Education / Community Outreach

The Vanguard Award of the Chemical Educational Foundation (CEF) means a lot to Carus Corporation and to its employees who volunteer their time and dedicate efforts in support of our educational outreach. We appreciate it, especially because it is an educational foundation that is recognizing our long-term commitment and investment in human capital - most of which, we believe, will provide returns to Carus Corporation - but more importantly, an investment we suggest could play a larger role for the chemical industry in general. Why? Let me explain.

As all of us in the chemical industry are acutely aware, the image of the chemical industry is tarnished and needs polishing. We feel somewhat frustrated because our industry is already investing billions in innovations and Responsible Care® to protect our employees and those who use our products, as well as to conserve energy and to protect the environment. Yet, because the media and the public expect this of all manufacturers as we move towards a sustainable environment, our efforts are no longer newsworthy despite the fact that very few citizens not connected with chemical manufacturers have heard of Responsible Care®. Apparently our frustrated cries sound too much like breast-beating, a primeval urge to draw attention to ourselves, so they are falling on deaf ears as just another self-serving defensive gimmick.

However, this does not mean that we should abandon Responsible Care® and related initiatives. After all, Responsible Care® is important for all of us, as a part of our basic principles of being in business, along with honesty, integrity, competency, leadership, and producing products that provide benefits and add value to our economy. The chemical industry commitment to and investments in Responsible Care®, we all agree, are absolutely necessary. But apparently it is not sufficient in itself to reestablish credibility with the public and to improve the industry's reputation.

So how do we capture the imagination of the public to explain the nature and the costs and the benefits of Responsible Care® so that the public can appreciate our heritage, our achievements, the benefits of our products and services, and we can attract the talent and capital to grow and prosper? Fortunately, the Chemical Educational Foundation was established to help in this regard, and the Vanguard Award is their expression of achievement in giving recognition. As one of this year's winners, I will do what I can to explain why our focus on the educational initiatives in America have multiple benefits and to describe possibilities that we feel are applicable to the chemical industry and all chemical-related process industries.

After some 40 years of experimenting, our main conclusions are that the lack of attention to and resources for our American education system is costing our economy enormous amounts every year and is threatening our future in multiple dimensions. Therefore, our costs are already huge and out of proportion to what they should be. For example, I believe it is intolerable when 65% of our fourth graders in metropolitan areas cannot even read their own textbooks, and our twelfth graders are at the bottom of all our major competitors abroad in learning mathematics and science. Most of us in the chemical industry have heard about these frightening facts and the attendant social and economic costs, which we all are bearing, especially employers. Unfortunately, after decades of hand wringing, since the A Nation At Risk report of 1983 and huge new initiatives and commensurate new investments, we as a nation are not seeing major improvements. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are still relatively flat in all basic learning areas.

One of our findings over the years in trying to address the shortage of highly qualified chemists, chemical engineers, and, it turns out, acute shortages in all technical fields, is that our education system needs a lot of attention as we project the broad workforce needs into the next decades. So I have taken it upon myself, with the full support and participation of the Carus family and the management and staff of Carus Corporation, to address these issues. We even went so far as to establish a separate business to publish elementary textbooks in reading, writing, and mathematics and other education materials, to address these issues for a whole variety of reasons, too lengthy to describe here.¹

As a result of these investigations, we believe there is overwhelming evidence that unless we can make dramatic improvements in building a new system of education, we in America are in danger of losing our economic preeminence in the world. In our view, the situation is far more threatening than most crises of the 20^th century. You all know about the inadequate and inappropriate preparation of our youth for the New Economy and the New Culture now arising out of the New Technology. I don't have to go into details for this audience about the shortage of highly-skilled technical talent in all fields; about the dangers of developing a Third World culture and economy within our borders; about the dangers of demagoguery among media hounds who take advantage of a gullible public that is not scientifically literate; nor about the fact that most other countries are outperforming us in mathematics, science, and technical education (not to mention our poor performances in reading, writing, foreign languages, history, and geography).

So, what can we in the chemical industry do about this dismal situation? The answer is: A LOT! We are not just the average Joe Blow in America. We're a very privileged group of people who are not only scientifically literate; we eat, breathe, dream, create new science, and produce compounds that fundamentally improve the lives of millions. So we have much more at stake, and we have a much clearer vision than most Americans of what is needed to remedy our education system, one of the most important social institutions in America. Accordingly, we also have more responsibilities than most.

We are not suggesting that any one of us in the chemical industry can resolve these problems, but rather simply that education or the lack thereof is too important and too all encompassing to be left to the educators, and that if we, as an industry, address these issues and put our minds to them, we can make a difference. What we are suggesting is that investments in education of our employees as well as in changing the system of education will pay for itself many times over and could and should go a long way to improving the image of our chemical and process industries.

The good news is that in the last four decades we have made significant progress in educational research (there is now a scientific corpus of research, which builds a solid basis about how to teach every child to read²); in developing new initiatives like the Advanced Placement program (AP) and the International Baccalaureate (IB); in developing standards and accountability; and many others.

We do indeed now have solid evidence to demonstrate that we as a country can do much, much better if we could only implement a strong accountability system and incentives to implement what works in each area of instruction.

During the past few decades, as active observers and participants in these educational developments, we at Carus Corporation have been grinding away with various initiatives to address these issues in focused, cost-effective, and productive ways for our chemical company and local community. Here's the laundry list of various initiatives that have survived and we believe would be effective for all chemical or process industries to rebuild our education system:

1. Our chemists, engineers, and other employees enjoy visiting local elementary schools and present demonstrations to middle school and junior high students to capture their imaginations and excite them about the magic of chemistry and science. Almost all local schools welcome these demonstrations, and they make a real impression on students. They answer the question, "Why should I study this?"

2. Most companies hire some summer help, so why not hire science and math teachers, especially at the middle school levels? This is known as the SWEPT initiative (Scientific Work Experience Program for Teachers³). As you are probably aware, most science and math teachers will benefit by learning more about the applications of science and math in the real world. Most of your chemists or engineers have short-term projects they would like to give to chemistry or science teachers in order to give them an insight into the real world of chemistry and chemical manufacturing and into your business at the local level. Hiring these teachers has been an enormous multiplier effect and is a super way to get the word out to the local community about your business.

3. One of the most productive activities for SWEPT teachers, backed up by the help of our chemists and other staff, is our one-week Science Camp for students entering junior high. Students, teachers, and Carus employees generate a lot of enthusiasm among the students themselves, and that gets the attention of the local media.⁴

4. Or try the State Farm strategy. State Farm Insurance Company has found that one of the greatest hurdles that is holding schools back from providing professional development for their teachers is the difficulty in finding substitute teachers. State Farm has identified 300 former teachers or qualified instructors among their employees who are eager to become substitute teachers in all fields. The company has notified local schools about their great resource (for professional development), and the schools welcome this help. You can get more information from Carl Nelson at State Farm.⁵

5. As you all suspect or know, teachers benefit greatly by gaining more knowledge about the applications of math and science in the "real world." Therefore it is essential to break down the barriers or silos betweens the world of education and the real world of manufacturing or chemical research so that students will learn how it is the opportunities of science and math that provide one of the ultimate justifications for teaching science and math in the first place. We have found it extremely productive and useful for our Carus chemists to gather information for chemistry teachers statewide, working through the offices of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois (CICI) and conducting annual workshops.⁶ Teachers enjoy plant visits, gaining hands-on experience, meeting practicing scientists and engineers, asking questions, and sharing their own experiences. This is not costly and also does a lot for the image of your company in your area.

6. Give away subscriptions to the great ACS publication ChemMatters⁷ or other chemistry/process industry-related publications to your local chemistry teachers. Invite your local science teachers to your laboratories to meet your technical staff and find out what their needs and complaints are.

7. Communicate regularly with the top officers of your local community colleges. Make certain that they are offering the appropriate courses to upgrade your technicians and others to be more useful for your company. Community colleges are one of America's secret weapons to support lifelong learning at the local level. Community colleges are eager to satisfy their local constituents. Use them!

8. We need more good chemists and scientists in all professions, but your H.R. departments and plant managers are aware that innovation and sophisticated technology require the continuous upgrading of the knowledge and skills of chemical operators and chemical technicians. This issue gets very complicated, yet it has already been addressed at the national and state levels, by the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor, by Alberta, Canada, and at various state levels (Illinois and Kentucky, for example), and by the American Chemical Society. If you recognize this need in your company, I suggest you get in touch with Bob Hofstader, who is working with the chemical industry and educators to develop initiatives already underway, to develop standards and criteria for chemical technicians, and to develop course outlines and assessments. This is the kind of information you need to take to your local community colleges so as to make it available to your employees.⁸

9. One of the best ways to start the above upgrading of local chemical operators is the Joliet, Illinois model: work with your local chemical and process industries and your local community college to develop a 12-month curriculum as a general orientation to work in a chemical or chemical process-related industry (petroleum, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, food and beverage, others).⁹ Then, reach agreement with your local industries that you will direct the hiring from among graduates of this one-year course. This sends a very strong message to the local community about the skills and knowledge needed as a prerequisite to work in a chemical plant. As demonstrated in Joliet, this reduces turnover of new employees, reduces accidents, provides a much better pool of local talent, develops an excellent working relationship with your local community college - all in all, it reduces costs and provides better employees in the long run.

10. Offer chemistry or science scholarships for the local top science students. Or, as a part of the scholarship, offer these bright students summer employment, which will give you a leg up on hiring the best and the brightest after they receive a technical degree.

11. Join the Triangle Coalition of business, education, and government to support math and science at the national, state, and regional levels.¹⁰ One of the main reasons for the failure of American students in math and science is that about half of all K-12 teachers who are teaching math and science never had the adequate education in these fields. These are extremely difficult issues and need the support of all of us. These issues are well described by the Glenn report¹¹ and by the Triangle Coalition¹². I hope that the top management in the chemical industry will become familiar with strategies to ameliorate this dangerous situation. This is called "miseducation," for which you cannot blame the educators! The situation is like Pogo, who said, "We have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us!" (Private industry pays more than school boards for the top science and math educators and therefore attracts many of the best away from teaching. As a result, "we're eating our own seed corn." We in the chemical industry must take the lead in doing something about this issue!)

12. Middle school mathematics instruction is a very special and very dangerous crisis: Whereas it is generally agreed that middle schools should introduce algebra before students get to high school¹³, most middle school teachers are not adequately prepared to do so. Therefore, our top priority for all manufacturing and all professions that require technically literate employees requires that we work together to address this issue promptly. This is just as important as the reading instruction issue now being addressed by the $5 billion initiative No Child Left Behind¹⁴: Until each child is competent in Algebra at the 9^th grade level, he or she is dysfunctional, he or she will not understand the mathematics and science at the secondary level and is potentially a dropout, unemployed, or on the dole. One student left behind is a tragedy; but when more than half of the population is miseducated, it borders on insanity.

13. Support your local Advanced Placement program (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) schools.¹⁵ The Advanced Placement program offers about 30 advanced courses of the core subjects in high school, and many colleges and universities offer college credit if students do well on the AP examinations. The IB curriculum is the only curriculum, set of external examinations, and an IB Diploma is world-class and widely available in America. The IB provides rigorous curricula and examinations in six of the core areas plus Theory of Knowledge (philosophy) plus a research essay plus creative activities and social services, all at the AP level. So if you don't have an IB school in your area, ask your local school to consider starting an IB school. The IB provides the best preparation for higher education, so why not provide it for your family and children of your employees?

14. But the IB is not for all students. It is mostly for the more academically ambitious and motivated. Therefore there is a great need to provide curricula for the more practically oriented students, but which is more challenging than current high schools. The model, called High Schools That Work¹⁶, is the best model available from the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) with over 1,000 schools in America so far. With this SREB model, it is thus possible to drop the so-called general education courses, which fill a student's time and often lead nowhere.

15. Business partnerships with local schools have come a long way in the past few years. Instead of outright philanthropy or expecting to market goods and services to the schools, the majority of businesses and schools are now engaging in true partnerships that build on shared understanding of values and culture to support mutual needs. To this end, leaders in business and education formed a Council for Corporate & School Partnerships to identify, create, recognize, and support exemplary business-school partnerships. As Council member Carton Curtis has stated,

"Corporate contributions shouldn't be shaped only by the old adage that it's important to 'give back' to the community. Today, most of us want to form real working partnerships that support schools' core missions and have a demonstrable impact on the overall learning experience. And it's certainly inspiring to know that our efforts may have a significant impact on our future workforce as well."

This provides a great opportunity for the chemical industry to capitalize
and build on positive experiences. ¹⁷

16. Higher education and graduate education in chemistry and science are an
embarrassment when about one-third of entering students need remedial education in the basics; when only so few Americans are studying the chemistry-related courses; and when over half of the graduate students in the technical fields are coming from abroad. Colleges and universities are very good at fundraising, but our priorities in the Carus family are more directed to fill the needs in repairing K-12 education until we once again encourage more of the best and brightest to take advantage of the incredible opportunities of the future.

17. Whereas I have been describing the immediate benefits for chemical companies in providing more and better trained employees as well as a more scientifically literate public, and in turn improving the image of the chemical industry, the more important argument for improving education is well described in Diane Ravitch's recent classic, Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform:¹⁸

"Perhaps in the past it was possible to undereducate a significant portion of the population without causing serious harm to the nation. No longer. Education, today more than at any time in the past, is the key to successful participation in society. A boy or girl who cannot read, write, or use mathematics is locked out of every sort of educational opportunity. A man or woman without a good elementary and secondary education is virtually precluded from higher education, from many desirable careers, from full participation in our political system, and from enjoyment of civilization's greatest aesthetic treasures. The society that allows large numbers of its citizens to remain uneducated, ignorant, or semiliterate squanders its greatest asset, the intelligence of its people."

Conclusion:

It may seem to leaders in the chemical industry that spending time and resources on K-12 education is diversionary, is not your responsibility, or will not have much effect on the reputation or image of your company or the reputation of the chemical industry,

We at Carus Corporation have found the opposite. For the low cost, highly-effective initiatives I have mentioned (any one or two of them), we have found that it is much, much easier to get the attention of the community, the media, and the state leaders than any other way.¹⁹ The Community Awareness Panels (CAP) of Responsible Care®> are helpful to gain credibility in our communities, but our outreach to work with the local teachers and local schools has proven much more effective in enhancing our reputation as a corporate citizen (rather than throwing money at the problems).

My good friend, Darv Winick, from Houston, who has been instrumental in developing the business-led accountability system in Texas under Governor Bush, said it best of all a few years ago in his paper, "Public School Accountability: The Texas Story:"²⁰

"Evidently, gains in student performance will occur if gains are expected and rewarded. Business interests must help by keeping the pressure on the system for graduates who can read, write, and compute. Community leaders and community organizations make many important contributions to the reform effort. Texas experience shows that good educators can be recruited as partners. Some teacher organizations have been strong allies. There is ample work for everyone. Hopefully, a fully informed public will continue to back results-driven accountability. But, only the business community has the resources, organization, and staying power to coordinate the effort. No greater public contribution from corporate America can be made."

I hope the chemical industry can take on these and other initiatives that can help enhance the reputation of the chemical industry. If we become recognized as taking the lead in the above-mentioned reforms, I am confident that we, together with the pharmaceutical, petroleum, and other process industries, will be able to strengthen our education system and will get the public recognition we deserve. Both of these will help us attract the most ambitious students to our industries and earn the understanding, respect, appreciation, and support of our communities.

If any of these thoughts provoke questions or if you would like more information, please contact:

Lynn Solorio, Community Relations Coordinator, Carus Corporation,
phone 815/224-6682; FAX 815/224-6608; lynn.solorio@caruschem.com

Aziz Asphahani, President and CEO, Carus Corporation,
phone 815/224-6513; FAX 815/224-6655; aziz.asphahani@caruschem.com

Blouke Carus, Chairman, Carus Corporation, phone 815/224-6674;
FAX 815/224-6608; mbcarus@caruschem.com

We thank the Chemical Educational Foundation for the great honor of receiving the Vanguard Award, and we look forward to contacting many of you.

¹ Beyond Traditionalism and Progressivism: The Story of the Open Court
Reading Program," Harold Henderson (to be published in the near future).

² "Put Reading First," National Reading Panel, September 2001,
www.nationalreadingpanel.org

³ Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education, www.triangle-coalition.org

⁴ Presentation on "Carus Corporation Outreach Activities, Field of Education Outreach" by Aziz Asphahani to the American Chemistry Council Executive Leadership Group, 24 September 2002. For more information about Carus Science Camp and other Carus Corporation educational outreach initiatives, contact Lynn Solorio, Community Relations Coordinator, at lynn.solorio@caruschem.com, or visit the website at www.carushem.com

⁵ Carl Nelson, Public Affairs, State Farm Insurance Company, One State Farm Plaza, Bloomington, IL. 61710, phone: 309-735-0923 carl.nelson.AP89@statefarm.com

⁶ For more information about the Teacher Enrichment Workshops hosted by Carus Corporation, contact Ken Pisarczyk, presenter of "Science Education and the Internet," at ken.pisarczyk@caruschem.com, or visit the Chemical Industries Council of Illinois website at www.cicil.net

⁷ ChemMatters is published by the American Chemical Society and can be read on the web at www.chemistry.org/education/chemmatters.html

⁸ Bob Hofstader, Workforce Training and Development, 1140 23rd Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037, phone 202/463-7887, rhofstader@aol.com or
Brad Welker, Illinois Occupational Skills Standards and Credentialing Council, 408 West Calhoun Street, Springfield, IL. 62794-9674, phone 217-557-5200, bwelker@siumed.edu

⁹ Visit the web page for the Petrochemical Process Operations Technology Program at Joliet Junior College, www.jjciet.org

¹⁰ Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education, 1840 Wilson Blvd., Suite 201, Arlington, VA. 22201; phone 800-582-0115; www.triangle-coalition.org

¹¹ Before It's Too Late, (The Glenn Report), National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, Education Publications Center, September 2000; for a copy of the report, e-mail edpubs@inet.ed.gov

¹² Introductory comments by Blouke Carus to Triangle Coalition National Conference, 18-19 October 2001.

¹³ Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics, Jeremy Kilpatrick, Jane Swafford, Bradford Findell, National Academies Press, 2001; read the executive summary online at http://books.nap.edu/books/0309069955/html/index.html

¹⁴ No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, www.nochildleftbehind.gov

¹⁵ International Baccalaureate, North America, 475 Riverside Drive, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10015; phone: 212/696-4464; www.ibo.org
Advanced Placement, http://apcentral.collegeboard.com

¹⁶ "High Schools That Work," Southern Regional Education Board, 592 10th Street N.W., Atlanta, GA 30318; phone: 404/875-9211; www.sreb.org

¹⁷ For more information, see "A Compass in the Storm," Lamar Alexander and Richard W. Riley, Education Week, 9 October 2002; and "Guiding Principles for Business and School Partnerships," at www.widmeyer.com/partners/guidingprinciples.

¹⁸ Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform, p. 466, Diane Ravitch, Touchstone Books, 2000.

¹⁹ We never launched our educational initiatives with the media in mind. Rather, these initiatives were a natural outgrowth of our recognition of what is going on in education. We experimented with a great variety of initiatives simply because we saw the need to act locally to develop a strong workforce.

²⁰ "Public School Accountability - The Texas Story," Charles Miller and Darvin M. Winick, Texas Business Education Coalition, 19 March 1996. (For a copy of this paper, contact Blouke Carus, Carus Corporation, 315 Fifth Street, Peru, IL. 61354, phone 815/224-6674, e-mail mbcarus@caruschem.com.)