Ohio Department of Education and Labor Secretary Steve Dakin was the keynote speaker at the Wake, Rattle and Roll event held Friday morning at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center.
Craig Kelly | Lima News
LIMA — Wake, Rattle and Roll of the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce focuses on promoting and strengthening the county’s business community through networking and education on business best practices. The networking event held Friday morning focused on education itself and its impact on the future workforce.
Ohio Department of Education and Labor Director Steve Duckin, who served as the event’s keynote speaker, spoke about the department’s vision for educating Ohio’s children through a dual focus on improving literacy and advancing career and technical education. and outlined priorities.
“Literacy is workforce,” he said. “Less than 40 percent of children are reading above grade level. I don’t see how anyone can say that’s not a crisis.”
To address this deficiency, Dakin said, states are mandating an approach to literacy education that focuses on areas such as phonological awareness and vocabulary building, an approach known as the “science of reading.”
“For some reason, over the years, phonics got sidelined and we became fascinated with things like whole language and balanced literacy,” he said. “It won’t work, but we know what works and we’re going to do it.”
Dakin also championed initiatives such as funding literacy coaches in neighborhoods with the greatest need and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which provides free books to children every month until their fifth birthday.
Regarding career education and training, Dakin pointed to the statistic that of the 136,000 high school freshmen admitted each year in Ohio, 69 percent do not go on to earn a two- or four-year degree. These are the students who could benefit from a career-oriented, skills-based education, he said.
“In the last biennial budget, Congress invested $200 million to expand opportunities for career and technical center expansion. Because it’s on the list,” he said. “They also secured $100 million in equipment grants to schools. Not only did our Career Tech Center receive a portion of these equipment grants, but some of our local schools also received a portion of these equipment grants. We are proud of the grants we have received, for example Lima and Bath in the region both receive equipment grants.”
Dackin also emphasized the need to teach in-demand skills needed by today’s workforce, such as familiarity with data science and other STEM fields.
“Governor DeWine said in his State of the State address that he wants every K-12 student in Ohio to be on a path to something.”
