Community and Student Conversations

Community Conversations Executive Summary

Nine community conversations were held around the state (see dates and locations below).  To read a summary of the comments from all nine community conversations click HERE.

Student Conversations Executive Summary

In addition to the nine community conversations, four student conversations were held around the state where members of the planning team talked exclusively with groups of students.  To read a summary report from all four student conversations click  HERE.

Locations

What are Community Conversations?

One of the most important objectives and one of the greatest challenges of the Vision Project is to ensure meaningful engagement by citizens across the state as the planning team crafts a vision for public education in Georgia.  One of the strategies to encourage participation in the initiative is to conduct a series of meetings in selected locations across the state.  These sessions will help to ensure that citizens are aware of the Vision Project and will provide them an opportunity to engage in a meaningful conversation about their vision for public education in our state.  In addition, they will learn how they may communicate with the planning team through the project’s public web site as the project progresses.  Finally, the sessions will provide an opportunity for participants to understand the relevance of the project for their communities and their schools.

Sessions will be conducted in eight geographical regions of the state for the purpose of seeking input from educators, parents, students, other citizens, civic and professional organizations, chambers of commerce, the business and professional community, parent-teacher associations and organizations, the faith community, local agencies, local elected officials, and other interested stakeholders.
 

Five facts about Georgia’s Schools: (Five facts to stimulate thought and conversation.)

- In an economy where employers can choose workers from all over the world, it is increasingly clear that Georgia's economic competitiveness depends on the state's ability to provide an education system that prepares students to compete globally. Georgia's 1.6 million public school children, who represent 92 percent of school aged children in the state, are going to be competing for jobs with other graduates from India, China, and other countries of the world. This is a dramatic shift from past years when U.S. graduates competed with each other for jobs in America.

- Because computers are good at following rules and recognizing simple patterns, they are increasingly being used as a substitute for human labor in “routine” jobs. Jobs that mostly entail following directions are vulnerable to automation, including “white collar” jobs like accounting. As a result, there are fewer jobs that call for routine thinking work and routine manual work; between 1969 and 1999, the share of Americans in blue collar and administrative support jobs plummeted from 56 to 39 percent. At the same time, there is increasing demand for skills that computers cannot mimic, such as the ability to solve unpredictable problems and the ability to engage in “complex communications” with other humans, along with foundational skills in math, reading, and writing.

- The U.S. population is rapidly becoming both older and more diverse. The 65 and older population is expected to more than double between 2008 and 2050 (while the 85 and older population is expected to more than triple), and so-called “minorities” will constitute the majority of schoolchildren by 2023, of working-age Americans by 2039, and of all Americans by 2042.  That creates a two-fold challenge for schools: first, they will need to be able to teach a more diverse group of students, second, they will need to prepare those students to collaborate in diverse job settings and function in a diverse society.

- High school students heading to college and students going directly into workforce training programs need the same kinds of knowledge and skills that are provided in rigorous high school math and literacy courses, finds a study conducted by American College Testing Program or ACT, Inc. Graduating students must be equally prepared to take standard credit-bearing college courses and be prepared for the life-long learning necessary in high-performance jobs, the study says.

- Students who obtain more education will be at a great advantage; increasingly, some postsecondary education or technical training is essential for an opportunity to support a family or secure a middle-class lifestyle.