WARD ONE: "Please, Listen to me MAN and WOMAN!"

The Meaning of Work
For Chris Dansby, the Search for a Job Is About More Than a Paycheck

Sunday, November 19, 2006; A01

On the morning of his 25th birthday, Chris Dansby made the same wish that he'd made when he turned 24, 23, 22 and 21: Let this be the day where everything worked out, the one he'd been promised since he was a boy.

He was living for the moment in his girlfriend's apartment, surrounded by nothing of his own. It was her bed he awoke in. Her leftover rice in the refrigerator. Her plastic bowl that he spooned the rice into. Her spoon, her sink, her shower, her iron, her everything except for Chris's clothes, a folder he carried that contained a copy of his résumé, and a wallet that contained no money and the business card of a potential employer who had stopped returning his calls.

Her car, too. With its gas tank on empty, Chris steered it into the parking lot of a city-run job center in Southeast Washington at opening time, 8:30 a.m. "It's my birthday. I don't have no money. I don't have no job. I'm feeling kind of mopey today," he said as he went inside the job center, which is in Ward 8, where he has lived his entire life, a part of the city that is 93 percent black and on this day had an unemployment rate of 16.3 percent.

Far away from the life of Chris Dansby, academics and policymakers debate the reasons that unemployment among black men is consistently and disproportionately high. Are the reasons societal, as some argue, or a matter of individual responsibility, as others argue? Are they a reflection of racism? Of defeatism? Of laziness?

Chris's attention, though, was on a list of jobs on a computer screen. Senior litigation paralegal was the first one. He needed a job suitable to a high school graduate who hadn't worked steadily in months. Account executive. And who didn't have a car except when he could borrow one. Software requirement analyst. And who had a Metro fare card only because a relative gave him one. Director, corporate strategy. And who was so broke that the only thing in his pockets other than the keys to a car that had no gas was a pair of dice that he extracted and rattled whenever he had nothing better to do.

Mail room. He paused and read the job description. "The responsibilities include sorting and delivering mail." He looked at the address, saw that it was nowhere near public transportation, and moved on.

Wellness coordinator. VP human resources. Biotechnology scientist.

Out came the dice.

"Twenty-five," he said.

Rattle. Rattle.

"I thought I'd be doing better than this."

* * *

'It's Hard Out in This World'

Why does Chris Dansby not have a job?

What happened? What can he do about it? What did he do wrong?

As Chris navigates the part of the nation populated by black men like himself looking for work, there isn't a day he doesn't wonder about these questions, the last one most of all.

"I don't know, man. It's hard out in this world. It ain't geared for me," he said. "I ain't making excuses, you can get out of it, but. . . ."

But why was his neighborhood's unemployment rate 16.3 percent while at the same moment, in predominantly white Ward 3, the jobless rate was 1.5 percent? Why, last year, as he grew discouraged, were 70 percent of all white men working, 71 percent of all Asian men, 75 percent of all Hispanic men -- and 60 percent of all black men? And only 49 percent of all black men between ages 18 and 24? And only 43 percent of all black men 18-24 with a high school diploma or less?

" . . . But I don't blame anybody," Chris said. It's all on my shoulders."

The unemployed black male: He has been studied and commented upon more than any other any category of American worker, and always to conflicting conclusions. Some academics say the problem traces to what they describe as cultural issues within the black community: Fractured families, demeaning music, sports millionaires as role models, thuggishness as a virtue -- all contribute to a "culture of failure" of which joblessness is a part. The problem, these academics say, is behavioral.

Others, however, say it's structural, and point to a 2004 study in which employers were found to be as willing to hire a white man with a criminal record as a black man with a clean record. It was a finding that echoed the results of earlier studies, including a 1991 survey of hiring practices in Chicago in which employers said blacks were worse hires than whites because "they don't want to work," "they don't know how to work," "they come late and leave early," "they've got an attitude problem" and they are "just not as good."

The problem, these academics say, isn't behavioral but societal. Slavery began it, racism continues it, and it entrenches itself every day in neighborhoods such as Ward 8 in forms such as inferior schools, which lead to poor job skills, which lead to employment rates of 43 percent.

Back and forth the arguments go in the search for solutions, and meanwhile, underneath them, on the ground level that is Ward 8, Chris was saying, "I think this is the roughest period of my life. Because it can go either way. It could go, I'm out on the street, homeless, asking people for money, or it could go the way I want it to go."

He was on his way to a job interview. He was using his thumb to wipe a spot off his tie, which he never completely unties, instead looping it over his head because he's not sure he'll be able to retie it. He was thinking about what he would say. "I think I give a good first impression. I smile. I'm dressed nice. I try not to use slang."

But he was concerned about his résumé -- and all that it didn't say. For instance, it showed him working at the Giant Foods warehouse for two months, and what would an employer think of that? Should he mention that he was working the overnight shift? That on his last day, "I felt good when I got off work, I didn't feel sleepy"? That his eyes got droopy somewhere along Martin Luther King Boulevard, and they closed on Alabama Avenue, and when he slammed into a utility pole the engine ended up in the front seat, and the hospital bill that he has yet to pay is $1,500, and that's one of the reasons he needs a job? Preferably near a Metro stop?

And what about his first job, as one of the red-hatted guides in downtown Washington? "The best job I had," he said. It was $12.52 an hour, 40 hours a week. He had a bank account that got up to $700 -- and then, after 18 months of giving the same directions, helping the same homeless people, making the same money, he quit.

"I wanted more," he explained. "It wasn't no career. I wanted something better."

And maybe that's when the tailspin began, he said, because he didn't have another job lined up, and there went his savings, and there went his car soon after, and now, two years later, tie on, résumé in hand, wondering why "I waste opportunities or don't see opportunities," he was down to this one option. It was an interview for a job with Jiffy Lube, arranged by a government-funded job-placement service whose clients are mostly black men.

"God, help me out," he prayed before going in.

A week later, at a Virginia Jiffy Lube that was a 43-minute subway ride from Ward 8, Chris began his new job. Eight dollars an hour, 40 hours a week, $16,640 a year. "Looks like it's gonna work out," he said.

That night, his girlfriend told him their relationship was over.

The next day, he moved in with his mother.

Two days later: "I don't know what happened. I haven't heard from him," said Wally Kenner, his boss at Jiffy Lube. "If he doesn't call me or show up tomorrow, we'll probably have to let him go.' "

The next day: "He no longer works here," Kenner said.

The next day: "I don't know, man. Stuff happens," Chris said, sitting in his mother's home, head down, lights off, voice barely audible, trying to explain.

"If I had the answer, I'd tell you, but I don't know," he said. "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know."

* * *

'My Mother Did Her Best'

His mother's name is Brenda. She is 52 years old, and after 10 years of working as an attendant at a nursing home, a job that paid her $7 an hour when she began and $9.75 an hour when she was let go, she wonders if she will ever work again. "I want a job. I definitely want a job," she said one afternoon, but interviews haven't gone well.

"My ma would have a great chance if she stopped thinking so negative when she go in the door. She's already thinking she isn't getting the job," said Chris, now settled in.

"When I go to an interview, I take my bath, I don't put on a lot of cologne, I put on a nice outfit, I go with a positive attitude," Brenda said. "I walk in, I'll greet people with my handshake, and they give me one of these." She held out her hand limply.

"That's because you're a female," Chris said. "That's how they do it with a female."

"No. I mean come on now. My hand is like a firm grip, and their hand is like this, like they don't want to shake my hand, and I know I ain't got a damn chance," Brenda said. "Once they give me that handshake, I know it's over."

"My mother did her best," Chris said later, away from her, of the woman who dropped out of high school and raised him and an older brother as a single parent. "But she didn't even prepare herself for life, so how could she prepare me?"

As for his father, who has been only a vague neighborhood presence: "I remember one time I asked him to fix my bike," Chris said, thinking back to a day he telephoned his father when he was a little boy, "and he said he would, and he rode past and waved his hand."

Still out of money, no prospects in sight, Chris was headed back to the city-run job placement center on Naylor Road SE, a 10-minute walk from his mother's home. Some parts of Ward 8 are gentrifying with new stores and luxury homes, but this walk took Chris through a dirty parking lot where opportunity was represented by a boarded-up restaurant and a man $50,000 behind in child-support payments who was trying to remedy that by selling socks out of his car.

As usual, Chris was there at opening time to scan listings, use the free phone and meet with his case manager, Alan Morrison, who said of Chris's inability to find work, "He has a good résumé. A good educational background. He interviews well. So I don't know what it is."

The job center was busy, as always. No matter how low unemployment is nationally, or how vibrant the U.S. economy might be, the churn at Naylor Road is constant. So, too, is the racial composition of the clients: Black face after black face filled the lobby, and the computer area where people check job listings, and the conference room where the daily session on job-interview tips was underway for the newest registrants.

"They're going to be taking a look at your total package," an instructor was saying to a dozen people seated around a long table. "The way you enter. Your handshake. Your eye contact. The whole nine yards."

"I don't mean to be rude," a man interrupted. "You got Hispanics coming into this area, they don't have contacts, they don't have resources, but they're getting more jobs than we do, so I'm lost. I don't think Hispanics and Asians are using all these techniques to get jobs."

That's because Hispanics are willing to take any job, a woman sitting across from him said. "They'll stand outside in lines," she said. "I don't see us doing that."

"Another thing, they stick together," a man said. "They ain't complaining about what they ain't got."

"Yeah, but we're here fixating on body language," the first man continued, exasperated.

"What you're facing is a serious unemployment rate for black Americans," a second instructor said. "Let's stop comparing. Let's stop worrying about someone else. Let's start looking at ourselves."

Down the hall, LaMia Chapman, the job center's manager, explained the difficulty of conveying that bit of sentiment to people so discouraged.

"It's like swimming in a whirlpool. That's what it's like around here," said Chapman, who grew up in Ward 8. "If you have severe disappointment after disappointment, and your environment feeds into negativity, it's easy to decide, 'This is the way it's going to be.' "

Meanwhile, after checking for new job listings, Chris was ready to leave.

"Nothing," he said.

Back home:

"I'm proud of him," Brenda said, "but --"

"That's what my ma do," Chris said, cutting her off. "She looks for the negative."

"He's doing the best he can do," Brenda said after a while, when Chris was no longer listening. "The only thing he's not doing is using his mind like he should -- because I know he's a smart, intelligent young man. He showed me that when he finished school.

"He's better than what I am," she said.

* * * 'You Can Do It!'

"Excellence," reads a poster. "Courage," reads another. "Leadership," reads another. "Perseverance," reads another. "Success," reads another.

These are the hallway decorations at the high school that Chris graduated from, called Ballou STAY. Though attached as an annex to Ballou Senior High School, it is not the same thing. Ballou High, which Chris attended before dropping out just before graduation, is where results on the Stanford-9 achievement exams for that year showed that 64 percent of students were below basic proficiency levels in reading and 84 percent were below basic proficiency in math. Ballou STAY is where dropouts return for their diplomas in an environment of relentless inspiration, one in which hallway posters are only the beginning.

"I have counselors. Substance-abuse counselors. Academic counselors," said Wilbert Miller, the school's director. There are social workers, too, he said, along with mentors, workshops for students to "teach them how to tie ties, how to dress for success," workshops for parents and classes that go late into the evening. "They need hope. They just don't have a lot of hope," Miller said. "We say, 'You can do it! You can do it!' "

Or as it says on the bulletin board across from his office: "I CAN DO IT."

Or in a poem students recited at orientation this year: "Yes, I can!"

Four years ago, Chris heard the same exhortations. He also heard them at Ballou High, and before that, in middle school at P.R. Harris Educational Center, where there was extracurricular outreach to students like Chris from a club called Concerned Black Men, which was overseen by an assistant principal named Ron Miller, now retired.

Miller's memory of the club is that "it was just wonderful." Every Saturday, he said, dozens of boys would hear from speakers including Jesse L. Jackson and Marion Barry. Or "we'd put the kids in a circle," Miller recalled, "and I'd throw a medicine ball, and whoever I threw it to would have to stand up and speak for three minutes about himself."

"Self-esteem," Miller said -- that was the point. "We would tell the kids, 'You can do anything you want to do as long as you believe in yourself.' "

Chris's memory: "I think I remember sitting down in little groups talking about things," he said. That's what he can remember. No Jesse Jackson. No medicine ball. No details at all, other than believing he might be a football player someday, or a police officer. Even when looking through his middle school yearbook, he could remember nothing more, and was puzzled as to why he wasn't in any photographs.

And then he did remember: It had to do with not having Christmas that year, and how he was so angry about it that he decided to stay home for a day when school resumed in January.

And then a second day.

And then every day for the rest of the school year.

"The whole year," Chris said, shaking his head. "I can't remember how I did it. I think I would leave out like I was going to school, and then I'd just wait a little bit -- I had the door key -- and come back in the house."

And do?

"Nothing. A bunch of nothing," he said.

And no one knew?

"She was working," Chris said.

"And then I would come home, find something to eat, go to bed," Brenda said. "I didn't even know till he got grown that he didn't go to school that year."

"I mean, it's not my mother's fault. It's my fault. It's my responsibility," Chris said, and then he turned toward his mother. "It's not your fault," he said. "I never blamed you for nothing."

Four years later, in 2000, at Ballou High School, Chris quit again. This time he was a senior in need of four classes to have enough credits to graduate, but when June came and his friends moved on, he pretended he was done, too.

Quietly, over the summer, he made up two of the courses, and at a citywide graduation ceremony in August, Brenda was watching in the audience as her son walked across a stage and paused next to a woman who whispered something in his ear. "We have to talk after this," the woman whispered to Chris, who knew that he still didn't have enough credits, that he shouldn't have been on the stage, that he had been invited to the ceremony mistakenly. But as far as Brenda was concerned, her family had its first high school graduate ever, and Chris, so embarrassed, didn't tell her otherwise.

He didn't tell her then, he didn't tell her the next year, when he was one more young jobless black male on the streets of Ward 8 doing nothing at all, and he didn't tell her the following year when he became a student at Ballou STAY and really did become the family's first high school graduate.

"June 2002," reads the date on the diploma. Four years after receiving it, and laminating it, and putting it in a folder along with his résumé and birth certificate, Chris had yet to show it to a single soul.

"I'm ashamed of it," he said. "It's supposed to say June 2000."

* * * 800 Barnaby St. SE

He thought he had a job as a stocker at K-mart, but on the day he was to start training, he didn't have bus fare, and that was that.

"Here's one," his case manager said one day, handing him a listing for an assistant manager position at Rent-A-Center, but it required a driver's license, and Chris's had been suspended after the accident.

He got a job as an $8-an-hour security guard at a Rite-Aid in Dupont Circle, and on the second day, when a customer tapped him on the arm and said, "Excuse me, where's the foot powder?" he was only too happy to help. "It should all be good now," he said mid-morning, but then his back began to hurt from standing, and he used the word "boring," and two customers began having a loud conversation about Gas-X, and he said, "I'm going to try to tough it out. I mean, I ain't gonna try, I am going to tough it out," and from that point forward every minute became an act of persuasion until he walked off the job in the middle of day 10.

Back home, once again: "You got any money?" Brenda asked.

"What money, Ma?" Chris said.

Mid-afternoon. The day already felt over. With nothing better to do, Chris and Mike Rogers, 32, an old family friend who had spent 10 years in prison for shooting someone when he was 17, and who was temporarily staying at Brenda's, went to visit 800 Barnaby St. SE, where they grew up. Two months after Chris's 25th birthday, his life was nearing its bottom.

"It was right here," Mike said as they looked at a patch of grass and trash where there had been an apartment building until it was torn down as blight. "There were 14 units, around 10 families, around 25 to 30 kids, and every one of them is probably more ashamed of their life up to this point than proud of it. Nobody from 800 was successful. Not one person. Nobody , nobody made it."

He described the men who lived in the building as "bums. Total drunks. In and out of jobs." The women, he said, were women who "settled for less," and as for the children: "We did more adult things at extremely young ages than anybody that I knew. It was just so much going on, and we were always around adults, but it was a constant party for them. All they did was drink, they tried to drink themselves out of their misery, or smoke themselves out of their misery. So we always saw all the adult things. Everything was always right in front of us."

So many years later, Chris looked at the grass and tried to see it. "But Mike," he said.

"Listen to me," Mike said. "The bottom line, dude, is that none of us have anything. We're still struggling."

"Everybody that lives in America has the same opportunities," Chris reminded him. "If you work hard?"

"It sounds like you're trying to sugarcoat something to me, champ," Mike said.

"I'm not trying to sugarcoat," Chris said. "I'm saying everybody have the same opportunities."

"No," Mike said. "I'm gonna tell you why, brother. Don't get upset with me."

"I'm not getting upset," Chris said.

"All right. How many times were you ashamed to go to school because you didn't look right?" Mike asked.

"A whole lot of times," Chris said.

"Your clothes were ripped and you ain't had nothing?" Mike asked.

"What I'm saying is I don't want nobody feeling sorry for me," Chris said.

"I don't even get this," Mike said. "Where did you come from? You came from nothing. You came from exactly what we're looking at. The bottom line is you are having to learn what some man -- your dad, or somebody -- should have been instilling in you as a child. We didn't get that. We lacked the male influence. That's why you run around here, you can't make up your mind."

"But I should have realized," Chris said, getting more upset by the moment. "I should have been smart enough to be like: 'He's not here. I got to step up and do it myself.' And that's what makes me angry with myself because I didn't do it."

As for his mother, he continued, "I seen my mother for however long she stayed at that job, always coming home, complaining about the job, and I don't want to feel that way. And that's the way I be feeling with these jobs."

"Listen to me, dog," Mike said.

"No," Chris said. "You listen. Because I'm not stupid. I'm not stupid! I have a high school diploma. I shouldn't have to settle for an eight-, nine-dollar-an-hour job. It's making me angry just thinking about it."

"But listen to me, man," Mike said.

" I shouldn't have to."

"Listen to me, man."

"Everybody I know, outside of an employer, says there's nothing wrong with my résumé, with me, with the way I talk when I go on an interview, so why can't I get hired? Why can't I get hired at a job that's paying real?"

"This right here is depressing me," Mike said. "Because where 800 was? Come here. Look. It's a place where trash is at. That's all it is. That's all it ever was. Look at it. Look at it. Look at it."

"But there were some good times," Chris said.

"But there were a lot of bad times," Mike said. "And that's what's driving you, whether you know it or not."

"But I don't know," Chris said. "That's the thing that's beating me up. I don't know, man. I don't know. What's my purpose? You know what I'm saying? I'm just a speck, man. I feel like giving up sometimes. I feel like I be in limbo. Like nothing sinks into me. Like why don't I remember this? Why don't I remember that? All I remember is bad. I don't want to be that way, man. My two options, I really feel in my heart, is to make it, or to die. Just let go. For real."

"Don't talk to me about that," Mike said, turning away.

"Mike, I'm talking about what's in my heart, man," Chris said, his voice breaking. "I don't want to be out here in limbo, on the street. I gotta find a way, man. I'm not happy, man. I feel so lost. I don't know where I'm at."

Here was the bottom:

"I don't even know if I'm supposed to be here."

Mike turned back.

"All you got to do is love yourself, dude," he said.

"That's what I'm saying," Chris said quietly. "Where do I know how to love?"

Mike looked Chris in the eye. Just like they teach at the job center and in the schools, except that this was nothing like that.

"You can do anything, man," Mike said. "You're 25. You can do anything."

* * * Another Chance

Two weeks later, Chris got his next chance.

Early one morning, he pulled together enough change to take a bus to the subway, and the subway to a second bus, and a short walk later he was at a business called Gov't Movers, where nearly every one of the 100 or so employees who move furniture and boxes around government buildings for $7 to $12.72 an hour is black and male.

"To be honest with you, it's been a little disheartening," Torrance Poindexter, the human resources manager, said of the typical applicant he sees. Not because of race, he said, although he'd like a more diverse workforce, but because of demeanor. "There just seems to be a lack of motivation," he said. Applicants arrive late, he said, and show up in sweat pants. They slump in their seat and say, "I'm a hard worker." They say, "I haven't thought about it," when he asks some about their goals. "One guy, he had a toothpick in his mouth," Poindexter said.

And here came Chris, in dress pants, an ironed shirt and a tie, arriving 10 minutes early. "He was alert," Poindexter would say after the interview. "He seemed to be enthusiastic, he seemed to want to work," he sat straight, he spoke clearly, he made good eye contact, and he had a good answer when asked about his goals: "to improve myself."

What is the truth about black men and employment? It is a national employment rate of 60 percent. It is an unemployment rate in Ward 8 that is higher than in any other part of the city. And in early November, it was Chris on the 11th floor of a government building in Silver Spring, in a uniform that said Gov't Movers, ready to get to work.

"It's got potential," he said of the job. "Things could start happening for me."

His plan was to not only get the job but also to keep it, to not only earn money but also to save some. He would pay off his debts. He would get his driver's license. He would get a car. He would get a new girl. He would get a place of his own.

His spoon. His sink. His shower. His iron. His everything.

First, though:

"We got to move all that?"

He was looking inside a storage room.

"Everything," said a government worker who had unlocked the storage room and whose title was space coordinator.

"That's a lot of everything," Chris said.

The storage room was filled with boxes, boxes that had to be taken to cubicles, cubicles that were replacing older cubicles from which the boxes had been removed. That was today's job.

Five at a time, Chris loaded boxes onto a dolly and delivered them to wherever they were supposed to go. The working world: Here was a cubicle where someone was dialing a phone. Here was a cubicle where someone was entering data into a computer. Here was a cubicle where someone was rummaging through a drawer filled with notebooks and pens and Christmas lights. Here was an empty cubicle where Chris stacked four of the boxes. One to go.

The space coordinator again:

"There's some file cabinets that need to be moved," she said. From a distance, she had been watching how hard Chris was working and had said she was impressed. Up close, she saw that he was perspiring.

"We're just trying to work you to death," she said.

"That's okay," he said, smiling.

He picked up the final box, carried it to a far wall and placed it under a window that happened to offer a breathtaking view to the south.

Down there to the right was Ward 3, where the unemployment rate was 1.5 percent.

And down there to the left was Ward 8, where the 16.3 unemployment rate no longer included Chris, who stood now at the window transfixed.

He'd never seen things from such a perspective.

In a moment, he would get back to work. He would move some filing cabinets. He would keep a job. He would learn how to love himself.

But right now, all he could do was stare.

"Damn," he said.

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The Workforce Readiness Crisis

By Susan McLester and Todd McIntire
Nov 15, 2006
URL: http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193700630

from Technology & Learning

We're not turning out employable graduates nor maintaining our position as a global competitor. Why?

Back when the Soviet Union shot Sputnik into orbit, a panicked United States responded by improving math and science instruction in the nation's schools. Now that the United States is facing an increasingly competitive world market driven by digital globalization, how is our education system stepping up to the demand for graduates skilled enough to keep our country on the cutting edge? According to a survey of more than 400 Fortune 500 companies, we're not doing enough.

Released in September, "The Workforce Readiness Report Card" from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Society for Human Resource Management found the nation's new workforce entrants "woefully ill-prepared for the demands of today's—and tomorrow's—workplace." Donna Klein, president, CEO, and founder of Corporate Voices for Working Families, says the study's results were "amazing and sobering."

Klein, a former executive with the Marriott Corp. and current liaison between numerous American businesses, has seen firsthand the bumpy transition of today's new hires from school to the work world. "Education has been an area of interest for business for a long time because employers recognize that education is the pipeline into the workforce," she says. "We conducted 'The Workforce Readiness' survey essentially to verify our assumptions about what to expect from the upcoming workforce." With the Baby Boomers retiring in droves throughout the coming decade, Klein and others predicted a workforce smaller in number and without the necessary skills needed to thrive in the new technology-based economy.

But not even those commissioning the survey were prepared for the dramatic results the study uncovered.

Critical Skills for Today and Tomorrow

Core findings of the broad report identify what businesses' rate as the most important "must have" skills for new workplace entrants and also the specific areas in which new hires are both most deficient and best prepared. Skills employers cite as "very important" now and predict will be of increasing importance in the digital workplace reflect the shift in the past 25 years from a traditional economy to a knowledge-based economy. Among the skills identified as critical to success in the 21^st century workforce are:

1. a combination of basic knowledge and applied skills, with applied skills trumping basics as in the top five most important for any level of education;
2. professionalism/work ethic, teamwork/collaboration, and oral communications, which are rated the three most important applied skills;
3. knowledge of foreign languages, an area that will increase in importance in the next five years, more than any other basic skill;
4. and creativity/innovation, which is projected to increase in importance for future workforce entrants.

Perhaps not surprising is the finding that employers place much greater value on the applied skills of leadership, critical thinking, and problem-solving than on more traditional basic skills such as reading comprehension or mathematics (for a full breakdown of what is meant by basic knowledge and applied skills, see the table below). Study sponsors are quick to emphasize that this does not suggest employers do not care about the basic skill level of new employees but rather that they seek a balance of the basic and applied skills. As the study states: "While the 'three Rs' are still fundamental to any new workforce entrant's ability to do the job, employers emphasize that applied skills are 'very important' to success at work."

Click here or click on image for larger view.

Measuring Up

Although respondents reported that some new workforce entrants have an excellent balance of the basic knowledge and applied skills they're looking for, and also acknowledge that information technology application makes a strong standing in two of the three education level categories, there remain significant deficiencies among entrants at every educational level, especially in the areas of written and oral communications and general workplace professionalism, including leadership abilities. Beyond that, it's troubling that the majority of college graduates remain just "adequate" rather than "excellent" in key skill areas (see the table at left for how new hires fared).

Also particularly disturbing is the study's findings on the current lack of preparedness of the nation's high school graduates. In addition to the deficiencies in communication and professionalism shared by those with varying degrees of college education, well over half of new workforce entrants with only a high school diploma are deficiently prepared in all ten of the skills that employers rate critical. These include both basic skills such as writing, mathematics, and reading, as well as applied skills such as critical thinking, work ethic, diversity, and teamwork.

The Crisis

The "Workforce Readiness Report Card" sounds a serious alarm for the current state of education in the United States. The implications touch numerous areas in today's education policy, procedures, and theory and presage serious "ripple effects" for the country's domestic and international standing.

On the domestic front, the study points to the degree to which federal education policy in the form of NCLB, with its focus on basic skill reform, appears to be at almost complete odds with the applied knowledge that employers say they value most in workers. Klein sees this disconnect as an inescapable by-product of the sweeping transformations of the past couple of decades. "We have changed to a knowledge economy, culturally, socially, and economically, but have not yet figured out how to reinvent ourselves to keep up with this, including in the area of education."

On the current lack of graduates' ability to apply skills, Klein believes this may in part be a result of an increasingly narrow and segmented curriculum, due largely to the cutbacks in after-school programs we've seen in the past 25 years. "After-school programs that provide opportunities for young people to remain in school to get experience in art, music, drama, computers, community leadership, and athletics help kids develop applied skills," Klein says. "There is lots of research showing this holistic approach to youth development is more beneficial in the long run than segmented development."

Cisco Systems Global Lead for Education Charles Fadel also believes that American students' lack of ability to apply learned skills in the workplace environment may be the result of an imbalance in our instructional approach. "We Americans tend to be purists," Fadel says. "We go from one extreme to the other, conducting academic debates over the merits of such things as whole language vs. phonics, or succumb to fads like 'new math,' instead of recognizing that we need to offer practical means to learn."

Fadel, who earned physics and business degrees, says the American education system has been losing its edge in both the creativity and deeper thinking areas over the past 20 or 30 years. "In the past, we saw NASA engineers thinking daringly and creatively, and they also had the analytical background to go with it," Fadel says. "American education has now somehow lost its ability to impart analytical skills to the masses."

Communication Breakdown

Klein and others also lament the "C in written communication" grade assigned by today's employers even to four-year college grads. "It's just so hard today to find entry-level people who can communicate effectively," she says. "Businesses are currently picking up the slack in remedial instruction, but the cost of training is prohibitive."

And for the many graduates who find themselves in working situations where companies are not willing to invest in training, a lack of communication skills can be a barrier to upward mobility.

John Curson, a veteran high-tech executive and CFO and cofounder of the San Francisco Bay Area's Complete Genomics DNA Sequencing company, finds the college graduates he's hired to fill middle management positions flatly "unpromotable" as a whole. "They may have good ideas, but they are simply unable to express them, either in writing or orally," Curson says. "If you want to be reminded about how important it is to communicate well, look at Steve Jobs." And while the company's highly skilled top technology workers, success-track PhDs and MBAs, may be able to communicate ideas clearly, they too often exhibit a limited ability to interact successfully with others, especially in the area of conflict resolution. Curson suspects the digital natives' natural dependence on e-mail may be partly to blame. "E-mail has introduced incredible efficiencies, but there is no substitution for old fashioned, face-to-face dialogue when it comes to straightening out misunderstandings," he says.

Workplace Professionalism

Such complaints from employers about employee behaviors dovetail with larger survey findings pinpointing concerns about new hires' lack of professionalism. Punctuality, courtesy, and manners are among the qualities many employers see as having fallen through the cracks between the Baby Boomer generation and succeeding ones. Klein attributes this in part to the shift in America from the single-earner household to the double-earner household, a result of women entering the workforce en masse in the '70s. "Suddenly, no one was around to make sure you had table manners or were dressed neatly," says Klein. "And even more has been lost since we've become a 24/7 economy. We're dependent on female labor and that's not going to change, but we haven't figured out anything to take the place at-home moms' jobs."

Despite the concerns expressed by many employers about the workplace ethics and general behavior of new hires, others disagree. Dave Anderson is chairman and founder of Sendmail, a company that routes 60 percent of all the e-mail on the Internet, as well CEO of the newly formed Evergrid, which develops software for high-performance technical computing. He disputes the notion that new hires lack professionalism, a work ethic, and applied skills. On the contrary, he says, it couldn't be "farther from the truth." His employees—mostly one to two years out of college—deal regularly with Wall Street brokerage firms and other high-level businesses. "They're not dressed in suits, they wear jeans and shorts, but they're well-mannered and aware of business standards," he says.

All New Grads Not Equal

In the area of applied skills, Anderson reports almost the opposite of what the survey says about new hires. "They're much better at working collaboratively, as part of a team, and have a greater understanding of processes than earlier grads have had," Anderson says. "Many are much more self-taught and self-guided, with lots of experience with open source and business internships under their belts."

The broad disconnect in the experience of employers such as Anderson, who admits to "being very picky" about the quality of new hires; Curson, who notes the "incredibly advanced technical capabilities" of recent hires with high-level degrees on his staff; and the majority of employers responding to the "Workforce Readiness" survey, suggests a growing disparity between workers with the most advanced degrees from the best schools and all other employees. This broadening gap also applies to the high school educated students who can be seen as set apart from all other groups because of their deficiency in virtually every crucial skill required for today's workplace.

It is difficult not to fear that this increasing divide will create a new and more stringent workforce hierarchy in American society, a distinctly un-American system with an elite, top-educated workforce maintaining power over a less-educated class that holds little chance of upward mobility.

The Global Threat

But while the United States battles its domestic issues, serious international threats are undermining its status as a global competitor. Producing and maintaining a prepared workforce is an ongoing challenge within an era of increased mobility of goods, services, labor, technology, and capital throughout the world. American employees no longer solely have the advantages provided by superior education and technical infrastructure. Nations around the world, such as India and China, have invested in education and technology to overcome barriers of communications, distance, and time to provide competitive products and services usually at much lower costs than those produced domestically. The result is a host of new threats to the American competitiveness on the horizon.

The Solutions

The sponsors of "The Workforce Readiness Report Card" ask, "How can the United States continue to compete in a global economy if the entering workforce is made up of high school students who lack the skills they need and college graduates that are mostly 'adequate' rather than 'excellent?'"

They look to two basic solutions to ensure that the nation's students are prepared to successfully meet the demands of the 21st century workforce. First, schools must find ways to teach applied skills integrated with core academic subjects. "America needs to relearn how to grow talent indigenously," Fadel says. "Teaching content and skills together is not a new concept—it goes back to Socratic methods. Technology just helps do it on a broader scale." (T&L will explore how cutting-edge districts are dealing with this challenge in the January issue).

Second, the business community must be more active in defining the skills they need from their new employees and then partner with schools to create opportunities for students to obtain them. "We need cross-sector dialogue that is not politically charged," Klein says. "There should be ongoing discussion among all stakeholders—education, business, and government—about what the ideal state is and how we can get there."

School-business partnerships can also provide direct learning opportunities such as internships and summer jobs, employee mentors and tutors, investments in proven work preparation courses, and monetary resources to find new solutions to this challenge.

The 21st Century Digital Learning Environments Future

If one is to take at face value the findings of "The Workforce Readiness Report Card," the United States faces a perfect storm of challenges arising from the disconnect between education and workforce values, the growing disparity in the degree of preparation of new hires, and the apparent inability of nearly all graduates to communicate effectively. But how do educators feel about this? Do these findings resonate with their experiences in the field? Do they agree that education is facing a serious crisis? Or are we making good progress in keeping up with skills required for the 21st century workplace? We'd like to hear your thoughts—e-mail your opinions to smclester@cmp.com.

Susan McLester is editor-in-chief of T&L. Todd McIntire is vice president at Edison Schools.

Virtual Tour of a Digital Learning Collaboratory

Purdue University "Digital Learning Collaboratory" Virtual Tour

http://dlc.purdue.edu/#

Comments?

ALL About YOUR Digital Learning!

he big mistake in planning for the school of the future is starting where we are today and imagining how to move forward. With that approach, we necessarily drag along a great deal of excess baggage. Instead, we should begin with where we want to be, where we think we will be, and work back through all the steps necessary to get to that point. Let us begin, then, with a description of the "digital child," the boy or girl who came into existence and lived his or her whole life in a digital world. This child has never known a time when computers were not an ordinary part of day-to-day life, or a time when constant change in the world was not the norm, or a time when it was difficult to access information or to communicate with other human beings with little regard to their actual geographical location. The digital child is the offspring of parents who were not born in a digital world but grew up during the transformation from an analog world to the digital one. Even so, they share with the digital child a number of common characteristics that make them different from the analog parents and analog children from the latter half of the 20th century. Time For the digital child, life is a balance between working, learning, playing, and tending to physical and spiritual needs. These aspects of life are not broken up into concrete and nearly immobile blocks of time, however, as they traditionally have been for most 20th-century children. Instead, working, learning, and playing are interspersed throughout the day and throughout the year. It's not that routine is unimportant for the growing digital child. It's that the timing of these various activities is tailored to the child's individual needs and desires, as well as to the schedules of the child's parents. After all, working and playing are not necessarily best done at the same moment for all children, and digital parents do not necessarily follow the 8:00 to 5:00 work regimen of their forebears. Location Just as time is fitted to the child, so is the location of life's activities. Learning does not always take place in the same building or even at the same longitude and latitude. Learning is something that is a constant throughout the day, as are work and play. All these activities are done at home, at "school," and in the community, both physical and digital. (Of course, safety in both of these worlds is of primary importance for digital children.) Activities In fact, the lines between what is learning, what is work, and what is play are difficult to distinguish. Activities are no longer compartmentalized according to time and place -- the time for recess, the place at school where the computers are housed -- and that has tended to blur the lines. Of course, there are times when the digital child is clearly at play or clearly at work, but there are also many times when these activities are inseparable. Just as 20th-century schooling mirrored 20th-century adult work, with its competition and cubicles and hierarchies, so too does 21st-century schooling resemble 21st-century adult work. The digital parents work at home as independent contractors, or telecommute, or move easily from job to job and career to career, learning as they go and remaining productive as they adjust their hours to their needs or whims. Their work time and play time are often indistinguishable. Relationships For the digital child, relationships with other human beings are the most important aspect of life. Together, family relationships, personal relationships, community relationships, working relationships, and learning relationships form the fabric of the child's existence. These relationships are much less subject to time and place than were the relationships forged by the 20th-century child, however. Digital children learn with and play with people whose age, religion, culture, economic status, and first language are quite different from their own or those of their parents. And, most likely, a significant number of these relationships are with people who live thousands of miles away. This is important because, when they grow up, digital children will be expected to work with people of any age, religion, culture, economic status, and first language -- not just at a local workplace, but anywhere. Technology An old proverb says, "Fish can't see the water." Likewise, our digital child swims in an ocean of changing technologies. The ebb and flow of new gizmos and scientific discoveries are merely punctuated by occasional technological typhoons reminiscent of the Y2K storm. Quite at home in this swirling sea, the digital student learns to take advantage of each new technological advancement, making the most of its contributions to his or her professional and personal life and confidently awaiting the next new breakthrough. Temperament Digital children react to the world rather differently than their 20th-century counterparts did. For example, they are patient with the deficiencies of adults, who often seem hopeless and helpless in the face of emerging technologies. These children have had lots of practice. After all, they are the first generation in history that is, as Don Tapscott has put it, "more comfortable, knowledgeable, and literate than their parents about an innovation central to society." Digital children are more independent, more intellectually open, more tolerant, and more adventurous than most 20th-century children. They hold strong views and expect instant gratification. At the same time, they are at greater risk from AIDS, school shootings, terrorism, depression, and suicide than their 20th-century predecessors. And they represent a larger population segment than those analog "baby boomers" who dominated the 20th century. Their collective voices are heard above all others. Learning style Digital children do not learn in isolation. They might work alone, but they learn in groups (even if some of the group members live in other countries). For them, knowledge is like dropping a pebble in a pond. Waves of understanding wash over the digital classroom. Working out an answer and sharing it with your digital classmate is no longer considered cheating. Cheating is keeping the answer to yourself. Cheating is copying someone else's expression of ideas and knowledge -- not sharing those ideas and that knowledge with others. Learning is collaborative and social, not solitary and competitive. These children abhor being made to jump through arbitrary hoops. Thankfully, 20th-century work sheets and busywork are a thing of the past. Digital children seek relevance. They want to solve real problems. They want what they do to make a genuine contribution to the world. (Yes, even if they are only in digital kindergarten.) And they want recognition for real accomplishments. They are guerrilla learners, learning only what they need at the moment to solve the problem, to complete the project. Although they recognize that some knowledge, some insights, some creative works are timeless, they instinctively understand that today's knowledge might turn out to be useless tomorrow. They do not accept the proposition that they must learn something now because it will be useful 10 years from now. They know better. So what do these digital people want from their school system anyway? They want pretty much what children and parents want today -- only they want the digital version, not the 20th-century analog edition. Curriculum Like all schools throughout history, the digital school must prepare students for life in their own time. Because the 21st century is one of explosive social change driven by explosive advances in technology, this will be a real challenge for teachers, administrators, board members, and parents. There are, nonetheless, some constants. One skill we must help children master is the ability to learn -- to gather knowledge, make use of it, let go of knowledge that is of little use, and then learn new and relevant things. The estimate of the number of totally different careers digital children will have in their lifetime continues to climb. These students must be prepared to perform the tasks of jobs that do not even exist while they're in school. People in the 20th century often had trouble unlearning what they had learned as children, but that process was necessary in order to move forward. Digital children must retain that skill as they grow up -- they'll be called on to use it over and over. Digital children must learn to read critically, write effectively, listen intently, and speak fluently. They must be able to find information, understand the information they locate, evaluate the reliability of that information, and see how to apply it to answer a pressing question or to take advantage of a new opportunity. They must be able to communicate their ideas to diverse groups using a variety of media. They must also be able to understand the ideas of others and see how their own concepts might blend with those of their work-mates to solve problems and create new things. Finally, the digital curriculum must produce citizens who are extremely discerning. With access to an avalanche of information and countless numbers of human beings, the digital child must learn to distinguish the useful from the hype, the genuine from the imitation, the sincere from the con, the quality from the flash, the truth from the propaganda. And to do so quickly and repeatedly. Flexibility What the digital family requires of its school system is flexibility, especially the opportunity to chose from a wide range of educational choices. Digital parents expect to custom-design their children's education. The old "my way or the highway" attitude of 20th-century schools is, thankfully, a thing of the past in the digital world. Parents blend and mix educational opportunities afforded by face-to-face classrooms, home schooling, distance learning, private lessons, travel, and other profit and nonprofit educational institutions in the local community or the Internet community. Choice has been tremendously expanded. The time, place, frequency, and content of instruction is individualized but not isolated. Digital children, as a result, are much more likely than their 20th-century analog counterparts to get what they need or want whenever and wherever they need or want it. Digital parents react strongly if they perceive that schools are getting in the way of their children's education. As a result, schools no longer set policies that put the benefit of their employees above the benefit of their students. Quality The digital community demands quality in education above everything else. Its members know that an excellent education is the key to thriving in the digital world. They are not misled by the educational/political trends of the analog 20th century: "Standards" have been replaced by choice; test scores have been replaced by products and solutions; and diplomas have long since been replaced by the flow from data to information to insight to wisdom. Thomas G. Layton, a self-professed online learning evangelist, is the originator of CyberSchool, the first Internet-based public high school distance learning program. He is a consultant with Clarity Innovations, Inc., in Portland, Ore. Illustration by Robert Liberace. Go to Analog Lessons by Kevin Bushweller.

Copyright © 2000, National School Boards Association. Electronic School is an editorially independent publication of the National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed by this magazine or any of its authors do not necessarily reflect positions of the National School Boards Association. Within the parameters of fair use, this article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise linked, transmitted, or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6739.

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Google....Wikis.....Schools...,,nice fit.....

http://www.eschoolnews.com
Contents Copyright 2006 eSchool News. All rights reserved.

Google acquires wiki tool
Search giant's purchase of JotSpot could help spur interest in wikis among schools

From eSchool News staff and wire service reports
November 2, 2006
Expanding its efforts at providing software that helps users create and post their own materials online, Google Inc. has acquired JotSpot Inc., a California startup that develops online collaboration tools known as wikis. The integration of JotSpot into Google's suite of free online applications could encourage the use of wikis among schools, some observers say.

The announcement came Oct. 31 through separate postings at Google's and JotSpot's web journals. Terms were not disclosed.

JotSpot Chief Executive Joe Kraus said JotSpot would be able to tap into the internet search leader's large user base and robust data centers, which are capable of handling any growth.

"Our vision has always been to take wikis out of the land of the nerds and bring them to the largest possible audience," Kraus said in an interview. "There's no larger audience that you can reach than one you can reach through Google."

Wiki tools, popularized by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, let users create, modify, and even delete information on what others in a group have developed.

In July, JotSpot released a new version that aims to make shared pages similar to spreadsheets, photo albums, and other software people already use. In the past, wiki tools have generally mimicked basic web pages or word-processing documents--photographs, for instance, might appear as a list of attachments, with no thumbnails previewing the image before downloading.

Kraus said Google shared his company's vision for helping groups share information and work together online. As the two companies talked over the past nine months, he said, "we were completing each other's sentences."

Google's acquisition of JotSpot, which closed Oct. 30, comes as the internet search leader is completing its purchase of the online video-sharing site YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion in stock.

Earlier in the year, Google bought Upstartle, the maker of the online word-processing program Writely. Google has since packaged Writely with an online spreadsheet it developed in-house (see story: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6656).

The free tools could help groups simultaneously work on documents over the web and provide alternatives to Microsoft Corp.'s dominant business-software applications, which run largely on computer desktops rather than the internet.

Kraus said Google's acquisition of JotSpot "validates the notion that people want to do more online than just read. The web is moving from a monologue to a dialogue."

As JotSpot makes the transition to Google's systems, new registrations have been suspended. Existing users can continue using the service, and JotSpot will stop billing for paid accounts.






Kraus declined to discuss future product plans under Google. In the past, Google turned the Picasa Inc.'s $29 photo organizer into a free download, but it sold a premium version of Google Earth, a mapping product that incorporated technology acquired from Keyhole Corp.

JotSpot currently has 30,000 paid users at about 2,000 companies using its service hosted on premise or at JotSpot. About 10 times as many people use the free, JotSpot-hosted service, which restricts the number of pages and the size of the collaborating group.

Kraus said Google has yet to determine whether existing users eventually would have to sign up for free user IDs through Google, as Writely users ultimately had to do.

The universal identity could heighten privacy concerns, making it easier for governments to obtain one's search history, eMail messages, word-processing documents, and now wiki data with just one subpoena. Kraus said users could delete accounts before migrating to Google.

Privacy concerns aside, some users of wikis in education applauded the move, saying it could help introduce more educators to the benefits of using wikis in the classroom. "It's exciting to have [JotSpot] integrated with the rest of the Google tools, probably for free--it's really cool," said Tim Wilson, director of technology for the Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose schools in Minnesota, about 30 miles west of Minneapolis.

Wilson said he has seen educators use wikis for such tasks as collaborating with students in other countries, as well as making a "Frequently Asked Questions" page on a school web site.

Having easy access to a wiki creation tool through Google might allow teachers "to pursue this technology if they are in a district where the tech leadership wouldn't generally have the skill or the interest to install a wiki service," he said, though he cautioned that teachers should be careful if their district's IT department does not support the use of outside wikis for security or other reasons.

"It's a great resource, potentially, but it's also a potential point of contention in districts," Wilson said.

Links:

Google Inc.
http://www.google.com

Google for Educators
http://www.google.com/educators

JotSpot Inc.
http://www.jotspot.com

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page







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THE DIGITAL Educational Technology Plan for YOUR FUTURE!

"Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail."

"Plan YOUR Work, Work YOUR Plan."

Detroit Public Schools Educational Technology Plan 2006

http://www.detroit.k12.mi.us/technology/techplan_educational_2006.pdf

*AWARD 2006: "Best in Class"
21st Century Digial Learning Environments

Building an Online Community

Tips for Building an Online Community
By Susan Taylor
Nov 1, 2006
URL: http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193401799

Attention school administrators: using technology to support virtual collaboration and establish an online community can serve as a useful tool to “keep the fire burning” among a planning group and help bring positive resolution to the task at hand.

The value of bringing the school community and various stakeholders together to address problems, find solutions and generally contribute to improving situations on the campus cannot be overstated. The most common way to bring people together is to host a face-to-face meeting. However, most issues are not resolved during a one-time meeting and follow up is usually required. In today’s world of competing priorities, it is difficult to find the space and time amenable to everyone’s schedule to allow for follow-up and ongoing conversations. To the rescue comes Virtual collaboration, and it can make a real difference.

Virtual Collaboration Tools

Virtual collaboration may be either Synchronous or Asynchronous. The difference: if it occurs during real-time activities like video teleconferencing or audio conference, where people are in different places participating at the same time, it is Synchronous; but if it enables participants to join in from different places at different times, then it is Asynchronous.

Some strategies to support virtual collaboration include the following:

Establish regular times for team interaction
Send agendas to participants beforehand
Designate a team librarian
Build and maintain a team archive
Use visual forms of communication where possible
Set formal rules for communication and/or technology use

Establishing an Online Community

To accommodate an online community, it is useful to think about the media being utilized and its effect on group dynamics. Kimball (1997, p. 3) provides some useful questions to help you with this process:

Media
Questions for Facilitator/Manager

Electronic Mail
What norms need to be established for things like: response time, whether or not Email can be forwarded to others?
What norms are important about who gets copied on Email messages and whether or not these are blind copies?
How does the style of Email messages influence how people feel about the team?

Decision Making Support Systems
How does the ability to contribute anonymous input affect the group?
How can you continue to test whether “consensus” as defined by computer processing of input is valid?

Audio (telephone) Conferencing
How can you help participants have a sense of who is “present?”
How can you sense when people have something to say so you can make sure that everyone has a chance to be heard?

Media
Questions for Facilitator/Manager

Video conferencing
How can you best manage the attention span of participants?
Where can video add something you can’t get with audio only?

Asynchronous Web-Conferencing
How do you deal with conflict when everyone is participating at different times?
What’s the virtual equivalent of eye contact?
What metaphors will help you help participants create the mental map they need to build a culture, which will support the team process?

Document Sharing
How can you balance the need to access and process large amounts of information with the goal of developing relationships and affective qualities like trust?

Building trust and establishing relationships is cited as a challenge for online communities, so begin with a face-to-face meeting and then pursue the online community. During your face-to-face meeting, let people know that you want to continue the conversations and ask people to join your online community by submitting their Email addresses to you.

To reach as many people as possible, keep things simple in the beginning. Initiate your online community with listserv messages. Begin by sending a message to your group thanking them for attending your recent meeting. One way to begin interaction is to post a question and ask people to respond.

Consider if you want responses to go out to everyone on the listserv or if you want all responses to come to you and you will compile the responses and send back to everyone. Compilation of responses may help ensure anonymity for your members and encourage participation in the beginning when the trust level may not be where it needs to be.

As your online community grows, it will be useful to host an audio conference or another face-to-face meeting to continue the work on building trust.

Remember to offer content and information focused on participants’ interests. Provide resources to help participants make informed decisions. Although information sharing does not encourage community interaction, it may serve to reinforce continue use of the online community.

Use opportunities to share success stories and reward or recognize members.

As your group becomes comfortable with the online community, you may want to consider providing more sophisticated methods to support and maintain your community. Of course, this will be determined by your members’ level of expertise and ability to meet the technology requirements.


Email: Susan Taylor


REFERENCES

Kimball, L. (1997). Intranet Decisions: Creating your organization’s internal network, Miles River Press.

YES Expo Today! STEM Focused Practicum

YES! Expo to Include 20,000-Plus Students, Organizers Say

A key part of attracting and retaining businesses is developing a workforce that understands and loves science. That's why events like the one coming up at Detroit's Ford Field are so important.

A capacity crowd of more than 20,000 is expected to head into the football palace Thursday for the 2006 YES! Expo, an event aimed at inspiring middle and high school students to pursue education careers in science and engineering. The expo will bring together companies and universities from throughout Michigan for a day of presentations, speakers, exhibits, a visit from Bill Nye, the Science Guy (pictured) and more. Participants include dozens of corporations and other organizations, including all 15 of the state's public universities and a number of private colleges.

The YES! Expo is sponsored by Michigan Technological University. For more details, click here.