“Setting the stage,” Daniel S. Kuennen gave a rapid-fire PowerPoint presentation placing DEF's six-county region (See map in Appendix) in a larger context. Kuennen directs the Rural Development Center (RDC) at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The RDC was co-sponsor of the symposium. He stated that regional connections could include:   labor market areas, sales and service market areas, commuting patterns, student recruitment areas, faculty and teacher recruitment areas, and education agreements. He said "rural," or non-metropolitan areas, are defined by occupation, economy, population, ecology, culture and history. Urban, or metropolitan areas, according to the U. S. Office of Management and Budget include core counties with one or more central cities of 50,000 or more or an urbanized area of 50,000, along with their suburbs.

Describing our workforce, he reported: fewer new entrants, older (45-64), increasingly diverse by population demographics (African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and women, including mothers, and less "white") and by participation (varying as to full-time, contracted, or part-time) higher education level, and lacking skills needed by employers. Manufacturing is needed, Kuennen noted. Industry growth will increase by 14%, nearly all in service-producing industries of health, business, social, and engineering/management. Occupational growth will occur most in health- and computer-related fields. There is, he reported, a skills gap in math, reading, and technology. In addition, employers report deficiencies in problem-solving skills.

Asking, rhetorically, “What does the DEF region offer?” Kuennen responded: retirement, recreation, second home, trade, and academic amenities. Housing costs are low; and so are real estate values and property tax revenues. There is a pool of talented, experienced retired people with lots of disposable income.   How do these changes impact our region? Kuennen said we must prepare for increased demands (e. g., for transportation, water, sewer, and health services), geriatric needs, escalating housing prices and taxes, expansion of boundaries due to telecommunication, and environmental impacts due to population density and sprawl that bring habitat reduction. He predicted that responsibility for lifelong learning will diversify from colleges and universities to other non-traditional providers.

With this background, and given an opportunity to share in open discussion among peers, two groups -- Professional Educators and Community Stakeholders -- gathered in separate meeting rooms at the Wicomico County Free Library, and shared their insights, concerns, and ideas. The discussions were facilitated by the three national researchers and Ruth Baker, Managing Director of BEACON at SU and a member of the symposium planning committee. The educators generated five ca tegories of concern, the stakeholders, eight. The details of those sessions are captured in a separate section of this report (see Discussion Session Notes).

Ruth Baker

Charlene Cooper-Boston presents to whole group.

• Resources and Funding
• Sustaining local capacity/ local sustainability
• Achievement, closing the gap and Accountability
• Teacher Quality
• Aspirations and Learning.

• Demographic changes
• “Place-based education” and “brain drain”
• Attitudes toward education (some don't value it)
• Lack of high paying jobs/lack of skilled workers
• Are our schools teaching the right skills to fill the available jobs?
• Timely communication, planning and information dissemination
• The regional context for educating including demographics and attitudes
• School's role in the community         

Bill Cecil presents to whole group. 

Following lunch, the national researchers were introduced. Michael Arnold is manager of the rural education portfolio at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) in Aurora, Colorado. He put Delmarva's “rural” in context, citing school districts in the Great Plains that go beyond rural to “frontier” (fewer than 5 people/square mile) and even “isolated” (fewer than 2 people/square mile), but confirmed the general feeling that ours is a rural area. Arnold said we should be aware of the schools' role in the community; our primary client, he feels, is the community. We will be "successful" if we work for what we are trying to get: achievement and high graduation rates. School improvement is "people development," he said, and suggested looking at Chupak, Alaska, the first school district to win a Baldwin Award. Their model is now being shared, backed with foundation money. He urged the group to look at teacher quality, specifically aligning instruction with goals and working conditions. He was not a proponent of school consolidation, recommending instead a focus on what we want our children to know and be able to do.

The next speaker, Robert Gibbs, is a senior regional economist for the Economic Research Service, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC. His Power Point presentation revealed associations derived specifically for the gathering, including identifying “twin counties” in some surprisingly remote (from us) parts of the country. His research identified these "twins" for our six counties (based upon industry mix):

Accomack, VA: Grady, GA

Dorchester, MD : Canyon, ID

Somerset, MD: Pittsburgh , OK

Sussex, DE: Benze, MI

Wicomico, MD: Cape Girardeau , MO

Worcester, MD: Harrison , MS

As to whether we are "rural," Gibbs notes this area is now classified by the U.S. Census Bureau as "micropolitan," an intermediate classification. In industry mix, Lower Delmarva doesn't fit "rural" or "urban." Employment is more like an urban profile, although manufacturing is more important in rural areas. We are above the expected levels in the arts/entertainment/recreation sector. Our professional services sector is closer to a rural profile. Our educational attainment level fits rural. It matches the dropout rates for rural, but, Gibbs observed, one would expect higher educational attainment.

According to Gibbs, we have a higher share of high school dropouts despite a similar set of jobs, relative to our "twins" and a lower share of college graduates (except in Accomack and Worcester counties). Proximity to urban areas may explain "brain drain" and also the influx of retirees. Still, schools are viewed as selling points for growth. While acknowledging the tremendous growth of the Hispanic population over the last two decades, he stressed the challenge of addressing the long-standing, relatively low achievement rates of the much larger African-American population. He pointed out the strong predictive effect that educational attainment of parents has upon the educational attainment of their children. For this region, the numbers for those without a high school diploma are 39% African-Americans, 58% Hispanics, and 19% non-Hispanic whites. “Diversity,” said Gibbs, “is going to be a major issue in the community, not just the growing population, but the population that you already have in place.”

Nancy Jennings, associate professor and chair of the Department of Education at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, energized the group with her description of “Place-based Education.” The term refers to "learning based in what is local." Potential barriers to its adoption are time, standardized tests, and teaching techniques (it must be based upon students' interests). Jennings told how teachers in Vermont decided not to oppose the state standards issue and chose instead to fight politically for what they felt was right for their students within the standards' context. Over four years, this ad hoc coalition revised state standards, got them included in the state framework, and are now working to make them part of the state assessments. She emphasized the benefits of a choice to pursue a localized strategy within the context of statewide policy discussions and decisions.