Signal 2: Major city project unleashes lack of readiness for university education in Santa Monica
The Wellbeing Project, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, was established to leverage data from city agencies, social media, and surveys in Santa Monica, to deeply understand current state of it’s community. It aimed at re-defining ways to measure citizens’ satisfaction in six dimensions (such as Health or Economic Opportunity) to establish initiatives dealing with problems identified.
Results in education were alarming — more than one third of the students did not feel of sufficiently prepared for higher education despite having finished high school. Less than one fifth of the group studied was sufficiently prepared in terms of English and Math skills.The problem thus far has been addressed by Ed Collaborative to, among others, increase awareness and resilience among students.
What next?
Nature of the discovered problem is very complex on it’s own since one need to identify true cause first in order to target it successfully. While in my opinion immediate efforts are necessary, they might not be sufficient — if problem lies in the educational system on it’s own. A structured and rigorous study with a strong collaboration of government and schools is necessary to have a full picture of issues, as well as macro study that could identify it’s scope.
However, process of setting objective also needs to be thoughtful — as readiness is subjective, influenced by respondent’s emotion, and requires clear metrics. There is a danger of bias in sample data set that could affect further studies, as educational system is being determined at macro scale and if it seems to be the case, more studies would have to take place. All in all, the hint given by Wellbeing Project should be a beginning of new investigations to take truly successful actions for future generations.
