Discrepancies bolster the view that while schools teach students how to solve problems put before them, the business sector wants workers who can identify the problems in the first place.

An overwhelming majority of surveyed school superintendents who educate future workers and employers who hire them agree that creativity is increasingly important in U.S. workplaces, according to key findings issued last year in a report by The Conference Board and Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators. 
 
Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce? states that 99% of the 155 surveyed school superintendents and 97% of the 89 surveyed employers believe that arts training—and, to a lesser degree, communications studies—are crucial to developing creativity. Yet, there is a fundamental gap between understanding this truth and putting it into meaningful practice. Findings indicate that most high schools and employers provide such training and studies only on an elective or “as needed” basis.
 
Reads the report: “While creativity is recognized as a critical ingredient to success in the workplace, schools and businesses need to re-examine their curriculums and training programs to determine the most effective way to increase the emphasis on developing this skill. That’s the only true way to effect change and turn out better qualified workers with more creative talents.”
 
Both the superintendents and employers surveyed agree that the ability to identify new patterns of behavior or new combinations of actions and integration of knowledge across different disciplines are foremost in demonstrating creativity. Other responses received reveal a lack of alignment. For example, employers say problem identification and articulation are the most important talents indicating creativity. School superintendents rank this skill only 9th. While these superintendents rate problem-solving the highest, employers rank it 8th.
 
These discrepancies bolster the view that while schools teach students how to solve problems put before them, the business sector wants workers who can identify the problems in the first place.
 
In addition, 70% of superintendents presume employers seek out “creative thinkers” over “technically skilled” individuals. Employers, as a group, are evenly split (49/51 respectively).
 
“The findings of the Ready to Innovate report present an opportunity for school system and business leaders to further engage in a dialogue about how best to foster creativity among students, not only to produce a competitive workforce, but also to help all students succeed in life,” says Paul D. Houston, AASA executive director.
 
In summary, this new research shows that both businesses and schools recognize the critical role of creativity as a workforce skill, and both groups accept the role they have in fostering it. Both also recognize that arts-training is a key way to foster creativity. Yet despite this recognition, most schools do not include arts training as a mandatory part of the curriculum, and most businesses provide creativity-fostering training only to very few employees. With this growing recognition of the role a creative workforce has on the global competitiveness of American business, both business and education leaders need to examine what changes can be made to more widely foster these skills in our current—and especially our future—workers.

Read a summary of the study at  www.aasa.org/files/PDFs/Publications/RreportReadytoInnovateTCB.pdf.  

View a Christian Science Monitor graphic that compares views of superintendents and employers at www.csmonitor.com/2009/0108/p03s03-usgn.html