Journal Article: Education Business Connection
Connecting the Teacher with the Business Person: Enhancing Pedagogy by Promoting Professional Development Opportunities beyond the School Campus
Mark T. Dietz, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools (Retired)
Please read the following to explore education business connections.
There is much discussion about the need to prepare students for a technology enriched 21st Century. In large measure this preparation embraces the importance of students to successfully compete on a global economic stage. Articles abound calling to question the effectiveness and relevance of current pedagogy and student performance to ensure that the students of the United States of America can compete with people of other countries in the global marketplace. These conversations among politicians, business leaders, academicians, and administrators are making a positive impact upon current practice; however, more improvement is likely if teachers are permitted a greater voice and increased opportunity.
Teachers have a direct and indirect influence and a formal and informal impact upon students. It is this connection between teacher and student that defines and determines student success. Yet, few opportunities exist whereby teachers interact with non-educators regarding global competition, marketplace demands, and student learning.
The Desire for Improvement
To be sure, there are groups of business and education folks working very hard for the betterment of students by expending time, energy, and emotion to improve the performance of schools and prepare students for the rigors of the workplace. Junior Achievement, Business-Education Coalitions, and occasional on-site business visits by educators are some examples of their efforts. Similarly, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, through the Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership Program incorporates the Continuing Professional Education for School & System Leaders Program and the Principal’s Induction Program which is supplemented by the Principals’ Leadership Induction Network under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Academy for the Profession of Teaching and Learning, brings attention to effective, efficient, and productive concepts from business and educational perspectives. The interest, persistence, and passion of groups such as these for the benefit of students are without question.
The work of individuals affiliated with the above is untiring. Their mission to positively impact student learning by enhancing the likelihood of future student success in post-formal schooling and/or higher education is at the forefront of every discussion. A few examples follow.
To promote a recent fund raising campaign for Junior Achievement of Greater Reading and Lehigh Valley, Mr. Pruzinsky, Chairman, Board of Directors, states, “’The future of the U.S. workforce is here – and is woefully ill-prepared for the demand of today’s and tomorrow’s workplace.’ This powerful and sobering statement is the opening line of a recent study of more that 400 U.S. employers across the United States. The study questions the ability of the United States to compete in a global economy based on the lack of academic skills as well as the ability to apply these skills and knowledge in the workplace.” The thrust of Junior Achievement places business people in classrooms to deliver business-related curricula to students.
In a recent newspaper article, Mr. Daniel W. Fogarty (2008), Co-chairman of the Governor’s Commission on College and Career Success and member of the Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board as well as a senior executive of a large technology company, writes, “Given the rapidly-changing international economy in which companies compete, we need a high school diploma to hold substantive meaning. Employers want to know that if a prospective employee has graduated from a Pennsylvania high school, he or she can read, write, compute and solve problems at a competitive level.” Mr. Fogarty views himself as “an advocate of the PSSA, since we know that the tests are a valid predictor of success and are aligned to Pennsylvania graduation standards. … It is unfortunate, based on convincing annual 11th-grade Pennsylvania System of School Assessment results, only slightly more than half of our recent high school graduates are academically prepared for college and work.”
Others believe exit tests do not prepare students well for the workplace or college. Neill and Guisbond (2008) of FairTest state, “Misguided exit exam mandates have increased dropout rates, especially among minority groups, and have focused classroom teaching on test preparation rather than 21st-century skills. … Real progress has been elusive because high-stakes testing, including No Child Left Behind, undermines rather that improves education. Untested subjects are ignored, while tested topics narrow to test-coaching programs.”
Some say narrowing curricula and emphasizing particular disciplines to the exclusion of other disciplines are antithetical to what is actually required for a nation competing globally. Dr. Godbey (2008), Associate to the President for Globalization at DeSales University, writes, “The coin of the realm in the global economy today is innovation. The ability to add value to products, services or experiences through change is important. … Further, preparing graduates for global innovation will require unprecedented levels of global and intercultural engagement in education. Work is increasingly geographically distributed; technologically-mediated (with periodic travel); team-based; inter-organizational and collaborative; project focused; multicultural and international. Among other things, students and faculty should routinely use globe-spanning technology to work together on projects that can result in solutions to problems or better ways of doing things.”
It can be argued that there is truth within each of the comments above: a percentage of high school graduates are not prepared for the workplace or college, the high school diploma does not guarantee accomplishment of skills by every student required by the workplace, paper and pencil assessments cannot be the only indicators of performance, and the world of today and tomorrow requires the attainment of a more sophisticated skill set.
A Resource Under Utilized
For the most part, however, the respective groups of “individuals” represented above do not capitalize on the expertise of teachers nor provide teachers the opportunity to learn about the business/workplace community in significant ways. Currently engaged business leaders do not have the opportunity to hear directly from teachers concerning the challenges they face daily. Teachers do not have the opportunity to hear directly from business people about their requirements for current and prospective employees for the workplace. Essentially, teachers and business leaders are not permitted the number of opportunities needed to strategize and enact solutions addressing the challenges facing education and the workplace. Essentially, teachers and business leaders have not engaged in sufficient meaningful ways to comprehend and appreciate the work environments in which each exists.
Nearly twenty years ago, during the third annual Fortune Magazine summit, 281 executives, politicians, and educators, met to discuss educational reforms. This was a group of highly successful individuals in their respective fields. Of this group, only one (1) participant was an active teacher (one other was a retired teacher). More recently, initiatives in Pennsylvania with a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) that “are efforts designed to foster the development and expansion of our nation’s STEM workforce — individuals who receive sufficient academic and career exploration opportunities so that they can become contributors to our economic innovation and competitiveness,” indicate a Leadership Team, Design Team, and Key Initiative Leaders membership of 78. Of this group, only one (1) is an active teacher.
Learning from Each Other
The extensive demands of contemporary education placed upon teachers, who have lived a life in the classroom, are growing. Administrators and professional development committees struggle to delineate those meaningful professional development exercises that are most important and required for teachers at any given time. Educational issues of the day, such as, discipline, school safety, No Child Left Behind, inclusion, school law, special education, the digital divide, and many others, vie for very limited in-service time. How can the educator take the time to understand the world of the workplace, when every limited moment of professional development is consumed with topics such as these? Further, teachers have had little or no first hand opportunity to explore the business world their students will inhabit. For the first four or five years of a teacher’s life, time and activities, for the most part, were limited to the family and local environs. Generally, the fifth or sixth year of life began a lifetime of relatively confined experiences for the teacher. It started in kindergarten and proceeded through the elementary school, middle level education, high school, and undergraduate school, culminating in graduate school and teaching in the classroom. Indeed, over a lifetime, a teacher’s time in the classroom is second only to the time spent in his or her own residence!
Similarly, it is very difficult for business people to understand a school environment that has changed drastically from their student days. In addition, there is very little time or opportunity for business people to study the effects of current legislation, litigation, and funding on today’s schools.
Learning Communities
The concept of learning communities is a topic of discussion in both education and business. It may be an idea of tremendous promise when encouraged among groups of politicians, business leaders, academicians, administrators, and teachers.
The educational conversation occurring now about professional learning communities suggests effective results if practiced by very engaged educators. Richard DuFour (2005) states, “The professional learning community model is a powerful new way of working together that profoundly affects the practices of schooling. But initiating and sustaining the concept requires hard work. It requires the school staff to focus on learning rather than teaching, work collaboratively on matters related to learning, and hold itself accountable for the kind of results that fuel continual improvement. … The rise or fall of the professional learning community concept depends not on the merits of the concept itself, but on the most important element in the improvement of any school–the commitment and persistence of the educators within it.”
This concept seems to borrow heavily from a “learning organization” business model. Etienne Wenger and William Snyder (2000) suggest the “new-economy” strongly urges businesses to embrace this concept. They state, “The typical approach to workplace learning often merely reflects traditional school models: classrooms, rote memorization, individual study, smart teacher-naïve student, etc. Though the “school model” is not without merit for some kinds of learning in some kinds of situations, it is dangerously limited if pursued as the be-all and end-all of workplace education. It fails to recognize one of the most natural of all learning processes, learning through interactions and relationships in networks of others who are experiencing and working on the same challenges and tasks. People learn in communities of other people working on the same things. They learn from other people, and consciously or unconsciously teach other members, through a matrix of relationships and social exchanges. They learn from situations that arise in those communities, and through the joint conversations, they engage in about problems to be solved.” The authors stress the importance of using “Communities of practice” which are defined as, “…groups of people who share expertise and passion about a topic and interact on an ongoing basis to further their learning in this domain. A division of Daimler-Chrysler is cited as an example. Through this example the authors share four trends, one of which is particularly relevant, “Communities are also expanding beyond the traditional organizational boundaries to include vendors, partners, and customers. These fluid business-alliance and partnership networks depend on new kinds of inter-organizational communities to develop the trust, foster the learning, and build the new practices these networks need to thrive. These inter-organizational communities, like communities inside companies, rely on internal leadership, shared passion, and ongoing relationships.”
Essentially, it is the building of a “learning community” in which politicians, business leaders, academicians, administrators, and, of course, teachers, combining their unique talents to understand and find solutions that will bring the greatest benefit to students.
Teachers as Contributors
It is imperative that teachers are encouraged and permitted to participate in conversations with business people. Equally as critical is the need to schedule contact time that is convenient for business folks and teachers alike, while not taking either from their respective major responsibilities. The objective of every conversation should focus on two areas: 1) creating and nurturing an environment of learning, mutual respect, and understanding, among all the participants; and, 2) creating a plan of action requiring the on-going engagement all.
It is very difficult and nearly impossible at specific times during the school day, week, month, and academic year, to release teachers for meetings during the day. What time is permitted to excuse teachers from the classroom must be exercised for specific needs such as IEP meetings, parental meetings, legal matters, et cetera. Another significant inhibitor for the release of teachers during the day is the difficulty of securing substitute teachers. Further, teacher responsibilities in the evening such as, and not limited to, student fine arts performances, coaching, open houses, school district meetings, and, graduate schooling, make evening meetings very difficult. Consequently, two viable options seem to exist: 1) Meetings between the middle of June through the middle of August; and, 2) Saturday meetings.
Teachers have extensive knowledge that can enhance the discussion among politicians, business leaders, academicians, and administrators. Equally important, teachers must hear directly from the business community about the skills they require of current and future employees. If given the chance, this synergy will help us face the difficult and complex educational and workplace challenges while ensuring our students are positioned to be successful on the global stage in whatever endeavor they choose. The challenges are great, the need is urgent, the dedication exists, and the time is now.
References
DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & DuFour, R. eds. (2005). On common ground: The power of professional learning communities. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 42.
Fogarty, D. W. (2008, January 27). Assessments will restore the meaning of a diploma. Reading Eagle, B7.
Godbey, G. (2008, February 25). Right-brain Skills are Vital to Global Competitiveness, The Morning Call. Retrieved February 25, 2008 from <themorningcall.com>.
Neill, M. & Guisbond, L. (2008, February 1). Exit exams aren’t aiding education. School Leader News, 5 (5), 11.
Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership Program. Retrieved January 28, 2008 from http://www.edportal.ed.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=210&&level=1&css=L1&mode=2&in_hi_userid=2&cached=true.
Pennsylvania’s STEM Center Initiative. (2008). Retrieved January 28, 2008 from http://www.pastemcenter.org/.
Perry, N. J. (1990, December 17). Schools: Tackling the Tough Issues Fortune’s Third Annual Summit of Executives, Politicians, and Educators Focuses on the Reforms that Matter Most. Retrieved January 28, 2008 from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1990/12/17/74458/index.htm.
Principals’ Leadership Induction Network. Retrieved January 28, 2008 from http://www.pa-academy.org/pli/.
Pruzinsky, J. W. (2008, February). Introductory message for fund raising campaign. Junior Achievement of Greater Reading and Lehigh Valley.
Wenger, E. & Snyder, W. (2000, Summer). Learning in Communities. Retrieved January 28, 2008 from http://www.linezine.com/1/features/ewwslc.htm.