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Celebrating progress and anticipating responses to growing numbers of challenges were the focus of discussion Thursday at Education Summit X, "A Celebration of Learning."
Keynote speaker Dr. Roger Thornton, executive director of Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents, noted all the advantages of life in Kosciusko County - the lakes, rich farmland, steady employment, the orthopedic industry, a family-friendly area - and said to educators, "If you are to remain where you are, you must get better than you have ever been."
Statewide, there is much to celebrate in the field of education, he said - academic honors diplomas have increased from 6 percent in 1991 to 21 percent last year; student attendance at college has increased from 26 percent in 1970 to 80 percent today, making Indiana 17th in the nation in the number of seniors who go on to further education; and Indiana has adopted the highest learning standards in the country.
The goal, Thornton said, is that "every child will graduate from high school ready to enter higher education, the armed services or the workforce - without remediation."
The challenge previously, he said, was for universal access to education. The challenge now is for universal proficiency.
"Now when (students) graduate, they must have a high level of skill if they're going to make it, no matter what the color of the collar - white or blue," he said.
The challenge to young people, especially high school students, Thornton said, is "are they going to be able to make a living wage to support a family?"
To earn a living wage, he said, students in tomorrow's job market must have mastered algebra and geometry, must be able to communicate and write well and must be able to use and understand technology.
Educators' biggest challenge, he said, is to bring a kindergartner who has never been read to, who has not had access to books, "and somehow cause that child to master the same standards" as the kindergartner who has had access to books, computers and other teaching tools for years.
"Kids haven't changed, but the world has," he said. "How do we provide opportunities to kids who've never been read to equal to that advantaged child?"
Thornton asked for help from businesses who build quality control into the manufacturing process, instead of using it separately to check products for defects after manufacture.
"The challenge of public education today is not about teaching, it's about learning," he said. "Regardless of how good we are at teaching, if kids aren't learning, it's not working."
How well students are learning at the school corporations in the county also was related by representatives of those corporations.
Most of the school districts emphasize reading, whether using reading coaches, as at Akron Elementary in Tippecanoe Valley; research on training teachers to teach reading skills, at Triton; community volunteers reading to and with students, at Warsaw; or a "reading renaissance" program to encourage students to read at their appropriate levels and to challenge themselves.
