WESTMARC

WESTMARC presents education forecast
By Ayla Hopper, Editorial Assistant - Glendale Star - Special to the Glendale Daily Planet

Photo by Bette Sharpe, Glendale Daily Planet

McCain for WESTMARC

Senator John McCain made an appearance and spoke at WESTMARC’s 2014 Annual Meeting and Education Forecast. Topics he went over were issues going on in Kiev, Ukraine and immigration reform.

Photo by Bette Sharpe, Glendale Daily Planet

Education supporters

WESTMARC President and CEO Michelle Rider and John Huppenthal, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state, interact after the breakfast.

Photo by Bette Sharpe, Glendale Daily Planet

On higher education

Eileen Klein, president, Arizona Board of Regents, talks about higher education and how it can improve for the state.

From Arizona Senate members and House of Representatives to West Valley mayors and councilmembers, well-known community members were in attendance for WESTMARC’s 2014 Annual Meeting and Education Forecast Feb. 21 at ASU West’s Campus.

First to speak was Joseph R. Carter, Avnet Professor of Supply Chain Management, Associate Dean of W.P. Carey School of Business, and Vice Provost of ASU. With the 30th anniversary approaching, Carter provided a brief history of ASU West.

Glancing back through 30 years, just by stepping foot on ASU West, residents can see lots of growth. Buildings that were once non-existent are sprouting up. Residents who have not been on campus in two to three years can see progression, which is a major point Carter brings up because it is a group of people, such as those attending the annul meeting, who were instrumental on helping build the campus.

Following Carter’s message from ASU West, WESTMARC President Michelle Rider introduced special guest Sen. John McCain, who addressed two key issues – what is going on in Ukraine, as well as immigration reform and how it relates to citizens and education. McCain said he was grateful for everyone’s involvement in the community and state and their support of education.

Brad Wright, 2013 Chairman of WESTMARC and president of Nations, handed the gavel over to Sharon Grambow, who is the 2014 Chairman of WESTMARC, and the vice president and CEO of Sun Health Senior Living.

“I am so pleased to be the new Chairman of WESTARC board of directors,” Grambow said. “It is a great place and we are doing great things here in the West Valley, and I look forward to carrying on that tradition.”

Grambow presented a plaque to Wright and thanked him for his service.

Following Grambow and Wright, Roger Freeman, superintendent of Littleton Elementary School District, took the stage. Freeman introduced two speakers, John Huppenthal, superintendent of Public Instruction for the state; and Eileen Klein, president of Arizona Board of Regents.

As for as the education forecast, here is what Huppenthal and Klein had to say:

Huppenthal talked about what has been happening educationally in the entire United States and around the world and brought it down specifically to what is happening in Arizona. He discussed transformative ways to improve education and what is being done in Arizona.

“We need to affirm the school teachers are doing good job. We need accurate measurement,” Huppenthal said. “We are for the very first time holding schools accountable on academic growth.”

Besides calling for accountability on the school and district level, Huppenthal also called for more technology in the classroom, and highlighted five initiatives for improving education in Arizona:

Structured English immersion
Career and technical education
Foreign languages – Students’ learning improves when teaching in two languages
Read On Arizona
Civic engagement initiative – teaching our constitution, Declaration of Independence and how city government works

Klein’s focus was on higher education.

“We know two-thirds of our jobs in the future are going to require some sort of post-secondary education training, and our universities need to be at the position to be able to deliver to the students who are qualified to take job,” Klein said, “If they can be successful in the workforce, then clearly they can have the quality of life that we all strive for here in Arizona.”

Klein took a look at the university system.

She said, “If you look at our university system, you would see a lot of similarities across our three universities. Today, our universities are much more differentiated. We have three universities, each one dedicated to a specific focus. University of Arizona, medical school; ASU is a comprehensive research metropolitan university; and NAU has a specific focus on undergraduate education with a higher degree of specialized research. We think that those three sets are the right way to be focusing right now. Because higher education is becoming more competitive we want to be sure that each one of these institutions is really building on its core capabilities.”

Klein also addressed affordability of community colleges. Community colleges are key to hitting the state education goals. Klein said by 2020, they hope to increase to a production of 30,000 graduates per year in Arizona. She said, without the community college partners, it can’t be done.

Klein said, “We have more STEM graduates, but we also know it is important not to leave behind humanities and the liberal arts. Many of our liberal arts students graduates have quickly out-earned our STEM graduate students.”

Klein stressed reinvestment, reinvigoration, and recommitments as keys to higher education.