ACT’s Annual Meeting: Presenters Explore Solutions for Success in an Evolving Global Market

Where are we headed? What does the future hold for education and workforce development? How will technology impact it? What role will ACT play in shaping a new landscape?

ACT’s board of directors, staff members, and state representatives, as well as guest speakers and panelists, considered these questions—and their answers—at the ACT annual meeting October 18–19 in Iowa City.

ACT CEO Jon Whitmore addresses the organization’s past, present, and future at the ACT annual meeting.

“ACT is no longer just in the assessment business. ACT will increasingly be in the information and solutions business,” said ACT CEO Jon Whitmore.

Solutions that work are vital to meet growing demands in education and the workforce. By 2018, the U.S. economy will create 46.8 million openings—13.8 million brand-new jobs and 33 million “replacement jobs,” positions vacated by workers who have retired or permanently left their occupations. Nearly 63 percent of these jobs will require workers with at least some college education. However, by 2018, the postsecondary system will have produced three million fewer college graduates than the labor market will need.

Jon Whitmore (left) talks with participants during his first ACT annual meeting.
 

Changing the way education and workforce training are aligned and delivered can help improve the situation, said James Applegate, senior vice president of the Lumina Foundation. The foundation has set a goal to increase the proportion of the U.S. working population that has high-quality college degrees or credentials from 39 percent to 60 percent by 2025.

“This is not just Lumina’s goal. It’s America’s goal. In nearly every state, a quarter of the workforce is adults with some college, but no degree. The bottom line is that those who do not have post-high school degrees or credentials over the next 10 years will be the working poor in this country,” said Applegate.

ACT can help close the gaps between K–12 and postsecondary education, and between college and the workforce. “The United States has a workforce system. It’s called higher education. We have to quit thinking that we have the academic stuff over here, and the workforce stuff over there. We have to align the two,” he added. “If we focus on the learning, we can open up opportunities that truly serve the needs of a broader population.”

A panel of experts addressed “Meeting Tomorrow’s Needs Today: Deepening the Use of ACT’s Solutions.” James Applegate, senior vice president, Lumina Foundation (left) responds to a question as Christopher Guidry, state director of Career and Technical Education, Indiana Department of Workforce Development (center), and Eric Ban, principal, Crown Point High School in Crown Point, Indiana (right), listen.

At Crown Point High School in Indiana, teachers and administrators are helping students develop skills that prepare them for college and careers. They use students’ results from EXPLORE^®, PLAN^®, and the ACT^® to identify skill gaps and implement interventions to close them. They offer college courses to students whose grades and test scores indicate they are capable of doing college-level work.

Angela Hall Watkins, assistant vice president/managing director of ACT’s National Center for Educational Achievement, asks a question during a panel discussion. Each session included a time for dialogue among participants.

“We’re well positioned with the ACT data to know when our students are ready for college and career programming, and we can provide it in measurable and powerful ways to give them a leg up on the future,” said Principal Eric Ban.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development is helping adults prepare for the changing employment landscape. The state has lost a staggering number of jobs, especially in manufacturing. In some areas, unemployment rates are as high as 15 percent or more.

“These are people who were able to get those jobs with a high school diploma or GED. Many of those jobs are now gone, and people are left with little or nothing,” said Christopher Guidry, state director of Career and Technical Education.

The department offers career counseling, WorkKeys^® assessments, and interest inventories to prepare people for new jobs. Opportunities to earn college degrees and certificates, such as the National Career Readiness Certificate, are essential in a state where thousands of people don’t have even high school diplomas. Distance learning is an ideal way to reach people, he said, but the capacity is not where it needs to be to provide access to learning that is available anytime, anywhere for everyone.

ACT state representatives from across the United States are active participants in the annual meeting. They provide advice to ACT and support for exemplary uses of the organization’s programs and services. Representing their states at the 2010 annual meeting are, from left, Jay Goff of Missouri, Russ Kreager of Minnesota, and Alan Tuchtenhagen of Wisconsin.

The three agreed that technology is crucial to reshaping the education and workforce environment. “We can’t do twenty-first century learning without twenty-first century tools,” said Ban. “We need technology that integrates information and puts the right information in the hands of the practitioners so they can make learning decisions.”

“Education is the only sector that views technology as an added cost,” said Applegate. “We should view technology as a way to expand the capacity for learning.”

Representatives from KnowledgeWorks and Wireless Generation outlined ways in which their organizations are using technology to do just that.

KnowledgeWorks is an organization that develops and implements innovative, effective approaches to high school education. Its portfolio of approaches includes New Tech Network high schools; EdWorks high school redesign; and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and Early College high schools.

Jillian Darwish, vice president, Organizational Learning and Innovation for KnowledgeWorks, shares thoughts on what the education and learning landscape may be 10 years from now.

In collaboration with the Institute for the Future (IFTF), KnowledgeWorks developed the “2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning” map that outlines key forces of change that will shape the learning landscape over the next decade. IFTF is an independent, nonprofit research group that works with organizations of all kinds to help them make better, more informed decisions about the future. It identifies emerging trends and discontinuities that will transform global society and the global marketplace.

“We are in a virtually apocalyptic era of change. Because these changes are so profound, we needed a mental model to form a common view on which to act,” said Chad Wick, chief executive officer of KnowledgeWorks.

Two speakers shared their personal stories in a presentation on “Navigating the Path to Success: Reflections on the Journey.” Ben Ruano (center), divisional wholesaler, American Funds, talks about his birth in Guatemala City and immigrating at a young age with his parents to the United States. Tyrone Flowers (right), founder and president, Higher M-Pact, spoke about overcoming challenges to go on to develop a community-based organization dedicated to transforming today’s high-risk urban youth into tomorrow’s leaders. At left is Ranjit Sidhu, senior vice president, Strategic Initiatives, ACT Education Division, who introduced the speakers.

The map is organized around drivers of change involving self, organizations, systems, society, economy, and knowledge. It describes how fundamental relationships with these drivers are being re-imagined and re-created in ways that will disrupt the status quo and challenge the usual assumptions. The goal is to help those with a stake in learning identify interests, challenges, and strategies to create transformative solutions for the future.

ACT board members, former U.S. Senator Bob Graham (left) and Carl Cohn, clinical professor of Urban Leadership, Claremont Graduate University, prepare for an ACT Board of Directors panel discussion.

“What unites the drivers is that over the past decade and into the future, more and more, we are moving from a society of consumers to a society of participants to a society of creators,” said Jillian Darwish, vice president, Organizational Learning and Innovation for KnowledgeWorks. “In the past, when we wanted to consume technology, it was there to be taken. Now people are making their own futures by creating what they want, whether it’s a product or a service.”

Wireless Generation, a company that helps preK–12 educators “teach smarter” through innovative tools, systems, and services, is also changing the learning landscape. It offers software for mobile devices that is used for classroom assessments and data-based instructional decisions, curriculum that is customized to individual learning needs, and large-scale data systems that centralize student information and integrate tools to foster knowledge sharing and collaboration among educators.

It is a lead partner in the School of One project, which re-imagines the traditional classroom model to provide students with personalized, effective, dynamic classroom instruction. Instead of the typical one teacher and 25 to 30 students in a classroom, each student participates in multiple modes of learning, such as teacher-led instruction, one-on-one tutoring, independent learning, and work with virtual tutors.

Students receive unique daily schedules based on their individual academic situation. Each student’s schedule is tailored to the skills they need and the ways they best learn. Teachers acquire data about student achievement each day and then adapt their live instruction accordingly.

“The project isn’t about putting technology in front of kids and teaching them in a whole new way. It’s about the ways in which the system is delivering education to kids so they learn what we want them to learn,” said Larry Berger, chief executive officer and co-founder.

Larry Berger, chief executive officer and co-founder of Wireless Generation, presents on “Google Fast and Apple Simple: The Critical Interdependency between Technology and Information Solutions.” He addressed the role technological innovation plays in the future of education and learning.

ACT board members addressed some of the ways in which ACT can continue to help shape the future of education and workforce.

“As we look at and prioritize the problems that ACT, our nation, our students, and our schools are facing, they can seem daunting. But if we consider ourselves conscious, capable, and confident learners, together we can find solutions,” said Dixie Axley, ACT board member and retired vice president, learning and development, State Farm Insurance Companies.

Roberts T. Jones, ACT board member and president of Education & Workforce Policy, LLC, said that ACT will need to move beyond its comfort zone to understand the problems and their implications.

“The entire country is becoming more and more energized about—and less patient with—the state of education and workforce in this country. In the future, ACT will need to connect with sources that we may not have traditionally considered before in order to understand what is happening and how we can have an impact,” said Jones.

With its information and resources, ACT can help Americans make sense of the changes in education and workforce so they can become empowered to improve their lives and to contribute to society as a whole, said Bob Graham, ACT board member and former U.S. senator, State of Florida.

“ACT has the opportunity to help reinvigorate America, beginning with the education and motivation of our young people, so we can recapture the qualities that have helped make America such an exceptional society.”