A Wisconsin middle school has been surveying local businesses to see what they want out of their future employees:
Jack Young Middle School Principal Robert Meicher spoke about the completed Sauk County Labor Skills Survey during Monday's School Board meeting. It was directed at finding out what employers think of local students who are coming to them for jobs, he said."Basically they asked the businesses, ... what are you getting, what do you need and what do we need to work on?" Meicher said.
According to the survey results local business and industry managers say important skills for their employees include: a strong work ethic, preparedness and punctuality, ability to follow detailed instructions and to work as a team member, Meicher said. Things that needed improvement in students and graduates are: customer service skills, punctuality, lack of a strong work ethic and responsibility to self, family and workplace...
Schools Superintendent Lance Alwin said administrators from other districts have noted testing was not high on the list of concerns for employers answering the survey. "Almost to a person they noted, there was nothing about academic standardized test scores," he said. "It was a wholesome notation that communities have a greater expectation of schools than just what their test results are."
I'm not surprised. For one thing, most standardized tests used in schools these days are for measurement of basic academic skills. Somehow, I have the feeling that employers assume these fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic will be taught in school, and what they indicated on the survey are the additional life skills that reflect focus and maturation.
To say that employers don't care about standardized test scores is disingenuous. If asked to choose between a literate but immature applicant and one who was nice but couldn't read well, I imagine employers would choose the former. They may not care about the exact test scores, but I'm sure they'd notice if schools stopped focusing on basic skills altogether.
Posted by kswygert at October 11, 2005 10:54 AM