Where workforce development really begins

Listen to this article

In Rochester, employers across healthcare, manufacturing, and education are facing a common challenge: they cannot find enough workers with the skills they need. From major health systems to growing technical industries, the demand for talent is clear. However, the pipeline is not keeping pace.

The conversation typically centers on job training programs, higher education, or retraining adults already in the labor market. But by the time we are trying to fix the workforce at age 22, it is already too late.

The workforce pipeline is not built in high school or college. It is built in the earliest years of education, long before a student ever considers a career path. If we want to understand why workforce gaps persist in Rochester, we need to look at what is happening in our youngest learners in kindergarten through third grade.

The Earliest Skills Are the Most Predictive

Rochester’s key industries such as healthcare, education, technology and manufacturing, depend on a workforce that can think critically, communicate clearly, and adapt quickly. Those skills do not suddenly appear in young adults. They are developed, or not, by the end of elementary school.

Third-grade reading proficiency remains one of the earliest leading indicators of long-term workforce readiness. Studies done by the Annie E. Casey Foundation have shown that students who experience poverty who cannot read proficiently by the end of third grade are 4x more likely to drop out of high school and ultimately face reduced employment opportunities and lifetime earnings. 75% of students with reading difficulties by 3rd grade never catch up, setting them on a trajectory of academic hardship, economic immobility, increased reliance on public systems, and increased likelihood of incarceration, In fact, 70% of incarcerated adults read at, or below, a 4th grade level. In this way, early literacy is not just an education issue, it is an economic one.

Early math skills are just as critical. Foundational numeracy, basic number sense, counting, and operations, have been shown to be one of the strongest indicators of later academic success, including progression through advanced coursework. The economic return on math proficiency is measurable. Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that stronger numeracy skills can increase wages by nearly 20%, underscoring the direct connection between early math development and long-term earning potential.

These are not simply academic skills; they are the core capacities the workforce depends on.

When students lack literacy, they struggle to process information, follow instructions, and adapt to new tasks. When they lack numeracy, they struggle with problem-solving, data interpretation, and analytical thinking. These gaps do not disappear over time. They widen.

Workforce Skills Need To Be Built Early

In a community like Rochester, where many students face systemic barriers to academic success, early proficiency in reading and math is not just an educational milestone, it is a determinant of long-term economic mobility.

Students who fall behind in the early grades are significantly less likely to access advanced coursework in middle and high school and less likely to graduate on time. They are also less likely to pursue postsecondary education. From a workforce perspective, this means fewer qualified candidates for high-skill jobs and a growing mismatch between employer needs and available talent.
Additionally, employers consistently rank communication, teamwork, adaptability, and problem-solving among the most in-demand skills. These are often referred to as “soft skills,” but there is nothing soft about their impact on work performance. These capabilities are developed early.

In the K-3 years, children are learning how to regulate their emotions, navigate conflict, collaborate with peers, and persist through challenges. These experiences form the foundation for workplace behavior later in life.

A child who learns how to manage frustration becomes an employee who can handle pressure. A child who learns how to resolve conflict becomes an employee who can work effectively on a team.

Conversely, when mental health needs go unaddressed or when students do not develop these skills early, the impact shows up later as disengagement, absenteeism, and workplace instability.

If we are serious about building a reliable workforce in Rochester, we cannot ignore the role of early social and emotional development. But, by the time employers experience a “gap”, the roots of that gap are often more than a decade old.

From Theory to Practice: Renaissance Academy’s Approach

Rochester has long grappled with questions of economic mobility and access to opportunity. In the Rochester region, a child born into poverty has roughly a 50% chance of remaining poor as an adult, placing the city among the lowest in the nation for upward mobility. If we are serious about changing these outcomes, we cannot wait until high school to intervene.

Rochester does not have to imagine what this kind of early investment looks like in practice. Schools like Renaissance Academy Charter School of the Arts are already working to intentionally build these foundational skills in the earliest grades.

While Renaissance Academy serves students in grades K-6, the focus in all grades, especially in K-3 extends beyond basic instruction. There is a deliberate emphasis on strong literacy and numeracy development paired with social and emotional learning. The arts serve as a vehicle for learning, with content taught through arts integration, allowing students to deepen their understanding of both the subject matter and the art form.

At RA, academics are grounded in a strong focus on data and action. Student performance is continuously analyzed and used to make real-time instructional decisions, ensuring support is targeted and timely. This enables agility. Instruction is responsive, not fixed. Teachers adjust quickly through small groups and differentiated strategies to meet students where they are and move them forward.

The arts are used as a lever for learning. Through arts integration, students engage with content in deeper, more meaningful ways. For example, at Renaissance Academy, when 5th grade students learn to multiply and divide fractions, music integration is used to deepen their understanding and practice of the concept. Students apply their knowledge of how musical notes represent fractional values and use that understanding to solve mathematical equations within measures of music, multiplying and dividing the fractions that each note represents. This creative way of connecting music and math makes the learning engaging which results in the concepts sticking with the students.

Social and emotional learning is equally prioritized. Every classroom includes a daily 30-minute SEL block, with teachers trained in trauma-sensitive practices. This is reinforced by three full-time mental health professionals providing counseling to approximately 100 students, along with a partnership with Catholic Charities Family and Community Services to expand access to care and on-site therapy services for students that continue through the summer months when school is not in session.

This kind of approach reflects a broader understanding of workforce development. It recognizes that preparing students for future careers does not begin with job training programs or career pathways in high school. It begins with ensuring that young students have the academic foundation and behavioral skills needed to succeed in any environment.
Just as important, this work is happening within the context of a community where many students face significant barriers. By focusing early and intentionally, schools like Renaissance Academy are working to change long-term trajectories, not just short-term outcomes.

If Rochester is serious about strengthening its workforce pipeline, these kinds of early, integrated approaches are not just promising, they are essential.

Rethinking Where Workforce Development Begins

If we continue to define workforce development as something that starts in high school or later, we will continue to fall short. By that point, we are not building a workforce, we are trying to repair one.

A more effective approach is to recognize that the workforce pipeline begins in early education classrooms, like at Renaissance Academy Charter School of the Arts, where the foundational skills for reading, math, problem-solving, and human interaction are first developed.

The question is not whether early education matters for workforce outcomes. The data is clear that it does. The real question is whether we are willing, here in Rochester, to align our investments, policies, and expectations with that reality.

Because if we want a stronger, more resilient workforce, we have to start building it much earlier than we do today.