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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 1983)
: » • Portland Observer. January 12, 1983 Page 5 ¿Mnllyinunii 3Flnrr«t Education for the future ìfluincrs f r o lli ¿Holluioooi» bv Dr. M atthew Prophet. Superintendent Portland Public Schools (The following ere excerpts from a speech to the Portland Chamber of Commerce on Janu ary 11th.1 . . . In this country there it a rap idly growing gap between the needs of our highly technical information age and the education and training of our work force. Unless we— as a nation— take immediate action to properly prepare our populace for the economic realities of the post-in dustrial age, we will continue to lose ground to other nations o f the world. As you know, many of them are at this moment making a con certed national effort to gear up for competition in the international marketplace. Authorities in virtually every sec tor of our society suggest that the key to advancing our economy, strengthening our position in world markets, maintaining our national defense, and moving our nation into the post-industrial age, is technol ogy. Just as the evidence that technology is the key to attaining our national goals in each of these areas is overwhelming, so is the evi dence that education is the key to technology. A review of our current economic situation tells the story. •T he U .S . rate of productivity has declined each year since 1965, and the actual level of productivity has decreased since 1979. •Managem ent analyst Peter Drucker anticipates that through the 1980s and 1990s 10 to 15 million manufacturing jobs w ill disappear from the American landscape. Even if Drucker is half right, imagine the economic, social and political panic created in 1980 81 by the loss of a mere 300,000 auto industry jobs multiplied many times. •W e are already facing the eco nomic consequences o f becoming technologically inferior in the man ufacture of automobiles, radio, tele vision, high fidelity, tape and video recording, and a host of other elec tronic industries. Now we face the compounded consequences o f be coming inferior in the microcompu ter and memory chip industries. Japan already holds 70 percent of the world market in 64K memory chips and is currently working on a one megabyte chip. •fo llo w ing Japan's lead, France has formed its ministry of research and industry. The French ministry is launching eight separate projects to design commercial high technology products. This five-year, $20 billion e ffo rt to build France into the world’s third technological and in dustrial power, alongside the U.S. and Japan, is underway. •G erm an y, another rival in the world marketplace, has not lost the message o f the Japanese and French. Germany is also pushing hard to automate its industry and move into higher technology indus tries. •Even Third W orld nations with their abundance of low-cost labor threaten to attract assembly work away from the U.S. The evidence is clear from what is happening internationally that there is a need to address this issue. by advanced technology? At a time when it is becoming more and more important to train our students for a post-industrial world, we are still producing scientifically and techno logically illiterate high school gradu ates— the fastest growing minority How then can the U.S. maintain a lead in some technological areas and make gains in those areas in which we are currently behind? Clearly we cannot rely on internal monetary policies and tariff barriers when an important portion of our gross na tional product comes from international trade. If we are to retain and keep pace with the technological advances of our foreign competitors it is neces- >4ry for the education sector to aid In the response. The educational community must help our nation become effectively Competitive in the high technology industries by developing the human (Jesources upon which a technologi cal base is dependent. We must edu cate. train and retrain our populace for the information age----- It seems clear that the United Slates lacks the national goals, the public policies or even the vehicle to focus discussion and debate in the reconstruction of science and math ematics education. No other indus trialized country has defaulted on the education of science and mathe matics teachers to the extent of the United States. What are the implications of such a lack of national commitment on our need to be com petitive in a world market becoming dominated group in America. What can we do? Unfortunately, the future looks grim Realistically we can expect lit tle help from our national or state governments. On the national level our leadership is working hard to cut back spending in all n on -m ili tary areas. Education has, for ex ample, been the recipient of severe cuts from the federal level. The current state of our economy makes it impossible to expect more help from the state level and, in fact, reductions are likely. W hile not all o f our youth will seek employment in high technology industries, they will all need to be aware o f communications technol ogy if they are to be prepared to sur vive in a technology driven society. The future adult who is not aware of technology will be as disadvantaged as those today who cannot read. But we can't afford to do this job alone—in fact, I'm sure you would not want us to do it alone. While the cost o f technology has decreased dramatically, to prepare our youth to be technologically literate will re quire a major investment. This cost can and must be shared by the entire community. Businesses can help by sharing your expertise, by being on our advisory committees, by sharing your personnel and facilities, so that our students can learn the practical application of technology. In December o f 1980, the P ort land Board o f Education adopted the concept of partners in Portland education. This concept encourages the District to work closely with the Chamber of Commerce to develop a school/industry partnership. The Chamber Board has recently com missioned S .R .I. International, a f filiated with Stanford University, to conduct a study to identify, among other things, those industries most likely to play a significant role in economic development. In working with the Chamber we hope to build partnerships between businesses in those identified industries and build appropriate vocational programs within our schools for those indus tries. I B M . has agreed to support us in adding to the system in a very cost- effective fashion. One element being considered for the integrated network between the high schools is that of individual pi lot projects. Examples of these in clude computer aided design and manufacturing (including drafting) robotics, computer graphics and mi crocomputer construction, repair and maintenance at Benson High School. Wilson High School is con- sideering the use o f electronic li braries such as ''Dialogue,” “ Com puServe," and " T h e Source" to conduct research and Roosevelt hopes to become involved in a user- directed computer counseling net work, a career information program and administrative uses of compu ters . . . . Cleveland intends to soon become involved in a conference phone net work to local and state businesses and agencies in a project being sponsored by A IS Division of A m erican Bell. Jefferson is exploring certain in novative computer applications. They are giving consideration to the introduction of utilizing the compu ter to assist in A rt and Music in struction, interactive television, ex pansion of basic skills applications, staff training, and possibly the es tablishment of a computer demon stration center. In addition to the programs I have mentioned, this District a l ready has 418 microcomputers and computer terminals in place in our schools for use in instruction and management. That is one for every 108 students in Grades 1-12. We have developed a K-12 learning plan in computer science and a course outline titled Introduction To Com puters and we have one of the most sophisticated non commercial tele vision studios in the state— to enable us to tap into cable innovations. Our target is to have all students become computer literate— to learn how the new technology can be used to solve our problems. We arc looking closely at our en tire range of educational p ro grams, including special education, talented and g ifted , English as a second language, and various other special programs to determine how we can strengthen them by the use of modern technologies. In addition to increasing our co operative efforts with the private sector, we are taking the following actions: First, we have created an office of instructional technology to spear head our efforts to move our district into the information age in a timely, productive and cost-effective fa shion. In addition, we have carried out a broad-based districtwide planning effort involving teachers at all lev els, adm inistrators and support staff, and members of the Portland State University Department o i Education. Out of that " In fo rm a tion Age Planning Conference” has come a set of recommendations for the District's involvement in instruc tional technology----- Now students in Lincoln’s foreign language programs will be able to communicate by voice on a regular basis with students in foreign coun tries as a result of this project. Such communications w ill enhance the Lincoln international studies mag net program. Initially, Lincoln stu dents in Russian language will com municate with students in the Soviet Union and Lincoln’s students of Ja panese will be communicating with students in Japan This project is a good example of our desire to go beyond computers, to enter the entire range of instruc tional technologies and to include the entire span of the curriculum in our e ffo rts .. . . We are also considering the de velopment of a computer network that will, in its first phase, link our ten high schools together by compu ter. We intend to communicate be tween schools by electronic m ail, and to establish a solid intercommu nications system among the ten schools. Each o f the high schools is a l ready involved in some preliminary planning for a pilot project o f its own and w ill be able to share its progress via computer communica tions. I B M . has agreed to provide substantial support for this project. If it is as successful as we anticipate. are essential«) the survival of public education in our rapidly changing society At the same time we intend to increase (not decrease) human to human interactions and to provide a more humane educational setting By making the very best use of people, instructional tools, manage ment skills and tax dollars we will achieve that vision. I hope that you will join with us in making your resources available— either through providing experi ences in your industries or in sharing your resources with our classrooms. Together we can help our society overcome computer anxiety, and move forward as a community into this new age Time magazine names a computer the "man of the year" and the Portland schools will pre pare our youth to use " th a t m an" for a more productive tomorrow. In order to address the problem of skills deficiencies among a seg ment o f our students, and to do everything possible to ensure that all students meet the increasingly de manding graduation requirements, we are now in the process of evalu ating several computer-assisted in struction pilot projects designed to help students who have failed in one or more areas on our District-wide levels test We arc looking to devel op the best possible approach to ba sic skills remediation in cooperation with private sector companies Elementary schools across the na tion are becoming increasingly in volved in the use of computers in in struction. This district is taking a hard look at two particularly prom ising programs: Apple Logo and I.B .M .’s "W ritin g To Read" pro grams. Each of these is being exam ined as possible pilot projects for el ementary schools. . . . We are also concerned about the human element. O ur use o f m a chines is intended to enhance rather than replace the personal role of the teacher in our classrooms. As we move heavily into the use o f such tools—as I believe we must— it is es sential to address the human and in terpersonal issues to be faced by both our students and our staff members. . . Portland can lead the way in this country in ultimately bringing edu cational costs down and increasing educational productivity. The pro gram l have just outlined is an ambi tious one, but is reachable through a cooperative effort within our com m unity. It is one that the School District can not do alone. We have neither the resources nor the staff. Nor can it be done overnight. It will lake time and the combined efforts of all of us. We are competing with highly technically oriented countries which have adopted national goals in these technical fields. We need your help! Our goal is to develop a strate gic vision that brings the best re sources of business, industry and education into a concerted effort to allow for the kinds of changes that I n YAW S R éstaurant 2005 N.E. 40th Portland, OR 97212 249-1888 We Deliver Anywhere My husband and I did everything together. We even decided on our funeral plans together. When John died it was much easier (or me There were so many things that had to be done I know I carried out his wishes because we discussed them ahead of time We even had money put aside In a special plan available through our (uneral home It was a great relief. I wish more people knew about It. II you'd like Information call or write (or our free booklet on (uneral planning. CALDWELLS COLONIAL MORTUARY N 1 I4»h «1 Sandy Wvd And Hum»»*»» Purl ¡and. 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