The Role Business Can Play In Improving Our Schools

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Frederick M. Hess is resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He has authored influential books on education including "The Same Thing Over and Over," "Education Unbound," "Common Sense School Reform," "Revolution at the Margins," and "Spinning Wheels," and writes the Education Week blog "Rick Hess Straight Up." A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University, and Harvard University.

Whitney Downs is a research assistant in education policy at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy, where she focuses on school cost-cutting practices, the role of private enterprise and business engagement in public education, and the legal and structural barriers faced by education leaders.


Have businesses always worked with American schools, and are these partnerships now on the rise? Why?

Whether it was Horace Mann leading the Common School charge in the 19th century, or Bill Gates deeming the American high school "obsolete" in the 21st, business leaders have recognized that they have a vital role to play in American education. While there's no good data to tell or quantify if these partnerships have grown, business leaders know that the quality of new workers is crucial to their success. As a result, they have a practical interest-- as well as a civic one-- in helping to improve school quality.

Are the most successful partnerships between business leaders and school officials occurring at the state, district or local-school levels?
In the report, we focus on terrific efforts at the city and at the state level. It's less where you do it than how well you do it. And what we try to show in the report is what it looks like to do it well while the same time providing some practical guidance on how to get there.

What are the benefits that result from partnerships between the businesses community and schools?

Effective business involvement can lend political muscle and credibility to reform efforts. It can also provide ballast and staying power in a system where district leadership can change and flavor of the week reforms often rule the day. Business can also bring practical expertise to thorny educational issues like evaluation and data systems – issues business leaders have been wrestling with for a half-century or more.

What are the obstacles to achieving such partnerships and ensuring they last
It can be politically perilous. Taking tough stances with school leaders can attract criticism, and supporting policy changes often draws political opposition. Business leaders have a lot on their plate. It's easy to get distracted, and it requires a concerted effort to acquire expertise, figure out how to focus, and to stay the course.

What is some advice business leaders can use to help overcome these obstacles?

It's easier to fend off political backlash when the business community as a whole steps up on issues, as opposed to an individual firm or CEO. Business leaders have community-wide credibility, and when they speak out as a collective, it's harder to ignore their advice or demonize their motives. In regards to the limited attention span of business when it comes to education, we saw that structures to organize business involvement – as well as staff devoted to hammering out logistics and ensuring meetings happen – can be hugely helpful in ensuring a sustained, long-term and consistent involvement.

In which communities do you think the business community has had the most impact on education?

In the report, we profile enormously successful business communities in Austin, Nashville, and Massachusetts. While these locales certainly aren't the only examples of business successfully making an impact on education, the depth and sustained level of business involvement in these communities is relatively unique in a country where business leaders have often been told to simply write checks and let educators do the rest.

What about the criticism that schools are different from businesses, and therefore shouldn't be run like them or, maybe, even influenced by them?
The first is a red herring. There is no one way a "business" is run, and, in any event, no one is suggesting that business leaders tell schools how they should operate or serve kids. Rather, there's a need for support, expertise, and tough-minded pressure that business can provide. On the second, we often hear that schools are democratic, civic entities. Well, business is an important part of a given community. Business leaders have a responsibility and a right, as does any other citizen, to help promote school improvement. And given the practical concerns and political clout of business, there's an enormous upside to having business leaders actively engaged.

To read the full Chamber of Commerce report, please click here: Chamber of Commerce report.

Teachers speak out: Dispelling fears and myths about teacher evaluations (Chuckle)

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Emmy is director of Ohio policy and research and Jamie is senior Ohio policy analyst and associate editor for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Columbus, Ohio.

Like many states, Ohio is struggling with how best to evaluate teachers and how to use those evaluations to inform personnel decisions (like remuneration, tenure, professional development, and -- when budgets or enrollment leave no choice -- layoffs).

In Ohio, roughly half of the school districts are participating in the federal Race to the Top program and as such are committed to developing and implementing robust teacher evaluation systems that incorporate student achievement data and inform personnel decisions. And during the ongoing state budget debate, the Ohio House introduced language that would put in place an evaluation system that incorporates student academic growth and several other key job-related performance factors to determine teacher effectiveness, and would make effectiveness a key factor in determining how teachers are assigned to schools, whether their contracts are renewed, and -- when budgets make it unavoidable -- how they are laid off.

The evaluation model in this bill resembles those developed in a bipartisan manner in many other states. Unfortunately, however, the Ohio Senate has dropped all of these provisions from its version of the budget, preferring instead to maintain Ohio's status as a state with archaic laws that force school districts to consider only seniority when making teacher layoff decisions.

Why? Even prior to this particular legislative battle, myths and fears expressed by educators and policymakers about teacher evaluations have been rampant here. Opponents of overhauling teacher evaluation systems argue they're inherently unfair, arbitrary, prone to bias, focused too much on test scores, ruin collaboration, create competition, etc.

But are they really? We wondered if these allegations rang true in places where teachers are evaluated in rigorous ways. So we reached out to DC Public Schools and went into the field to ask teachers who are already participating in a rigorous evaluation system, called IMPACT, what they think about these matters.

The teachers we interviewed included science teachers, an elementary math coach, a fourth-grade teacher (of all subjects), a special-ed middle school teacher, an art teacher, and a master educator (who conducts the observations on behalf of DCPS). They shared what it's like to be evaluated through observations five times a year and to have part of their performance linked to student test scores.

Overwhelmingly, even despite some concerns expressed by several of the teachers, common themes emerged. Binary rating systems ("satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory") are neither informative about which teachers are effective and which are not, nor do they these systems help teachers improve their practice. Even teachers with significant concerns expressed that IMPACT correctly identifies the worst performers and the top-flyers. And several teachers who have not yet earned the distinction of "highly effective" said that IMPACT motivates them daily to improve their practice.

The responses from these teachers are candid and powerful, and begin to peel back the myths and fears we've heard here in the Buckeye State. Do evaluation systems like DC's IMPACT water down the art of teaching to one set of test scores on one day? No. Frequent and unannounced observations spread out over the year which are based on a clear outline of expectations, along with several other metrics -- like commitment to school community and professionalism and other measures of student achievement growth -- actually capture the measures of effective teaching far better than previous evaluation systems. Teachers in non-tested subjects, like art and science, explained how IMPACT evaluates them fairly even though their scores are somewhat different from those of teachers in tested grades and subject areas. And every single teacher we interviewed could point to specific areas of instruction that improved as a result of the feedback cycle and relationships with master educators (who conduct the observations). In short, while IMPACT isn't perfect -- and neither is any evaluation system out there -- it's certainly far better than what Ohio has in place and should compel us to institute a more meaningful system in the Buckeye State. Hear these teachers talk about their experience in the video below:

As Ohio and other states struggle to reach agreement on how to make teacher policies focused on effectiveness and performance, and more conducive to attracting the best and brightest to the profession, these are conversations that absolutely must happen. We hope that lawmakers, policymakers, and teachers alike find these perspectives from teachers already evaluated by comprehensive systems which place a high priority on student achievement growth valuable and realize that any efforts to improve teacher effectiveness across the state rest on our ability to evaluate teachers and use this data to make key decisions that are in the best interests of students.

Michigan Mom Reflects On Great Teaching, Calls for End to LIFO

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As the mother of two generations of children, ages 39-16, Nancy has been actively involved in Michigan's public schools for 35 years. She has seen firsthand the changes that have taken place in America's school over the course of nearly four decades, and as a result, she is passionate about the mission of StudentsFirst and the issues that are vital to educational reform for the 21st Century. Nancy and her family currently reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I am a 64-year-old mother of four, ages 16 to 39. Actually, my husband and I are parents of not one, but two generations of children. After our older two left home for college in the early 1990s, we started over and adopted two more children. I am also the grandmother of five, the oldest of whom will be entering high school in September. As you might assume, we feel we have a great deal invested in Michigan's public schools -- past, present, and future. During the past 35 years, my husband and I have partnered with literally hundreds of teachers in the course of our children's educations. Many of those experiences have been extremely positive, and extremely rewarding. Many, however, have not.

Over the course of decades of involvement in the public school system, we have always sought to honor those teachers who have honored their profession and their students. By the same token, we have been diligent in attempting to affect change where we believe change is needed. I believe that one cause of those unsatisfactory experiences has been the last in, first out policies that require seniority to be the determining factor when teacher layoffs occur.

We do not advocate the elimination of teachers based on either age or length of service, for we have experienced good teachers at both ends of the spectrum -- young and old, experienced and not-so-experienced.

Consider Miss Angot, who taught English Composition at Birmingham Seaholm High School during the 1980s and 90s. Miss Angot was nearing retirement by the time we met her. She was financially secure and did not need to teach. Except for one thing: she loved her students, and wanted them to become not just good, but great writers. She did not care if her students loved her in return; she only cared that they learned -- and loved -- to write.

Then there is Mr. Erby, a brilliant young man who taught 7th grade Algebra to my younger son. When I first met Mr. Erby, I rolled my eyes and thought to myself, "What could he possibly have to teach my son? He’s just a kid himself!" But then I listened to what Mr. Erby had to say when he addressed the parents for the first time that year. He told us, "I am not here to teach your children Algebra!" For a very brief moment, this seemed to confirm my initial impression. But then he continued: "I am here to teach your children how to gather information, evaluate that information, and make decisions based on their evaluations."

Today, I would fight for both Mr. Erby’s and Ms. Angot's survival in the public school system. Both have demonstrated complete devotion to their students; both contributed greatly to my children's educations, and to all of the public school students who have been fortunate enough to study under their tutelage. But sadly, there are teachers in the system who are not so committed to their students. I believe helping students grow intellectually is a far more important benchmark than years of service when it comes to staffing our schools. Let's make sensible decisions that put the needs of children first as we consider changes to our nation’s school system.

The views presented on our guest blogs are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of StudentsFirst. We thank all of our guest bloggers for their thoughtful perspectives.

Meet The Staff: Kaitlin Murphy thanks teachers after school school system honored

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Kaitlin Murphy worked as a middle, high school and college teacher for 10 years before joining Michelle Rhee’s education reform team at D.C. public schools as a writer in 2007. She is a freelance writer and continues to provide communications support to StudentsFirst. She blogs on www.kaitlinmurphy.org.

Last week I learned that my hometown school system in Barrington, Rhode Island was rated in the Forbes Top 10 "Best Schools for your Real Estate Buck".

I attended public school in Barrington, ranked fourth in the nation by Forbes, from the second grade through high school. In the decades that followed I learned a lot about education -- from my students, other teachers, research, and from the experience of working for Michelle Rhee and her education reform team at the DC Public Schools.

But when I thought about why Barrington, Rhode Island would have made this tiny list, all the research, best practices and controversy over education reform slipped away.

All I could remember were my teachers.

As someone who chose to make a living as a teacher and writer, I could focus on the powerful influence of strong reading and writing teachers.

For example, my sixth-grade language arts teacher, Mrs. Rahmne, paired up with a colleague and had both clusters not only read Katherine Paterson's "Bridge to Terabithia," but also co-write a play based on the novel and perform it for the school. Somehow they created a space for 60 imaginations to run wild while simultaneously imposing the structure that the writing process needed.

But if my family is right, I loved reading from the point my older sister helped teach me to read my first words from a faded blue Dick and Jane reading primer. By middle school, I don’t think my parents' summer reading incentives were necessary to get me flying through the classics, uh, -- Sweet Valley High series -- during summer vacations.

The teachers I remember the most taught subjects I wanted to ignore.

Mrs. Boisvert relentlessly sought to find connections between biology and our daily lives. One day she wrote on the board, "Why the Person Sitting Next to You Just Breathed in Your Spaghetti Dinner from Last Night." She easily transitioned our disgust into rapt interest in the process of cellular respiration.

For her, giving us authority over our fruit fly jars that year was worth every accidental mass fruit-fly escape -- if it meant we might catch her enthusiasm for the benefits of the genotype and phenotype discovery to medicine.

I did not care about biology before her. After one year with her, I signed up for AP Biology, still unsure if I could handle it but knowing she would be the teacher.

Mr. Eddins taught history and political science, and he loved to provoke us into debate. He would force us to take a stand based on the facts, and he never let us get away with an easy or convenient answer. He came into class nearly aflame when the Berlin Wall came down, firing questions at us and pulling us out of our apathy to think about the event's impact on the future of democracy, freedom and the world.

Mr. Telford put popular songs to math terms in middle school to make sure we would remember them. He once had us almost convinced that Prince’s hit "Raspberry Beret" was actually "Red Spherical Thing." I still sing Mr. Telford's version when I hear the song today.

Mr. Tobiasz, my pre-calculus and calculus teacher in high school, knew long before "The Case Against Homework" that homework was only as good as the teacher who assigned it. He used homework as a launch-pad for his lessons, having students volunteer to write out the problems on the board, then teach the path to our answers to the class. These lessons lifted a huge block for me in math once I saw how many different ways there were to a right answer. The subject never became easy, but I signed on for calculus the next year because I knew Mr. Tobiasz would be the teacher.

Finally, I wish coaches could be included more often in our discussions about teachers. Annmarie Marino is still the track and cross-country coach in Barrington, and the lessons she taught are still ripening now -- lessons about pacing in running and life, cultivating grace in competition and navigating the challenge of pushing and besting myself.

My teachers were not cool. They wore dorky ties in flagrant disregard for our strict, peer-enforced social mores borne of self-consciousness. The best of them showed us how to take the content seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. They oozed with crazy-passion for their subject areas. They paced electric across their classrooms, fueled by questions and sheer joy in the behaviors of protons, fruit flies and DNA; protagonists and melodies; formulas and functions; governments and rebellions.

Eventually they sent us on our way, with their lessons and love for learning following us out the door.

No school system is perfect, and as I imagine is true for everyone, there were some classrooms I wish I could have dodged. But when I remember my teachers in Barrington, Rhode Island, one thing is clear. If my hometown has one of the Top 10 public school systems for the real estate dollar, the teachers made it so.

Teachers Share Their Stories

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"Last In, First Out" policies across the country have had a devastating effect on teachers and their classroom.

Great teachers with stellar performance records are being let go on the basis of seniority, ignoring their stellar performance in the classroom. This system is hurting our schools and our children's futures.

We asked teachers to share their stories and tell us how LIFO has impacted their lives. Their stories reflect the struggles faced by new teachers every day:

My first year of teaching I was in a low-income school in the Portland Public School District in Portland, Oregon. I loved the school, loved the job, and would have been happy to teach there for a long time. Unfortunately, the Portland Public Schools were continually struggling financially and had to often cut teachers. My first year teaching my school cut the librarian, P.E. and music teachers. At the end of my first year, more cuts were ahead, and my job was on the line. Even though I was a dedicated teacher, had great performance reviews, a master's degree and a special education endorsement, my principal was forced to cut me solely based on Last In First Out... It wasn't what was best for kids, but that was what happened.
— Katie, OR

This is my second year of teaching second grade and I have fallen in love with this profession. I look forward to seeing my students faces light up when that light bulb turns on during their learning ... With last in first out, so many energetic, passionate teachers are let go for the sole purpose of being "new." Not bad teachers, just new teachers. It is a flawed system that pushes away teachers who are excited to teach, and retains some teachers who are merely waiting for retirement or are no longer passionate and enjoy what their jobs any longer. We NEED to change this flawed system and keep teachers who are willing and passionate to help change their students lives.
— Megan, CA

I have been teaching for 5 years and I must say every year I think that I'm the luckiest person in the whole world because I love my job and I make a difference. However all of that has changed as of March 2011. District 57 in Mount Prospect, IL cut 24 non-tenured elementary teachers. The teachers were cut not based on performance but because we did not have tenure and we were the last hired, first fired! The education system in this country needs change because what happened to us is not right.
— Kelly, IL

Join StudentsFirst in helping to reverse this unfair policy, take action now and save great teachers

A LIFO Debate in NYC

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Jonathan Bing is a Democrat serving his fifth term in the New York State Assembly representing the Upper East Side and East Midtown Manhattan. He is a leader on education, economic development and advocacy for libraries and the arts. In 2010 and in 2011, Jonathan introduced legislation in the Assembly which would repeal the "last in, first Out" (LIFO) provision of state education law. It requires that teacher layoffs be based solely on seniority without any regard to performance for which the New York Daily News called him "a profile in courage" that has "stepped up big time for parents and students."

As states and cities across the nation experience record budget deficits, it is necessary to cut highly valued government services and programs. Regrettably, in New York City, this means the potential layoff of several thousand public school teachers. To combat the most egregious effects of the impending teacher layoffs, I introduced a bill in the New York State Assembly to repeal "last in, first out" or LIFO.

When layoffs of teachers are necessary due to budget deficits, the LIFO provision of New York State education law dictates that the last teachers hired be the first fired, regardless of the teacher's quality. In fact, seniority is currently the only factor that may be considered. As a result, many of our most effective teachers are sent packing and schools in growing and high-needs communities are disproportionately impacted.

LIFO should be repealed because it harms communities where teachers are needed the most. That's why the ACLU filed a lawsuit in California to end LIFO in that state. School districts in the South Bronx will lose 20 percent or more of their teachers under LIFO, while other districts in the city will only lose five percent. Why? School districts in low-income communities have a larger share of junior teachers who would be among the first laid off under LIFO. This will cause significant disruptions in an educational environment that can ill-afford such distractions. It is also within the schools in these low-income neighborhoods that the majority of students are African-American or Latino, resulting in LIFO's unintended consequence of discrimination.

New Yorkers have gotten the message about LIFO. A recent poll found that 85 percent of New Yorkers support LIFO's repeal. Proponents of maintaining the status quo, however, claim that repealing LIFO is "anti-teacher" and "anti-union." This sentiment could not be further from the truth. In fact, the legislation I have authored specifically states that collective bargaining will control layoff procedures between the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the City. It's taking an antiquated, 70-year old law under which teachers have no say in how layoffs are conducted and gives them a voice in the process that they never had. That's why Educators 4 Excellence, a group of more than 2,000 recently-hired teachers – who are also UFT members – has made reforming LIFO their signature issue.

Proponents of the current system also say that New York City has enough money this year to stave off teacher layoffs so LIFO's repeal is not needed. Not only do they not have their facts straight, but it's like saying that you shouldn't build a fire escape on an apartment building because it's not currently on fire. Why would any recent Teach for America or master's of education graduate want to teach in a state where they know that no matter how good a teacher they are or will become, they will be fired if the economy declines? New York State needs a structural fix in place so that are children are taught by the best teachers possible no matter the state of the economy.

In a state that prides itself on its progressive politics and forward-thinking policies, its education system should not be a relic of a bygone era. LIFO has shown itself to be a regressive, backwards policy that will shortchange the education of thousands of children across New York. The time to repeal LIFO is now.

The views presented on our guest blogs are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of StudentsFirst. We thank all of our guest bloggers for their thoughtful perspectives.

StudentsFirst Answers Your Questions

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The questions below have consistently come up through the conversation on the StudentsFirst Facebook page. We wanted to answer the questions and look forward to continued discussion of these issues.

FB Community: When evaluating teachers, why does StudentsFirst believe 50 percent of an evaluation should be based on student achievement data?

We believe any good teacher evaluation system will use multiple measures to review educators, including valid student growth data and other factors that demonstrate a command of teaching and learning. Research tells us teachers are the single most important school-based factor in a student's academic achievement. Knowing that, it is critical that we measure the effectiveness of individual teachers when it comes to student learning. We believe the largest single component of a teacher's evaluation should be based on objective measures of academic progress and therefore, we recommend that 50 percent of the evaluation be based on student growth. This reflects the importance of a teacher's ability to move students forward academically. If standardized test data is not available, other methods of measuring student achievement growth should be developed. We also believe other factors should be included in a fair and robust evaluation system such as: principal observations, peer reviews, contributions to the whole school community and student and parent feedback.

FB Community: StudentsFirst talks a lot about evaluating teachers, but what about evaluating administrators?

We believe in the need for effective principals and strong evaluation systems for principals. Like teachers, principals should be evaluated based on clear and consistent criteria from a variety of sources. At least 50 percent of the evaluation should be based on school-wide student achievement growth. Just as teachers should be judged on the ability to move their students along academically, principals should be judged on overall school performance. In addition, principals should be judged on their ability to attract, develop and retain excellent teachers. When reviewing the work of our principals, we must also consider other responsibilities that come with the job. These include managing a school's finances and facilities and welcoming and encouraging parental involvement.

FB Community: What about poverty (Or other external factors)?

A student's family background and socio-economic status too often impacts their school readiness. Achievement gaps between low-income children and their wealthier peers appear early. We applaud the work of organizations that address child poverty and child welfare more broadly. Our focus at StudentsFirst is on impacting the factors we can control once a child walks into a classroom, regardless of where a student started. We believe that any and every child can succeed if given a chance. Schools that have experienced high levels of academic success with all students, including those from low-income homes, set high standards and expectations. They also hire, retain and reward highly effective teachers.

Many of the nation's current education policies negatively impact poor children. For example, when we lay off teachers based solely on seniority, disadvantaged schools often are hardest hit. That's because they tend to have a high percentage of new teachers – the ones who are the first to be forced out. We are working hard to change these last in, first out policies. Instead, we need to identify our most effective teachers and do everything we can, including offering bonuses, to encourage them to teach in disadvantaged schools. By staffing schools with excellent teachers and providing parents with great school options regardless of their zip codes we can work toward closing the achievement gap.

FB Community: What is StudentFirst's position on children with disabilities in the context of standardized testing?

The federal No Child Left Behind law mandates that we include children with disabilities in the accountability systems we've built for our schools. That means we have to measure how children with disabilities are doing academically and compare progress being made across classrooms and across schools. There are times we make exceptions and don’t test students with severe disabilities, but that's not too often. More typically, we make accommodations. These might include offering oral tests instead of written ones or giving the exams in an untimed setting.

Among the biggest proponents for including special needs groups in our school accountability systems were advocates for children with disabilities. Telling them they don't have to bother taking the tests given to typically developing children is akin to saying you can’t measure up, or you aren't worth the effort. That's just about the worst message to send to any child. We must hold all kids, including those with disabilities, to high standards. It's the law, and it's the right thing to do.

FB Community: In this time of fiscal crisis, how will schools be able to afford new initiatives?

We do not advocate new unfunded mandates in education. We do support putting precious resources where they can have the greatest impact. While nationwide spending on public schools has increased dramatically over the last decade, student achievement has remained flat. A big challenge that must be tackled is making sure our money is spent wisely and on programs proven to positively impact student achievement. We know that an effective teacher has a significant impact on student learning. We must invest our limited resources in programs and policies that move toward an effective teacher in every classroom and that includes paying great teachers significantly more. We also believe in paying effective teachers more for teaching hard-to-staff subjects in hard-to-staff schools.

FB Community: How are art/PE teachers rated under new evaluation systems?

Every evaluation should quantify student growth. However, there are many subjects and skills that are not tied to statewide tests. In these fields, states, districts and schools need to develop other ways to measure student growth outside of the traditional accountability systems.

FB Community: What, specifically, does SF recommend for increasing parental and community involvement?

StudentsFirst encourages parental and community involvement by spreading awareness about educational issues and helping parents advocate for their children. By raising awareness about laws and policies that impact student achievement, we are trying to provide parents with the tools to speak out and be heard. We are advocating for policies that give parents a variety of educational choices regardless of their income or where they live. We also are working to ensure school districts communicate with parents in a transparent way about the education their kids are receiving. For example, we pushed for a Florida law that mandates parents have to be notified if their children are being taught by teachers with ineffective ratings. We believe well-informed parents will advocate for the kind of reforms that put the needs of students ahead of any others in our schools.

FB Community: Is the fight to end LIFO a way to justify firing more expensive, senior teachers?

StudentsFirst advocates only for policies that are focused on improving student learning. Keeping the most effective teachers in the classroom, regardless of whether they are 20-year veteran teachers or newer teachers, is the best policy for students. When budget shortfalls lead to layoffs, it is wrong to make these decisions based on how long a teacher has worked in a school rather than how well a teacher has done moving students along academically. Research shows when layoffs are made based on seniority, schools let some of their best teachers go. We need to end this harmful practice.