ACT’s New CEO Calls for New Vision

Sometimes a song says it best.

ACT’s new chief executive officer drew on lyrics from his favorite Bob Dylan tune, “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” to set the mood for ACT’s 51st annual meeting, held October 18–19 in Iowa City: “…the waters around you have grown…you’ll be drenched to the bone…you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are
a-changin’.”

Jon Whitmore, who was a first-generation college student in the 1960s, said Dylan is a thought leader whose words reflect past light on our country’s current circumstances.

“The world today, at the dawn of the second decade of the twenty-first century, is engulfed in a period of profound vibration not unlike the 1960s. Our globe is spinning rapidly. Some say it’s out of control,” said Whitmore, who became ACT’s sixth chief executive on September 1. “During the ’60s, it became part of my psyche to think of change as normal and continuous, something to be embraced—fought for even—and never feared.”

In preparing for the future, ACT must understand the different ways in which people today are learning, communicating, accessing information, using new technologies, and forming social networks around the globe—and how the organization will meet the changing needs of those who use its programs and services. “Let’s not forget that ACT was born out of the maverick thinking of our founder, E.F. Lindquist. He thought out of the box in 1959. It is time for ACT to recapture Lindquist’s pioneer spirit. It is time that we think out of the box that exists today,” said Whitmore.

The first step is creating a “bold new vision” for ACT’s future that both embraces fully the organization’s values of diversity, excellence, mutual respect, individual growth, and being courteous and ethical, and emphasizes its not-for-profit status.

“Our new vision must include thoughtful, deliberate, and ongoing study of our tempestuous world. We must understand the impact of the financial recession on states, schools, colleges, and families,” he said.

Daunting problems in education and workforce should be reflected in the new vision:

• Junior high and high school dropout rates are shameful—at more than 50 percent in many urban schools.
• Fourteen percent of U.S. adults have an eleventh-grade education or less.
• More than 40 percent of new teachers leave the profession within five years.
• One third of all college freshmen don’t return to their chosen institutions for a second year of college.
• Fewer than one third of students at two-year colleges graduate within three years, and only about half the students who enroll at four-year colleges earn a degree within five years.
• Ten percent of the U.S. workforce can’t find jobs.

“To help America reverse these trends, ACT must step up, step forward, and step out,” said Whitmore. “By combining the best thinking of our board of directors, state representatives, employees, senior leaders, government officials—and our customers, including parents and students—we will form a dynamic, cohesive, and shared vision of ACT’s future.”