Percentage of Ohio Adults (ages 25-64) with at least an associate degree by county
The Lumina Foundation's challenge to states is to have 60 percent of adults ages 25 to 64 to have a college degree by 2025. The Ohio rate, based on 2010 U.S. Census data, is 35.79 percent. The projected rate for Ohio in 2025 is 44 percent. An additional 918,721 degrees are required to meet workforce needs in 2025, an increase of 16 percent.
Delaware County: 60.74 (highest attainment rate in the state)
Greene County: 47.74 percent
Warren County: 47.09 percent
Montgomery County: 35.82 percent
Butler County: 35.75 percent
Miami County: 30.93 percent
Clark County: 27.39
Darke County: 22.13 percent
Preble County: 20.68 percent
Holmes County: 14.95 percent (Lowest Attainment Rate)
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey and, Lumina Foundation
Percentage of Adults (ages 25-64) with at least an associate degree by state
Pennsylvania 37.9 percent
Ohio: 35.79 percent
Michigan 35.6 percent
Indiana: 33 percent
Kentucky: 29 percent
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey and, Lumina Foundation
West Virginia: 25.6 percent
Learn to Earn Dayton wants to give the region a competitive edge to secure high quality, high paying jobs in the future. They begin by boosting educational opportunities for kids before they enter kindergarten.
“There is a ripple effect,” Tom Lasley, executive director of Learn to Earn Dayton said.
The Montgomery County Commission, Tuesday, endorsed Learn to Earn Dayton as the organization to coordinate cradle to career education initiatives. The organization does not provide direct service to students but does work with community partners — educators, businesses, jurisdictions and non-profits — to maximize their impact.
The goal: build Montgomery County’s intellectual capital or nurture a more educated future workforce.
The Lumina Foundation, a private foundation committed to increasing the number of Americans with college degrees, estimates that by 2025 competitive regions will need a workforce where 60 percent of adults ages 25-64 have a college degree or post high-school credentials.
Ohio is expected to limp behind that figure with a projected 44 percent of adults attaining a degree. Locally, Greene and Warren counties lead the region in the race to that goal. Just over 47 percent of the adults in both counties have degrees in that age group, based on U.S. Census data. Montgomery County ranks third in the region at 35.82 percent.
Lasley says there is good reason to drive up that number.
“Unless we increase the number of young people securing college degrees or post-secondary certificates we’re going to get the left-over jobs,” he said.
Learn to Earn has three primary focuses. The first is ensuring children are ready to learn when they enter kindergarten. Currently, about 38 percent of Montgomery County kindergartners meet that benchmark, according to the kindergarten readiness test used in Ohio.
A Learn to Earn draft report on boosting school readiness suggests increasing the number of four-year-old students attending preschool; embedding kindergarten-readiness in Sunday school/church curriculum; and, distributing information about kindergarten readiness skills and developmental milestones to young families and other strategies. Increasing the number of high quality day care centers is part of plan.
Robyn Lightcap, director of ReadySetSoar, the Dayton region's early care and education initiative, said a big push is underway encouraging day care centers to receive a Star rating from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The rating recognizes early child care and education programs that exceed quality benchmarks over and above Ohio's licensing standards.
“When kids are there all day, we need to make sure they’re in an educational setting, not just babysitting,” Lightcap said.
In 2008, five Montgomery County programs had the Star rating. Today, there are 70. Mini University Child Care and Child Care Development Centers — with facilities in Dayton and at Wright State University — all have 3-Star ratings, the highest awarded by the state. The rating ensures parents of low student/teacher ratios and a teacher with a degree in early education in every classroom.
“We want to ensure we’re providing the highest quality program so that students start school on the right foot,” Kim Kramer, executive director of Mini University said.
The second Learn to Earn goal calls for every third grader reading well. About 77 percent of Montgomery County’s third graders are “proficient readers,” according to Ohio’s reading achievement test. Strategies to improve that number involve developing intervention programs for students who are chronically absent from school and others to prevent students from losing academic ground over the summer.
Learn to Earn, working with community partners , collected 20,000 books that were distributed to Dayton students before summer break. Each child got to select 10 books.
“Research shows when kids get to pick out their own books, they’re more likely to read them,” Lightcap said.
The third focus calls for increasing the percentage of students who enroll in college after high school graduation.
The Dayton Foundation, with Learn to Earn Dayton, in January launched ScholarshipCONNECT, an online scholarship and college readiness resource to help students in their quest to attend college.
This system uses a detailed questionnaire to match students with scholarships.
“It’s making a difference in how our region’s high school students plan for the next phase of their education, so that they can successfully obtain a college degree or other career-ready credential,” Michael M. Parks, president of The Dayton Foundation said.
About the Author