The IVE League
Developing Education for the Third Millennium
http://www.iveleague.org
P. O. Box 621706
Orangevale, CA 95662-1706
916-725-8858
November, 2006
An Open Letter to Local Business Owners and Community Leaders.
As
a business executive,
would you want to open your business in an area which did not have an
adequately trained labor pool? The answer is of course, no. But think
about this for a minute, and then answer the next question. Do today's
"entry-level" applicants generally have the workplace skills you--and
other
employers--need? If your answer is no, the time necessary to
adequately prepare entry-level employees impacts your costs of
operation. The possible results are a need to increase prices and
to become less competitive with extra-national out-sources.
Integrated Vocational Education (IVE) is a curriculum and classroom format that teaches academic core materials and career/vocational skills to the same students, in the same classrooms, at the same time. IVE does not increase the costs of education, it simply makes more effective use of instructional minutes. It is based on a proven 100-year-old concept in formal education; learning through application--combined with the most recent breakthroughs in human development and learning theory.
A great number of critics would have us believe America's public schools are failing to do the job they are expected to do; and that children at every level are being "left behind." It is true there is a problem. The problem is that schools are expected to do one job (prepare every student to fully participate in American society) but are being pressured to do quite another (prepare every student to go on to higher education). We do not see this as a failure on the part of the schools but a problem within the broader educational system.
Recent studies show most parents saying they expect their children to go to college, and that more of today's high school graduates are entering college than ever before. The reality is, however, that only 34 percent of all high school graduates will finish their education with a 4-year college degree. Couple this with the fact that only about 70 percent of those starting high school actually complete the high-school program and we can see that most educational dollars are being channeled into focus areas applicable to about 21 percent of the students. Few people recognize that today's public education systems are being forced by heavily-funded special interests to concentrate the majority of their effort on less than a quarter of the students, and this at the expense of those who will leave high school and enter into the workplace. Unfortunately, even less of these people are not in positions of political decision-making.
For over 10 years, IVE volunteers have been addressing these problems--conducting research to find better ways to teach students both the skills they will need to enter directly into the 21st century workforce and the academic foundations necessary to continue on in formal education (tw0- and four-year colleges being only two of the alternatives available). Now it is time to bring together everything we have learned through research and limited experimental practice. It is time for us to grow beyond our small development group and present IVE as a proven pedagogical methodology. Plain and simple, we now need to gather together the financial resources for an enlarged staff and the facilities to house them--and in the near future, to take the necessary steps to create a charter school to prove the effectiveness of IVE in actual field practice.
We need two things for us to reach our first goals.
The first is to help us by taking part in our research . . .
. . . which takes us back to the first paragraph of this letter. We
would like to hear from you, telling us who you are, the industry or
area of commerce in which you are active, where you are located,
how many individuals you currently employ, how many jobs do you expect
to add or lose over the next five years, and what levels of
education (or technical experitse) will you be seeking.
The second is your financial
support.
The current financial crises in the various levels of
government, mean dollars for innovative education research are extremely limited.
Our goals will require about $2.4 million over the next four years, all of
which needs to be gathered from a number of private grants, contributions
from businesses and individuals, and program support memberships.
We invite you to become a supporting member of The IVE League
and take an active role in expanding the future of American public education.
Individual memberships start at $35.00 per year. Business, Commercial, and Industrial memberships start at only $100.00
per year.
Your support can make the difference.
Donald E, Werve, Jr,, M.Ed., Executive Director
dwerve2@iveleague.org
The IVE League, Incorporated
P. O. Box 621706
Orangevale, California 95662-1706
(916) 725-8858
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