\doc\web\98\06\texstw.txt Date sent: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 09:44:33 -0500 (CDT) To: "ClearingHouse" From: Jeanne Donovan Subject: [education-consumers] State assessment tool to include SCANS Send reply to: "ClearingHouse" ===================================================================== Dear PPIE-Texas/ECC subscribers: Remember the comment made by J. D. Hoye, former director of the National School-to-Work office, who said recently in the Washington Times that "School-to-Work is not - and never has been about specific job training"? The following link shows this to be patently untrue. Jeanne ============================================================= (All links from "Texas Skill Standards Research and Communications Project" web site; date of statements unknown) http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~ehrd/skills/exsummry/projt.htm "Implementation of a Texas-wide systematic skills process is critical in meeting the needs of business and industry for a qualified and competent workforce for the occupations that are important to the future economic competitiveness of Texas." Comments from executive summary of initiatives http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~ehrd/skills/exsummry/state.htm "The state established Quality Workforce Planning Regions (QWFP)* for the purpose of customizing and validating the SOICC (http://www.soicc.state.tx.us) labor market information for the various geographic regions. The labor market information is made available to educators and training providers in the region for curriculum development purposes." "The Texas Skills Corporation [established by Gov. Anne Richards] conducted a number of interviews and discussions with individuals in education, training, business, industry and labor organizations. The findings were: * Adopt SCANS and set standards for core skills. * Award a Certificate of Initial Mastery for achievement of core skills * Institute a system to measure and certify achievement of skills for students and workers * Market the benefit of voluntary, industry-driven skill standards and certification to customers * Enhance the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills test to include SCANS skills * Build a structure and system to distribute industry-validated curricula and assessments by establishing a State Board of Professional and Technical Standards and coordinate with national efforts." Another interesting page from this site: Research Findings http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~ehrd/skills/exsummry/rsrch.htm Research Question A - What is the relationship between the high school diploma and the Certificate of Initial Mastery? Research Question B - What are the elements of successful CIM systems in the world? How can these elements be imported to Texas? Research Question C - What relationship should the CIM have to industry specific or advanced certifications? Research Question D - How job-specific should standards be - a specific job, a general occupation, a cluster of occupations, or an industry? Research Question E - Do current "skill standards" use a common format and a common language? If so, are they adequate for capturing technical and workplace (applied learning) skills and academic competencies? If not, are a common format and a common language desirable and practical? Which ones? Research Question F - What other "standards for skill standards" are desirable and practical? Research Question G - What are the successes and failures of the national skill standards projects and projects in other states? Key reasons? Next steps? Research Question H - What are the political and bureaucratic problems which other systems successfully avoid and which they are not able to avoid? Research Question I - How important is it that only employers grant certification to exiting students or entering workers? Research Question J - Are Texas employers interested? Research Question K - How can local and regional responsiveness to employer needs be maintained if there is a skill standards and certification system? Research Question L - Who should pay for a skill standards and certification system? Research Question M - Is there a better way to respond efficiently and effectively to the requirements of employers and to improve the match between the skills taught and the skills needed in the workforce for the benefit of employers and for the long-term benefit of students? Jeanne Donovan, Coordinator Texas Education Consumers Assoc. http://www.fastlane.net/~eca eca@fastlane.net *QWFP efforts are underway, with that acronym, in other states as well. If you do a search on, for example, Metacrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com), enter the keywords QWFP quality workforce planning [your state], and you may be surprised by what turns up. ===================================================================== EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE networking and information for parents and taxpayers on the internet Subscriptions & Archives: http://education-consumers.com or You are currently subscribed to education-consumers as: arthurhu@halcyon.com TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send a blank email to leave-education-consumers-989462S@lists.dundee.net ===================================================================== For less mail, click on the following link and choose 1) a daily digest, 2) a daily list of subjects, or 3) no mail (read postings on Web) http://lists.dundee.net/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=education-consumers&text_mode=0 For more help & info: http://www.lyris.com/help or