A “High-Quality Education” is essential to every child in our community.
.
Preparing students for the world of work in tomorrow’s economy has become increasingly more challenging; as a community, we must prepare our students for a fast-moving workplace, which will require our students to be able to compete for jobs with students across the globe.
.
Education has long been an interest of mine. After spending nearly 14 years as a member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, I am still passionate about what and how we deliver education. I believe that for our students to succeed in the workplace of tomorrow, they will need to be able to keep pace with the speed at which technology and information changes. Our schools must prepare students to be able to think critically and to teach students higher-level thinking skills. Our students must also become digital and technologically competent. Only focusing on the basics, as some would suggest we do, is no longer acceptable when preparing students for tomorrow’s future. Our educational focus must include teaching students the ability to innovate, as well as teaching communications and entrepreneurship skills.
.
As a community, we must learn that it is vital that we prepare all of our students for success. We can no longer afford to focus only on those students who attend CMS. We must seek ways to provide support for those students who attend private schools, charter schools, those who are home-schooled, and those who have fallen through the cracks; they all are members of our community. In order for us to realize an educated citizenry who will change, maintain, and grow our communities, we will need to learn how to “think differently” about what we want the end product to be.
.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are among the best in the nation, and In recent news reports, we learned that students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools outperformed counterparts in 20 urban districts on a rigorous national test of math and reading, according to 2013 results. The majority of students in CMS, North Carolina, and the nation fell short of proficiency on the exams, which were given to a representative sampling of fourth- and eighth-grade students in 21 large districts. But the report on the National Assessment of Educational Progress highlights several strong points for Charlotte: CMS topped all other districts in fourth- and eighth-grade math and was one of only three districts logging significant gains in eighth-grade math since the tests were last given in 2011. While this is impressive, our student’s competitors don’t live in the United States; they live abroad.
.
One of the things that I continuously hear when companies are asked why they came to Mecklenburg County is that they came because our community provides them with a robust public education system along with a well-educated workforce. How well our students are prepared for post-secondary work directly affects our workforce and our competitive position as a region.