Hi and Welcome to our first post of Helping Young People Succeed (HYPS).  My name is Betty Jones and HYPS was created because of my and my daughter, Stephanie’s, belief that every young person has gifts, talents, and skills—that if utilized properly, can make a positive and beneficial impact in our world.  The problem, that exist for a number of young people, may be the fact that they lack the necessary guidance and resources to help them get from Point A to Point B.

To help fill that gap, HYPS has been created as an informational resource about possible educational and career opportunities.  There is “power in knowledge”,  and it is my hope that the information provided in HYPS will help our youth plan for and embark on promising futures.

HYPS  was created in honor of my daughter, Stephanie.  Her picture is displayed on this page and will be on the front page of each of my posts.  She was beautiful and gifted.  She left this world absolutely too soon due to asthma.  My heart is broken and I am still trying to come to grips with  the fact that God had other plans for her.  I can’t even begin to explain to you how much I miss her.  She was and she still is very much loved!

Stephanie had been educated as and started her career as a middle school teacher.  It was a career she had mixed feelings about because she did not like the traditional classroom setting.  She did, however, have a strong desire to be of service to young people and  wanted to contribute to their development.  Her dream and goal was to establish a “Career Development Center”  where she would have been able to teach students the fundamentals of succeeding in today’s job market.

Through HYPS, I will attempt to bring Stephanie’s dream to reality somewhat.  While I won’t be establishing a physical career development center, via each post of HYPS my goal will be to provide as much information as possible regarding available  career and educational options in an effort to help young people make informed decisions about their future.  It’s  also my hope  that parents will be able to use this resource to provide guidance and direction to their children as well.

In this first post of HYPS, let me introduce to some of you and remind others of an organization called “INROADS”.  I will explain who they are and what they are doing to help young people prepare for success in corporate America.  Also, identified in this post are some available scholarships sources that can possibly provide funding for educational pursuits.   Please click the appropriate link at the top of this page to find out more about INROADS and the identified scholarship sources.

Welcome To Success

Say Goodbye to Failure because you are not going to fail.  I’m not going to let you fail!  You are here to win, you were born to WIN!!! and if I have to care more about you, then that is the way it’s going to be.  I will not let you fail.    (Marva Collins)  

 

 

 

Let’s take a brief look at the methods used today to educate students in grades  K-12 by examining “No Child Left Behind” ,”Common Core Standards” , and “STEM”.  It’s important that we understand all we can about these methods, as the foundation they are setting will determine the student’s preparation and readiness to compete in tomorrow’s  job market.

No Child Left Behind                                                                                                               No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was signed into law on January 8, 2002 by President George W. Bush.  It was created in 2001  as a result of bipartisan (Democrats and Republicans) collaboration to assure that all students, in grades K-12,  are given the opportunity to succeed in school.  NCLB actually was President Bush’s re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s  as a provision of his “War on Poverty”.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was created to close the achievement gap between students in more affluent schools and those in schools that served students from less affluent areas.  It’s goal was to guarantee that each child in the United States had access to an exceptional education.  As a result of ESEA, Title I funding was implemented to provide extra financial support to schools and school districts that serviced a high percentage of students from low income families.  ESEA was only authorized through 1965 and every five years the federal government has re-authorized the act.

Just as with ESEA, the purpose and goal of “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) is to assure that all students in the United States are given the opportunity to a quality and exceptional education.  Under the provisions of NCLB, a mandate was placed on each federally funded public school to develop basic skills assessment measures by administering standardized tests to students at certain grade levels.  In addition, schools that receive Title I funding were required to meet an “Annual Yearly Progress” (AYP) goal.  Under the AYP provision of “No Child Left Behind”, Title I schools had to show annual improvement in the achievement test score for it’s student population.  If a Title I school consistently miss their AYP goal, then corrective measures are put in place to help that school improve it’s outcome.

With NCLB, each state was given the responsibility to establish their own achievement standards.  What one came to realize is that some states set much higher standards than others, which resulted in an inaccurate measurement of  student achievement when you compared one state’s test performance to another.  What states are now realizing is that they want consistent educational standards for students in grades K-12  and that has resulted in what is now known as “Common Core Standards.

Common Core Standards                                                                                                     Common Core Standards came about due to the efforts of the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).  What Common Core Standards does is set a consistent and clear expectation of what students must know and master  in Mathematics and English Language Art at the completion of each grade from kindergarten to high school.

Each state is responsible for deciding on whether they will or will not adopt and implement Common Core Standards within it’s school system.   Today, forty five sates, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity have fully accepted and is in the process of implementing Common Core Standards in their schools.  Minnesota has adopted the English Language Arts standards but not the mathematics.  Nebraska, Texas, Alaska, and Virginia have not adopted any aspect of Common Core.

The goal of Common Core Standards is that a student, regardless, of which state they reside in, will be able to learn and master the same educational skills.  This is to help assure that all students are equally prepared for college and career pursuits beyond high school.

STEM                                                                                                                                                  There is a strong emphasis today to boost the education of America’s youth in the fields of STEM.  What STEM refers to is Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  Some experts say that the future of our country and it’s ability to make scientific and technological advances and also to compete in a global economy is going to depend on the preparation and readiness of our emerging workforce to fulfill STEM related jobs.

It appears if the United States is being outpaced by other developed countries in regards to preparing it’s youth for the emerging  STEM job market.  According to statistics on the STEM Education Coalition website:

•  15 year old youth in the U.S. currently rank 21st in science test scores among 34 developed nations.
• Only 16% of the U.S.  high school seniors are proficient in mathematics and are interested in STEM careers.
• Only 30% of 12th graders who took the ACT test are ready for college-level work in science.

This has become such an important issue that President Obama’s administration, via  the Department of Education, has initiated various efforts to encourage student exposure to and education as it relates to STEM.   The concern is that currently there is a growing number of jobs in the STEM field with a limited number of qualified workers to fill them.  It’s said that there is approximately 26 million STEM jobs in the United States and by 2020 the demand for STEM workers will add over 1 million new job.

To have a career in the STEM field, does not necessarily require one to get a four year college degree and beyond.  Again, according to STEM Education Coalition, 1/2 of all STEM jobs do not require a four year college degree and they pay an average salary of $53,000  a year.  For those with college level degrees, the average starting salary if approximately $77,000.

That is why in future posts of HYPS, I will explore various careers in the STEM—-providing information on educational requirements, job duties, future employment outlook,  and salary range.   Future posts will be done on a monthly basis.  You can sign up for email notification of future post.

***PLEASE NOTE***

On December 10,2015, President Obama signed the “Every Student Succeed Act” (ESSA), which is his administration’s re-authorization of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).  Future posts will provide you with more information on ESSA and it’s impact on NCLB, Common Core and STEM.