Business and education partnerships can be cornerstones of major school improvement efforts and meaningful corporate philanthropy. They also can be frustrating and wasteful if not planned and managed carefully. Partnerships, with their objectives, agreements, memorandums of understanding and budgets, may look like well-planned and carefully…

Over the years, the author has participated in many gatherings where business leaders have been invited to provide educational leaders with advice regarding the way they should lead their schools. Some of these events proved satisfying, but others proved disastrous. In this article, the author argues that it is a mistake to invite business leaders…

This year, Albuquerque Public Schools plan to generate over $400,000 in cash pledges and exceed $300,000 in in-kind contributions for an ongoing campaign to support its athletic programs. Marketing strategies will involve foundations, scoreboard sponsors, award recognition programs, broadcast rights, special events and promotions, and sports…

Describes a range of vocational education programs varying in scope, teaching methods, and educational philosophy that are developing throughout the country as a result of community and industry needs. (MD)

The American Association of School Administrators has recently tapped all segments of the education community to gather and craft a viable, forward-looking vocational education recommendation to Congress. At present, vocational education is not integrated with the regular curriculum. Many barriers need to fall, and education needs to drop its…

Although Seattle Public Schools needed additional training for its newly decentralized decision making to succeed, declining enrollments and escalating costs prevented the district from allocating necessary funding. Instead of asking the business community for money, the district asked for the time of their best managers to work with principals on…

Four top corporate executives were invited to help school executives formulate the shape of future school/business partnerships and to name the single most meaningful educational change needed. Most emphasized business's supportive role in shaking up a failing system, turning around the nation's worst schools, and developing a competent labor…

The entrepreneur behind the Edison Project and Channel One shares his observations about the unfairness of public school critics, the "tyranny" of operational demands, and the promise of national school companies for underemployed teachers and research and development ventures. Praising public schools for being receptive to new concepts,…

Making decisions in private sector is much easier than in public education. Motivated by profit, corporations need only please stockholders. School systems must please entire society, although they work daily with students and parents who represent only part of society, and what will please either parents or society is not always clear. Private…

To thrive in the 1990s, we must teach students how to think, create ideas cooperatively, select among equally attractive alternatives, and use far-minded flexibility in groups. School leaders can help by promoting new teaching and assessment methods, creative assignments, thinking research funding, business involvement, joint training…

The Edison Project, advocating a new form of public-private partnership to reinvent education, has repeatedly encountered barriers such as state regulations, professional isolation, inertia, bureaucracy, miscommunication, and a finance and governance monopoly. Four communities will open Edison Project schools this fall. Superintendent Larry Vaughn…

As competition for the lucrative youth market heightens, corporate efforts to sell their name, product, service, or message in the classroom are intensifying. Marketing methods range from curriculum packets and teaching kits to wall posters, single-sponsor magazines, and product samples. This article describes administrators' responses during hard…

In January 1990, President Bush's State of the Union address unveiled six national education goals aimed at helping the U.S. retain its leadership in the global economy. In this article, 10 optimistic school leaders suggest workable strategies to produce able learners, well-prepared graduates, and capable citizens. (MLH)

Summarizes the visions of 12 newly appointed superintendents from 4 northeastern states. In composing their visions, single-handedly from the start or collaborative over time, superintendents must cope with complex realities and competing demands. Although expected to emulate visionary corporate leaders, superintendents must envision within a…

Describes a unique contract among the Dade County (Florida) School Board; Education Alternatives, Inc. of Minneapolis; and the United Teachers of Dade. The contract establishes South Pointe Elementary as a public school, staffed and managed by public school employees, governed by a school-based management cadre, and supported by the teachers'…