Donna my sentiments exactly, I made various copies and distributed to
the different program managers at my agency.  I have to finish reading
it myself this weekend.  I am looking forward to this discussion......


Ms. Gary Bartolina, Program Manager
Adult Education Basics
NYS & CSEA  Partnership for Education & Training
Corporate Plaza East - Suite 502
240 Washington Avenue Extension
Albany, NY 12203
Phone: 518-473-4990
Fax: 518-473-9457
bartolinag at nyscseapartnership.org
www.nyscseapartnership.org 
"A love affair with knowledge will never end in heartbreak."
(Michael Garrett Marino) 
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-----Original Message-----
From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:workplace-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of Brian, Dr Donna J G
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 11:28 AM
To: The Workplace Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [Workplace 1475] "Reach Higher,America" The Great Crisis in
Workforce Skills Debate

Workplace Literacy Discussion List members,
This is a report that is being widely quoted and, I hope, debated. The
report, "Reach Higher, America" was one of the resources on the Thursday
Resources for June 27.  It can be found at
http://www.nationalcommissiononadultliteracy.org/report.html .  I think
we should all become familiar with what it has to say.

Jim Parker sent me a link to "Quotes from the Field" which has the
responses of various business and adult education leaders to this
report.  You can find those reactions at
http://www.nationalcommissiononadultliteracy.org/Quotes.pdf?tr=y&auid=38
03612 

Donna

Donna Brian
Moderator, LINCS Workplace Literacy Discussion List
Off-list contact djgbrian at utk.edu
 
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-----Original Message-----
From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:workplace-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of David J. Rosen
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 10:49 AM
To: The Workplace Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [Workplace 1474] Re: The Great Crisis in Workforce Skills
Debate

Tom and Charlene,

Demand for high skills jobs depends on the industry and location. For  
example, for some time there has been an unmet demand for nurses,  
radiation technologists and other acute and long-term care jobs  
requiring post-secondary level skills and knowledge, especially in  
many urban hospitals and nursing homes.  Whether or not there is  
unmet demand also depends on whether or not employers can fill the  
jobs with well educated immigrants. Demand in most industries also  
depends on the economy.  For example, our economy -- and others --  
appears to be spinning downward. As jobs are eliminated, employers  
may find that there are enough qualified people to fill their few job  
vacancies.

Is employee low basic skills a crisis -- or even a major concern --  
for employers in the U.S.? I agree with Tom that if it were,  
employers (and organized labor) would be actively lobbying Congress  
to do something about about the problem. I haven't seen that happen  
yet. Maybe the Commission report, with the help of those on the  
Commission and with some key Congresspeople, will change that. I hope  
so. We'll see.

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net



On Jul 10, 2008, at 7:16 AM, Charlene Lutes wrote:


> I talk to business and industry all the time. They do think a  

> crisis still exists.  I think what you're seeing is their  

> reluctance to pour more money into new programs that essentially  

> are a rehash of the past even though they are renamed and redone,  

> sort of.    I think they want to distance themselves from education  

> and government for the most part because of past non delivery:   

> tech prep, etc.

> I believe they've lost faith in the U.S. Department of Education  

> and the state ed departments because by the time it reaches the  

> client or those who need to improve their literacy, politics has  

> raped the funds, the intent of the programs and skewed the  

> results.  Consequently, the numbers continue to climb.  This is  

> what they see.

>

>

>

>

> Charlene A. Lutes, Ph.D.

> Northwestern Michigan College

> 1701 E. Front Street

> Traverse City, MI   49686

> (231) 995-1971   FAX (231) 995-1972

>

>

>

> >>> <tsticht at znet.com> 7/9/2008 5:26 PM >>>

> July 9, 2008

>

> The Great Crisis in Workforce Skills Debate

>

> Tom Sticht

>

> In June 2008 a National Commission on Adult Literacy presented the  

> final

> report of a two year study of  the skills of the American workforce  

> and the

> demands for skills in the workplace. Entitled "Reach Higher, America:

> Overcoming Crisis in the U.S. Workforce", the report states "Almost a

> decade into the 21st  Century, America faces a choice: We can  

> invest in the

> basic education and skills of our workforce and remain competitive in

> today's global economy, or we can continue to overlook glaring  

> evidence of

> a national crisis and move further down the path to decline." (p. v)

>

> Continuing its claims of a crisis in the U. S. workforce due to low  

> skills,

> the Commission's report goes on to state: "Americans should have been

> stunned when the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL),  

> released in

> 2005, revealed that a staggering 30 million American adults scored at

> "below basic "-meaning they could perform no more than the most  

> rudimentary

> literacy tasks. Another 63 million adults could perform only  

> simple, basic

> everyday literacy activities.1 The NAAL findings are ominous  

> because most

> good jobs require at least some education beyond high school. The NAAL

> found that of the approximately 222 million adults aged 16 or older  

> living

> in households or prisons in the United States, some 93 million lack

> literacy at a level needed to enroll in the postsecondary education  

> or job

> training that current and future jobs require. This alarming number  

> should

> have produced a national outcry. But-at a time when our economy and  

> welfare

> are more dependent on knowledge and skills than ever before-there  

> was barely

> a whisper." (p. 2)

>

> Why has there been "barely a whisper" in the face of this workforce  

> skills

> crisis? There are no doubt many factors involved, but one of them  

> seems to

> be that the claim of such a crisis is challenged by another stream of

> reports by organizations and individuals. For instance, in a recent  

> article

> online at http://www.ednews.org, Dennis Redovich, a job skills  

> specialist

> (www.jobseducationwis.org) surveyed a number of the claims of  

> workforce

> skills deficits and concluded Quote: "Reality is 1. For the  

> majority of the

> jobs in the world and the U. S., basic reading, writing,  

> arithmetic, and

> developing a work ethic may be required. 2. Education for education  

> sake is

> good and is helpful in getting a job and doing well. However there  

> is a

> surplus of highly educated workers for jobs that require higher  

> levels of

> education and training. 3. A majority of jobs in the United States

> workforce require only short-term or moderate length on the job  

> training or

> experience. About 21% of jobs might require a bachelor's degree or  

> more.

> About 32% of workers in 2003 in the U. S. workforce 25 years and  

> over had a

> Bachelor's degree or more. 5. About 5% of jobs in the United States  

> in the

> 2000s might require higher math and or science course work."

>

> In a September 2006 article in Phi Delta Kappan, Gerald Bracey has an

> article in which he notes that for years both he and Redovich "have  

> been

> screaming about what we might call the "high-skills hoax" -- the  

> notion

> that everyone must have high skills." He goes on to say, Quote:  

> "It's not

> that we don't recognize a civil rights issue in the debate -- everyone

> should have the opportunity to develop the skills to land a high- 

> paying

> job. However, we understand the law of supply and demand, and we  

> know about

> what jobs are actually being created. In fact, if everyone became  

> highly

> skilled, the wages of skilled labor would fall, and the  

> unemployment rates

> for skilled workers would rise, a condition conducive to social  

> unrest."

> End quote

>

> Both Redovich and Bracey point to research indicating that the  

> workforce of

> the near future (e.g., up to 2020) will not face a future dominated  

> by jobs

> with postsecondary or college degree requirements. Bracey states,  

> Quote:

> "Most new jobs, though, continue to be in the low-paying service  

> sector.

> When the Bureau of Labor Statistics issues its 10-year job creation

> forecasts, the number of new jobs for retail sales clerks alone  

> approaches

> the number for the 10 fastest-growing jobs combined. At present,  

> the number

> of people with bachelor's degrees is just about right to fill the  

> proportion

> of jobs requiring them, and that proportion is not projected to  

> increase

> much in the near future. Producing a great many more college grads  

> will . .

> . well, here we are again, back to supply and demand. .Parallel to  

> the claim

> that we will need more skilled workers is the claim that there is a  

> mismatch

> between jobs and the skills of workers: workers don't have the  

> skills that

> employers demand. We have argued against this, too." End quote.

>

> In 1998 I prepared a paper for the U. S. Department of Education  

> entitled

> Beyond 2000: Future Directions for Adult Education. In that report  

> I drew

> upon work from the Hudson Institute [Judy, R. & D'Amico, C. (1997)

> Workforce 2020: Work and Workers in the 21st  Century.  

> Indianapolis, IN:

> Hudson Institute] looking at the education and skills requirements  

> of jobs

> up to the year 2020. I concluded that Quote "If the new Hudson  

> Institute

> report is correct, 65-75 percent of the new jobs in the fastest  

> growing

> occupations will require language and mathematics skills at or  

> below the

> 8th  grade level in school. . Regarding the so-called "skills gap,"  

> then,

> what can be said for certain is that the last decade and a half has

> witnessed a plethora of analyses to find out if such a gap exists  

> and to

> this date there has been no definitive answer (there is not even  

> agreement

> on what is meant by the word "skills," see papers for the National  

> Academy

> of Sciences edited by Lesgold, Feuer, & Black, 1997). This debate  

> is likely

> to persist into the next millennium." End quote.

>

> Now we are nearing the end of the first decade of the new  

> millennium and we

> find that, indeed, the great debate about workforce skills and job  

> demands

> goes on. The recent report of the National Commission on Adult  

> Literacy is

> the latest in the stream of reports decrying the skills of the  

> workforce

> and portending a crisis for our global competitiveness. On the  

> other side

> of the debate are the reports by Bracey, Redovich and the analysts  

> they

> cite who argue that we are not facing a workforce skills crisis that

> threatens our national economy nor our international competitiveness.

>

> This debate may contribute to some degree to the conclusion of the  

> Reach

> Higher America report that, despite the surveys of adult literacy  

> conducted

> by the U. S. Department of Education suggesting that some 93  

> million adults

> lack literacy at a level needed to enroll in the postsecondary  

> education or

> job training that current and future jobs require, barely a whisper  

> has been

> heard. More to the point, little by way of policy and funding for  

> the Adult

> Education and Literacy System of the United States has changed, and  

> the

> system continues to work staffed mostly by part-time and volunteer

> teachers, with an obscene level of funding of barely $800 per  

> enrollment.

> This does not signal to me that major policymakers think a crisis  

> exists in

> the skills of the workforce.

>

> Thomas G. Sticht

> International Consultant in Adult Education

> Email: tsticht at aznet.net

>

>

>

>

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