The disruption to the economy caused by COVID-19 is already reshaping the kinds of job opportunities and challenges today’s students will face when they enter the workforce. Those challenges will be especially big for students of color, those living in poverty, English language learners, and students with special needs.
This online summit will examine which groups of students have fallen the farthest behind academically during COVID-19, what schools need to do to help them catch up, and what skills they will need to succeed in a post-COVID-19 economy. It will also tackle the challenges of getting more students of color involved in STEM fields and the role schools play in making that happen.
The summit will also feature exclusive survey data from the EdWeek Research Center on these topics as well as insights from senior executives from a diverse mix of companies across the United States about how the pandemic is reshaping the skills students will need to succeed in the workplace.
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Agenda
How the COVID-19 Economy Is Reshaping the Workforce for Today’s Students
COVID-19 and the resulting financial struggles for millions of people are disrupting the American and world economy in ways that are likely to reshape career opportunities and challenges for young people in big ways, and especially those who come from communities of color or economically poor communities across the country. This discussion will feature the latest economic data to show how students’ career plans will be forced to change to meet the new realities and what that means for how schools prepare students for the jobs of the present and the future.
Sarah D. Sparks covers the teaching profession and pedagogy for Education Week.
Anthony "Tony" Carnevale
Director,
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
Carnevale serves as director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce and co-author of The Merit Myth: How Our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America. Previously, Carnevale served as Vice President for Public Leadership at the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Before joining ETS, he was director of human resource and employment Studies at the Committee for Economic Development (CED). Carnevale was the founder of the Institute for Workplace Learning (IWL) and served as President between 1983 and 1993.
Steps Schools Must Take to Prepare All Students for the Jobs of the Future
The EdWeek Research Center conducted an exclusive survey of teachers on key questions related to how they think schools need to change to better prepare students for the post-COVID-19 economy, what groups of students they think are falling farthest behind during the pandemic, what types of careers teachers are now encouraging students to pursue, and the quality and status of internship programs. Using those survey results, this discussion will feature the voices of educators on what steps they think schools must take to prepare all students for the future of work.
Alyson Klein is an assistant editor for Education Week.
Kyle Hartung
Associate Vice President,
JFF
Hartung is an associate vice president at JFF where he leads the organization’s body of work with state, regional, and local leaders to design, strengthen, and scale pathways systems to ensure that high need youth, young adults, and adults access the knowledge, skills, credentials, and capital to launch or advance in careers. His areas of expertise include college and career readiness, education-industry partnerships, work-based learning, secondary and postsecondary alignment, adult learning, and mixed-methods research. Before joining JFF in 2016, Hartung spent 20 years working as a teacher, leader, consultant, and researcher in public K–12 systems and higher-education settings, most recently as a researcher with Learning Innovations Laboratory (LILA) at Harvard University’s Project Zero.
How to Bridge Big Equity Gaps in the Development of Virtual Working Skills
Due to COVID-19, most students now have extensive experience using online tools to learn and communicate. They have experience participating in videoconferencing meetings, troubleshooting technical problems, working at home amid distractions, and being more self-sufficient. Those are valuable skills in many workplaces, which were already expanding the use of remote working even prior to the pandemic. But many kids—especially English language learners, students with special needs, and students from economically poor communities with poor WiFi connections—had insufficient and sometimes nonexistent experiences with remote or hybrid learning during the pandemic. This discussion will examine the steps schools must take to help those students build the virtual working skills they will need once they graduate from high school or college.
Mark Lieberman is a reporter for Education Week who covers school finance.
Renita Russell
Vice President, Organizational Development & Corporate Training,
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
As the vice president of organizational development & corporate training at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Russell focuses on associate opportunities for training and career development. Her passion is helping organizations reach their full potential through effective human capital management.
Mark Sparvell
Education Leader,
Microsoft
Emiliana Vegas
Co-Director and Senior Fellow, Center for Universal Education,
Brookings
Vegas joined Brookings as senior fellow and co-director of the Center for Universal Education in August 2019. A leading expert on education in developing countries, Vegas has written extensively on issues affecting education systems in Latin America and the Caribbean and other developing regions. Her papers and books cover topics ranging from policies to raise teacher effectiveness, to school finance and early childhood development policies. Between September 2012 and July 2019, Vegas served as chief of the Education Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where she led a team of 30-50 professionals working in the Bank’s lending operations and analytical activities to support education systems throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Vegas also worked at The World Bank from September 2001 to August 2012.
Getting Students of Color More Involved in STEM Fields: What Schools Need to Do
Students who pursue careers in STEM fields are likely to have more job opportunities and earn higher salaries in the long run than people in other fields. Yet the percentages of Black and Hispanic students who pursue careers in STEM fields are much lower than for their white or Asian counterparts. What effect has the pandemic and the widespread use of remote and hybrid learning had on this gap? How should schools, beginning at the elementary level, encourage and support more students of color in developing their knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering, and math? This discussion will examine what has worked, and not worked, to bridge this gap, and what needs to happen now.
Kevin Bushweller oversees coverage of educational technology and learning environments for Education Week.
Alison Gazarek
Regional Director, Partnerships,
Equal Opportunity Schools
Gazarek’s experience and passion for equitable education span both coasts, most recently in the South Bronx as a peer collaborative teacher in humanities. She has a strong background in facilitation for students and for school staff, as well as in building and strengthening systems for learning, digital communications, and data use in school and community settings. Her projects and presentations focus on real-world learning, asking students to use modern tools to solve real-world problems in their classrooms that were relevant to their lives. Gazarek also brings research and teaching experience with college-preparatory programs like SEO Scholars in NYC and Rainier Scholars in Seattle, where she worked with students in rigorous out-of-school programs. Her work specifically focused on achievement and acculturation for African American students in Advanced Placement / Independent school programs.
Pamela "Regina" Hytower
Mathematics Teacher,
Carrollton Junior High School
Hytower has been an educator in the field of mathematics for 18 years and has spent the last 13 years at Carrollton Junior High School. She is currently teaching seventh and eighth-grade mathematics elective courses. Hytower developed the curriculum for courses that are focused on accelerating student growth in academic achievement and confidence in learning mathematics. The students’ growth has been an average of one year in one semester due to a positive and challenging learning environment that includes flexible seating and individual learning plans.
Urby, a teacher at Southwest High School in San Antonio, Texas, has a composite science teaching certification from Trinity University that has allowed him to teach biology, chemistry, physics, and robotics. In 2018, he began teaching an aviation class using the High School Aviation STEM Curriculum from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). This school year, Urby is teaching physics and several sections of aviation, in which students are learning to build and fly planes. Students in his classes also have opportunities to fly drones and learn about unmanned aircraft systems.
