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Essay on Students from California are Unprepared to Succeed
Remember asking your high school counselor about college? Your fears, expectations and hopes -- were they answered by your counselor? California's students are woefully unprepared for universities, according to a state body charged with improving the lives of residents through science and technology. The California Council on Science and Technology issued a report calling on schools from kindergarten to the graduate level to encourage more students to pursue math and science courses. A major finding was that the California labor market for science and engineering workers is increasingly tight and that California's educational system is not producing the science and engineering graduates needed to meet industry's growing requirement for skilled workers.
The study cites several reasons for the lapse, including low teacher salaries, no credentialed teachers, and per pupil spending that's lagged the national average for more than a decade. What's more, the study says the future doesn't look much brighter. According to the report, more than 30 percent of students don't graduate from high school, a percentage that's expected to climb. As a skilled work force has become increasingly important to the tech industry, Silicon Valley executives have jumped into the education debate in an attempt to reach future employees. Silicon Valley lobbying group TechNet made education one of its top priorities. Netscape Communications founder Jim Barksdale has sponsored reading programs. And the council that released Wednesday's study includes George Scalise, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association and a former Apple Computer executive.
But because its goal is to identify problems and suggest ways to fix them, the council holds a particularly dire view of California's education system. The study says four-year universities should better prepare themselves to handle an increase in science and engineering degrees. It faults the California State University system for its pay scale, saying science and engineering.............
