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BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: DAILY BRIEFING: SPECIAL REPORT | ||||||||||||||
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Q&A: How Business Can Help Schools Work Smarter Stanford's Linda Darling-Hammond talks about Corporate America's role in education reform Back in the mid-1990s, it took a special commission of teachers, business leaders, teachers' union representatives, politicians, and academics two years to come to a conclusion about education reform that is jarring in its simplicity. "A caring, competent, and qualified teacher for every child is the most important ingredient in education reform and, we believe, the most frequently overlooked," declared the September, 1996, report of the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future. Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor at the Stanford University School of Education, is still executive director of that commission, which was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and Carnegie Corp., both in New York. Since that report, the commission has worked with more than a dozen states and school districts to implement many of its proposals, including those that call for developing professional standards for teachers, improving teacher training, and rewarding teachers who are especially skilled. Schools can learn a great deal from corporations, which have become ever more efficient, customer-focused, and willing to invest in key people, Hammond told Business Week Online Associate Editor Amey Stone. She also had many practical ideas for how companies can participate in education reform. Q: What role should business play in education? A: Members of society ought to contribute to education based on their own strengths and what they do well. Business can make several contributions, both on a practical level and on a policy level. Business can play a key role in supporting the kinds of reforms and innovations that make a difference in schools. Q: Let's talk first about the practical level. What are some ideas for businesses to consider? A: Schools often have inadequate funds for some of the things that matter the most for creating an environment that fosters high-quality teaching, which is what matters for kids. For example, schools have a very hard time supporting ongoing training for teachers. It is often the first thing cut from budgets. Businesses tend to be very appreciative of the need for employee training in ways school boards aren't. Businesses have begun to invest more in their own employee training and could support ongoing teacher training. They could privately fund high-quality training to help teachers upgrade their skills. Q: How would a company go about doing this? A: Procter & Gamble worked to endow a school for teacher development in Cincinnati called the Mayerson Academy. It is a private nonprofit [institution], and has on its board members of the business community. It offers some of the highest-quality sustained training for teachers in the region. Teachers voluntarily go for training courses, sometimes multiple times a year. They learn about new teaching techniques, and get technical training. It is a very pragmatic, practical, see-the-results kind of approach that typifies what business can do. Q: What else besides training can business contribute on a practical level? A: Many school districts, particularly in urban areas, haven't upgraded their personnel offices. Places like New York City and Los Angeles have outdated hiring processes that can take six to eight months and be so frustrating that many qualified teachers are turned away. There is no automation, there are no computers. There aren't even people in place to respond to phone requests. The process is so arduous that schools end up hiring mostly unqualified teachers. Many schools systems could use help in overhauling their personnel office and how it operates. Businesses often have excellent systems in place for handling key aspects of personnel. Companies could offer technical support and show schools how to set up a computer-based hiring system, how to improve organizational functions, and also provide computers. That is a very practical, on-the-ground suggestion that pays off big time when you get things working well. It penetrates deeper into the system and has longer-term effects than some other ways companies contribute to schools, even though it may not be as tangible as buying new textbooks or putting computers in classrooms.
A: Technology is extremely important, but the big issue is making sure technology is well-used in the classroom. That requires training teachers to integrate computers into the curriculum as well as putting hardware and software in the classrooms. A lot of schools have computers, but they don't know how to use them optimally. Teachers can use computers to give students targeted practice time, to do research, and to supplement particular aspects of a curriculum. The commission recommended that anyone who contributes computers to schools should use a third of whatever they are willing to spend on teacher development. Q: What's an example of a corporate program that doesn't work? A: Adopt-a-school strategies were popular in 1980s. Some have been very effective, and businesses have been able to make a big dent in improving a troubled school. But sometimes the results have been more ephemeral. These programs don't really address the core functioning of a system. Q: On a policy level, what should business do? A: Business already plays a role in policy in most states through things like business roundtables and business and school partnerships. Business could be an important voice for getting rid of unnecessary regulations and showing school boards how to consolidate spending and put money where it matters most. It could push for policies that allow a much more effective, efficient, high-performing public-education system to operate. One of the really unfortunate things about U.S. schools is that we spend much less than Asian and European schools on teachers and classroom materials and much more on nonteaching personnel and offices. We're not investing in the core of the organization. Instead, we are just overrun with fads and ideas in education. We have too many policies and programs and projects that are landing on schools from all directions. A lot of these small programs take up time and energy and resources. Business people could really help policy makers understand that for an organization to function productively, it has to focus on its core mission. That's something high-functioning businesses have had to do. Q: What about private companies actually running schools? What is your opinion on for-profit schools? A: Some of what Chris Whittle [CEO of The Edison Project] has done is interesting and potentially illustrative to schools. Companies like his can show schools how to run a lean, focused organization. But I don't think it is a panacea. There are some problems with the notion of for-profit schools. For example, at some point they have to make decisions about what kids aren't going to get in order to return some profit to shareholders. That's uncomfortable. While we are experimenting with charter schools and other models of new schools, we should be trying to figure out how to sort out the lessons from what is working and not working and change the main system at the same time. [The results from] charter schools have been mixed. We tend to sometimes talk about education reform in a simple way. We think we can find one program that will save the world. But it is always the case that any reform can be done well or badly. I'm not pro- or anti-charter schools. I'm pro good schools. Q: What do you think of second-career teachers? Should business professionals be encouraged to enter teaching? A: It can be a good idea, but it depends on how it's implemented. There are some wonderful new programs for preparing mid-career changers for education. The programs that work best for folks who want to make a career change include anywhere from 9 to 15 months of intensive programs. These programs aren't like starting college again. They are for mature mid-career people from different professions and give them an opportunity to take courses on how kids learn and develop and how to plan a curriculum. They also include an internship under the wing of master teacher. Some other strategies that have tried to put people into classrooms with just a couple of months of training have a very poor track record with huge attrition rates. The problem is that running a classroom is much more complicated and challenging than many people realize. I've never seen [a preparation program] that worked well that was less than nine months. Q: What about having students visit the workplace? A: That can be very helpful. Some schools have all their students doing internships. That gives kids a sense of the world outside of school and motivates them to learn. Another thing some businesses have done is to provide summer employment for teachers in areas related to their fields. For example, a chemical company can give a science teacher the opportunity to be engaged in some of the work going on in the field. That can be really very helpful, since the teacher can return to the classroom and explain the application of science in the real world to students.
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