Education Leaders Held Up Mobile as a National Model for Boosting Graduation Rates and Workforce Readiness

Education leaders held up Mobile as a national model in October 2014, praising the city’s college- and career-ready programs and its partnerships with business and industry as an example other communities could follow.

The America’s Promise Alliance brought its Grad Nation Community Summit to Mobile on Oct. 2, holding the event in tandem with the Mobile Area Education Foundation’s Graduate Ready meeting. It was one of 100 such summits the alliance hosted across the country.

The summits are part of GradNation, a campaign America’s Promise Alliance launched in 2010 with the goal of raising the nation’s on-time high school graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020. America’s Promise, founded in 1997 with retired Gen. Colin Powell as its first chairman, works through coalitions of schools, nonprofits, businesses and local governments rather than running programs itself, which is why the Mobile event was built around a local partner, the Mobile Area Education Foundation.

A curriculum aligned with local employers

The idea of aligning school curriculum with the qualifications sought by local employers “makes perfect sense,” said Chrystal Morris-Murphy, a director with the alliance, who added that the group hoped to encourage other communities to do the same.

Morris-Murphy said Mobile was selected as a host city “because of their history of being forward-thinking and progressive.” She added: “They are doing some really incredible things … just thinking in a collaborative fashion and being willing to share resources.”

More than 400 participants took part in the morning seminars at the Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center, an event partially funded by a $15,000 grant from the alliance.

State of the schools

The summit opened with state-of-the-schools reports from Carolyn Akers, executive director of the Mobile Area Education Foundation, and Martha Peek, Mobile County schools superintendent. A panel discussion on education and civil rights followed, featuring former Mobile County school board member Hazel Fournier, former Mobile County schools superintendent Harold Dodge, and Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce President Bill Sisson.

Guests could then choose among four discussions on improving Mobile County’s graduation rate, touching on the importance of business and industry internships, early involvement with at-risk children and families, and helping students plan for their futures well before their final year of high school. Peek told the audience that Mobile County’s graduation rate stood at 75 percent but was expected to rise once the 2013-14 numbers came in.

Education and the economy

The luncheon keynote, delivered by Jim Williams, executive director of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, and Neal Wade, chairman of PARCA’s board, examined the ties between a better-educated workforce and economic development.

Williams praised the State Department of Education’s Plan 2020 but cautioned, “it won’t just happen … it’s up to us.” He listed five steps to keep the plan on track: start early; set high expectations; break down barriers to learning; seek improved teaching and leadership; and provide each student with a plan for study and career. By 2020, Williams noted, 65 percent of all U.S. jobs would require some form of post-secondary credentials or training.

“Talent is today’s currency in economic development,” Wade said, urging communities to be aggressive in meeting the demands of business and industry.

Akers described the summit as a call to action. “It was a day to say, ‘forward march,’” she said, adding that the goal was to identify problems and obstacles and to tackle them. “This is really about the business, industry and community leaders pulling together.”