U.S. Chamber Supports Reinventing Classroom Instruction

Innovation in education is lacking in many parts of the nation, thus undermining efforts to better prepare students for the workforce, according to a recent report by the U.S. Chamber Institute for a Competitive Workforce (ICW), the Center for American Progress, and Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute.

The report, Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Innovation, is a follow-up to a landmark student achievement analysis issued two years ago by the same parties. The newest edition looks at the degree to which states have created a flexible, performance-based system of schooling. States were graded in eight areas: school management, finance, hiring and evaluation, removing ineffective teachers, data, technology, pipeline to postsecondary education, and the state reform environment. 

"The quality of our workforce and the intellectual breadth and depth of our future leaders are directly related to the quality of education we provide today," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan tells the audience at an education event at U.S. Chamber headquarters.

One of the main barriers to innovation, the report found, is rigid education bureaucracies that limit teacher autonomy. Ninety percent of the teachers say that routine duties and paperwork interfere with their teaching, and only 30% approve of how their schools are run.

“Our school system is archaic and hidebound, a relic of a time when steel factories formed the backbone of the American economy,” according to Arthur Rothkopf, Chamber senior vice president and counselor to the president. “Education institutions lack opportunities to reinvent themselves in more effective ways. Educators should have opportunities to devise smarter solutions—and then be held accountable.”

The report includes a list of recommendations to help spur innovations, including giving schools and principals greater authority to tie teacher pay to student achievement and to remove ineffective teachers.

Go to www.uschamber.com/reportcard. 

Business, School Create Workforce Opportunities

High school teacher John Capasso (left) and Fitzpatrick's Jewish Deli owner Bill Hurst started a school-to-work program for students with disabilities.

Some small businesses across the country are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to prepping students for the workforce.

One such business is Fitzpatrick’s Jewish Deli in Somers Point, New Jersey. Deli owner Bill Hurst has partnered with Mainland Regional High School special education teacher John Capasso and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce to give students who never thought of holding a job a taste of the requirements and demands of the modern workplace.

Hurst has discovered that finding workers with the requisite knowledge, skills, experience, attitude, and work habits can be difficult. Every time a new casino opens in nearby Atlantic City, the pool of workers in Somers Point gets smaller as potential employees flock to the casino, he says.

When Capasso approached Hurst 18 months ago about giving his special education students a “job tour” so that they could see what working in a restaurant was like, Hurst didn’t hesitate. “Anything we can do for the community, we do,” Hurst says. But Hurst’s deli has also benefited. Capasso has brought some 35 students through the 135-seat deli for tours and job shadowing, and 3 have landed jobs washing dishes, busing tables, or hosting.

Capasso participates in the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Disabilities At Work initiative, a program that recognizes businesses that support people with disabilities and encourages people to patronize those businesses. Capasso says, “Programs like Disabilities At Work have given me another tool in recruiting businesses to participate in my program.”