June 2008 Contra Costa Council News and Events

Workforce Development & Education Task Force: Making education rigorous, relevant and responsive

The Contra Costa Council's Workforce Development & Education Task Force is an agent for change in Contra Costa County. That's because Task Force Co-Chairs Keith Archuleta and April Treece are dedicated to making the education system responsive to the County's workforce development needs today and tomorrow.

"I have been involved with forming collaborations to resolve social and education issues facing youth and families since I started my company, Emerald Consulting, 16 years ago," says Keith Archuleta (pictured above, left), who has also headed several nonprofits. For the past eight years, his focus has been on the East County Business-Education Alliance, which brings together three school districts in East County--Antioch Unified, Liberty Union High School and Pittsburg Unified--and links them to local community colleges and universities as well as to large and small businesses and local chambers of commerce.

Archuleta also serves as chair of the Career Tech Ed Advisory Committee for the Antioch Unified School District and as a consultant with the Contra Costa Economic Partnership Workforce Initiative. He says it is vital to connect industry with education to help create a seamless educational system that is more "rigorous and relevant" to better prepare students for college and the work world.

"My passion is business-education collaboration," says April Treece, who first joined the Contra Costa Council when she worked in public relations for AT&T in the 1980s. When she started her consulting business, Opus Communications, in 1995, she rejoined the Council and later chaired the Business-Education Task Force, followed by Joe Ovick and Cheryll LeMay in that role.

"In 2005, when Joe and Cheryll were stepping down from the Task Force, the whole issue of school transformation was surfacing, with a lot of state and national attention on educational reform. I agreed to step back into the chairmanship role as long as I had a partner--like Keith Archuleta, who joined me as co-chair last year," she recalls. Treece also serves on the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce Board and in 2000 was elected to the Mt. Diablo Unified Board of Education. Since 2000, she has served as a consultant to the Contra Costa Economic Partnership and as project director of the CCEP's Workforce Initiative.

Transforming the system

In terms of her work on the Council Task Force, Treece says she is uniquely positioned to understand the barriers to "systems transformation" in the County's schools-efforts she says are critical "if we are to serve all children and provide them with dynamic learning experiences connected to real people doing real things in the local economy."

In Treece's view, understanding the rightful role of industry to advocate for appropriate changes, and to remove barriers for the educational system, can be a double-edged sword. "You need to understand how hard it is to change a state system that hasn't really placed children as a priority. It is an archaic model, yet it all has to work like a fine-tuned engine to move forward." She submits that one of the issues that school districts contend with is not having the proper resources to engage more fully in reform strategies. Not only is California 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending on education, but the state also has an increasingly diverse student population requiring additional support structures to ensure equal access to learning. "Educating a more diverse student population while pursuing transformative educational agendas requires new investments," she says.

"Through the Council and our Task Force work, we are able to influence and support greater awareness on the part of government leaders about education issues," says Archuleta. "From a policy standpoint, for example, we have influenced and been supportive of a variety of legislative efforts around career-integrated academics. Contra Costa has both Senate and Assembly representatives on state education committees, and we are working with them to foster career-centered education in the core curriculum of the schools and promote a dialog on how education is financed in California."

Engaging kids better

Until recently, the only option for secondary students was either vocational education or college prep, notes Archuleta. "What we've been saying is that it shouldn't be either/or. The core skills are necessary, including reading and math, but career-centered education makes school more relevant to kids and engages them better, so they can answer the question, 'Why do I need to know this?' If you're able to engage students and help them understand and apply what they're learning, they will retain knowledge longer and will apply it in many other ways. They will learn to think critically, which is what is needed in today's workforce. It's the relevant piece."

Treece says there are "pockets" in the region where education is working well. In these examples, academic teachers, working closely with career tech ed teachers, have students in common for whom they provide "rigor, relevance and relationships that enable students to stay connected to school and integrate into the business community effectively."

Industry's crucial role

The Task Force Co-chairs believe that industry must play a pivotal role in advocating for a more effective state school finance structure and, at the same time, promote the need for new investments in transforming how students are educated. This needs to include more rigorous and relevant educational experience for students, including more investments in smaller learning communities and career technical education.

In this regard, the Contra Costa Council joined with the Contra Costa Economic Partnership in January to present a very successful business-education leadership summit, featuring a keynote address by education futurist Willard Daggett and Congressman George Miller. "The goal of the January conference was to not only hear about transformative strategies and to compel all of us to make a change. What it also did was to allow us to break up into small groups and talk about issues related to these strategies," says Treece. As a follow-up in February, Archuleta and Treece hosted 52 people who went to San Diego from all over Contra Costa County to continue the dialog at a statewide School Reform conference.

"We want to create a climate that allows parents, community members and business people, as well as faculty and education leaders, to ask the risky questions, which include: Are we really serving kids? If we agree that we want to provide a rigorous and relevant experience that is rich in relationships that extend beyond the four walls of the classroom, what will it take?" asks Treece.

Preparing students for the world

Treece says her volunteer work fits together with her work in the nonprofit sector. "It's just who I am, and being part of the Council's policy development really lays the foundation in some ways for the hard work that people in education and business are doing." Treece had hoped that her work would make a difference for her daughter. "As a parent of a child in local public schools, I was able to give career advice related to high-wage, high-skill, high-demand jobs because I know what is happening in the local economy as a result of my work. Every child deserves the same access to this information," she asserts. "If our schools are not familiar with the emerging job market in Contra Costa, how can they prepare our children for the changing world? The business community must do all it can to make sure our youth are able to access careers that allow them to live, work, buy a house and raise a family right here in our County."

Archuleta had a rough childhood experience in Denver and North Carolina, and recalls working in the tobacco fields for a dollar an hour. As an African American, he has seen and experienced segregation and prejudice. He decided then that he would do things to change the system "so all kids have access to education and good jobs that pay well. I also realize that I have been blessed with a good education, and I want to give back as I go . . . I'm just trying to even the playing field for youth," he says. "If our kids get a relevant education, they will have a better shot, and there will be more hope for our next generation, for my child and my grandchildren."