The Future of Education In Contra Costa County

In business, one of the fundamental requirements to successfully implement change is a crisis. Employees need to be shaken up from their comfort zone and wake up to the reality that the environment is changing, competition is heating up, and change needs to occur both individually and as an organization to survive.

Some have labeled California’s current economic mess as a crisis, resulting in tremendous impacts to education ranging from proper levels of funding, to questioning the fundamental expectations of K-12 and higher education. While there are no easy answers to these questions, we have an obligation to Contra Costa County to take advantage of this opportunity and find solutions to support the high expectations our community has for education.

To start this conversation, the Contra Costa Community College District partnered with the Contra Costa County Office of Education and hosted a presentation with Dr. Mark Milliron, futurist and CEO of Catalyze Learning International (http://catalyzelearning.net ). His presentation material is available on this website, and we encourage you to take the time and review them, reflect on the changes in education that are bubbling nationwide, and join our discussion forum by telling us your thoughts. What can we be doing better? How do we collaborate more? What are the most important challenges we must address that will reflect our community’s support for education?

We invite you to join us on this journey.

Helen Benjamin, Ph.D.
Contra Costa Community College District

Joseph Ovick, Ph.D.
Contra Costa County Office of Education