What Makes People Care About Education?

Campaigns addressing education are a large part of the Ad Council docket.  From Early Childhood Education to Parental Involvement, from Arts Education to High School Dropout Prevention and from the Importance of Math and Science for Girls to Supporting Minority Education, the Ad Council has important and clear messages for kids and parents.

But education experts, industry and government officials have issued a rallying cry around the decline in US education performance compared to the rest of the world.  We are 8th in math scores and American 15 year-olds rank 24th out of 29 developed nations in mathematics, literacy and problem solving. We have one tenth the number of math and science graduates compared to China and the rate of patented innovations has dropped dramatically compared with the rest of the world.

Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat" has documented this issue well and is required reading for anyone who wishes to participate in the debate about how to improve education in America to secure our standard of living and national security.

Two weeks ago, the Ad Council convened a three hour round table to probe the issue of how to use communications to address our country's looming global competitiveness crisis.  Research others have done reveals that using statistics of how the U.S. has fallen behind other countries isn't a good way to engage Americans.  It's not motivating.  So the question is, what will make people care about the quality of education in America?

With that framework in mind, more than 24 organizations representing a variety of interests had a spirited discussion on how to engage Americans to improve the quality of our education.Attendees included the Department of Education, the Gates Foundation, the American Council on Education, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The National Association of Manufacturers, American Electronics Association and many more.  Our goal was to organize messages that need to be communicated to Americans to improve the quality of our education.

The first two target audiences came easily (and we have several campaigns already addressing them).  Not to be too simplistic, but some of the messsages include:

Kids:  We need to encourage them, help them see the relevance and importance of education, motivate them to take math and science courses, change the culture that says being smart isn't cool and get them to take an active roll in planning for college.

Parents:  Give them tools to prepare their children to enter school prepared to learn, tell them their job isn't done when they get their kids into school, that they have to be engaged, motivate them to encourage their kids to take math and science and help them prepare their kids for college.

And here's the hard part...

Adults with no school age children:  Only 27% of adults have kids in school.  Once their children have completed school, adults see no relevance to be concerned or engaged in education.  The $64,000 question is "How do you make people without kids in school care about education?"

And from a PSA perspective, if we do find a way to interest them, what is it we want them to do?  We can't do an advocacy PSA message based on our charter (plus it wouldn't get donated media).  Other than parents, what is the average American's opportunity to influence the quality of education in America?

Our group didn't have the answer.  But we do have some interesting questions to pursue.  And we also have the group's commitment to meet again, to share research and insights and collaborate on messages once we find them.

So stay tuned.

Comments

[Bob Escobar]

The answer is simple and few of our first president wanted this. Study history don't take my word for this.

We need a National College
that is free!! to all Americans and then hire great teachers that can present these subjects in an interesting way.

The college must be absolutly free and let student learn at there own speed. This should not be run like the military

[Erin Litner]

Firstly, I appreciate your work and your willingness to share some "behind the scenes" moments in your blog. Thank you.

As a young adult without school-aged children, I try to do my part to support (K-12) education through forming mentoring relationships with kids and
continually offer parents support and encouragement.

Good luck with your research. What you do is truly important.

[Paul Hawkins]

A National College that is free... Like Socialized Healthcare that is free... hhmmm... and what great teachers could we find that would work for free ? hhhmmm.... Jay Bennish, perhaps ? He hates evil money making corporations. Or Ward Chruchill, maybe, with his stunning credentials ? And just how long would chronically hung-over students take to learn anything, since you want to take discipline out of the learning process ? Bottom line, name for me one single instance in which Socialism has been successful.

Just what is the price for free ?

[Nicole Watford]

As a former educator, I believe nothing will change until the most basic issues are resolved.

When class sizes shrink from 30-40 pupils per teacher,the one-size-fits-all curriculum is eliminated, all school districts are truly equal, and teachers are paid fairly for being teacher, mom, dad, counselor, therapist and correctional officers--we may see a change in student achievement.

Until teachers buy into the education system, parents and the community at large will not buy into it. And that's that!

[SS]

"How do you make people without kids in school care about education?"

Keeping the Answer Simple...DON'T GIVE UP!

REMINDER: LEARNING ONE NEW THING EVERY DAY HELPS WITH FOCUS...
FOR LEARNING IS LIFE LONG...

http://afterburnergalacticlawz1.blogspot.com/

[Teresa Garrison]

Education is very important and I recognize the need to promote all of the above. One suggestion is that we need to promote physical fitness through our schools and in our homes. Our children are getting fat and we need to encourage parents to get out of their chairs and start moving. Let's have a challenge in 2007 to start moving!!

[Jamie]

In order to make people without children care about education, you should illustrate how much un-educated people cost them in the long run. They will increase health care costs because they are less likely to have jobs that cover their health expenses, but are also more likely to make long poor "healthy" choices. They are more likely to smoke and eat poorly. Given their job availability goes down, they are more likely to commit crimes. The benefits of having an educated society can be demonstrated by comparing the cost of an education to the cost of a homeless person and the cost of a person in prison.
MONEY MONEY MONEY- that's always the quickest way to anyone's head.

[hanford brace]

The ad showing a dog retrieving a "butt" is a very disgusting ad!! I am sorry money is used to produce such tripe!! I don't see the logic of it and my wife feels the same way and friends also dislike the ad. I hope you do not continue to produce such stupid material!!!