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School-Business Partnerships
The millennium brings with it increasing demands on schools to do more to prepare students for the world of work and for educational experiences beyond high school. As educators, we must accept that we can no longer work in isolation to help our students meet the challenges they face.. [T]hose of us who are principals know, perhaps better than anyone else, that we are being asked to accomplish more with limited and, in some cases, no resources. If we do not turn to our communities to help, we will fall short of our goals. (Mildred Musgrove, principal, Anacostia Senior High School, Washington, D.C., quoted in Becton and Sammon)
Faced with limited resources and increasing demands to improve students' academic performance, a growing number of public schools are turning to businesses for resources that range from cash and computers to educational materials and career mentorships. In exchange, businesses receive benefits ranging from exclusive vending rights and advertising space in school hallways to better prospects for a technically skilled labor pool. Commonly referred to as "partnerships," these myriad exchanges between schools and businesses are presumably voluntary and mutually beneficial.
"Schools in the 21st century will be driven, in large part, by partnerships," write Becton and Sammon. Evidence suggests that school-business partnerships are indeed becoming a standard fixture in America's schools. As of 1992, "over 200,000 businesses in the U.S. had partnerships with over 40,000 elementary and secondary schools" (Mickelson 1999).
Since then, corporate involvement in schools appears to have expanded at a phenomenal rate. According to two recent studies, press citations reporting on commercial activities in schools appear to have increased 154 percent between 1990 and 1997 (Molnar 1998) and jumped 303 percent between 1990 and 1999 (Molnar, September 1999).
The proliferation of commercial activity in schools is accompanied by increasing concerns on the part of educators and policymakers. The U.S. General Accounting Office states:
Commercial activities in U.S. public elementary and secondary schools have been growing in visibility throughout the last decade, a period characterized by tightened school budgets. As visibility has increased, so have concerns about commercial activities that generate cash, equipment, or other types of assistance and their potential effects on students' learning and purchasing behavior.
Supporters of school-business partnerships point out many potential benefits to schools, students, businesses, employees, and the community at large, while critics warn against the harmful effects of what they term "schoolhouse commercialism." Others call for ethical guidelines and a stricter definition of educational partnerships. Recent education policy and federal law also directly address the business presence in schools.
Types of Partnerships
Although school-business partnerships vary widely, the two most common types are: (1) school-to-career activities (also known as "career awareness programs"), and (2) corporate sponsorship programs (also known as "adopt-a-school" programs). These two types of partnerships are described here in terms of benefits offered to students and the role in which students tend to be cast by the terms of the partnership (for example, as consumers or as future workers).
In light of the vast number and scope of arrangements that are termed "school-business partnerships," the categories below are flexible. In some school-business partnerships, students might be approached primarily as learners rather than as consumers or future workers. In other cases, it might be difficult to distinguish between a career-awareness activity and a corporate sponsorship. The categories below might best be viewed as extreme ends of a spectrum, ranging from (1) school-to-career activities to corporate sponsorship, (2) "students as learners" to "students as consumers," and (3) "students as learners" to "students as future workers."
The degree to which any given corporate sponsorship engages students as learners depends on whether any advertising is involved; the amount, type, and intended audience of the advertising; and the degree to which the sponsorship has a direct educational benefit to students (for example, the quality and impact of educational materials or activities provided to students).
Likewise, the degree to which any given school-to-career partnership engages students as academic learners depends on the extent to which the skills and experiences offered to students have educational value beyond their applicability in the workplace. Do the programs, for example, foster critical-thinking skills, problem-solving skills, self-expression, civic awareness, reading comprehension, knowledge of history and science, competency in math, or an appreciation for the arts?
Ultimately, of course, the educational outcome and manner in which students are approached depend on the educational vision of the schools and businesses involved, and the specific terms negotiated between them.
School-to-Career Activities (Students as Future Workers)
Educational partnerships are essential for career awareness, exploration and development. Successful partnerships provide mutual benefits which are designed to improve the quality of education of all students. (Baltimore County Career Connections [Online], no date)
Career-oriented partnerships between businesses and schools share many common features. This particular model is adapted mainly from the Baltimore County Career Connections (BCCC) Web page, "Mutual Benefits for Schools and Businesses." According to this model, businesses partner with high schools and other "institutions in the supplier chain... to develop both industry and company specific classroom and workplace learning services." As part of a "business-need-driven, systematic approach to transitioning students from school to careers," businesses:
- Hold career fairs
- Offer paid work experience, apprenticeships, and internships
- Conduct mock interviews
- Provide opportunities for employees to mentor students and serve as consultants to student-run businesses
- Provide internships and job-shadowing opportunities for students and teachers
- Work with teachers to develop lessons that integrate academic and workplace knowledge
- Offer training workshops for students and teachers (Becton and Sammon)
Ideally, students:
- Are introduced to a range of career choices
- Gain a realistic understanding of the workplace
- Learn about the skills and training their career aspirations require
- Apply the knowledge they've acquired in the classroom
- Become more motivated to learn after seeing "real-life" applications of their academic knowledge
- Come away "with the sense that there are caring adults throughout the community who want to see them succeed" (Musgrove, quoted in Becton and Sammon)
- Are less likely to drop out of school
- Learn from a variety of positive role models
In exchange, businesses:
- Cultivate a reliable source of better-trained, better-motivated employees
- Help attract more business to the area through a well-trained work force
- Enjoy a more influential business community and a broader tax base
- Improve employee morale ("Employers are frequently surprised by the positive effects of working with young people on morale and supervisory skills" [Kazis 1999].)
- Publicize their involvement and volunteerism within the school system
- Give items to students with their logo displayed
- Can dissolve the partnership at any time, for any reason (Adapted from BCCC unless otherwise indicated)
Corporate Sponsorship (Students as Consumers)
Corporate sponsors typically provide schools with money, goods, or services in exchange for the opportunity to advertise or sell products to students. The term corporate sponsorship is therefore used here interchangeably with commercial activities in schools.
Corporate sponsorship simply emphasizes the relationship between schools and the businesses that engage in commercial activities at those schools. (The term also allows for cases in which corporations might sponsor, or literally support, schools without engaging in commercial activity at those schools. Such sponsors might then be approaching students less as consumers than as learners.)
School-to-career partnerships can also include commercial activities (for example, displaying a company logo on sponsored educational materials). However, the premise of these partnerships is mainly to provide career guidance and preparation in exchange for a well-trained work force, rather than to provide resources in exchange for the opportunity to advertise and sell products to students.
Alex Molnar (1998), director of the Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in Education at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, identifies seven categories of commercial activities in schools:
Sponsorship of Programs and Activities: Corporations paying for or subsidizing school events and/or one-time activities in return for the right to associate their name with the events and activities. This may also include school contests.
Exclusive Agreements: Agreements between schools and corporations that give corporations the exclusive right to sell and promote their goods and/or services in the school or school district. In return, the district or school receives a percentage of the profits derived from the arrangement. Exclusive agreements may also entail granting a corporation the right to be the sole supplier of a product or service and thus associate its products with activities such as high school basketball programs.
Incentive Programs: Corporate programs that provide money, goods, or services to a school or school district when its students, parents, or staff engage in a specified activity, such as collecting particular product labels or cash-register receipts from particular stores.
Appropriation of Space: The allocation of school space, such as scoreboards, rooftops, bulletin boards, walls, and textbooks on which corporations may place corporate logos and/or advertising messages.
Sponsored Educational Materials: Materials supplied by corporations and/or trade associations that claim to have an instructional content.
Electronic Marketing: The provision of electronic programming and/or equipment in return for the right to advertise to students and/or their families and community members in school or when they contact the school or district.
Privatization: Management of schools or school programs by private, for-profit corporations or other nonpublic entities. (Molnar 1998)
The U.S. General Accounting Office (Shaul) presents four broad categories of commercial activities in schools, including market research.
- Products Sales (for example, exclusive contracts, short-term fund-raising sales)
- Direct Advertising (for example, advertisements in school corridors or on school buildings)
- Indirect Advertising (for example, corporate-sponsored educational materials or teacher training)
- Market Research (for example, taste tests, focus groups, surveys, Internet panels) (Adapted from Shaul)
Researchers found that the most common and lucrative type of commercial activities at the schools they visited were soft-drink sales, which took the form of exclusive vending contracts and short-term fundraising sales (Shaul). Researchers also observed many instances of direct advertising, while the presence of indirect advertising was usually limited and subtle (Shaul).
Although none of the schools that researchers visited reported engaging students in market research, the report notes that market research in schools is a growing phenomenon (Shaul).
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