A Compass in the Storm
Guiding principles for a new age of business and
school partnerships.
By Lamar Alexander and Richard W. Riley,
Education Week, October 9, 2002
For more articles on disabilities and special ed visit
www.bridges4kids.org.
It's only the beginning of the academic year at South
Plantation High School in south Florida, but Principal Joel
Herbst finds himself occasionally— and happily—preoccupied by
his expectations for the end. Right now he's especially
excited about the graduation ceremony set for June 2003, where
he hopes many of South Plantation's seniors will, as he puts
it, "walk across the stage with a diploma in one hand and
something else in the other."
Something else?
"Think of it as a supplementary diploma, proof positive that
our students have skills and experience that decisionmakers in
higher education and the workplace are really looking for,"
the principal says.
The list of possibilities Mr. Herbst ticks off sounds like a
dream to students and employers alike: Hands-on certification
for working with Cisco's operating systems. An understanding
of how the Cotesia, a newly created species of insect, could
help avoid an environmental disaster for the U.S. Sugar
Corp.'s Florida crop. The ability to step into a
broadcast-editing booth at Video Production Services, a local
communications company, with a mastery of both linear and
nonlinear tape decks. And firsthand experience—thanks to an
ambitiously creative Costco and Coca-Cola literacy
initiative—with innovative ways to engage the mothers of
newborns in helping their children learn to read from an early
age.
This is a sampling of the experiential-learning and
achievement opportunities offered to South Plantation students
largely through support from local and national business
partners. And it's a telling example of how principals like
Joel Herbst (and thousands of others) are pursuing these types
of partnerships at a time when concerns about excess
commercialism in schools are putting such relationships under
more scrutiny than ever before.
Negotiating the ‘right’ mix of corporate involvement forces
many educators and business leaders to push hot-button issues.
Just one look at the news coverage around last year's decision
by the Seattle school board to excise all advertising from its
campuses, and the Los Angeles school board's decision in
August to forfeit significant revenues by banning the sale of
soft drinks in its schools, shows the pressure faced by many
educators who pursue business partnerships. And chances are
there is more scrutiny to come, particularly around many
popular partnership activities that draw mixed reactions from
advocacy groups across the spectrum. From advertising in the
classroom to support academic programs, to after-school
activities that depend on student-led sales of candy and other
products, to company-sponsored efforts to shape classroom
lessons, negotiating the "right" mix of corporate involvement
forces many educators and business leaders to push hot-button
issues that often ignite the passions of parents and
communities alike.
So what is it that sets Joel Herbst and so many other
educators apart? How is it that they have created programs
that draw praise from almost every corner of their
communities? Is it their unabashed willingness to court—and
counsel—business interests that step in to support schools?
Possibly. But we believe the real secret of this success is
how South Plantation has created these partnerships—and in
what Mr. Herbst, his students, and the partnering
organizations expect in return.
But let the principal explain: "We're a large school, facing
the same kinds of financial challenges you might expect in an
economically diverse community," he says. "But we've always
wanted—and expected—our partners to do more than simply write
a check. We want them to demonstrate on a daily basis the
industry standards that future workers need to live up to.
That means getting every corporate, nonprofit, and public
partner that we work with to engage in a dialogue with our
students. It means tapping in to their resources to drive and
improve our curricula. And it means bringing them full-force
into our world at the same time we venture into theirs."
Today, most school-business partnerships are built on shared
understanding and support mutual needs.
Mr. Herbst and his colleagues at South Plantation High are
clearly not alone. With business involvement contributing an
estimated $2.4 billion and 109 million volunteer hours to
schools each year, these partnerships have an impact on the
lives of an estimated 35 million students. And there is ample
evidence that school and business relationships today are very
different from past relationships, which were largely
philanthropic efforts to generate resources in a one-way
stream from businesses to schools, or commercial
relationships, whereby schools provided a marketplace for the
sale of products and services. Today, the vast majority of
educators and business leaders are engaging in true
partnerships that build on a shared understanding of values
and culture to support mutual needs.
This is encouraging news to those who believe that businesses
play a key role in the "it takes a village" approach to
improving the nation's K-12 education system. But it also begs
the question: What does it take to form effective partnerships
that deliver on the expectations of students and schools over
an extended period of time?
With this in mind, a group of educators and business leaders
last year formed the Council for Corporate & School
Partnerships to identify, create, recognize, and support
exemplary business-school partnerships. To better understand
the dynamics of how successful partnerships worked, and why,
the council conducted interviews with nearly 300 school board
members and educators and more than 50 executives from large,
medium, and small businesses. Respondents were queried on how
successful partnerships are structured, implemented, and
evaluated. To ensure the objectivity of the findings, a third
party—the National Association of Partners in Educationmanaged
the research. NAPE conducted the project in cooperation with
Consulting Research and Information Services, and Kane,
Parsons, and Associates Inc. The key findings of the research
show that:
Nearly 70 percent of school districts now engage in business
partnerships—a figure that has grown by 35 percent since 1990.
Educators consider student development to be the most valuable
outcome of partnerships, with 72 percent saying that improving
student motivation and 60 percent saying that providing
direction for future education are extremely or very
important.
Business leaders believe school partnerships benefit
businesses and educators in four key areas: human-capital
development, community development, student achievement, and
financial impact in terms of earning revenue for the business
and providing needed funding for schools.
Nearly 100 percent of the educators surveyed say they intend
to continue their business partnerships.
While many advocates for business partnerships may cheer such
findings, the council was reminded by NAPE and other sources
that many of the benefits schools, businesses, and communities
are so proud of did not occur overnight. In general,
businesses and schools operate very differently, and the
unfamiliarity of one side with the other can become a
significant roadblock if time isn't invested by both partners
to understand the unique operational elements of the other.
Without this critical step, business people seeking to effect
changes in schools have been thwarted by their lack of
awareness of the challenges faced by schools. Likewise,
educators have not always understood the expectations of
business for meeting set objectives and goals. Mentoring and
tutoring programs have been sparked by explosive growth and
effectiveness, but have often faded away because of volunteer
burnout. Ambitious programs involving significant investments
of money, energy, and time have led to disappointing results
and a realization that the school and business partners had
very different visions for what the partnership was expected
to achieve.
How do we structure partnerships that are a real ‘win-win’ for
all parties?
And yet, the council also found ample evidence that many
partnerships continue to deliver remarkable benefits to
students, schools, and business partners alike. One common
theme echoed in the research is that partnerships in general
have come a long, long way from the days of simple sponsorship
of a scoreboard or an ad in the school newspaper. In fact,
many business partners, in the words of Principal Herbst,
already want to do more than simply "write a check." Most want
to add practical expertise that goes far beyond philanthropic
support.
This is particularly true among several of the larger
companies queried in our research. According to fellow council
member Carlton Curtis, who works with many of the education
partnerships formed by the Coca-Cola Co., "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."
Building on the extensive research about the qualities that
business and education leaders attribute to successful
partnerships, the Council for Corporate & School Partnerships
has now moved into a second phase of its work. Our goal: to
incorporate the knowledge gained by our opinion research into
a series of "guiding principles" for such collaborations. In
addition to detailed case studies based on interviews and
words of advice from many who have been on the front lines,
the "Guiding Principles for Business and School Partnerships"
report offers step-by-step guidelines on how to structure
relationships that are a real "win-win" for all parties.
Read the report "Guiding Principles for Business and School
Partnerships," from the Council for Corporate & School
Partnerships. (Requires Adobe's Acrobat Reader.)
The report addresses what we consider to be four key elements
of partnership-development. Beginning at the Foundation stage,
the guiding principles demonstrate the importance of both
parties' working together to develop the partnership's core
values. In the Implementation stage, the principles show how
these values can be translated into action. In the Continuity
stage, there are principles for sustaining partnerships over
time. In the Evaluation stage, the focus is on addressing
strengths and weaknesses so that partnerships can be improved,
and expanded, to meet evolving needs.
Taken together, the recommendations form what the council
believes will be an effective resource for schools,
businesses, and communities across the nation.
To give educators a firsthand view of how these principles can
be used at the local level, the council, working with the
National Association of Secondary School Principals, has
appointed an award-winning high school principal as its
"resident practitioner" for business and school partnerships.
Jay Engeln, formerly the principal of Palmer High School in
Colorado Springs, Colo., and the 2000 NASSP Principal of the
Year, will spend the next several months visiting with
educators around the country and describing his own challenges
and successes in establishing and integrating more than 100
business partnerships at Palmer High. He credits these
programs with helping transform the school from an institution
slated for closure due to a 45 percent failure rate to one
that is now a flagship of the district.
Which comes as little surprise to Joel Herbst, who continues
to find many businesses "ready and willing to jump in and get
involved" in schools. And although some conversations still
begin with an offer to write a check, he is quick to counsel,
"That's the easy part." What most educators want, he explains,
are partnerships that bring their schools brainpower. They
want to make sure that the "something else" their students
gain is a step toward a brighter future.
Lamar Alexander served as the U.S. secretary of education
during the first Bush administration. Richard W. Riley was the
U.S. secretary of education during the Clinton administration.
Both are members of the Council for Corporate & School
Partnerships, which Mr. Alexander chairs.
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