Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Director Steve Dackin was the keynote speaker at Friday morning’s Wake, Rattle and Roll event at Veterans Memorial Civic Center.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
LIMA — The Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce’s Wake, Rattle and Roll is centered around promoting and strengthening the county’s business community through networking and education on best business practices. On Friday morning, the networking event was focused on education itself and its impact on the workforce of tomorrow.
Serving as the event’s keynote speaker, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Director Steve Dackin outlined his department’s vision and priorities when it comes to educating Ohio children through a dual focus on increasing literacy and promoting career and technical education.
“Literacy is workforce,” he said. “Less than 40 percent of our kids are reading at or above grade level. I don’t see how anybody can say that’s not a crisis.”
To combat this deficiency, Dackin said, the state has mandated an approach to literacy education that focuses on areas like phonetic awareness and vocabulary building, an approach called the “Science of Reading.”
“Somehow, over the years, phonics got taken out and we got fascinated with things like whole language and balanced literacy,” he said. “It doesn’t work, and we know what works and we’re going to do it.”
Dackin also promoted efforts like funding literacy coaches in the most at-need districts as well as the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which supplies children with a free book each month until that child’s fifth birthday.
When it comes to career education and vocational training, Dackin pointed to statistics showing that out of the 136,000 incoming high school freshmen each year in Ohio, 69 percent do not end up with a two-year or four-year degree later on. These are the students, he said, who could benefit from a career-focused, skills-based education.
“In the last biennial budget, the legislature invested $200 million to expand opportunities for career centers and technical centers to expand because what we’re finding is [prospective students] are on a waitlist,” he said. “They also put $100 million aside for equipment grants to schools, and I’m proud to say, that not only did our career tech centers get some of these equipment grants, but also some of our local schools. For example, Lima and Bath in this area both got equipment grants.”
Dackin also emphasized the need to teach in-demand skills needed in today’s workforce, such as familiarity with data science and other STEM fields.
“In the State of the State speech, Gov. DeWine said he wants every student in Ohio in K-12 on a pathway to something,” he said.
