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September 2007
The sorry state of our public schools – and what corporations can do to help improve them – consistently ranks among the top concerns of our members. No wonder. Despite years of reform efforts, America's schoolchildren continue to rank well behind their counterparts in many nations, especially in math and science. Long term, no problem poses a greater challenge to the future of the U.S. economy.
But while the problem may seem insolvable, there is reason for hope. On October 10 the Center for Corporate Citizenship will host a webinar focused on how companies can create more effective efforts to improve our schools. Tom Luce, one of the nation's leading authorities on business/education partnerships, will be one of the key speakers. Though Luce is deeply aware of the frustrations that many corporate leaders feel around school reform, he argues business can make a greater contribution by implementing what he calls "next generation" partnerships. Luce recently discussed his ideas with William Symonds, who will moderate the October 10 webinar. Symonds, who wrote about education and business for Business Week for over 20 years, is now a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
The following excerpts from their conversation will give you a taste of the provocative discussion you can expect on October 10. We hope you will participate – not just by listening, but also by submitting your questions and comments.
First, a word about Tom Luce. The prominent Texas attorney has been involved in business efforts to improve public schools for a quarter of a century. Most notably, he served in Washington as an assistant secretary of education from 2005-6. Luce began his education work by serving as chief of staff for the highly-acclaimed effort led by Ross Perot to bring business discipline to the reform of Texas public schools in the mid-80s. In the mid-'90s, the indefatigable Luce helped found Just for the Kids, and later its national counterpart, the National Center for Educational Accountability. These initiatives employ careful analysis of student test data to highlight a school’s relative performance.
Since his return to Dallas last year, Luce has won headlines for another innovation: the National Math and Science Initiative, which was launched this spring with a $125 million grant from ExxonMobil. The initiative initially aims to boost the number of high school students passing AP math and science courses, as well as to encourage more college math and science majors to enter teaching.
Here are excerpts from the conversation between Luce and Symonds:
SYMONDS: How would you describe the current state of business-school partnerships?
LUCE: I think most corporations would say they are frustrated. One reason is that while they've spent a lot of money, they often haven't measured what was accomplished. So when the CEO asks – "What did we get for that program?" – no one can answer the question.
SYMONDS: Why do many of these programs fall short?
LUCE: Virtually every school I've dealt with will just ask a company to give them more money to do the same things they're already doing. Problem is, they are often getting lousy results. So they're asking you to help them do more of what's not working.
SYMONDS: So how can companies break out of this dynamic?
LUCE: It is very important for corporate leadership to be proactive about what they want the school to do, rather than just responding to what the school wants. The company should look for best practices, and then offer schools assistance in implementing those programs.
SYMONDS: Aren't companies also part of the problem? After all, because many companies want to "brand" their own education program, we've also seen an enormous explosion of unique school-business partnerships.
LUCE: Absolutely. We've had too many pilot programs, and too many efforts to reinvent the wheel. Now we are ready to move to a next generation of more effective efforts.
SYMONDS: How would you define next generation school partnerships?
LUCE: The next generation should focus on replication of what works. In other words, we need to worry about scale. Major corporations need to think in national terms. Our public school system educates 55 million children. So if you want to have an impact on education, you have to get involved in something more than a pilot program, or a program that helps one school.
SYMONDS: Given the enormous size of the education system – there are over 15,000 school districts, for instance – that seems like a daunting order, even for the biggest corporations.
LUCE: Yes, but you can start by taking a program to scale in a state, or even a metropolitan area. I would much rather see a company impact 10 schools with one good program, than do 10 different programs in 10 schools.
SYMONDS: Doesn't this also suggest companies will need to collaborate a lot more?
LUCE: Absolutely. And that's exactly what we're trying to encourage with the National Math and Science Initiative. We’ve started with two proven pilot programs. One is UTeach, which encourages math and science majors to enter the teaching profession. The second offers training for teachers and incentives to students in order to increase the number of high school students who pass AP courses in math, science and English. Both programs have been very successful in pilot tests. So now we're taking them to scale. We've had 29 states apply for grants to get involved in the AP program and 52 universities apply for UTeach grants.
SYMONDS: Exxon kick-started this effort with a $125 million grant. How are you doing in getting others to join in?
LUCE: The Gates Foundation and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation have already joined this effort. Meanwhile, we're hoping that other companies will offer programs they have developed to the National Math and Science Initiative, which will then work to scale them up. Eventually, we hope the initiative will become known as Scale-Up Inc.
SYMONDS: What other ideas do you have for how companies can help accelerate the pace of improvement in schools?
LUCE: One of my dreams is that companies should let school principals take part in the management training courses they offer in the summer. I don't mean courses specially geared to principals – I'm talking about the management training offered to executives. Because a school principal's job is really about leadership. And most principals don't get this training in the schools of education.
SYMONDS: Thank you. We look forward to discussing these ideas in more detail on October 10.
» Register for the October 10 webinar, "The Role of Business in Education" (you must be logged in as a member to view this page)
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