Business Takes Action in School Reform.

EDUCATIONAL change; BUSINESS; BUSINESS partnerships; UNITED States education system

This article discusses school reform issues related to school business partnerships in the U.S. as of November 1990. Critics of the corporate sector's deepening involvement in school reform ask, why schools should trust business when it is driven by admitted self-interest. They argue against giving up the authority of professional educators in such matters as curriculum to nonexperts from the business world. And, they charge, a private sector that is failing nationally and internationally has little credibility when it turns around and appears to make schools around and appears to make schools its scapegoat. As a public institution, responds Dale Mann, professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, schools must be accountable to business just as to other elements of the public. Mann views business involvement in school reform as an investment in human capital. This kind of investment is vital. The corporate world certainly seems willing to make a significant investment in achieving school reform. Schools have plenty to learn from business. Schools can look to the corporate world for valuable lessons in setting goals and objectives, setting performance standards, hiring and firing, measuring performance, and allocating resources.