Emanuel

Chicago Mayor’s Graduation Initiative Aims to Help Students Compete in Global Economy

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“Learn. Plan. Succeed.” That’s the slogan of a new graduation initiative Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to implement at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) by 2020.

Flanked by students, teachers and graduates at Malcolm X College Wednesday, Emanuel announced the first-of-its-kind policy that will require CPS students, starting with the current freshman class, to present one of the following in order to graduate:

  • College acceptance letter
  • Military acceptance/enlistment letter
  • Acceptance at a job program (e.g. coding bootcamp)
  • Acceptance into a trades pre-apprenticeship/apprenticeship
  • Acceptance into a “gap-year” program
  • Current job/job offer letter

Without a “post-high school education plan,” they won’t graduate.

“We live in a period of time where you earn what you learn,” Emanuel told CBS This Morning. “The school system of a K-12 is not applicable to the economy of the world that our students are graduating to. […] We want to make 14th grade universal now.”

Right now, 59 percent of graduating seniors in CPS already have a “concrete post-secondary plan.” The goal is to have an impact on the harder-to-capture 41 percent of students who don’t have one.

Emanuel’s initiative recognizes the fact that a 4-year degree may not be the right path for everyone, but every student should have a path for themselves once they leave high school. There are many options out there for students, and CPS will give credit to several recognized postsecondary paths to ensure a level playing field for all students.

WorkingNation has been highlighting programs, employers, and organizations that offer pathways for students outside of the 4-year degree. Some of these include:

YearUp: Connecting young adults who need opportunity with companies who need their talent.

Girls Who Code: Organization that gives girls grades 6-12 access to peers and mentors that help them learn to use computer science to solve problems in their day-to-day lives and make a positive impact on the world.

Toyota: One of the world’s leading auto manufacturers to recreate secondary schooling from the ground up with a goal of creating the perfect employees for their specialized needs.

For more organizations that can help young adults find their way during and after high school, click here.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.