How to close the skills gap

By Dick Resch

Looking to get rich? Try welding.

For the third consecutive year, positions in the skilled trades are the hardest to fill, according to a survey of American employers conducted by the Manpower Group. This shortage is why a master welder can earn a six-figure salary - without a college degree.

There aren't enough skilled tradesmen because our nation's schools aren't producing graduates with the math and science knowledge needed to do these jobs.

That has to change. Educators must rethink the way they teach math and science - especially to students who may not go to college. The best way to reach these kids is to scrap the age-old lecture and empower them to learn by doing.

International rankings reveal the depths of America's underachievement. Among 34 developed nations, the United States ranks 27th in math and 20th in science. More than one-quarter of U.S. students lack even basic proficiency in math. That's 13 percent higher than the global average - and hasn't budged since 2003.

This poor performance should concern us, as these students risk economic marginalization.

A million people drop out of high school each year. Most of them don't participate in the labor force. Those who do face an unemployment rate 50 percent higher than their peers who graduate.

That low-performing quarter of students also includes many who complete high school yet still lack the math skills needed for most entry-level manufacturing jobs - let alone the skilled-trade positions that could vault them into the middle class.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Charles Plosser said earlier this year, "We are seeing a mismatch of skills in the workforce and the jobs that are being created."

To fill these jobs - and provide livelihoods for millions - we must keep students who struggle with math in school. And we must find ways to boost their achievement in math and science.

According to a new report from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, students drop out primarily because they don't see the connection between what they're learning in school and job opportunities. Those who graduate without achieving proficiency likely feel the same way.

"Placing almost all our bets on classroom-based pedagogy is likely to produce little more than the marginal gains we've seen over the past two decades," notes the report.

Indeed, according to the National Training Laboratories, the traditional lecture format yields only a 5 percent learning retention rate. Allowing students to practice by doing, in contrast, results in a whopping 75 percent retention rate.

The way forward is clear: Embrace technology, collaboration, and hands-on learning.

Already, colleges are adopting this approach:

The University of Pennsylvania has built a new classroom with customized, powered round tables so that students can collaborate using all manner of technology. It plans to add three to four more such classrooms over the next year.

MIT's Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) Project merges lecture, simulation, collaborative learning, and hands-on experiments in one classroom. Failure rates for freshmen in a TEAL physics course were one-third those in the traditional setting. Average gains in understanding were more than double. And students at the bottom of the achievement ladder have posted the biggest gains thanks to TEAL.

North Carolina State University has notched similar results with its engaged learning program. Performance data for 16,000 students show that problem-solving ability increased substantially. Gains in conceptual understanding were roughly double those in analogous passive lecture courses.

Engaged learning models are trickling down into elementary and secondary schools, too. In Philadelphia, several schools are using the Full Option Science System (FOSS), a hands-on, activity-based approach that empowers students to investigate, experiment, and collaborate to discover the material in each lesson.

Students at FOSS schools have scored higher on standardized tests. And the longer they are in the program, the greater the gains in achievement.

Administrators across the country are enlisting the firm I lead, KI, to help them transform their traditional classrooms into technology-enhanced learning environments, where students work in small groups while instructors rove about, offering individualized help and coaching.

A recent survey found that 16 percent of math and science teachers have adopted a "flipped learning" model, where students watch video lectures at home so they can collaborate on coursework during class time.

To refill the ranks of the middle class with well-paying manufacturing jobs, we must address our nation's math and science achievement gap. The instructional status quo isn't working. There's ample evidence that a more active, engaged approach will.