Students also need ‘soft skills’
The new vision for K-12 public education, articulated last week by Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson, likely drew understanding nods from teachers and employers alike. It recognizes that testing mania has left little time for instruction on the “soft skills” essential for success in college, careers and life.
Who can disagree that Kansas’ graduating seniors should have acquired persistence, communication skills and work ethic as well as proficiency in math, writing, science, social studies and the like? Or that Kansas needs more students who graduate, pursue a credential or degree, and who don’t need remedial course work when they attend postsecondary schools? All of that is part of the vision, along with calls for high-quality preschool, all-day kindergarten and a bigger role for community service.
The trick will be retooling the system as state revenues continue to crater, local districts struggle to fund their budgets, Statehouse reformers craft a new school-finance formula and multiple lawsuits play out.
As Watson recently told The Eagle editorial board, this is a highly politicized moment in K-12 education in Kansas. “There are a lot of people talking at each other,” he said.
If Watson and the Kansas State Board of Education are to fulfill the new vision, the system will need more school counselors, social workers and other staff not necessarily considered classroom teachers. It’s hard to see Kansas schools managing to “change the next generation” and “lead the world,” in Watson’s words, without more money.
The “cultural shift” also coincides with the implementation of the multistate Common Core standards, known in Kansas as “college- and career-ready.” They’re more rigorous than those of the No Child Left Behind era, during which testing and test scores sometimes seemed to be all that mattered.
Can Kansas schools be less test-focused, and devote precious time to nonacademic skills training, without seeing achievement slide?
The vision was unveiled after many meetings around the state with parents, teachers, business leaders and others aimed at identifying the skills, characteristics and attributes of successful 24-year-old Kansans and K-12 schools’ role in producing such individuals.
Watson and board members took what they heard – that the focus on standardized testing had led to neglect of nonacademic skills – and crafted a new strategy for the state.
Watson also aims to value and guide the students bound for technical schools and careers are much as the college-track kids, and to increase internships, job shadowing and field trips – outstanding ideas that should better connect K-12 schools to the real-world economy.
It would be unwise to underestimate Watson, the former McPherson superintendent who made a name for himself as an innovator before the state board tapped him to become commissioner.
But because neither Watson nor the state board can conjure up more money or more hours in the day, the success of this blueprint will depend on its ability to inspire many more to believe in and be guided by it.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Students also need ‘soft skills’."