Archived: The Corporate Imperative: Step 3 - Link to Business and School Objectives

A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

The Corporate Imperative: A Business Guide for Implementing Strategic Education Partnerships-1999

STEP 3: LINK TO BUSINESS AND SCHOOL OBJECTIVES

Worksheet 6: Select Educational/School Partners

PURPOSE

To help you select your educational/school partners, if you have not established these relationships. Answer the questions on Worksheet 6 to get a better idea of your potential educational partners. Consider whether you currently have the following information or if you will need to obtain it before moving forward. If your company has already established educational/school relationships, review the worksheet to ensure that you have considered these important areas.

Worksheet 6: Select Educational/School Partners

What educational systems (individual schools, local districts, state education agency) would you like to work with?

How would you describe the school(s), local district(s) and the community?
What unique talents do you have to offer as a business (for example, utility engineering, insurance math)?

What do you have to offer (resources, time, people)?

What are your current contributions? How does the school or school system view these contributions?

What steps can be taken to identify or expand your company's school partnerships?

Upon completion of this worksheet, you will have identified potential educational/school partners within your community with which you will begin to develop strategic collaborations.

You will need to determine what individual school(s), local district(s) or state education agency might be interested in forming a partnership with your company. As you consider which school institution(s) you will target, learn about the school, the school district and the community. Have there been any recent concerns or problems? Think about what your company has to offer and what you can contribute in terms of time, money and resources. What is your unique business expertise (for example, if you are a pharmaceutical company, you have scientists)?

Remember, business-education relationships are partnerships. In order to maximize the chances for a successful alliance, it is critical to view your school partners as equals. Your company agenda is not to "fix" the school, but rather to work with the school to support it in its efforts to achieve mutual goals that meet business and school objectives.

Worksheet 7: Link Approaches to Business and School Objectives

PURPOSE

To determine to what degree your educational approaches are linked to business and school objectives. List current educational approaches from Worksheet 5. Determine your business and school objectives by answering the following questions.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

What are my company's priorities, mission and values? (this information may be found in the annual report, your Web site or other documents that detail what your company plans to accomplish and what is important to them in achieving their goals).
What are the most important educational issues (for example, literacy, poor skill match) facing my company? (This information may be found in reports from your human resources or training and development department.)
What has your company indicated as its commitment to the community and educational concerns? (for example, Does your mission statement indicate an investment in the community? Is your CEO committed to educational reform? Has your company supported legislation that reflects its educational priorities?)
Have you done any benchmarking to determine what other companies are doing in general and/or in the educational arena?
What are the school's goals and objectives?
What are the most important educational issues affecting the school's ability to meet its goals and objectives?
How could corporate educational partners help the education system to meet educational goals?
Who else (other businesses, organizations) is currently involved with the school?
What other resources (for example, grants, programs) are currently available at the school?

Worksheet 7: Link Approaches to Business and School Objectives

Assess to what degree your company's educational approaches are linked to business and school objectives (Rate low, medium, high). Indicate why this is the case.

Educational Approach Business Objective School Objectives To what degree are the educational approaches linked to business and school objectives? (Rate as low, medium, high) Why?

adopt-a-school increase math skills of labor pool improve scores on state math tests and foster a love of math Business:
medium:
need to focus more on developing math curricula and fostering interest in math

School:
medium; need teacher training on how to incorporate new math concepts into the curriculum

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Upon completion of this worksheet, you will have determined how closely your educational approaches are aligned with your business and school objectives.

Strategic educational initiatives reflect core business objectives and coordinate with school goals to promote systemic educational change. One important step in creating more strategic educational approaches is to ensure that approaches are linked to business objectives. Business objectives, key organizing principles which guide your company's behavior and inform decision making, are tied to what you are trying to accomplish as a company. For example, business objectives might include:

Be an employer of choice
Improve the skills of the future workforce
Expand employee understanding of and access to technology
Acquire customer loyalty and brand recognition
Increase employee productivity
Reduce turnover and absenteeism

Remember, we are exploring your company's short and long-term business objectives (as defined above), not your company's educational objectives.

Another critical step in developing more strategic educational approaches is to ensure that approaches are linked to school agendas, with the larger goal of creating systemic educational change. Identifying school objectives is a joint effort of your company and your school partners and is an important step in the relationship-building process.

Once you have determined your educational partners, you will need to explore with them their goals and objectives for their school and school district. Like business objectives, school objectives reflect what the school plans to accomplish and hopes to achieve. School objectives, which can be short-term and long-term, provide a roadmap for school behavior. As you are developing your school objectives, keep in mind the national priority areas. Can you incorporate these priorities into your educational approaches? Examples of school objectives could include:

Acquire the technological skills needed to compete in the new millennium
Offer and encourage all students to take challenging math and science courses
Increase parent involvement and school-home communication
Raise student reading scores
Encourage more students to attend college
Establish safe-haven after-school learning centers

It is crucial to determine whether your company's educational approaches, which support your business objectives, are aligned with the objectives of your school partners. Combining school and business objectives creates the most effective plan of action. This is the key to developing strategic alliances that lead to enduring systemic changes in education.

See "Designing Strategic Educational Approaches" and Case Examples: Strategic Educational Approaches" in the Addendum for more information.

Worksheet 8: Align Strategic Educational Approaches

PURPOSE

To better align your educational approaches with your business and school objectives.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

Does this educational approach reflect both business and school objectives?
Can this educational approach be revised to better meet business and school objectives?
What resources (time, money, people) are available or needed to continue or redirect your educational approach?

For companies just beginning their educational efforts, decide what approaches you will pursue. Start now by developing approaches that are linked to business and school objectives. Consider approaches that reflect the national priority areas: reading; math; thinking about college early; after-school; technology; and family involvement.

Worksheet 8: Align Strategic Educational Approaches

Educational Approach* Refocus This Approach (describe how) Continue This Approach As Is Resources Available or Needed

adopt-a-school develop math and science curricula with company employees that encourage children to pursue math and science careers staff time to develop and deliver curricula and/or train teachers, money for materials

*List Educational approaches from Worksheet 7.

Upon completion of this worksheet, you will align your educational approaches with business and school objectives.

Tips for evaluating your educational approaches

Use current educational initiatives as the key building blocks for your future plans.
Build on what already works and utilize the types of initiatives that seem to have created "win-win" situations.
Don't recreate the wheel. Look at what you could do to make existing approaches more in line with company and school objectives.
Examine how your educational approaches could be redirected to meet national priorities.
Determine what lessons have been learned. Identify some of the problems and some of the successes.
Consider what strategies have been well received by your employer/organization. Is it possible to use similar strategies to respond to other educational priorities?
Re-work and refine strategies to implement these changes.

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[Step 2: Assess Your Company's Involvement in Business-Education Partnerships]

[Step 4: Build Coalitions]

What educational systems (individual schools, local districts, state education agency) would you like to work with?
How would you describe the school(s), local district(s) and the community?
What unique talents do you have to offer as a business (for example, utility engineering, insurance math)?
What do you have to offer (resources, time, people)?
What are your current contributions? How does the school or school system view these contributions?
What steps can be taken to identify or expand your company's school partnerships?

Educational Approach	Business Objective	School Objectives	To what degree are the educational approaches linked to business and school objectives? (Rate as low, medium, high) Why?
adopt-a-school	increase math skills of labor pool	improve scores on state math tests and foster a love of math	Business: medium: need to focus more on developing math curricula and fostering interest in math School: medium; need teacher training on how to incorporate new math concepts into the curriculum
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Educational Approach*	Refocus This Approach (describe how)	Continue This Approach As Is	Resources Available or Needed
adopt-a-school	develop math and science curricula with company employees that encourage children to pursue math and science careers		staff time to develop and deliver curricula and/or train teachers, money for materials