to share committee work with
faculty, staff, and parents.
Durham has a vision for reforming its high schools and it has a
vision for its students: By 2013, 100% of students graduate from high
school in four years; by 2009, 90% of graduates complete a college prep
course of study; and by 2009, 80% of graduates meet University of North
Carolina system admission requirements.
Already, Durham has increased graduation requirements, provided
staff development for all high school teachers in using effective
teaching strategies for the block schedule, designed support courses
for ECP students, provided schools with SAT prep software, and held an
AP teacher assembly on access and equity.
The school system has or is implementing an Early College High
School, a City of Medicine Academy, Ninth Grade Academies, and Middle
College High Schools.
Shouldn't we, as a country, have such a vision and expectations?
GSK provides leadership on the executive board of the North
Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE). Together we want to
improve tomorrow's employees through education reform.
NCBCE has established a Center for 21st Century Skills to design
curriculum, teacher training, and student assessments to support
students in acquiring knowledge and skills to prepare them for further
education and for the present and future workforce. The Center will
work closely with the New Schools Project with an initial focus on high
school reform. The Center will also work with the North Carolina
Science, Math, and Technology Education Center; the North Carolina
School of Science and Math; the Board of Science and Technology; and
governing boards of education (State Board of Education, Community
College, and University) to research and propose options to create new
or expand existing math and science summer programs across the state
and to establish regional math and science programs for high achieving
high school students. The Center will also support efforts of the
Futures for Kids program that connects students with the workforce
needs of their home communities. GSK provided the seed funding for the
Futures for Kids program and has continued in an advisory capacity to
the program. GSK recognizes that it takes a collaborative effort to
reform schools.
GSK staff took a leading role in the review of the North Carolina
science curriculum to help reform it so that inquiry-based science kits
would be available as part of the curriculum.
GSK supports the Public School Forum of North Carolina (Forum) with
funding and leadership. The Forum is a not-for-profit policy think tank
and partnership of business leaders, educational leaders, and
governmental leaders in North Carolina that has made a significant
contribution to schools across the state. The Forum has set the public
policy framework for North Carolina's entry into school accountability
with the passage of the School Improvement and Accountability Act. The
Forum has proposed major changes to the way in which North Carolina
funds its schools--changes that have resulted in over $100 million of
supplemental funds going to low wealth and small schools each year and
the establishment of the North Carolina School Technology Fund. The
Forum has created a one-of-a-kind Institute for Educational
Policymakers, a capacity-building center that focuses on members of the
General Assembly, the State Board of Education and reporters who cover
their actions.
High school reform means that all students have access to the same
quality education, including teachers, special services, and
educational materials. The quality of a child's education should not
depend on the wealth of their family or the wealth of their
neighborhood. To help equalize the education of disadvantaged children
or children whose schools are at a disadvantage, GSK supports multiple
programs.
GSK recognizes that teacher development is an integral key to
student success. When you impact one teacher, there is a cascading
effect on thousands of students over the teacher's career. GSK provided
a three-year, $300,000 grant to the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards (NBPTS) to increase the number of science teachers
pursuing National Board Certification in the Research Triangle Park
area of North Carolina and in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas of
Pennsylvania.
GSK was instrumental in establishing the Destiny Traveling Science
Laboratory Program and we continue to be a major sponsor of the
University of North Carolina's traveling science laboratory, Destiny,
since its inception in 1999. Destiny is a fully selfcontained lab that
accommodates 12 lab stations for a total of 24 students. Destiny
visited 90 under-served secondary schools and reached 4,000 students
during 2004. The program encourages women and minority students to
pursue science careers.
GSK gave a three-year grant to Juniata College and Drexel
University for transition and start-up costs of the Science in Motion
(SIM) program. SIM endeavors to improve performance in science and math
among high school students statewide in Pennsylvania. The program
models teacher preparation recommended by the National Science Board. A
mobile educator serves high school teachers by visiting classrooms once
a week to facilitate introduction of advanced equipment and modern
technologies.
For over 18 years, GSK has been supporting public education
networks in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. These community-based
public school advocacy groups link human and material resources to
strengthen public schools. They leverage private contributions to
ensure the greatest possible impact in every school and also are a
facilitator of community involvement in public schools. Some of the
programs that GSK supports are K-8 Science Initiative, local education
summits, Food for Thought Teacher grants, Leadership Academy, and Task
Force on Teacher Excellence.
GSK is a supporter of the Kenan Fellows Program, an innovative
model to promote teacher leadership, address teacher retention and
advance K-12 science, technology and mathematics education. Kenan
Fellows are public school teachers selected through a competitive
process to participate in a prestigious two-year fellowship, all while
remaining active in the classroom. During these two years, Kenan
Fellows work in partnership with distinguished scientists, university
faculty, and the Department of Public Instruction, developing
curriculum and teaching resources that bring cuttingedge research into
the hands of students. Kenan Fellows are scientists, inventors, authors
and leaders in our classrooms bringing curriculum to life!
Student scholarships are important because far too many high school
students are not as motivated if they do not believe that they have a
chance to continue their education due to finances. Since 1994, the GSK
Science Achievement Award has been a competitive award available to
graduate students in chemistry, medicine, and the biological sciences
through the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). UNCF is the nation's
oldest and most successful minority higher education assistance
organization. GSK also has provided support for the minority scholars
program through the American Chemical Society.
The GlaxoSmithKline Opportunity Scholarships are awarded annually
to persons who ``have the potential to succeed despite adversity and
have exceptional desire to better themselves through further education
or training.'' The endowment for this GSK program currently stands at
more than $700,000.
GSK endowed four North Carolina community colleges with a total of
$400,000. Eligible students must be enrolled in an electrical/
electronics technology, electronics engineering, biotechnology,
computer engineering technology, industrial pharmaceutical technology
or industrial systems technology program, or currently pursuing an
associate's degree in science or other approved science or engineering
related curriculum. Students must also demonstrate financial need.
Selected students carry the distinction of the ``GlaxoSmithKline
Scholar.''
In addition to GSK's corporate focus on education, the North
Carolina GSK Foundation provides about two million dollars a year in
grants to programs supporting education in the state. The Foundation
also runs the GSK's Women in Science (WIS) program, which is committed
to reversing the trend of under representation of women in fields like
chemistry, medicine, mathematics and pharmacology. The WIS program
pairs outstanding undergraduate women at North Carolina colleges and
universities with GSK women scientists working in laboratories and
other environments conducive to further study and research. Our
scientists, as mentors, guide students along pathways to learning more
about rewarding careers in the sciences. The students, as scholars,
gain a vicarious view of corporate life as mentors show them, by
example, that women can succeed in science.
Over the years, GSK has been proud to provide funding, employee
volunteers and/or leadership to many organizations focused on improving
our K-12 education system. In addition to the programs listed above,
other programs include the following:
American Association for the Advancement of Science--Science in the
Summer
America Reads
Challenger Center for Space Science Education--Sally Ride Science
Festivals and Club
Children's Literacy Initiative--provides literacy training for
Teach for America
Children's Village--literacy curriculum for students and teachers
City Year Greater Philadelphia--tutoring and mentoring to low
performing schools
Communities in Schools
Durham Academy--minority scholarships for high school students
Durham Academy--Summer Science Institute for high school students
in North Carolina
Franklin Institute--Partnerships for Achieving Careers in
Technology and Science
Greater Philadelphia Cares--Reading STARS, a volunteer-based
literacy program
Hill Center--teacher training to recognize and work with students
who have learning disabilities (includes an evaluation component)
Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing--scholarship endowment for
minority students
Lowes Grove Middle School--corrective reading literacy program
MSEN--science education leadership institute
National Humanities Center--teacher leadership and professional
development
North Carolina Central University--Biotechnology Institute
North Carolina Infrastructure for Science Education (NC-ISE)
programs--preparing science teacher leaders as facilitators for
statewide training of K-12 teachers for implementation of inquiry
science in North Carolina schools
North Carolina School of Science and Math
North Carolina State University--learning technology programs for
high school students
Peace College--leadership development for pre-college girls
Philadelphia Education Fund--state and national Middle Grades
Matter programs
Project Graduation--scholarships
PTAs support through our ``GSK Investment in Volunteer Efforts''
program
Science Fair support in North Carolina and Pennsylvania--teacher
workshops and judges
Summer Technology Institute--for teachers in North Carolina
Teach4NC--Web site showing individuals from all professional
backgrounds how to obtain their North Carolina teaching license
Thomas Jefferson University--science outreach program that brings
science classrooms through a mobile zebrafish lab and teacher workshops
for Philadelphia public schools
Total Quality Education Efforts
Teach for America--support for science teachers
United Innoworks Academy--summer science workshops
U.S. Department of Education--No Child Left Behind blue ribbon
schools conference
Wistar Institute of Anatomy & Biology--high school summer science
fellows
In conclusion, we must not relax our efforts to win the high school
reform battle. On the contrary, it is imperative that we strengthen our
efforts by making this a nonpartisan goal, as we did with the space
program in the 1960s. My sense is that our education issues are more
compelling than ever before. The country expected us to be competitive
in the race for space travel and with combined, concerted efforts and
strong leadership we rose to the top. We can and we must have the same
expectations for educating our youth as they prepare to lead in the
21st century. It is incumbent upon us to lead the way to changing the
horrifying educational statistics we continue to hear.
GSK is in the business of helping to improve the quality of human
life for millions of people around the world. This should be the same
goal of the United States as we educate our students--our leaders of
tomorrow. Everyone shares this common goal of providing an excellent
education for all of our students in order to provide an opportunity
for an improved quality of life.
If we do our part, our children will do more because they are
better educated. College graduates make $1 million dollars more in
their lifetime than non-graduates. They will feel better, not only
about themselves and their accomplishments, but they are more likely to
be in better health and live longer. Statistics show that educated
people take better care of themselves.
These trends will enable the U.S. to thrive and take a stronger
position in a global economy that is becoming increasingly competitive.
As a corporation, we have the right to expect great things from our
students and we have the responsibility to assist schools in their
understanding of what is needed to prepare students for jobs and for
higher education.
I would like to emphasize what many of us already know--U.S.
students are slipping globally in math and science. The views of the
Report to the Nation from the National Commission on Mathematics and
Science Teaching for the 21st Century are particularly instructive. The
report notes:
Our children are falling behind; they are simply not ``world-
class learners'' when it comes to mathematics and science...The
Third International Mathematics and Science Study tested the
students of 41 nations. Children in the United States were
among the leaders in the fourth-grade assessment, but by high
school graduation they were almost last. Here at home, the
National Assessment of Educational Progress basically
substantiates our students' poor performance...In short, our
children are losing the ability to respond not just to the
challenges already presented by the 21st century but to its
potential as well...\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Before It's Too Late: A Report to the Nation From The National
Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century at
4 (2000).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is of great concern to GSK and should be to all Americans, but
especially to you, as leaders of our country. As a corporation strongly
linked to and dependent upon a highly-educated workforce, we have to
ask what we can do as collaborators to help strengthen and reform our
educational system. As a team, we must ensure that our high school
students are prepared to meet the work and educational challenges of
the 21st century. Our global competitiveness depends upon it.
Thank you. I am happy to take questions.
______
Chairman Castle. Ms. Sterling.
STATEMENT OF SARAH REVI STERLING, PROGRAM MANAGER, UNIVERSITY
RELATIONS, MICROSOFT CORPORATION, REDMOND, WA
Ms. Sterling. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, my
name is Sarah Revi Sterling, and I represent the Microsoft
Corporation, where I manage our gender equity programs in
computer science through our External Research Team at
Microsoft Research. I also represent the National Center For
Women and Information Technology, an organization committed to
increasing the participation of girls and women in information
technology and computing, where I am the chairperson of the
Workforce Alliance. I want to thank you for the opportunity to
appear here today to discuss how the private sector is helping
States and communities improve high school education and to
highlight the challenges relating to the role of women in
science and technology education.
The future of U.S. competitiveness depends on our capacity
to cultivate and maintain a diverse, innovative and technically
trained workforce. U.S. students across the board are opting
out of computer science often because of the false impression
that there will be no jobs waiting for them when they graduate.
But the situation among women is much worse. The number of
women interested in computer science as a major has dropped 80
percent between 1998 and 2004, and has dropped 98 percent from
its peak in 1982. Some computer science departments at top
research institutions have no women in their incoming freshman
class. And out of the female students who do enter computer
science, the attrition rate is between 40 and 60 percent. This
trend away from computing starts earlier than college, but at
the middle and high school levels.
To meet these challenges, the National Center For Women and
IT, or NCWIT, was formed recently with the mission to ensure
all women are fully represented in the influential world of
information technology and computing. NCWIT is a growing
coalition of over 40 companies, academic institutions, the
National Science Foundation and nonprofits working aggressively
to understand and solve this problem.
At the high school level, NCWIT's programmatic priorities
include stimulating girls' interest in IT and promoting a
positive image of female technology workers and the innovative
work that they do. NCWIT has partnered with the Association for
Computing Machinery, the Computer Science Teachers Association,
the Girl Scouts of the USA and many high-tech companies to form
a K-through-12 Alliance with the focus on attracting more girls
into the study of computer science and assembling standards for
computing education.
NCWIT's K-through-12 Alliance and industry members are
committed to sharing their promising practices to promote the
recruitment, retention and advancement of girls and women in
IT. Promising practices focused at the high school level
include symposia to prepare girls for IT careers, summer camps
that provide opportunities for girls to experience the
multifaceted areas of computer science, programs for both
students and parents to inform them about IT courses and
careers and mentoring programs.
The alliances that comprise NCWIT are committed to pursuing
fresh thinking in building up the female technical workforce as
the last 20 years of efforts have not positively affected this
pipeline. Companies like Microsoft, Intel, Google and others
are putting their best creative minds not just on new products,
but on finding ways to engage younger students earlier.
In addition to supporting an array of efforts with private-
and public-sector partners like NCWIT, Microsoft has committed
to invest over $35 million through our Partners in Learning
program, a long-term commitment by Microsoft to partner with
governments, schools and teachers to support the systemic
changes needed to address many of the challenges I have already
outlined. Partners in Learning also strives to address the
unique expectations students have of schools, such as ensuring
they have access to and the capability to effectively use
advanced technology tools as part of their learning
environment.
In addition, Microsoft has been developing an educational
prototype called the School of the Future scheduled to open in
west Philadelphia in 2006. The School of the Future is rooted
in the vision of an empowered community where learning is
continuous, relative and adaptive.
Microsoft has also funded a series of pilots with
universities to increase the numbers of women from regional
feeder schools choosing to major in computer science. These
programs in their third year are showing success and increasing
the number of female high school graduates excited about
starting academic careers in technology.
Mr. Chairman and Madam Ranking Member, the gender gap in IT
threatens the ability of the U.S. to compete globally. We know
that a more diverse talent will yield different products and
better ideas, contributing to stronger U.S. economic
performance. Girls and women must play an important role in
fostering new innovations if the U.S. is to remain competitive.
Working together, the public and private sectors can and must
make swift and substantive changes in our educational and
business institutions to promote an inclusive culture of
innovation. America needs the talent of all its citizens, our
competitiveness, security, and ultimately the health of our
democracy depends upon this. Thank you very much.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Ms. Sterling. We appreciate
that.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Sterling follows:]
Statement of Sarah Revi Sterling, Program Manager, University
Relations, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA
Chairman Castle, Ranking Member Woolsey, Members of the Sub-
Committee:
My name is Sarah Revi Sterling and I represent Microsoft
Corporation, where I manage our gender equity programs in computing in
the External Research team of Microsoft Research. I also represent the
National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), an
organization committed to increasing participation of girls and women
in information technology (IT) and computing, where I am chairperson of
NCWIT's Workforce Alliance. I want to thank you for the opportunity to
appear today to discuss how the private sector is helping states and
communities improve high school education and higher education, and to
highlight the challenges we face as a nation as it relates to the role
of women in science and technology education--in particular women in
information technology and computing.
Mr. Chairman, the dearth of young women choosing technical courses
and career paths is more than a gender equity issue. Department of
Labor projections forecast that our economy will add nearly 1.5 million
professional IT jobs by 2012--but the numbers of both male and female
students joining the technical workforce is diminishing greatly each
year. The ability of the U.S. to remain competitive as a leader in
math, science and engineering is one of America's greatest national
security and competitiveness concerns. The future of U.S.
competitiveness depends on our capacity to cultivate and maintain a
diverse, innovative, and technically-trained workforce.
While U.S. students across the board are opting out of computer
science as an undergraduate major often because of the false impression
that there will be a limited number of jobs available upon graduation,
the situation among women is worse. who choose computer science as an
undergraduate major has declined every year since 1984. Mr. Chairman,
the stark reality we face as a nation is that nearly one-third of
American high school students will not graduate, and more than half of
those who do are not ready for a four-year college in many instances
because American high schools were designed for an industrial and not a
knowledge economy.
As Bill Gates recently stated ``...the heart of the economic
argument for better high schools...says: we'd better do something about
these kids not getting an education, because it's hurting us. But
there's also a moral argument for better high schools, and it says:
We'd better do something about these kids not getting an education,
because it's hurting them.'' Educating students to be the future
creators of software, devices, and communication systems is the only
way we are going to be able to be globally competitive in innovation,
research and development. Bureau of Labor Statistics projections from
2002 show that information technology jobs will out-strip IT degree
production by nearly a factor of two to one. This will cripple our
competitive edge in high-tech industry unless high school curricula
reform, teacher training practices, and perceptions about computing
change nationwide.
The gender gap in America's technical workforce represents our most
significant opportunity to build an innovative and highly trained
workforce for the U.S. to maintain its competitive edge. As
corporations are increasingly aware, the gender gap creates significant
negative economic consequences. Catalyst, a top professional gender
research and advisory organization, has authored several studies and
business cases that show a direct relationship between the diversity of
a company's workforce and company earnings. The group of companies with
the highest representation of women on their senior management teams
had a 35 percent higher return on equity and a 34 percent higher total
return to shareholders than companies with the lowest women's
representation.
A diverse talent pool creates more cutting edge and dynamic
technology. Employing gender diversity in the innovation process yields
a much wider range products and better ideas, contributing to stronger
U.S. economic performance. We at Microsoft see firsthand the value of
diversity in the research and development labs--a richness of
perspectives creates far stronger products that take a broader array of
consumer needs into account. Unfortunately, we simply cannot find
enough women to hire into these jobs.
The U.S. faces the challenge of attracting sufficient numbers of
women and men candidates both to pursue degrees and careers in IT and
computing. While it is true that women earn more than half of all
bachelor's degrees conferred, they are conspicuously absent from
technology fields of study. Newly reported data compiled by the Higher
Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los
Angeles shows the percentage of all incoming students interested in
majoring in computer science has plummeted over the last four years.
Between the fall of 2000 and the fall of 2004, the percentage dropped
by 60 percent and is now 70 percent lower than its peak in the early
1980s.
The number of women interested in computer science as a major has
fallen 80 percent between 1998 and 2004 and 93 percent since its peak
in 1982. According to NCWIT data, in 2000, women accounted for only 28
percent of all degrees in computer and information sciences, down from
37 percent in 1984, and the percentages are lower at major research
universities. Out of the female students who do pursue computer science
degrees, the attrition rate is between 40 to 60 percent by the time
they graduate. Although women make up nearly half the total U.S.
workforce, they represent only 25 percent of all professional IT
workers and represent only 11 percent of corporate officers at the top
500 U.S. technology companies.
The absence of girls and women in information technology careers
limits the way that technology is developed, marketed, and consumed.
Attracting, recruiting and retaining girls and women helps widen the
talent pool, offering industry not only more qualified candidates to
fill available positions, but a far greater chance at creating valuable
new intellectual property and product lines. Women's participation in
IT, as both its creators and its consumers, guarantees that it will be
a dynamic force in our future; and technology's pervasive impact on all
our lives makes women's participation an imperative.
These industry and academic trends relate directly to a problem
that is demonstrable in high school. Based on the National Center for
Education Statistics recent report, Trends in Educational Equity of
Girls & Women: 2004, even high school girls take mathematics and
science courses that are at least as rigorous as the courses of their
male counterparts. While computer use among girls has more than doubled
since 1984, girls represent only 15 percent of test-takers in Advanced
Placement (AP) computer science--the lowest female representation of
any AP test. In a 2002 study conducted by the Women's Foundation of
Colorado, the majority of girls surveyed expressed a greater desire
than boys to work in a profession that had positive societal impact.
Although technology is the very foundation on which these young women
will be able to fulfill their professional aspirations, most girls do
not yet perceive IT as a profession in which this is likely or even
possible. Particularly at the middle and high school levels, educators,
businesses, and the media must work to change the image of IT as a
relevant, exciting discipline; the basis for communication and
innovation, in all aspects of our lives. Consistent reinforcement of a
``geeky'' image and the absence of mentors, teachers, and other role
models in IT, confirm the stereotype of technology as inhospitable or
incompatible to girls and women, and are cited as a major reason why
girls show declining interest in math and science at the high-school
level. We need high schools to aggressively communicate the message
that the computing field will be the source of future innovations
across society, particularly in academic areas that were once distinct
from computing, but are now oftentimes intensively computational in
nature.
To meet these challenges the National Center for Women &
Information Technology (NCWIT) was recently formed with the mission to
ensure that women are fully represented in the influential world of IT
and computing. NCWIT is a growing coalition of over 40 respected
corporations, academic institutions, government agencies and non-
profits working aggressively to understand and solve this problem. As a
community of change-agents NCWIT is committed to investing in research
and education, determining best practices for progress, and
implementing these solutions across the country. NCWIT believes in
building a national ``infrastructure'' in order to support the
systematic and focused approaches required to solve the gender gap in
IT and computing.
Through a nationally connected effort of programs, networks, and
research, NCWIT is working to guarantee that women's perspectives and
skills contribute significantly to the creation, development,
consumption and application of IT. NCWIT is building a national
infrastructure and working to connect all phases of the education and
career pipeline, including K-12. Key to NCWIT's success is its ability
to assess and disseminate effective practices to benefit girls and
women in the IT field, to reuse what already works, to measure success
with an annual scorecard, to raise the visibility of the issue, and to
mobilize educational, industrial, and governmental communities focused
on change. NCWIT works to cross-leverage and coordinate work from many
organizations reducing duplication, encouraging reuse and improving
efficiency, and generally creating a cogent national implementation
plan.
NCWIT is organized using a distributed model of existing efforts,
established thought leaders, and assessment teams to provide a model
that will encourage efficiency, support existing programs, unify like-
minded efforts, and leverage consolidated efforts for national impact.
NCWIT's geographically diverse group of hubs, including academic
institutions, industry initiatives, professional groups, and other
organizations, acts as the flexible foundation for the creation and
application of programs, research, and outreach.
NCWIT is targeting promising practices and working to turn them
into best practices that can be replicated and used by various
institutions and organizations across the country.
At the high school level, NCWIT's programmatic priorities include
stimulating girls' interest in IT and promoting a positive, current
image of technology workers, and the kinds of innovative work women can
do in computing. NCWIT is partnering with the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM), the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), a
number of technology companies, and the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA),
to form a K-12 Alliance, with a focus on attracting more girls into the
study of computer science and assembling standards for computing
education. As an NCWIT hub, GSUSA is responsible for initiating,
implementing, tracking, and measuring programs aimed at increasing
girls' participation in IT and computing. With its high-profile
reputation and national reach, GSUSA has extensive community contact
and experience with influencing policy issues affecting girls.
NCWIT's Academic Alliance and Workforce Alliances, such as the K-12
effort, are committed to sharing their promising practices to promote
the recruitment, retention, and advancement of girls and women in IT.
Promising practices focused at the high school level include symposia
to encourage girls to take courses that will prepare them for IT
careers; summer camps that provide opportunities for girls to
experience computer science through modeling and visualization
programs, basic programming skills, and web site design; hands-on
programs at universities with activities for both students and parents
to inform them about university technology programs and encourage girls
to pursue IT degrees; and mentoring programs. NCWIT is committed to
pursuing fresh thinking in building up the technical female workforce--
the last 20 years of efforts have not affected the technical ecosystem
positively. Companies like Microsoft, Intel, Avaya and others are
putting their best creative minds not just on new products, but on
finding new ways to engage students early and to dispel the myths and
stereotypes that pervade the industry.
As part of Microsoft's commitment, in 2006 NCWIT will publish the
first annual Scorecard, a metrics-based research report that informs
the public on the status and progress of girls and women in information
technology. Such a publication does not exist today, and will serve as
a critical tool in our collective efforts to increase the visibility of
the issue, track long-term national progress, and educate all concerned
stakeholders, including employers, legislators, teachers, and parents.
Research for the Scorecard will be conducted and supervised by
statisticians and social scientists, and the professionally printed
report will be made available free and distributed nationally.
In addition to supporting an array of efforts with private and
public sector partners, Microsoft has addressed the significant
challenges aligning the culture of education in America with the
exigencies of the knowledge economy. For example, recent data indicate
a growing disconnect between school systems and the students they
serve: fewer than one-quarter of high school graduates feel that they
were significantly challenged and faced high expectations in order to
graduate from high school. In addition, an overwhelming majority of
graduates say that they would have worked harder if their high school
demanded more of them and set higher academic standards. Only 28
percent of 12th graders say that schoolwork is often or always
meaningful--down from 40 percent in 1983. Only 21 percent of 12th
graders say that their courses are very interesting. Common among these
surveys is an undercurrent of frustration that schools and teachers
have not recognized, much less responded to, the underlying uniqueness
of the students they serve.
In an effort to address these challenges in the public education
system, Microsoft has committed to invest over $35 million through our
Partners in Learning program-a long-term commitment by Microsoft to
partner with government, schools and teachers to support the systemic
changes needed to address many of the challenges outlined above.
Partnering schools receive financial and other types of support to
develop new approaches to education that keep students engaged in their
education while equipping them with the skills to succeed in the
Innovation Economy. Partners in Learning also strives to address the
unique expectations students have of schools, such as ensuring they
have access to, and the capability to effectively use, advanced
technology tools as part of their learning environment.
In addition, Microsoft has been building an educational prototype
called the ``School of the Future''-scheduled to open in West
Philadelphia in September 2006. The School of the Future is rooted in
the vision of an empowered community where learning is continuous,
relevant, and adaptive. The school will serve as an educational model
that nurtures student achievement through holistic reform of secondary
education through the application of research and development practices
as well as best-of-class technology solutions in nearly every area of
the learning community, including curriculum delivery, community
collaboration, back-office support, content creation, and dissemination
of content and assessment.
At the undergraduate level, Microsoft also has funded a series of
pilots with universities to increase the numbers of women from regional
feeder schools choosing to major in computer science. These programs,
in their third year, are showing incremental success in the numbers of
female high school graduates excited about starting their academic
careers in technology. These programs seek to engage female students
who would not normally classify themselves as math or science oriented
but are interested in the human factor and creative aspects of
computing, such as user interface design, artificial intelligence, and
graphics. The early successes of these programs are now being emulated
at several other universities who share concerns regarding negative
perceptions held by high school girls about computing as a meaningful
career.
Mr. Chairman, the gender gap in information technology threatens
the ability of the U.S. to compete globally. A diverse talent pool
creates cutting edge and dynamic technology. Employing gender diversity
in the innovation process yields different products and better ideas,
contributing to stronger U.S. economic performance. Girls and women can
and must play an important role in fostering new IT innovations if the
U.S. is to remain competitive. Working together, the public and private
sectors can and must make swift and substantive changes in our
educational and business institutions to promote a culture of
innovation that is inclusive and diverse. America needs the talent of
all of its citizens: our competitiveness, security, and ultimately the
health of our democracy depend on it.
______
Chairman Castle. Mr. Watson.
STATEMENT OF MIKE WATSON, VICE CHAIRMAN, BELLSOUTH FOUNDATION,
ATLANTA, GA
Mr. Watson. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee,
thank you for the invitation to speak with you today. In its
2000 Pathways to Prosperity report, the Governors Workforce
Education Task Force in one of our Southern States found that
65 percent of the jobs in this century will require a 2-year
degree or certification, yet only 32 percent of that State's
ninth-graders will pursue a 2-year degree or certification; 20
percent of the jobs will require a college degree; 28 percent
of the ninth-graders will pursue a 4-year degree. The final 40
percent of the State's ninth graders will pursue unskilled jobs
because they either drop out of high school or lack the skills
needed for employment. Only 15 percent of the jobs available
will call for unskilled labor.
The bottom line, workers are not ready for the modern
workplace. The world of technology requires strong mathematics
and science skills plus the ability to read, to write well, to
think and reason, and to explain complex concepts.
At BellSouth, we believe that systemic and lasting change
can only happen if our school leaders have the competence and
capacity to drive reform in their districts. That is why the
BellSouth Superintendent Leadership Network, a group of 50
superintendents across the Southeast, will focus on high school
improvement over the next 2 years and provide their analysis,
insight and input to State, regional and national high school
redesign efforts.
We also recognize when it comes to student achievement, the
quality of teaching and instruction is a major predictor of a
child's academic success. A Missouri task force on K-through-16
education concluded that improving teaching quality is the
single most important factor in eliminating the achievement
gap.
Last year BellSouth launched a major new initiative.
BellSouth Quality in the Classroom Teaching Initiative, a $10
million program designed to assist teachers in professional
development, retention and workplace conditions, top issues
facing teachers nationwide.
As a technology company, we recognize that technology plays
an integral role in education and can have a significant impact
on student achievement. The BellSouth Foundation will be
launching a new strategy in September that we believe will be
instrumental in improving high schools in the Southeast. Called
the BellSouth Foundation e-Learning Initiative, this strategy
is designed to bring engaging, rigorous online instruction to
students throughout our region, particularly low-income and
minority students, to help address the growing achievement gap.
A key component of the strategy will include support for
State-led virtual high schools. We believe that virtual schools
and online learning are a growing resource for education
leaders as they seek innovative and cost-effective ways to
accommodate growing student populations, meet diverse
curriculum needs and provide a qualified teacher in every
classroom. Students benefit by having access to a broader
curriculum and by engaging in anytime, anywhere learning.
Our strategy for virtual learning complements the work of
the National Governors Association, and we commend Governor
Warner for spearheading the Redesigning American High Schools
Initiative. We are excited about partnering with NGA and
offering our support to Governor-led efforts that incorporate
virtual learning into their high school redesign efforts.
Another key component of our e-Learning strategy is to
expand access, allowing students to take advantage of virtual
learning opportunities. Most low-income students do not have
access to technology and online educational content in their
homes. Hence, these students lag behind in student achievement.
By expanding access to online learning to students in
underserved communities, we will support schools' efforts to
improve achievement for low-income students.
We plan to maximize the impact by leveraging the expertise
of our employees in support of these initiatives. Currently we
have over 100,000 active and retired volunteers. Our focus on
e-Learning provides an outstanding opportunity to engage our
volunteers and to utilize their skills in the community. This
is an ambitious endeavor, yet we believe our support of this
growing virtual learning movement will benefit high schools and
make it possible for students at all levels to achieve high-
quality courses of instruction personalized to their needs.
For decades, the focus has been on improving K-through-8
education, and we have made great strides. It is time to
broaden our focus and extend those same standards to high
schools. Together we can make a real difference in public
education for our students, for our society and our economy. We
look forward to doing our part in this important national
effort. Thank you.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Mr. Watson.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Watson follows:]
Statement of Mike Watson, Vice Chairman, BellSouth Foundation, Atlanta,
GA
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today about private
sector initiatives to improve high school education.
In its 2000 Pathways to Prosperity report, the Governor's Workforce
Education Task Force in one of our southern states found:
65% of the jobs in this century will require a two-year
degree or certification--yet only 32% of that state's 9th graders will
pursue a two-year degree or certification
20% of the jobs will require a college degree--28% of the
9th graders will pursue a four-year degree
The final 40% of the state's 9th graders will pursue
``unskilled'' jobs--because they either drop out of high school or lack
the skills needed for employment. Only 15% of jobs available will call
for ``unskilled'' labor.
The bottom line: workers are not ready for the modern workplace.
The world of technology requires strong mathematics and science skills,
plus the abilities to read, write well, to think and reason, and to
explain complex concepts.
BellSouth's Support for High School Reform
Education Leadership
At BellSouth, we believe that systemic and lasting change can
happen only if our school leaders have the confidence and capacity to
drive reform across their districts. That is why, the BellSouth
Superintendent Leadership Network, a group of 50 superintendents from
across the Southeast, will focus on high school improvement over the
next two years and provide their analysis, insight and input to state,
regional and national high school re-design efforts.
Teaching Quality
We also recognize that when it comes to student achievement, the
quality of teaching and instruction is a major predictor of a child's
academic success. A Missouri task force on K-16 education concluded
that improving teaching quality is the single most important factor in
eliminating the achievement gap.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Closing the Achievement Gap Report, http//www.nga.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last year, BellSouth launched a major new initiative-BellSouth
Quality in the Classroom Teaching Initiative, a $10M program designed
to assist teachers with professional development, retention, and
workplace conditions, top issues facing teachers nationwide.
BellSouth's strong commitment to teacher quality and professional
development is enhanced by other corporate colleagues such as IBM.
In our home state of Georgia, 75 state school superintendents who
participated in the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement
have received training on leadership and change management through use
of the IBM Reinventing Education Change Toolkit. All of these
initiatives support the teaching, learning and student achievement
objectives and outcomes of No Child Left Behind.
e-Learning
As a technology company, we recognize that technology plays an
integral role in education and can have a significant impact on student
achievement. The BellSouth Foundation will be launching a new strategy
in September that we believe will be instrumental in improving high
schools in the Southeast. Called the BellSouth Foundation e-Learning
Initiative, this strategy is designed to bring engaging, rigorous,
online instruction to students throughout our region-particularly low-
income and minority students--to help address the growing achievement
gap.
A recent study released by Harvard University found that
nationally, only 50 percent of Black, Latino and Native American
students earn a high school diploma, and that problem is particularly
acute in the South-where we live and work. We feel a sense of urgency
to turn these dismal statistics around and we'll strive to do that
through our e-Learning initiative.
A key component of this strategy will include support for State-Led
Virtual High Schools. We believe that virtual schools and online
learning are a growing resource for education leaders as they seek
innovative and cost-effective ways to accommodate growing student
populations, meet diverse curriculum needs, and provide a qualified
teacher in every classroom. Students benefit by having access to a
broader curriculum and by engaging in anytime, anywhere learning.
Our strategy for virtual learning complements the work of the
National Governors Association, and we commend Governor Warner for
spearheading the ``Redesigning American High Schools Initiative.''
We're excited about partnering with NGA and offering our support to
Governor-led efforts that incorporate virtual learning into their high
school redesign efforts.
Another key component of our e-Learning strategy is to expand
access allowing students to take advantage of virtual learning
opportunities. Most low-income students do not have access to
technology and online educational content in their homes; hence, these
students lag behind in student achievement. By expanding access to
online learning to students in underserved communities, we will support
schools efforts to improve achievement for low income students.
We plan to maximize the impact of our e-Learning focus by
leveraging the expertise of our employees in support of these
initiatives. Currently, we have over 100,000 active and retired
volunteers. Our focus on e-Learning provides an outstanding opportunity
to engage our volunteers and utilize their skills in the community.
This is an ambitious endeavor yet, we believe that our support of
this growing virtual learning movement will benefit high schools and
make it possible for students at all levels to receive high quality
courses of instruction personalized to their needs.
Conclusion
For decades, the focus has been on improving K-8 education and
we've made great strides. It's time to broaden our focus and extend
those same standards to high schools. Together, we can make a real
difference in public education--for our students, our society and our
economy. We look forward to doing our part in this important national
effort.
Thank you.
______
Chairman Castle. Dr. Hudecki, you are on.
STATEMENT OF PHYLLIS HUDECKI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OKLAHOMA
BUSINESS AND EDUCATION COALITION, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK
Dr. Hudecki. Thank you. It is a real pleasure to have an
opportunity to share with you some very concrete work that is
going on in Oklahoma.
Several leading corporations and CEOs about 5 years ago
decided that they wanted to do something to invest in improving
public education in Oklahoma, understanding the economic and
social imperative for having strong public schools, so they got
together and formed this organization in 2000. We are 5 years
old. We now have 31 companies, very prominent companies, who
sponsor the organization. But rather than decide how to tell
educators how to do their business, they decided to work in
partnership with educational leaders and with others in the
State in moving some key education policies and in raising
expectation about what should happen in our public schools as
our kids graduate.
One of the first things we did is deal with infrastructure
issues. We partnered with the State department of education in
doing a feasibility study of developing a statewide student
data system so we would have accurate data about each student
and where they are. We could keep track of our dropout rates
better. And you can imagine all of the good information that
would come out of having a very good data system.
We have partnered with the State department, the higher
education system, the Governor and legislators on various
initiatives. And typically what we do is fund half of the
initiative and then ask for public-sector match of our private-
sector funding, so it truly is a partnership.
One of the most exciting things we have done is actually on
the local level. We have participated in the State's Scholars
Initiative, and this impacts high school students directly. The
goal of the program is to get high school students to take more
rigorous courses in high school so they are better prepared for
college and work when they graduate. Business leaders are
trained as volunteers to talk to eighth-graders, recruit them
and give them incentives, recognition, and upon graduation they
are better prepared to be successful after high school.
One quick example comes from Ardmore, Oklahoma, which is a
small town down the Red River. Ardmore High School, the year
before they initiated this, the Scholars Program only had seven
students sign up for high school physics, so the class was
canceled. The first year of the State Scholars Initiative, they
had 34 students sign up for high school physics. They have the
same kind of results with lab science classes and foreign
language. What is happening is that now they are needing to
find more teachers to teach upper-level math and science
classes and foreign language, and we think that is a good
problem to have. Hopefully we can find a way to help solve
that.
The next thing that we did, which is also very exciting, we
also worked with Governor Brad Henry and the legislature and
educational leaders this recent past legislative session in
enacting the ACE legislation, which is Achieving Classroom
Excellence in Oklahoma. Its is a very aggressive agenda which
will reform high schools and middle schools and the outcomes
for students in those systems. It was very much a bipartisan
initiative, and what we did was develop a provision that every
student in ninth grade will be enrolled in the college prep
curriculum unless their parents go to school and sign a consent
form which will unenroll them. We will have a requirement that
students must pass 4 out of 6 end-of-instruction tests to
receive a high school diploma. We will also require mastery of
eighth grade reading and math standards, or there will be
interventions put in place for students. And the State will be
paying for up to 6 hours of high school students currently
enrolled in college course work. Those are the major
provisions, but there are others as well.
You know what? We know that was the easy part. Getting that
passed will be the easiest piece of that. The most difficult
will be the implementation. The law also builds in a task
force, and the business community will participate with the
education leadership in developing the details for implementing
this very important piece of legislation.
We believe, based on our experience in Oklahoma, that one
of the advantages that business-led coalitions bring to the
effort is that we have continuity. When policymakers and
administrations change, the business community is typically
still present and can bring continuity to the discussions and
to the concepts. And so that has been our experience in our
State, and I believe it is the same in others.
One other important initiative, and we are with 18 States
in this initiative, is the American Diploma Project, which
really got a lot of emphasis during the recent national
education summit with Governors and CEOs and higher education
and K-12 public school leaders who are all concerned about high
schools. We have joined this America Diploma Project, and there
are commitments that must be made in terms of writing
standards, providing assessments, ensuring that students are
ready to go to college or to work, and higher education will
make a commitment to ensuring that once they admit students,
the students can graduate from college.
We are very excited about all of these initiatives, and we
commend what you are doing with the Subcommittee in really
trying to get your hands around what to do with high schools.
One of my CEOs said, I know that there are people who think it
is cruel to raise expectations and to have stakes attached to
high school graduation. He said, I think it is more cruel to
turn students loose after high school into a world of higher
education and business, both of which are unforgiving and
unrelenting, and they are not prepared.
We are very excited to be a partner with public education
in Oklahoma and look forward to sharing any tips or advice we
might have based on our experiences with you.
Chairman Castle. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Hudecki follows:]
Statement of Phyllis Hudecki, Executive Director, Oklahoma Business and
Education Coalition, Oklahoma City, OK
My remarks will focus on the specific involvement by Oklahoma
business leaders in education reform. The business community in
Oklahoma recognizes the economic and social imperative for having a
strong, high quality public education system. During early 2000,
several CEO's from some of Oklahoma's leading businesses began the
Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition (OBEC). The organization, now
five years old and sponsored by 31 companies, is designed so business
and education leaders work together on an agenda agreed upon by
representatives from both communities. We started with infrastructure
issues such as supporting the development of a statewide student data
system, benchmarking curriculum standards and analyzing alignment of
state tests with state standards. With each initiative OBEC partners
with public entities such as the state education agency, the higher
education system, the legislature, or the governor, and provides
matching funds to support the cost of the effort.
While most of the work of OBEC has been focused at the state level,
we have one program with direct impact on students in local high
schools. During 2003, Oklahoma was chosen as one of the first six
implementation states for the State Scholars Initiative. OBEC
coordinates the initiative which involves getting local business
leaders to make presentations to eighth graders encouraging them to
take more rigorous courses in high school. We have had immediate
results indicating the successful impact of this program. For example,
during the year prior to starting the State Scholars Initiative,
Ardmore High School had only seven students signing up for high school
physics, so the class was cancelled. During the first year of the
Scholars pilot the enrollment jumped to 34 in the physics class.
Similar results have been reported for foreign language and lab science
classes. We plan to expand this program statewide and have been
exploring partnerships with the Native American Tribes to help us reach
students in rural areas of the state.
OBEC also advocates for higher standards and expectations for high
school graduates. Today, Oklahoma students can earn a diploma by
meeting minimal standards, far below what it takes to be ready for
college or new economy jobs. During the most recent legislative
session, OBEC partnered with Governor Henry and other education leaders
to support passage of a landmark education reform bill, ACE (Achieving
Classroom Excellence). Major provisions of the legislation include:
College prep curriculum as the default curriculum,
starting in 2006-07
Beginning in 2008-09, high school students must pass four
out of six end-of-instruction tests to receive a high school diploma
Eighth grade mastery of reading and math standards
State paying for high school students concurrently
enrolled in college coursework
While passage of the legislation was monumental, the real
challenges are still in front of us. Implementation issues will be
worked out through a task force consisting of both education and
business leaders. OBEC will remain vigilant in making sure the
standards remain high and funding is provided to ensure support for
student success.
Based on our experience in Oklahoma, business-led coalitions can be
pivotal in education reform. We have a huge stake in the success of our
schools and their graduates. We provide continuity to state education
policy which is often subjected to shift in direction as policymakers
change after each election.
Oklahoma is not unique, however. Other states have vital leadership
provided by business leaders who want to improve education. Several
months ago, Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and I attended as well as
others, the National Summit on High Schools, co-sponsored by Achieve
and the National Governors Association. Business leaders played a key
role in organizing the summit, the fourth such event over the past
decade and the first to focus exclusively on the urgent need to
redesign our high schools.
Forty five governors attended the Summit, along with K-12 and
postsecondary leaders and corporate CEOs from some of the most powerful
companies in the nation. They confronted sobering data on the
performance of our schools and the impact that is having on our global
competitiveness. For example:
One third of high school students drop out without
earning a diploma, and the numbers are much worse in urban schools
where nearly half of 9th graders won't complete high school.
A sizeable number of those who do graduate are unprepared
for the demands of college and the workforce. According to one study,
only a third of high school graduates are college ready.
Nearly a third of high school graduates who go to college
have to rake remedial courses in reading or math, and most students who
take such courses drop out without earning a college degree.
In a nationwide poll conducted by Achieve earlier this
year, employers estimated that 45% of high school graduates are lacking
the skills necessary to work in their companies.
In terms of our international competitiveness, the U.S.
ranks 16th out of 20 OECD nations in our high school graduation rate
and 14th out of 20 in our college graduation rates.
The business community finds this data deeply disturbing and in
states across the country we are joining with reform minded governors
and educators to close the achievement gap. But in order to do this we
must first close a different kind of gap--a gap in the expectations
we've set for our students and schools.
According to Achieve, only a handful of states require their
students to take a rigorous set of math and English courses in order to
earn a high school diploma. In most states, students can graduate
without college and work ready skills. Even states that have put high
school graduation exams in place typically only require students to
demonstrate eighth or ninth grade competency.
That's why one of the main action steps that emerged from the
National Education Summit was the establishment of the American Diploma
Project Network, a group of 18 states, including Oklahoma, that have
committed to close the expectations gap and restore value to the high
school diploma. Governors, K-12 commissioners of education, business
leaders, and higher education officials in these states have pledged to
take four decisive actions:
First, they will raise high school standards to the level of what
is actually required to succeed in college or in the workforce. This
will require our postsecondary institutions in each state to work
together to be more transparent about the knowledge and skills entering
freshman must have in order to enroll and succeed in credit-bearing
rather than remedial courses. And it will require employers and
colleges together to verify that the state's standards for high school
students measure up.
Second, the states will require all students to take a rigorous
college and work-ready curriculum. Research conducted by Achieve and
others show that students need the math skills taught in a good Algebra
II course to be well prepared for both college and work. Yet only 3
states require students to take Algebra II in order to earn a high
school diploma.
Third, the American Diploma Project states will develop tests of
college and work readiness that all students will take in high school.
Testing is important at the high school level, but we must make sure we
give tests that provide useful information to students, families and
schools. One of the most important tests college- bound students take
is a placement exam--the one that tells them if they can enroll in real
college-level courses, or must take remedial classes. Students
typically don't take those exams until they arrive at college at the
beginning of their freshman year. Each year about one third of first
year college students are surprised to learn they must take, and pay
tuition for, courses that won't even earn them credit. Imagine if
students got to take those tests while they were 11th graders, and
could make up any skill deficiencies while still in high school, before
they enroll in college. They'd be better prepared, and save taxpayers
and families money at the same time.
Fourth, these leadership states will hold high schools accountable
for graduating all students ready for college and work, and hold
colleges accountable for the success of the students they admit.
The hearings this subcommittee is holding about high school reform
are very important. I commend you for taking the time to educate
yourselves and the American public about the steps we must take. I
understand that you may not take up legislation on this issue until
later in this session, perhaps as part of the NCLB reauthorization
where you can deal with high school issues in a comprehensive fashion.
Yet there is a simple but very important step you can take sooner,
and I urge you to consider it. Consider, as part of the Higher
Education Act reauthorization, providing incentives for all 50 states
to follow the lead of the 18 states in the American Diploma Project.
Modest amounts of money can provide the impetus for the governors and
business leaders to bring postsecondary and K-12 education leaders
together to align high school standards, assessments and curriculum
with the demands of college and work.
It is vital that states are encouraged to aim high with their
standards and testing programs. There will be many pressures on them to
lower standards, but by lowering our expectations we will do a real
disservice to our students. The standards in the real world are
unforgiving. By helping all states set the right expectations for what
high school students should learn, Congress will ensure that broader
reforms enacted later will pay off.
Business leaders nationwide are steadfast in their desire to raise
expectations for high school graduates so that they can compete with
their peers around the globe. We know that the nature of work is
changing. We know that the competition is more intense. We know that
other countries, including China and India, are demanding more of their
high school students. And we know that our graduation rates in high
school and college are flat lined. If we don't raise our expectations,
young people won't survive in this market or earn a living wage.
We do young people no favors by handing them a high school diploma
when they do not have the skills they need to succeed. We owe it to
them to aim higher.
Thank you for inviting me to share some of our experiences in
Oklahoma.
______
Chairman Castle. We appreciate the testimony of all of you,
and I will lead off the discussion here. Let me just say one
thing. It is not a question, but I mentioned it, and a couple
of you referenced it as well. If I was the czar and I was in
charge, and believe me, nobody is a czar in this place, and I
was writing legislation for high schools, I would start with a
universal definition of graduation rates and the reverse of
that, the dropout rates, if you will. The confusion about that,
because the States use different standards, is unbelievable.
And it is quite difficult if you ever tried to get into it and
grasp it, and it is highly deceptive and very unfair. You deal
with it when you get to high school. I think that is a
tremendous problem.
I am going to ask you, Ms. Sterling, an impossible
question, and asking for a brief answer, and if you can't
answer, we will go from there. Every item I read about women in
education indicates they are graduating from high school at a
high rate, certainly going to college at a higher rate now than
men, academically exceeding men in many, if not common,
instances across the country. Why is there a lack of interest
in computer sciences or maybe broader technology among women?
Is there something we can do about that, or just something
innately that they are going to have to do about it? To me
there is great economic opportunity there, and academically
women do every bit as well, if not better, than men. Why do we
have to focus on that?
Ms. Sterling. Thank you, Chairman Castle. That is my
favorite question.
Women are entering college at 58 percent higher than men.
And women are quite prevalent in many of the academic
communities and are outpacing men in biology and law, and they
are seeing it in pharmacy schools.
Women don't know what computing is, especially if you have
to declare a major your first year coming in. What women see in
their high school experiences is that the people that gravitate
toward high school computer science courses are interested in
writing games and hacking computers. They see that geek
element, and it is a bit repulsive, especially to women who
have such broad interests and to well-rounded men who have
broad interests. They see the lifestyle in this negative
stereotype, of if you become a computer science major, you are
going to live in a lab and sit in front of a terminal for your
4 years of college.
Dispelling those myths earlier is something that the media,
public sector, private sector and teachers need to do, because
once women understand that computer science is actually this
underlying set of tools where they can make a huge societal
impact and change, they understand that, yes, they can design
intelligent user interfaces and work in artificial intelligence
and machine translation and really fulfill their professional
and personal goals. There is a huge image change campaign that
we need to work on at the earlier levels.
Chairman Castle. Let me ask perhaps the others, since you
had a chance to answer that, I always worry about--and I cite
some of these--I have visited a lot of the businesses in
Delaware and outside of Delaware, and I have seen a lot of the
business efforts in terms of education, and I worry about the
communication or lack of communication amongst each other with
the education people who are there. Is it truly a coordinated
effort. I worry about what we are doing. Huge amount of money
and effort being put into it. I worry that your corporations
have a committee that makes the decision to do something, but
it is not the best thing you could be doing.
Are you talking to each other? Do you have a network so you
are actually talking to each other and talking to the
educators? Do you have an assessment of what you are doing to
determine if it really makes sense that these kids are
improving, or is it a gut reaction or anecdotal reaction to
what you hear?
Mr. Watson. I will take a shot at that. We consider all of
the things that we do around education not successful if they
aren't partnerships. We work very closely with superintendents,
with principals, with teachers and also with students to get
feedback to help determine what direction we need to take in
terms of our programs. We also work very closely with other
corporations, including Microsoft and a number of companies
that we have partnered with, around initiatives. So the answer
to that is yes.
Mr. Shore. I would like to agree with what he said because
I think you touched on something.
Chairman Castle. I am a little bit of a ``doubting
Thomas,'' in case if you didn't understand the edge of my
question.
Mr. Shore. We don't want to waste our time and effort, and
we are not teachers, and we are not principals and not
superintendents, and we are not teaching in the classroom, but
we receive the product of what is coming through our system
applying for jobs. It is very important for us to be able to
have good communications with the educators, because we, over
the years, found out that we can create this incredibly
wonderful--what we think are wonderful programs to fund and
support, and we think we are doing incredible things, go to the
school and say, we would like to help, but here is something
that doesn't tie in at all with their strategic planning.
A few years ago, we started doing strategic planning, and I
am talking about how businesses are involved, like the Durham
Public Education Network, the partnerships like she was talking
about. And we do strategic planning now at the same time as the
schools, so we understand what their strategies are, what their
goals are, and how they are going to be rewarded or penalized
for not meeting their goals, and we tend to follow along with
that. But it is a very difficult line to walk because you want
to make the biggest impact for your dollars, and if you are not
in lockstep, in some cases you are not going to be able to do
that.
That is one thing we are dealing with the U.S. Chamber,
with the Business Education Network is to be able to start
capturing a lot of what is going on around in various States,
because--and I am not sure we need to create any new programs.
There is a lot out there that works now.
Dr. Hudecki. I would like to respond to that. The work we
are doing in Oklahoma is coordinated for our agenda with the
education leadership. But on a national level, it occurs to me
that there is quite a large network facilitated by ACHIEVE, an
organization made up of Governors and CEOs, and that agenda is
very much focused on high school reform right now, and there
are 18 States that are partnered in that. And so the
businesses, Governors and education leaders from the States
that are participating in the America Diploma Project network
are very much focused on communicating about standards,
expectations, and literally sitting down and hammering out in
each State the standards expected for students to be successful
when they graduate from high school, the way we are going to
measure and assess that knowledge, and the way that higher
education and the workplace will be dealing with that.
In Oklahoma, for example, our CEOs will look at those
standards and verify and publicize that they have agreed to
those. Higher education will be at the table as well as the
State superintendent and public education representatives.
So there are a couple of examples of concerted efforts. I
am sure there are some that aren't, but at least the big ones
are working together.
Ms. Sterling. I share your cynicism, because at Microsoft,
we knew we didn't know it all, and we were never going to be
able to capture all the practices that were out there. The
biggest missing piece we have had is the assessment piece and
knowing if what we are doing has impact, which has actually
formed the National Center for Women and IT because we need the
metric and assessment piece.
Chairman Castle. Of course, there are other elements that
go into assessments besides what you are doing, which makes it
complex, which I understand. I am not going to ask this
question now, but later, and that is this: When I visit with my
schools and look at the finances of the schools, I learn there
is a tremendous amount of disparity there on how schools do. I
am talking about schools, not school districts or what the
Federal Government is doing, or what the State government is
doing, or what their local taxation is, but just how they
manage the money and what they do. And it seems to me--and
frankly, I have seen schools right next to each other where one
is coming along very well, and the other one isn't doing well
at all. And I found out that they managed their money very well
in terms of where they placed it with respect to teachers or
whatever. And it seems to me that if there is anything the
corporations probably have an advantage over education, it may
be in the area of managing money and finances, et cetera.
I wonder if you venture into that. Mentoring and a lot of
the other things you do are fine. Do you enter the finances? I
don't mean asking for more money by coming to Congress. Ms.
Woolsey asks me for that all the time. But in the general sense
of trying to help these schools.
Hold that, and I will try to get back to it in another
round. I am going to yield to Ms. Woolsey.
Ms. Woolsey. And he usually says no.
You know, I think we can give Bill Gates a lot of credit
for the discussion we are having today because it was his
announcement a few months ago that he was going to India to
hire his top 20 new engineers, at least in the last couple of
years, and the awakening that we had to get better and sharper
at all of this. So we can thank him for that. And thank him for
you, Ms. Sterling, for putting effort into girls in technology.
Ms. Woolsey. I have legislation called Go Girl. And the
legislation emphasizes girls starting in the fourth grade and
getting them and their families prepared and interested in at
least considering science, math and technology as they go on in
school, because fourth-graders, they start losing interest. And
part of that, I believe, is because, as you said, girls have so
many interests, and sitting in front of a computer playing very
violent computer games is not something that very many girls
are going to find interesting. So we have to find different
ways.
What I am going to ask you is at what age do you think it
is smartest to start getting young girls--I think they should
be young girls or young women--interested in science, math and
technology and computing? How do we get their parents
interested? How are teachers responding to extra emphasis on
girls? And how is Microsoft, with your monies for technology,
how much of that is focused on women?
Ms. Sterling. Thank you, Congresswoman Woolsey.
I don't think you can start early enough with priming
women's interest in technology, because you can give a cell
phone to any 5- or 6-year-old now, and they probably know how
to turn it on and know they are supposed to talk into it.
Children are so much more adaptable than my generation was at
technology. I went to college without the Internet, and I
couldn't imagine going back to grad school without it.
The earlier we can start, the better. I have been working
with the Girl Scouts to see how early can we start looking at
things like the very interesting technology badge. If you have
a tech badge, you have to have teachers and parents who can
teach the tech badge, and that is sometimes a harder issue.
That is really rolling the rock uphill, changing the adult's
perception as well.
I don't think you can start early enough in this space.
Certainly a lot of early childhood development and cognitive
studies show that students do need--they excel in these areas
that are continuous, relevant and adaptive. This is what we are
basing the School of the Future on. Just for one example of
that, students nowadays in middle school have four to seven e-
mail addresses. When they turn on a computer, they have six
different applications going. They know how to manage multiple
windows. We need to make sure that the content and the
opportunities are there to capture that shorter adoption and
adaption span that students have.
In terms of Microsoft specifically, I didn't quite
understand your question about our investment.
Ms. Woolsey. You said something like $35 million invested
in technology. I mean, that is not all focused on girls. Is
there a special cut for focusing on females?
Ms. Sterling. Out of that $35 million, the basis for that
is to lift all boats, obviously. We know what works for women
in making computing more attractive also works for men. If we
can broaden the pipeline, this is wonderful across the board.
There are certain funds within that. I, for one, have a
several-million-dollar budget that is devoted specifically to
females and looking at retention and attraction programs with
women.
Ms. Woolsey. What funding mix do you get, private, State
and any Federal, in your programs? Mr. Shore.
Mr. Shore. Primarily for us it is joining with other
companies, to get to the Chairman's point a few minutes ago, to
address issues in fairly large projects that are much bigger
than just one company can help to fund. Sometimes it is a
combination of things.
Ms. Woolsey. Mostly private?
Mr. Shore. Mostly private. And it runs the gambit, so to
speak, depending on what we are talking about doing in our
local school systems. It is hard for a major company to pick
individual schools because there are so many of them. We tend
to work with the community education foundations and the
statewide network, and we help work with the department of
public instruction and come up with the programs. A lot of
times it is a mixture of different funding sources.
Ms. Sterling. Congresswoman, we have a mix of funding
options. The High School of the Future is something we are
adding personal capital, mental capital, human capital. We have
open head count dedicated to this and to helping the
Philadelphia School District basically understand strategic
business practices, but they themselves are actually funding
the changes. So we are looking for that kind of coalition
between public and private partnerships.
We also work with organizations like NCWIT, where all the
high-tech companies will fund a membership coalition like the
Workforce Alliance, and we will decide to do one or two major
research projects to stretch our dollars the furthest.
Mr. Watson. Most of ours are private partnerships. We are
going to be a partner with NGA in their high school initiative,
though. Other than relationship partnerships, from a funding
standpoint, that is something new for us to fund.
Dr. Hudecki. And our organization is funded totally from
private funds. But when we start any type of adventure with an
initiative or a project, if something we are working on with
the State, the State department of education, we typically have
matching funds from the public sector. We also have a small
amount of Federal money given to us to start the Oklahoma
Scholars, the State Scholars Initiative. And the agreement was
we would have seed money for 2 years, and then the State or our
organization would continue that with private-sector funding.
You might be interested to know, in Oklahoma we have a very
large population of Native Americans, and the tribes have
indicated an interest in helping us spread the State Scholars
Initiative to the rural parts of the State. We are excited to
work with the tribes in a formal fashion.
Ms. Woolsey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for letting me go
over.
Chairman Osborne. [presiding.] Thank you, Ms. Woolsey.
And, Mr. Shore, I would like to start with you and ask you
a couple of questions. Obviously your company has devoted a lot
of time and resources in education. And have you done any
evaluation of the impact of these efforts? Do you have any
outcomes that you have been able to observe?
Mr. Shore. That is the one thing we ask ourselves all the
time, are we being effective with our funding. And it is a
little difficult to know exactly how you are doing because we
are not in the classrooms teaching the kids. We are depending
on helping to make teachers and the classrooms more effective
and have better outcomes.
There are a number of initiatives. We have funded the Hill
Center, which is a school for learning disabilities. What we
have done is--and we do it with the public school teachers
statewide. The Hill Center staff teaches public schoolteachers
on how to deal with kids with learning disabilities. So we see
the improvement in those teachers in those classrooms with the
ability to handle kids who learn a little differently. We hear
test scores going up and see the kids doing better in class.
And it boils down for me are our students doing better? Is
their achievement better? If it is, then we are funding the
right things in the right way. But we haven't figured out how
we are going to say we have been successful in that. It is a
tough issue for us.
Chairman Osborne. Thank you, Mr. Shore, and I am not going
to ask you any questions, Ms. Sterling, because Ms. Woolsey
grilled you enough. But I would comment that Tom Vander Ark
from the Gates Foundation was here last week, and Tom was
talking about a boy problem, and which I think the Chairman has
already alluded to. We appreciate your efforts and what you are
trying to do for women.
Mr. Watson, I would like to ask you a question regarding
your e-Learning Initiative, and particularly what this has done
for low-income and minority students. Have you directed any of
that in those areas?
Mr. Watson. Mr. Chairman, I think it is really too early
for us to be able to answer that question. We have got about
30,000 students in our Southern States who are currently
enrolled in virtual high school courses. The vast majority of
those are in the State of Florida; in fact, about 20,000 of the
30,000 are in the State of Florida.
Mr. Watson. We do know this, we do know that some of the
poor, low-income school districts, for example, in--let's just
take, for example, in the area in south Florida around Lake
Okeechobee, where advanced placement courses, where college
calculus, for example, may or not be offered, those students,
with the use of virtual learning, now have the ability to take
courses like that from a teacher at Leon High School in
Tallahassee.
So we know it is going to change the outcome. I think it is
a little early to be able to say that it has been dramatic
differences, but it is coming.
Mr. Osborne. Well, thank you. I serve a very rural area,
and we find that some of our students in very small towns are
not able to take advance courses, and so we feel E-learning is
very important.
Dr. Hudecki, I am always interested in what is going on in
Oklahoma, being from Nebraska. And I know that you commented on
some legislation I believe that had been passed where you were
indicating that all ninth graders would take a college prep
program unless their parents requested otherwise. And I wonder
if you would comment on that a little bit more because it seems
kind of ambitious to me. And obviously, when you look at the
numbers, not all ninth graders are going to go through a
college program. And I realize that ninth grade is kind of
early to make that decision as to who will and who won't, but
what did you decide or why did you back that type of
initiative?
Dr. Hudecki. For several years we have had an initiative in
place from our higher education system called the Oklahoma
Higher Learning Access Program, OHLAP, which was intended to
fund economically needy students to be able to go to college,
and it required them to participate in a core of courses that
would be considered a college prep course. The track record for
those students is very, very, very good. And they are kids,
again, from economically disadvantaged families. Once they get
into college the data shows that they have better success.
So we thought that since we don't really know which kids
are going to go to work or to college, and inevitably, in
Oklahoma about 80 percent of our kids at some point within 6
years after graduation do go to college, either a 2-year or 4-
year college, so we thought it would be better to cast a
broader net and really have every student prepared the best
that we could prepare them when they leave high school, since
we don't know which way they are going to go. So it will help
them if they are going to the workplace, it will also help them
if they are going to college.
The important part of that whole initiative, as we all
know, will be giving them the remediation and the intervention
they need in high school. We think it does not make sense for
students to enter a 2-year college, a technical college, or 4-
year university and find out at that point they are not
prepared; we think it is better to find out in 10th or 11th
grade that they still have gaps in terms of their knowledge and
skills, and fix it at that point rather than waiting until they
are turned loose.
Mr. Osborne. Thank you. I think there is somebody else that
wants his Chair, and I will give it back to him.
Chairman Castle. [Presiding.] Mr. Kind is recognized.
Mr. Kind. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank our
guests today for your testimony on this very important topic,
one that is, fortunately, receiving a little bit more attention
throughout the country.
You know, it is no surprise that those of us serving on the
Education Committee feel very deeply about the quality of
education, the education reform that we need to take. Sometimes
it is hard though to engage the rest of our colleagues in
Congress with the number of issues that are coming through our
offices and across our desk each and every day, and that is why
it is so vitally important for businesses, large and small,
throughout America to weigh in and let your voices be heard.
Ms. Sterling, Bill Gates has been very, very helpful
recently in regards to the statements he has made, especially
targeting the need for high school education reform in this
country. I had a chance to have lunch with him about a month
ago when he was coming through Washington and we talked a
little more about that, and I asked him to be even more blunt
in order to get this country to wake up in regards to the
reforms that we need to take by basically stating that either
you do this or companies like Microsoft won't be able to hire
our children when it comes time for graduation. This is going
to be true for other companies throughout the country.
But it would also be helpful for the CEOs of this country,
those involved in education reform, to expend a little bit of
political capital when it comes to budget time around this
place. I mean, we recently passed a budget last week that calls
for over $800 million in cuts for No Child Left Behind and, as
Ms. Woolsey pointed out, a 40 percent cut in education
technology funding. And it is nice to be talking about this,
but when the real leverage occurs it would also be helpful if
there was a little bit of political capital spent in regards to
support for a lot of the education program in the funding.
Because part of the problem has been a funding issue,
especially since Washington now is trying to pass on mandates
to the local level but without providing the resources to get
it done. And that, I think, is going to be very important.
But when you talk about education reform, and this is true
even at the high school level, I don't see how we can move
forward without some serious thinking about home reform as
well, because so many of the habits the students bring to the
classroom start in the home. And I had the opportunity over the
Easter recess, along with Mr. Hinojosa here and Ms. McCarthy on
the Committee and Buck McKeon, to go to China for a couple of
weeks on a higher education tour. And what was really striking
in regards to our visit over there is how hungry they are for
education, how committed they are. And you walk away from a
trip like that almost feeling a little bit sorry for those
Chinese students. Many of them are single children in a family,
bearing the full weight and pressure from their parents who are
hovering over them each and every day to perform well in the
classroom. And it is not just their parents, but it is both
sets of grandparents that are hovering over them, making sure
that they are doing everything they can to excel in the
classroom, given the level of competition over there, but also
the realization of how important education is. And I am not
quite sure whether or not we can figure that out to encourage
the right type of habits starting at the home--turning off the
TV, getting the kids away from the Game Boys, and maybe some of
these high-tech toys that they have become very fond of
recently--but we also have to try to figure out that a little
bit.
And I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, that a good place to
start is having a universal definition on graduation rates that
deal with the dropout, but it is a first stop. We have got to
figure out a way to encourage kids to stay in the classroom, to
perform well and to graduate.
And one of the more interesting ideas I recently heard is
for every child born in this country, set up an education fund
for them right away and fund it for the next 5 years, and
provide some matching funds or private funds to go into that
account as well. And it would be in their name and it could
grow for the next 12 to 13 years, and it would be there for
them under the condition that they graduate from school and
that they are performing well in school. And maybe we could
target it to the higher needs area, make it needs-based or
something like that, but we have got to try to incentivize
graduating in this country again and performing while even in
the high school years.
Let me just leave this question to you because the
administration has also been thinking about high school reform.
What they would like to do is just extend the principles of No
Child Left Behind to the high school level, which to many of us
gives us pause or hesitation because it sounds like a lot more
Federal mandates going back to the local level to try to
incentivize the reform that has to take place. Obviously the
concern with huge budget deficits is that the resources won't
follow the mandates, and we are going to get into the same type
of problem we currently have with No Child Left Behind.
But based on your experience, do you think it is going to
be necessary for the Federal Government to place requirements
to or establish mandates or to provide the guidance in order to
spur the type of education reform at the high school level? Or
are these school districts in the high schools capable, with
your assistance, with the help of local officials, State
government to do this on their own?
And I will just leave that open to anyone who wants to
touch that.
Mr. Shore. Well, I will touch it----
Mr. Kind. Gingerly, I am sure.
Mr. Shore. Gingerly. There are--it has been mentioned two
or three times today about having consistency among States, if
you will, in terms of standards so you know what high school
diploma means from State to State. As a company like ours, we
are hiring people not just from North Carolina, not just in
Philadelphia. We are interested in what the standards are and
what the educations is like in every State because we are
recruiting, as we all are, from every State. So we want it to
mean the same thing.
But I think the whole, whatever you call it, No Child Left
Behind, I think the whole standards and accountability effort
is becoming so ingrained now, and I think the expectation level
for high schools is getting greater, and I just see it in our
own community, that I think with the pressure from the business
community and with support from the business community and a
lot of others, I think we are seeing changes being made without
having legislation in place yet. I think it would help bring
consistency if there were something there, but I am not sure
not having it is going to keep good things from happening.
Dr. Hudecki. I would like to offer that in Oklahoma, at
least in terms of the State policy I just described a while
ago, I think we are ahead of the Federal Government, but not
every State is there. And in no way am I going to speak for our
education leadership in the State on this particular issue, but
I would say that the work that we are doing with the 18 States
that are in the American Diploma Project led by Achieve may be
on to something that is voluntary. It may take a modest amount
of funding from each State to push that, but it wouldn't be a
real big leap if the Federal Government entered into some type
of arrangement by providing a modest amount of money to each
State to participate in that program. You could do it under the
Higher Education Act or whatever you want to, but that would be
not terribly expensive. And it would give States kind of a
template from which to work with Governors, business leaders,
and higher education and public school leaders to come together
and really ratchet up the standards and assessment. So that
might be some food for thought for you.
Ms. Sterling. Mr. Congressman, we also believe that
everybody is needed in this equation. We supported the
bipartisan efforts behind getting No Child Left Behind passed.
We are supportive of the Higher Education Act. And while school
districts and corporations are certainly not going to wait to
try to do something innovative in the space and find out new
things that work, this is all of our responsibility.
Mr. Kind. Thank you, thank you very much again. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Mr. Kind.
Mr. Hinojosa is recognized.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I also want to commend you for coming to talk to us today
on the issue of math, science and engineering, which are very,
very important to us in Texas.
I want to direct my comments and questions to Sarah
Sterling of Microsoft.
It is no secret that we are losing or competitive edge in
producing experts in math, science and engineering, and we must
redouble our efforts to engage young people in those fields. If
we do not engage and provide quality educational opportunities
for the fastest growing population, Hispanic Americans, we will
be permanently ceding leadership in this area.
In my congressional office we have dedicated a lot of time
to work with the University of Texas. Pan-American, in its
GEAR-UP program, founding an initiative called the Hispanic
Engineering Science and Technology Initiative, referred to as
HESTEC. Every year we celebrate HESTEC week on campus there,
and we bring together our leading corporations like yours,
Microsoft, Dell, Lockheed Martin, Ford, State Farm, and many,
many others. We bring our key Federal agencies like NASA,
Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and we
dedicate an entire day to Latinas--daughters and mothers. You
talked about there being 58 percent women starting college,
well, we are trying to show them that there is a career path
they could consider.
Additionally, we need a special focus on access to quality
laboratory science in our high schools. During this last
reauthorization of the National Science Foundation, I worked
with Senator Kerry and Senator Kennedy to include a provision
to improve our high school laboratories in the most needy
school districts. As part of that effort, NSF has commissioned
the National Academy of Science to study what a well-furbished
high school laboratory of this 21st century should look like.
So I ask you, what do you see as promising practices in
engaging young people in math and science? And what do you
think is essential in one of these new modern high school
laboratories?
Ms. Sterling. Thank you, Congressman Hinojosa.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you talked about
the 21st century education and academic leadership. I also
applaud the efforts at what the UT system has done. I am not
very familiar with Pan-American, but I work a lot with
University of Texas of El Paso, and it is always the women in
the electrical and computer engineering department, University
of Texas, El Paso, that always are first or second place in a
service-learning competition that I work on with them. It is
amazing how tied in they are with community needs and supplying
engineering and computing solutions to NGO's, nonprofits, and
other community centers in the area.
They are on to something that would work at the high school
level, which is to--and something that Microsoft is hugely in
favor of, and we are trying to work on this with our Partners
in Learning Initiative, is bringing the tenets of engineering
down to the high school level. When students get to college
they are so excited with the college courses that are actually
there. They get to pick these amazing courses that just the
name of them excites them. There is a way to bring these
advanced topics in engineering into high schools because what
they need to see is that technology and the sciences and the
maths and the engineering courses, tenets that are going to
serve them later on, are things that are applicable to what
they already know with a small basis in math and life sciences
and physics. And what it also teaches is teamwork and the
collaboration skills, the software skills they are going to
need to succeed later on in life. And they work on projects. If
we bring in engineering earlier into the curriculum, they work
on projects where they see the end result, the tangible end
results of these projects while they are already students. And
they go, wow, I really can have an impact, I am smart, I can
produce this with the help of my teammates and classmates.
So we are very excited to bring in engineering principles
early on and engage all students.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you for describing what would work.
I would like to ask the last question to Dr. Hudecki of
Oklahoma.
Susan Davis from California and I reintroduced the
Graduation for All Act, and it now has more than 80 co-
sponsors. This legislation provides States with the resources
to target school districts with the lowest graduation rates.
Funds are used to establish literacy programs at the secondary
school level and provide onsite professional development for
high school faculty through literacy coaches.
The legislation strengthens the accountability for
graduation rates. We can't call high school reform successful
if only half of our students benefit from increased rigor and
raised expectations. Do you believe that this type of Federal
legislation would complement your efforts to reform high
schools?
Dr. Hudecki. Well, on the surface it sounds like it would
very much complement it. We discovered, through our work with
business leaders that their expectations for what students
ought to know and be able to do now when they graduate from
high school are almost identical to the requirements to go into
college. So it makes no sense whatsoever to have sorting
mechanisms in place or different kinds of expectations for
different types of students in terms of what they are going to
do when they leave the school system.
So we are very much advocating that we educate all students
to a higher level and want to define what that level is. So I
think that would be a very good fit.
Mr. Hinojosa. I am pleased to hear you say that you agree
with that, but we need both your organization, the foundation,
corporate America to support us with this legislation because
it requires big funding to be able to get it done. Our
authorization level request is for $1 billion, and I think that
it is going to take that type of investment to be able to move
us forward and be able to compete.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Castle. Thank you, Mr. Hinojosa.
We have gone through a round of questions, and I don't want
to prolong this too long, but I did have a couple of follow-up
things I wanted to ask. And if the others want to, they are
certainly welcome to as well.
I want to go back to what I stated before. We have
arguments here, you sort of heard a little bit of it, do we
underfund schools, are we not doing enough at the Federal
level? I could argue that--I am not going to pick arguments
here today--I believe that we do. But schools are basically
funded at the Federal level, the State level, and obviously
local property taxes for the most part. But I have noticed,
particularly at the State level and at the district level and
even at the school level, there is huge disparities in the way
people actually manage those dollars.
And I attended a very interesting session on this at an
Aspen Institute meeting, where I learned more about education
than I do almost anything else I do, in which we really parsed
this and looked carefully at it. And they compared a couple of
schools with about the same budget dollars coming in, but
decisions being made very differently by the principals in the
schools in terms of how the money is going to be spent. Do you
have a band, do you not have a band; what do you do for labs;
how many, you know, cafeteria workers do you have versus
something else, or whatever. And it was proportionate to the
academic achievement in the schools; those who put more into
the educational aspect seemed to do a better kind of thing. And
I have seen this again and again, that understanding those
numbers and those finances is as important as what the finances
really are.
And that is what I asked when I stopped and didn't ask you
to answer before, is to whether or not you know of any
corporations or corporate entities that are actually helping
with that aspect of it; that is, really analyzing and
understanding the finances within a school, which I think
corporations are particularly suited to do. And I am not asking
for just a general answer, but do any of you know anything
specific that is going on in that area within the framework of
what you are doing or what anyone else is doing?
Mr. Watson. We have--for the Atlanta Public Schools we
have--well, we don't, Dr. Beverly Hall, who is the
superintendent for Atlanta, has what she calls a CEO
roundtable. And a number of CEOs from major corporations, and
even some mid and small businesses, sit on this CEO roundtable
and advise her on issues that are facing those businesses from
a hiring standpoint. It gives her a chance to ask them
questions about managing a business, which she is also the CEO
of a large business.
So in that regard, IT professionals that work in the
business have a chance to work with her IT people, finance
professionals in the businesses have a chance to work with her
finance people. So it is an opportunity for her, not as
superintendent of the school but as the CEO of a large
business, to interface with other businesses and have a chance
for those professionals to work with her staff in that area,
yes.
Ms. Sterling. Mr. Chairman, we also--a large component of
our Partners in Learning program is to teach strategic business
and financial processes to the academic arena, the
practitioners, the teachers and the administrators. These are
the exact same curricula that we teach Microsoft employees,
developers and engineers that come in on how to be business
savvy and how to have financial acumen.
Chairman Castle. Let me ask you another question--and this
is back to my concern about both the knowledge and coordination
of the various programs. And don't get me wrong, you are
wonderful examples of what one can do, and I praise you
greatly, and I praise, frankly, any business that is willing to
get involved in helping making good our schools--and by the
way, I do like Achieve a great deal. I think they are doing
wonderful things in the country. But I also do worry about what
the coordination aspect of this is. I don't know if there is a
national clearinghouse for the various businesses that get into
these projects. But as I said, I have been to schools and I
have seen what some of the corporations are doing, and quite
candidly I question that. To be really honest with you, Ms.
Sterling, I really question what one high-tech company is
doing--not yours--but what one high-tech company is doing that
runs pretty big things for schools. I just was unimpressed when
I went to their school. And I am wondering, who is looking at
this? The, schools, in my judgment, will accept any help you
want to give them. If you are willing to give them computers
and mentors, they are going to accept it. And they may be a
little reluctant to critique it and to say this probably isn't
the best way to do this, or whatever.
So I am not 100 percent confident that we are getting 100
percent out of all of the dollars being spent by all the
businesses in this country--and I don't even know exactly what
that total is--but from my judgment it is substantial. And the
businesses have a huge vested interest in what is going on in
the schools, but my concern is, you know, maybe you are
watching your own particular programs. But my question to you,
if you understand it, is broader than that, to what is
happening on a broader level with all of the various business
contributions to the schools. Is there any clearinghouse or
anything of that nature that is really looking at them and
taking somebody aside and saying, you know, what you are doing
is probably not the best use of your money and your personnel?
Do you sense that happening anyplace out there beyond just what
you are doing?
Ms. Sterling. Well, Mr. Chairman, I can certainly tell you
about failures that I have done in a space when I go out and
see, wow, I am going to do women's gaming camps in high schools
and I am going to engage women in learning how to write games.
And after a week of this they look at me and they never want to
touch a computer again. So I have thrown good money after bad.
Chairman Castle. Is that the reason why no women are going
into the computer business?
Ms. Sterling. And I cannot stress enough how all of the
best intentions in the world are not solving our technical
pipeline problem. And I cannot stress enough that as a country,
we have fully backed National Center for Women IT as the
assessment in metrics gatekeeper and benchmark organization
because this is not our core competency. We need the social
scientists to say quit doing that, it hasn't worked the last
17,000 times you have tried.
Chairman Castle. Anybody else?
Mr. Shore. I think the Superintendent of Schools in Atlanta
ought to be patted on the back because she is doing something
that a lot of other superintendents aren't. We would love for a
superintendent to come knock on our door. If I were a
superintendent, the first thing I would do is meet with every
CEO in the community and say, I have got some really difficult
goals to meet, I can't do it by myself and I need your help. I
don't think any business would turn that down. Rarely do we see
superintendents coming to us. They don't pick up the phone and
say I have got this. It is always the other way around.
We are going to do the best we can to try to help out
because it is in our interest. We want good employees coming
out of these schools. So we would love to see it more of a two-
way street in terms of what I was talking about earlier, with a
dialog in the partnerships actually having something that is
two ways, so that--you will waste your money and your time if
you don't tie in with their goals and what they need to
accomplish.
Chairman Castle. That is a good point, the reverse aspect
of it; maybe they should be seeking help as well.
Ms. Woolsey, do you have anything further?
Ms. Woolsey. No, sir. Thank you very much. It was amazing.
Chairman Castle. Well, let me thank you all of you very
much for being here as well. We will take all of the
information you gave us and go through it and hopefully learn
ourselves. But we appreciate--I know some of you came from a
distance, so we appreciate you being here and we appreciate
your contributions. And with that, we stand adjourned. Thank
you.
[Whereupon, at 3:35 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]