New Basic Skills for Today's Economy

Will professional development lead to better teaching? What other responses will make a difference in public education? Does class size matter? These are the questions on Richard Murnane's mind this fall as he follows the political debates in his home state of Massachusetts. Murnane teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is the author (with Frank Levy) of Teaching the New Basic Skills -- Principles for Educating Children to Thrive in a Changing Economy.

Murnane isn't surprised that education figures so prominently on the platforms of many candidates, because he sees strong economic justification for better education. Think your child is learning the skills she will need to get a good job in the economy of the 21st century? Think again. According to Murnane, today's schools are not teaching kids the skills they will need to earn a middle class wage. We spoke to him about what schools need to do to prepare students for today's economy, and how parents can help instigate change.

FamilyEducation Network: What's the problem with the education children are getting today?

Richard Murnane: Our economy has changed drastically in the past 15 years but schools have changed very little. An education that was good enough for the economy of the 1970's is no longer good enough for today's job market. Today, graduates no longer leave high school prepared with the basic skills they need to earn middle class wages.

Look at the change in wages over the last 15 years. In 1979 a 30-year-old male high school graduate on average made $28,000 a year (in today's dollars). Today, a 30-year-old male with a high school degree earns an average of $21,000 a year. This is a 25 percent decline. The problem is not that today's high school graduate has lower skills, but rather the skills that are needed to get middle class jobs have changed because the economy has changed. Schools aren't worse than they used to be. Rather what was good enough fifteen years ago is not good enough today.

FamilyEducation Network: What is the difference between the economy of today and the economy of 1979?

Richard Murnane: Today, skills play a much larger role in determining earnings than was the case for the 1970's.

FamilyEducation Network: What does today's high school graduate need to get a middle class wage job?

Richard Murnane: To get a higher wage, middle class job, a high school graduate needs skills that fit today's economy. This involves hard skills like being able to read and do math but also soft skills like the ability to problem solve and work well in groups. Many of the most important activities at work involve group interactions, not repetitive actions by individuals. Group activities depend on taking initiative and applying skills. Companies like Motorola and Honda are looking for those basic skills and almost half of high school graduates lack them.

FamilyEducation Network: How do children develop some of the soft skills like problem solving and working in groups?

Richard Murnane: Cooperative learning is one of the ways children can develop some of the soft skills -- being able to work with a group of people to solve problems. Often parents think cooperative and group work is a waste of time and are frustrated with it. When done well, some of the soft skills (like cooperative learning) can be used to teach the hard skills, like reading and math. But a lot of teachers don't know how to teach this way. They really need training to know how to use cooperative learning.

FamilyEducation Network: How can parents judge the quality of their kids' schools?

Richard Murnane: Parents usually compare how their child's school compares to their own school experience. In terms of homework and school subjects, things usually seem fine. But the world the children are entering is different, so parents need to ask some different questions like:

• Where do kids from the school go after they graduate?
• If they are moving on to middle school, do they take algebra? What track?
• What percentage of kids graduate from your child's high school?
• What do the graduates do afterwards? Where do they work?
• Where is the class of 1994?

This information will probably tell parents more about how their children will fare than test scores and grades.

FamilyEducation Network: In your book, you describe the Zavala Elementary School in East Austin, Texas, and the changes that were implemented in this school to improve children's basic skills. How did this school change?

Richard Murnane: The changes in the Texas school involved using for all children a curriculum that had previously been used only in gifted and talented programs. There was also intensive teacher training. Lower class size was implemented. And finally, there was deep and intensive parent involvement. This included allowing parents on governing boards, parents being involved in hiring decisions -- a level of parent involvement that goes way beyond what most people think parent involvement means.

FamilyEducation Network: What do you do if your child's education seems inadequate?

Richard Murnane: This is not an easy answer as to what parents can do. The Zavala Elementary School in East Austin, Texas, changed over a period of three years with the help of an organization that was specifically created to help this type of change take place. Another example is district two in New York City, where dramatic change took place through professional development -- retraining teachers. But parents should know that it is very hard for schools to change unless parents want them to change. Parents insisting on change is the first step.

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