{"id":163214,"date":"2014-12-16T15:51:28","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T20:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webadmin.news-harvard.go-vip.net\/gazette\/gazette\/?p=163214"},"modified":"2019-04-12T10:39:31","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T14:39:31","slug":"getting-schooled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting schooled"},"content":{"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">&quot;We\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d said Allen Grossman, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS, who led the project\u2019s education research. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tNation &amp; World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tGetting schooled\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2014-12-16\">\n\t\t\tDecember 16, 2014\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t9 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tHBS research identifies how business can and should help reform K-12 education\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>As the dark clouds over the nation\u2019s economic future appear to be lifting, critics say the United States still needs to address a number of deeply rooted challenges to remain a leading business force on the world stage. Among the most stubborn perceived roadblocks to sustained prosperity are the country\u2019s deteriorating transportation infrastructure, a shortfall of workers with crucial 21st-century skills, and an underperforming K-12 public education system, according to recent research from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\">Harvard Business School<\/a> (HBS).<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 2,000 (1,947) HBS alumni surveyed for the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/Pages\/default.aspx\">U.S. Competitiveness Project<\/a>\u201d labeled the nation\u2019s K-12 public education system the weakest of 17 components deemed vital to the country\u2019s long-term competitiveness, such as entrepreneurship, capital markets, and the tax code.<\/p>\n<p>The project, co-authored by Michael E. Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6539\">Jan Rivkin<\/a>, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration, and published in September, is an expansive, yearly effort by HBS to identify and evaluate the ways the business community engages in key arenas that may contribute to \u2014 or undermine \u2014 the interests of American businesses and citizens.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s K-12 education system lags globally as students fall further behind in literacy and numeracy rates. While the nation ranks fifth in per-pupil secondary school spending, American students rank an estimated 17th in reading, 27th in math, and 20th in science achievement, compared with peer nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) such as Japan, Canada, and Finland, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/research\/Pages\/default.aspx\">the research says<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one has to be convinced this is a critical problem, but there\u2019s a lack of urgency in this country,\u201d said <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6588\">Allen Grossman<\/a>, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS who led the project\u2019s education research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people say it\u2019s money, and there are certainly instances of money being the key need. But we\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s how the money is spent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman launched a joint venture between HBS and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard Graduate School of Education<\/a> (HGSE) called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/news\/ed\/13\/09\/pelp-decade-later\">Public Education Leadership Project<\/a> (PELP) in 2000 that helped inform this new research. He said this is the first time that the effectiveness of business\/K-12 education partnerships has been formally studied.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of data measuring the quantity and quality of business\u2019 engagement with K-12 education is a major barrier to improving and expanding such efforts, said Grossman. \u201cWe could not find virtually anything. Even when we tried to determine what is the \u2026 amount business gives away annually to education, we couldn\u2019t find a precise number. No one had any idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman hopes the report will form a baseline for future analyses that HBS and other research outlets can build upon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Among the findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Business support for K-12 education is often shallow, fragmented, and dominated by \u201ccheckbook philanthropy.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>While the 1,100 school superintendents polled said they liked the idea of the business community being involved in K-12 education, very few had ever measured whether such partnerships were successful. In most cases, they were not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Superintendents were frustrated by some of the approaches, noting that business leaders were often misinformed or under-informed about the actual complexity and scope of challenges facing K-12 education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>HBS alumni and superintendents held starkly different views of what the challenges are and how optimistic the nation should be about where K-12 education is headed, with businesspeople expressing far greater pessimism than superintendents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe findings suggest that there is great untapped potential in the alliance between educators and business leaders. But tapping that potential will require a concerted and coordinated effort, especially to build a mutual understanding and trust between the two sectors,\u201d the report concludes.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone  size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"570\" height=\"1093\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-164137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg 570w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg?resize=78,150 78w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg?resize=156,300 156w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg?resize=534,1024 534w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg?resize=17,32 17w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg?resize=33,64 33w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic by John McCarthy and Christina Pazzanese\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>Grossman said the report\u2019s reception from both business and education leaders has been \u201castoundingly positive\u201d so far. For the business community, by quantifying what business is doing around K-12 public education and evaluating what works and what doesn\u2019t, the report offers reassurance that there are valuable ways to be involved. As for educators, \u201cThey are just delighted HBS [is saying] \u2018It\u2019s urgent; it\u2019s not ancillary to the welfare of American business; it\u2019s key.\u2019 So by our saying that, with the platform of Harvard, that\u2019s important,\u201d he said. \u201cIf not Harvard Business School, who\u2019s going to attack this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>No silver bullets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because business leaders often have enormous resources and significant political capital, they can and should play a leading role in helping reform K-12 public education, the study suggested, identifying three areas where business can be particularly useful and effective.<\/p>\n<p>First, business can be a credible public advocate for the urgency of education reform. Second, it can use its \u201cfranchising\u201d talents to help educators scale up effective programs across districts, states, or even the country. \u201cThat\u2019s how you grow your business, but school districts don\u2019t usually have the skill set,\u201d said Grossman.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, business can best contribute by supporting new initiatives like \u201cCradle to Career\u201d or \u201cCollective Impact\u201d that are now underway in nearly 60 U.S. cities and that take a holistic approach to address outside-the-classroom factors that weigh on student performance, such as social and emotional difficulties, medical issues, and hunger. \u201cYou have all of these issues, and then we\u2019re saying to the schools, \u2018You solve it,\u2019\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty impossible for them to do so. Some of them are making good progress, but it\u2019s still very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Businesspeople can also help by offering strategy and expertise to educators in areas like marketing and communications, data analytics, and leadership and motivation. While not every facet of business transfers to the education sector, many of the core concepts are valid and applicable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the key is it has to be a real partnership between business and the school district,\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIf business comes in with, \u2018You know, you\u2019re really hopelessly broken and let me tell you how to do it,\u2019 it\u2019s not going to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/faculty\/monica-higgins\">Monica Higgins<\/a>, M.A.\u201995, Ph.D. \u201995, the Kathleen McCartney Professor in Education Leadership at HGSE, agrees, adding that businesspeople need to better understand the unique confines under which K-12 educators operate. \u201cIt\u2019s a much more complicated sector than perhaps meets the eye,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t choose your customer in K-12,\u201d said Higgins, an M.B.A. who taught at HBS for 11 years before moving to HGSE in 2007. She helped in the early framing of issues for the research, but did not work on the report. \u201cThat means that some of the traditional business models don\u2019t apply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another difference that makes partnerships more difficult is \u201cleadership in education is about exercising influence without formal authority all the time. In K-12, because you have so many local stakeholders and constituencies: parents, school boards, site councils, local politics, etc.,\u201d it\u2019s much harder to reorganize because education leaders don\u2019t have the power to implement sweeping changes on their own, said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Even when educators identify beneficial reforms or programs, it\u2019s difficult to implement them in other districts or to get them to work as well under different conditions. \u201cEducation is a local market business. You have different laws and regulations, different processes for hiring and firing principals. It\u2019s very locally driven,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith those three differences, I don\u2019t mean to say that business shouldn\u2019t be involved, I just say it\u2019s an opportunity for us to be much more thoughtful about how we collaborate, and I think that level of understanding, or lack thereof, came out in the report,\u201d said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Getting business to design and implement new education infrastructures to help systems such as staffing and purchasing operate more effectively is one promising area of collaboration, Higgins says. \u201cI know that it\u2019s appealing to get very close to the kids and read to them and come in and do a service day \u2026 but there are all sorts of very interesting organization and management possibilities for solutions so that business \u2026 could actually be quite helpful,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause we have to change the way we teach and learn, the systems supporting it have to change, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman conceded the naturally incremental pace of change in education is a barrier to greater participation by the business community. \u201cThis, like any major shift in public education, is long-term, hard work. And that\u2019s part of the frustration of it\u201d for the business community, he said. \u201cBusinesses like to come in, have a plan, a strategy, implement, and, if not a quick\u201d turnaround, then at least a moderate one, \u201cnot 20 years. They don\u2019t think in time frames like that. They can\u2019t. They\u2019re fired if they\u2019re thinking in those time frames.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite such barriers, Grossman said that significant student progress in cities like Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Buffalo, N.Y., where business and K-12 educators are working closely, gives him reason to believe that meaningful change nationally is possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been in this field now for 20 years looking at public education, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been as optimistic as I am today. I doubt I\u2019m going to be around long enough to see the major changes, but I think our kids and grandchildren will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent Harvard Business School survey on U.S. competitiveness looks at how business is engaged with helping boost K-12 public education and whether these efforts are effective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105622744,"featured_media":163217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gz_ga_pageviews":14,"gz_ga_lastupdated":"2016-11-19 04:39","document_color_palette":"crimson","author":"Christina Pazzanese","affiliation":"Harvard Staff Writer","_category_override":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1378],"tags":[3646,8168,15457,15753,18794,20314,23806,24436,25571,34525],"gazette-formats":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-163214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation-world","tag-allen-grossman","tag-christina-pazzanese","tag-harvard-business-school","tag-harvard-graduate-school-of-education","tag-jan-rivkin","tag-k-12-education","tag-michael-e-porter","tag-monica-higgins","tag-news-hub","tag-u-s-competitiveness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.0 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Getting schooled &#8212; Harvard Gazette<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recent Harvard Business School survey on U.S. competitiveness looks at how business is engaged with helping boost K-12 public education and whether these efforts are effective.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting schooled &#8212; Harvard Gazette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent Harvard Business School survey on U.S. competitiveness looks at how business is engaged with helping boost K-12 public education and whether these efforts are effective.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Harvard Gazette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-16T20:51:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-12T14:39:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"605\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"403\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"harvardgazette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"harvardgazette\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/person\/78d028cf624923e92682268709ffbc4b\"},\"headline\":\"Getting schooled\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-16T20:51:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-12T14:39:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/\"},\"wordCount\":1657,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Allen Grossman\",\"Christina Pazzanese\",\"Harvard Business School\",\"Harvard Graduate School of Education\",\"Jan Rivkin\",\"K-12 education\",\"Michael E. Porter\",\"Monica Higgins\",\"News Hub\",\"U.S. Competitiveness\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Nation &amp; World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2014\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/\",\"name\":\"Getting schooled &#8212; Harvard Gazette\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-16T20:51:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-12T14:39:31+00:00\",\"description\":\"A recent Harvard Business School survey on U.S. competitiveness looks at how business is engaged with helping boost K-12 public education and whether these efforts are effective.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\",\"width\":605,\"height\":403},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/\",\"name\":\"Harvard Gazette\",\"description\":\"Official news from Harvard University covering innovation in teaching, learning, and research\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Harvard Gazette\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Harvard_Gazette_logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Harvard_Gazette_logo.svg\",\"width\":164,\"height\":64,\"caption\":\"The Harvard Gazette\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/person\/78d028cf624923e92682268709ffbc4b\",\"name\":\"harvardgazette\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Getting schooled &#8212; Harvard Gazette","description":"A recent Harvard Business School survey on U.S. competitiveness looks at how business is engaged with helping boost K-12 public education and whether these efforts are effective.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Getting schooled &#8212; Harvard Gazette","og_description":"A recent Harvard Business School survey on U.S. competitiveness looks at how business is engaged with helping boost K-12 public education and whether these efforts are effective.","og_url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/","og_site_name":"Harvard Gazette","article_published_time":"2014-12-16T20:51:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-04-12T14:39:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":605,"height":403,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"harvardgazette","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/"},"author":{"name":"harvardgazette","@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/person\/78d028cf624923e92682268709ffbc4b"},"headline":"Getting schooled","datePublished":"2014-12-16T20:51:28+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-12T14:39:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/"},"wordCount":1657,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg","keywords":["Allen Grossman","Christina Pazzanese","Harvard Business School","Harvard Graduate School of Education","Jan Rivkin","K-12 education","Michael E. Porter","Monica Higgins","News Hub","U.S. Competitiveness"],"articleSection":["Nation &amp; World"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2014","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/","name":"Getting schooled &#8212; Harvard Gazette","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg","datePublished":"2014-12-16T20:51:28+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-12T14:39:31+00:00","description":"A recent Harvard Business School survey on U.S. competitiveness looks at how business is engaged with helping boost K-12 public education and whether these efforts are effective.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg","width":605,"height":403},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/","name":"Harvard Gazette","description":"Official news from Harvard University covering innovation in teaching, learning, and research","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization","name":"The Harvard Gazette","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Harvard_Gazette_logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Harvard_Gazette_logo.svg","width":164,"height":64,"caption":"The Harvard Gazette"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/person\/78d028cf624923e92682268709ffbc4b","name":"harvardgazette"}]}},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Getting schooled","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/getting-schooled\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg?w=150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg"},"articleSection":"Nation &amp; World","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"harvardgazette"}],"creator":["harvardgazette"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Harvard Gazette","logo":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Harvard_Gazette_logo.svg"},"keywords":["allen grossman","christina pazzanese","harvard business school","harvard graduate school of education","jan rivkin","k-12 education","michael e. porter","monica higgins","news hub","u.s. competitiveness"],"dateCreated":"2014-12-16T20:51:28Z","datePublished":"2014-12-16T20:51:28Z","dateModified":"2019-04-12T14:39:31Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Getting schooled\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.harvard.edu\\\/gazette\\\/story\\\/2014\\\/12\\\/getting-schooled\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.harvard.edu\\\/gazette\\\/story\\\/2014\\\/12\\\/getting-schooled\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.harvard.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg?w=150\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.harvard.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\"},\"articleSection\":\"Nation &amp; World\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"harvardgazette\"}],\"creator\":[\"harvardgazette\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"Harvard Gazette\",\"logo\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.harvard.edu\\\/gazette\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/12\\\/Harvard_Gazette_logo.svg\"},\"keywords\":[\"allen grossman\",\"christina pazzanese\",\"harvard business school\",\"harvard graduate school of education\",\"jan rivkin\",\"k-12 education\",\"michael e. porter\",\"monica higgins\",\"news hub\",\"u.s. competitiveness\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2014-12-16T20:51:28Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-16T20:51:28Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-12T14:39:31Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/news.harvard.edu\/p.js"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg","has_blocks":true,"block_data":{"0":{"blockName":"harvard-gazette\/article-header","attrs":{"blockColorPalette":"","coloredHeading":"","creditText":"Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer","displayDetails":"","displayTitle":"","categoryId":1378,"mediaAlt":"","mediaCaption":"\"We\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d said Allen Grossman, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS, who led the project\u2019s education research. ","mediaId":163217,"mediaSize":"full","mediaType":"image","mediaUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg","poster":"","title":"Getting schooled","subheading":"HBS research identifies how business can and should help reform K-12 education","centeredImage":true,"className":"is-style-full-width-text-below","mediaHeight":403,"mediaWidth":605,"backgroundFixed":false,"backgroundTone":"light","coloredBackground":false,"displayOverlay":true,"fadeInText":false,"isAmbient":false,"mediaLength":"","mediaPosition":"","posterText":"","titleAbove":false,"useUncroppedImage":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">&quot;We\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d said Allen Grossman, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS, who led the project\u2019s education research. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">&quot;We\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d said Allen Grossman, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS, who led the project\u2019s education research. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/111014_grossman_026_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">&quot;We\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d said Allen Grossman, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS, who led the project\u2019s education research. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tNation &amp; World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tGetting schooled\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2014-12-16\">\n\t\t\tDecember 16, 2014\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t9 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tHBS research identifies how business can and should help reform K-12 education\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>As the dark clouds over the nation\u2019s economic future appear to be lifting, critics say the United States still needs to address a number of deeply rooted challenges to remain a leading business force on the world stage. Among the most stubborn perceived roadblocks to sustained prosperity are the country\u2019s deteriorating transportation infrastructure, a shortfall of workers with crucial 21st-century skills, and an underperforming K-12 public education system, according to recent research from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\">Harvard Business School<\/a> (HBS).<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 2,000 (1,947) HBS alumni surveyed for the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/Pages\/default.aspx\">U.S. Competitiveness Project<\/a>\u201d labeled the nation\u2019s K-12 public education system the weakest of 17 components deemed vital to the country\u2019s long-term competitiveness, such as entrepreneurship, capital markets, and the tax code.<\/p>\n<p>The project, co-authored by Michael E. Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6539\">Jan Rivkin<\/a>, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration, and published in September, is an expansive, yearly effort by HBS to identify and evaluate the ways the business community engages in key arenas that may contribute to \u2014 or undermine \u2014 the interests of American businesses and citizens.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s K-12 education system lags globally as students fall further behind in literacy and numeracy rates. While the nation ranks fifth in per-pupil secondary school spending, American students rank an estimated 17th in reading, 27th in math, and 20th in science achievement, compared with peer nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) such as Japan, Canada, and Finland, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/research\/Pages\/default.aspx\">the research says<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one has to be convinced this is a critical problem, but there\u2019s a lack of urgency in this country,\u201d said <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6588\">Allen Grossman<\/a>, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS who led the project\u2019s education research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people say it\u2019s money, and there are certainly instances of money being the key need. But we\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s how the money is spent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman launched a joint venture between HBS and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard Graduate School of Education<\/a> (HGSE) called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/news\/ed\/13\/09\/pelp-decade-later\">Public Education Leadership Project<\/a> (PELP) in 2000 that helped inform this new research. He said this is the first time that the effectiveness of business\/K-12 education partnerships has been formally studied.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of data measuring the quantity and quality of business\u2019 engagement with K-12 education is a major barrier to improving and expanding such efforts, said Grossman. \u201cWe could not find virtually anything. Even when we tried to determine what is the \u2026 amount business gives away annually to education, we couldn\u2019t find a precise number. No one had any idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman hopes the report will form a baseline for future analyses that HBS and other research outlets can build upon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Among the findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Business support for K-12 education is often shallow, fragmented, and dominated by \u201ccheckbook philanthropy.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>While the 1,100 school superintendents polled said they liked the idea of the business community being involved in K-12 education, very few had ever measured whether such partnerships were successful. In most cases, they were not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Superintendents were frustrated by some of the approaches, noting that business leaders were often misinformed or under-informed about the actual complexity and scope of challenges facing K-12 education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>HBS alumni and superintendents held starkly different views of what the challenges are and how optimistic the nation should be about where K-12 education is headed, with businesspeople expressing far greater pessimism than superintendents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe findings suggest that there is great untapped potential in the alliance between educators and business leaders. But tapping that potential will require a concerted and coordinated effort, especially to build a mutual understanding and trust between the two sectors,\u201d the report concludes.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>As the dark clouds over the nation\u2019s economic future appear to be lifting, critics say the United States still needs to address a number of deeply rooted challenges to remain a leading business force on the world stage. Among the most stubborn perceived roadblocks to sustained prosperity are the country\u2019s deteriorating transportation infrastructure, a shortfall of workers with crucial 21st-century skills, and an underperforming K-12 public education system, according to recent research from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\">Harvard Business School<\/a> (HBS).<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 2,000 (1,947) HBS alumni surveyed for the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/Pages\/default.aspx\">U.S. Competitiveness Project<\/a>\u201d labeled the nation\u2019s K-12 public education system the weakest of 17 components deemed vital to the country\u2019s long-term competitiveness, such as entrepreneurship, capital markets, and the tax code.<\/p>\n<p>The project, co-authored by Michael E. Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6539\">Jan Rivkin<\/a>, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration, and published in September, is an expansive, yearly effort by HBS to identify and evaluate the ways the business community engages in key arenas that may contribute to \u2014 or undermine \u2014 the interests of American businesses and citizens.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s K-12 education system lags globally as students fall further behind in literacy and numeracy rates. While the nation ranks fifth in per-pupil secondary school spending, American students rank an estimated 17th in reading, 27th in math, and 20th in science achievement, compared with peer nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) such as Japan, Canada, and Finland, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/research\/Pages\/default.aspx\">the research says<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one has to be convinced this is a critical problem, but there\u2019s a lack of urgency in this country,\u201d said <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6588\">Allen Grossman<\/a>, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS who led the project\u2019s education research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people say it\u2019s money, and there are certainly instances of money being the key need. But we\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s how the money is spent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman launched a joint venture between HBS and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard Graduate School of Education<\/a> (HGSE) called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/news\/ed\/13\/09\/pelp-decade-later\">Public Education Leadership Project<\/a> (PELP) in 2000 that helped inform this new research. He said this is the first time that the effectiveness of business\/K-12 education partnerships has been formally studied.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of data measuring the quantity and quality of business\u2019 engagement with K-12 education is a major barrier to improving and expanding such efforts, said Grossman. \u201cWe could not find virtually anything. Even when we tried to determine what is the \u2026 amount business gives away annually to education, we couldn\u2019t find a precise number. No one had any idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman hopes the report will form a baseline for future analyses that HBS and other research outlets can build upon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Among the findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Business support for K-12 education is often shallow, fragmented, and dominated by \u201ccheckbook philanthropy.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>While the 1,100 school superintendents polled said they liked the idea of the business community being involved in K-12 education, very few had ever measured whether such partnerships were successful. In most cases, they were not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Superintendents were frustrated by some of the approaches, noting that business leaders were often misinformed or under-informed about the actual complexity and scope of challenges facing K-12 education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>HBS alumni and superintendents held starkly different views of what the challenges are and how optimistic the nation should be about where K-12 education is headed, with businesspeople expressing far greater pessimism than superintendents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe findings suggest that there is great untapped potential in the alliance between educators and business leaders. But tapping that potential will require a concerted and coordinated effort, especially to build a mutual understanding and trust between the two sectors,\u201d the report concludes.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>As the dark clouds over the nation\u2019s economic future appear to be lifting, critics say the United States still needs to address a number of deeply rooted challenges to remain a leading business force on the world stage. Among the most stubborn perceived roadblocks to sustained prosperity are the country\u2019s deteriorating transportation infrastructure, a shortfall of workers with crucial 21st-century skills, and an underperforming K-12 public education system, according to recent research from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\">Harvard Business School<\/a> (HBS).<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 2,000 (1,947) HBS alumni surveyed for the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/Pages\/default.aspx\">U.S. Competitiveness Project<\/a>\u201d labeled the nation\u2019s K-12 public education system the weakest of 17 components deemed vital to the country\u2019s long-term competitiveness, such as entrepreneurship, capital markets, and the tax code.<\/p>\n<p>The project, co-authored by Michael E. Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6539\">Jan Rivkin<\/a>, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration, and published in September, is an expansive, yearly effort by HBS to identify and evaluate the ways the business community engages in key arenas that may contribute to \u2014 or undermine \u2014 the interests of American businesses and citizens.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s K-12 education system lags globally as students fall further behind in literacy and numeracy rates. While the nation ranks fifth in per-pupil secondary school spending, American students rank an estimated 17th in reading, 27th in math, and 20th in science achievement, compared with peer nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) such as Japan, Canada, and Finland, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/research\/Pages\/default.aspx\">the research says<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one has to be convinced this is a critical problem, but there\u2019s a lack of urgency in this country,\u201d said <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6588\">Allen Grossman<\/a>, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS who led the project\u2019s education research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people say it\u2019s money, and there are certainly instances of money being the key need. But we\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s how the money is spent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman launched a joint venture between HBS and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard Graduate School of Education<\/a> (HGSE) called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/news\/ed\/13\/09\/pelp-decade-later\">Public Education Leadership Project<\/a> (PELP) in 2000 that helped inform this new research. He said this is the first time that the effectiveness of business\/K-12 education partnerships has been formally studied.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of data measuring the quantity and quality of business\u2019 engagement with K-12 education is a major barrier to improving and expanding such efforts, said Grossman. \u201cWe could not find virtually anything. Even when we tried to determine what is the \u2026 amount business gives away annually to education, we couldn\u2019t find a precise number. No one had any idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman hopes the report will form a baseline for future analyses that HBS and other research outlets can build upon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Among the findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Business support for K-12 education is often shallow, fragmented, and dominated by \u201ccheckbook philanthropy.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>While the 1,100 school superintendents polled said they liked the idea of the business community being involved in K-12 education, very few had ever measured whether such partnerships were successful. In most cases, they were not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Superintendents were frustrated by some of the approaches, noting that business leaders were often misinformed or under-informed about the actual complexity and scope of challenges facing K-12 education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>HBS alumni and superintendents held starkly different views of what the challenges are and how optimistic the nation should be about where K-12 education is headed, with businesspeople expressing far greater pessimism than superintendents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe findings suggest that there is great untapped potential in the alliance between educators and business leaders. But tapping that potential will require a concerted and coordinated effort, especially to build a mutual understanding and trust between the two sectors,\u201d the report concludes.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"none","id":164137,"caption":"Graphic by John McCarthy and Christina Pazzanese\/Harvard Staff","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg","alt":"","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone  size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-164137\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic by John McCarthy and Christina Pazzanese\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone  size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-164137\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic by John McCarthy and Christina Pazzanese\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone  size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-164137\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic by John McCarthy and Christina Pazzanese\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Grossman said the report\u2019s reception from both business and education leaders has been \u201castoundingly positive\u201d so far. For the business community, by quantifying what business is doing around K-12 public education and evaluating what works and what doesn\u2019t, the report offers reassurance that there are valuable ways to be involved. As for educators, \u201cThey are just delighted HBS [is saying] \u2018It\u2019s urgent; it\u2019s not ancillary to the welfare of American business; it\u2019s key.\u2019 So by our saying that, with the platform of Harvard, that\u2019s important,\u201d he said. \u201cIf not Harvard Business School, who\u2019s going to attack this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>No silver bullets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because business leaders often have enormous resources and significant political capital, they can and should play a leading role in helping reform K-12 public education, the study suggested, identifying three areas where business can be particularly useful and effective.<\/p>\n<p>First, business can be a credible public advocate for the urgency of education reform. Second, it can use its \u201cfranchising\u201d talents to help educators scale up effective programs across districts, states, or even the country. \u201cThat\u2019s how you grow your business, but school districts don\u2019t usually have the skill set,\u201d said Grossman.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, business can best contribute by supporting new initiatives like \u201cCradle to Career\u201d or \u201cCollective Impact\u201d that are now underway in nearly 60 U.S. cities and that take a holistic approach to address outside-the-classroom factors that weigh on student performance, such as social and emotional difficulties, medical issues, and hunger. \u201cYou have all of these issues, and then we\u2019re saying to the schools, \u2018You solve it,\u2019\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty impossible for them to do so. Some of them are making good progress, but it\u2019s still very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Businesspeople can also help by offering strategy and expertise to educators in areas like marketing and communications, data analytics, and leadership and motivation. While not every facet of business transfers to the education sector, many of the core concepts are valid and applicable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the key is it has to be a real partnership between business and the school district,\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIf business comes in with, \u2018You know, you\u2019re really hopelessly broken and let me tell you how to do it,\u2019 it\u2019s not going to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/faculty\/monica-higgins\">Monica Higgins<\/a>, M.A.\u201995, Ph.D. \u201995, the Kathleen McCartney Professor in Education Leadership at HGSE, agrees, adding that businesspeople need to better understand the unique confines under which K-12 educators operate. \u201cIt\u2019s a much more complicated sector than perhaps meets the eye,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t choose your customer in K-12,\u201d said Higgins, an M.B.A. who taught at HBS for 11 years before moving to HGSE in 2007. She helped in the early framing of issues for the research, but did not work on the report. \u201cThat means that some of the traditional business models don\u2019t apply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another difference that makes partnerships more difficult is \u201cleadership in education is about exercising influence without formal authority all the time. In K-12, because you have so many local stakeholders and constituencies: parents, school boards, site councils, local politics, etc.,\u201d it\u2019s much harder to reorganize because education leaders don\u2019t have the power to implement sweeping changes on their own, said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Even when educators identify beneficial reforms or programs, it\u2019s difficult to implement them in other districts or to get them to work as well under different conditions. \u201cEducation is a local market business. You have different laws and regulations, different processes for hiring and firing principals. It\u2019s very locally driven,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith those three differences, I don\u2019t mean to say that business shouldn\u2019t be involved, I just say it\u2019s an opportunity for us to be much more thoughtful about how we collaborate, and I think that level of understanding, or lack thereof, came out in the report,\u201d said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Getting business to design and implement new education infrastructures to help systems such as staffing and purchasing operate more effectively is one promising area of collaboration, Higgins says. \u201cI know that it\u2019s appealing to get very close to the kids and read to them and come in and do a service day \u2026 but there are all sorts of very interesting organization and management possibilities for solutions so that business \u2026 could actually be quite helpful,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause we have to change the way we teach and learn, the systems supporting it have to change, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman conceded the naturally incremental pace of change in education is a barrier to greater participation by the business community. \u201cThis, like any major shift in public education, is long-term, hard work. And that\u2019s part of the frustration of it\u201d for the business community, he said. \u201cBusinesses like to come in, have a plan, a strategy, implement, and, if not a quick\u201d turnaround, then at least a moderate one, \u201cnot 20 years. They don\u2019t think in time frames like that. They can\u2019t. They\u2019re fired if they\u2019re thinking in those time frames.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite such barriers, Grossman said that significant student progress in cities like Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Buffalo, N.Y., where business and K-12 educators are working closely, gives him reason to believe that meaningful change nationally is possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been in this field now for 20 years looking at public education, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been as optimistic as I am today. I doubt I\u2019m going to be around long enough to see the major changes, but I think our kids and grandchildren will.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Grossman said the report\u2019s reception from both business and education leaders has been \u201castoundingly positive\u201d so far. For the business community, by quantifying what business is doing around K-12 public education and evaluating what works and what doesn\u2019t, the report offers reassurance that there are valuable ways to be involved. As for educators, \u201cThey are just delighted HBS [is saying] \u2018It\u2019s urgent; it\u2019s not ancillary to the welfare of American business; it\u2019s key.\u2019 So by our saying that, with the platform of Harvard, that\u2019s important,\u201d he said. \u201cIf not Harvard Business School, who\u2019s going to attack this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>No silver bullets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because business leaders often have enormous resources and significant political capital, they can and should play a leading role in helping reform K-12 public education, the study suggested, identifying three areas where business can be particularly useful and effective.<\/p>\n<p>First, business can be a credible public advocate for the urgency of education reform. Second, it can use its \u201cfranchising\u201d talents to help educators scale up effective programs across districts, states, or even the country. \u201cThat\u2019s how you grow your business, but school districts don\u2019t usually have the skill set,\u201d said Grossman.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, business can best contribute by supporting new initiatives like \u201cCradle to Career\u201d or \u201cCollective Impact\u201d that are now underway in nearly 60 U.S. cities and that take a holistic approach to address outside-the-classroom factors that weigh on student performance, such as social and emotional difficulties, medical issues, and hunger. \u201cYou have all of these issues, and then we\u2019re saying to the schools, \u2018You solve it,\u2019\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty impossible for them to do so. Some of them are making good progress, but it\u2019s still very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Businesspeople can also help by offering strategy and expertise to educators in areas like marketing and communications, data analytics, and leadership and motivation. While not every facet of business transfers to the education sector, many of the core concepts are valid and applicable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the key is it has to be a real partnership between business and the school district,\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIf business comes in with, \u2018You know, you\u2019re really hopelessly broken and let me tell you how to do it,\u2019 it\u2019s not going to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/faculty\/monica-higgins\">Monica Higgins<\/a>, M.A.\u201995, Ph.D. \u201995, the Kathleen McCartney Professor in Education Leadership at HGSE, agrees, adding that businesspeople need to better understand the unique confines under which K-12 educators operate. \u201cIt\u2019s a much more complicated sector than perhaps meets the eye,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t choose your customer in K-12,\u201d said Higgins, an M.B.A. who taught at HBS for 11 years before moving to HGSE in 2007. She helped in the early framing of issues for the research, but did not work on the report. \u201cThat means that some of the traditional business models don\u2019t apply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another difference that makes partnerships more difficult is \u201cleadership in education is about exercising influence without formal authority all the time. In K-12, because you have so many local stakeholders and constituencies: parents, school boards, site councils, local politics, etc.,\u201d it\u2019s much harder to reorganize because education leaders don\u2019t have the power to implement sweeping changes on their own, said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Even when educators identify beneficial reforms or programs, it\u2019s difficult to implement them in other districts or to get them to work as well under different conditions. \u201cEducation is a local market business. You have different laws and regulations, different processes for hiring and firing principals. It\u2019s very locally driven,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith those three differences, I don\u2019t mean to say that business shouldn\u2019t be involved, I just say it\u2019s an opportunity for us to be much more thoughtful about how we collaborate, and I think that level of understanding, or lack thereof, came out in the report,\u201d said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Getting business to design and implement new education infrastructures to help systems such as staffing and purchasing operate more effectively is one promising area of collaboration, Higgins says. \u201cI know that it\u2019s appealing to get very close to the kids and read to them and come in and do a service day \u2026 but there are all sorts of very interesting organization and management possibilities for solutions so that business \u2026 could actually be quite helpful,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause we have to change the way we teach and learn, the systems supporting it have to change, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman conceded the naturally incremental pace of change in education is a barrier to greater participation by the business community. \u201cThis, like any major shift in public education, is long-term, hard work. And that\u2019s part of the frustration of it\u201d for the business community, he said. \u201cBusinesses like to come in, have a plan, a strategy, implement, and, if not a quick\u201d turnaround, then at least a moderate one, \u201cnot 20 years. They don\u2019t think in time frames like that. They can\u2019t. They\u2019re fired if they\u2019re thinking in those time frames.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite such barriers, Grossman said that significant student progress in cities like Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Buffalo, N.Y., where business and K-12 educators are working closely, gives him reason to believe that meaningful change nationally is possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been in this field now for 20 years looking at public education, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been as optimistic as I am today. I doubt I\u2019m going to be around long enough to see the major changes, but I think our kids and grandchildren will.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Grossman said the report\u2019s reception from both business and education leaders has been \u201castoundingly positive\u201d so far. For the business community, by quantifying what business is doing around K-12 public education and evaluating what works and what doesn\u2019t, the report offers reassurance that there are valuable ways to be involved. As for educators, \u201cThey are just delighted HBS [is saying] \u2018It\u2019s urgent; it\u2019s not ancillary to the welfare of American business; it\u2019s key.\u2019 So by our saying that, with the platform of Harvard, that\u2019s important,\u201d he said. \u201cIf not Harvard Business School, who\u2019s going to attack this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>No silver bullets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because business leaders often have enormous resources and significant political capital, they can and should play a leading role in helping reform K-12 public education, the study suggested, identifying three areas where business can be particularly useful and effective.<\/p>\n<p>First, business can be a credible public advocate for the urgency of education reform. Second, it can use its \u201cfranchising\u201d talents to help educators scale up effective programs across districts, states, or even the country. \u201cThat\u2019s how you grow your business, but school districts don\u2019t usually have the skill set,\u201d said Grossman.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, business can best contribute by supporting new initiatives like \u201cCradle to Career\u201d or \u201cCollective Impact\u201d that are now underway in nearly 60 U.S. cities and that take a holistic approach to address outside-the-classroom factors that weigh on student performance, such as social and emotional difficulties, medical issues, and hunger. \u201cYou have all of these issues, and then we\u2019re saying to the schools, \u2018You solve it,\u2019\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty impossible for them to do so. Some of them are making good progress, but it\u2019s still very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Businesspeople can also help by offering strategy and expertise to educators in areas like marketing and communications, data analytics, and leadership and motivation. While not every facet of business transfers to the education sector, many of the core concepts are valid and applicable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the key is it has to be a real partnership between business and the school district,\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIf business comes in with, \u2018You know, you\u2019re really hopelessly broken and let me tell you how to do it,\u2019 it\u2019s not going to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/faculty\/monica-higgins\">Monica Higgins<\/a>, M.A.\u201995, Ph.D. \u201995, the Kathleen McCartney Professor in Education Leadership at HGSE, agrees, adding that businesspeople need to better understand the unique confines under which K-12 educators operate. \u201cIt\u2019s a much more complicated sector than perhaps meets the eye,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t choose your customer in K-12,\u201d said Higgins, an M.B.A. who taught at HBS for 11 years before moving to HGSE in 2007. She helped in the early framing of issues for the research, but did not work on the report. \u201cThat means that some of the traditional business models don\u2019t apply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another difference that makes partnerships more difficult is \u201cleadership in education is about exercising influence without formal authority all the time. In K-12, because you have so many local stakeholders and constituencies: parents, school boards, site councils, local politics, etc.,\u201d it\u2019s much harder to reorganize because education leaders don\u2019t have the power to implement sweeping changes on their own, said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Even when educators identify beneficial reforms or programs, it\u2019s difficult to implement them in other districts or to get them to work as well under different conditions. \u201cEducation is a local market business. You have different laws and regulations, different processes for hiring and firing principals. It\u2019s very locally driven,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith those three differences, I don\u2019t mean to say that business shouldn\u2019t be involved, I just say it\u2019s an opportunity for us to be much more thoughtful about how we collaborate, and I think that level of understanding, or lack thereof, came out in the report,\u201d said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Getting business to design and implement new education infrastructures to help systems such as staffing and purchasing operate more effectively is one promising area of collaboration, Higgins says. \u201cI know that it\u2019s appealing to get very close to the kids and read to them and come in and do a service day \u2026 but there are all sorts of very interesting organization and management possibilities for solutions so that business \u2026 could actually be quite helpful,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause we have to change the way we teach and learn, the systems supporting it have to change, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman conceded the naturally incremental pace of change in education is a barrier to greater participation by the business community. \u201cThis, like any major shift in public education, is long-term, hard work. And that\u2019s part of the frustration of it\u201d for the business community, he said. \u201cBusinesses like to come in, have a plan, a strategy, implement, and, if not a quick\u201d turnaround, then at least a moderate one, \u201cnot 20 years. They don\u2019t think in time frames like that. They can\u2019t. They\u2019re fired if they\u2019re thinking in those time frames.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite such barriers, Grossman said that significant student progress in cities like Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Buffalo, N.Y., where business and K-12 educators are working closely, gives him reason to believe that meaningful change nationally is possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been in this field now for 20 years looking at public education, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been as optimistic as I am today. I doubt I\u2019m going to be around long enough to see the major changes, but I think our kids and grandchildren will.\u201d<\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>As the dark clouds over the nation\u2019s economic future appear to be lifting, critics say the United States still needs to address a number of deeply rooted challenges to remain a leading business force on the world stage. Among the most stubborn perceived roadblocks to sustained prosperity are the country\u2019s deteriorating transportation infrastructure, a shortfall of workers with crucial 21st-century skills, and an underperforming K-12 public education system, according to recent research from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\">Harvard Business School<\/a> (HBS).<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 2,000 (1,947) HBS alumni surveyed for the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/Pages\/default.aspx\">U.S. Competitiveness Project<\/a>\u201d labeled the nation\u2019s K-12 public education system the weakest of 17 components deemed vital to the country\u2019s long-term competitiveness, such as entrepreneurship, capital markets, and the tax code.<\/p>\n<p>The project, co-authored by Michael E. Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6539\">Jan Rivkin<\/a>, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration, and published in September, is an expansive, yearly effort by HBS to identify and evaluate the ways the business community engages in key arenas that may contribute to \u2014 or undermine \u2014 the interests of American businesses and citizens.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s K-12 education system lags globally as students fall further behind in literacy and numeracy rates. While the nation ranks fifth in per-pupil secondary school spending, American students rank an estimated 17th in reading, 27th in math, and 20th in science achievement, compared with peer nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) such as Japan, Canada, and Finland, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/competitiveness\/research\/Pages\/default.aspx\">the research says<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one has to be convinced this is a critical problem, but there\u2019s a lack of urgency in this country,\u201d said <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=6588\">Allen Grossman<\/a>, a senior fellow and retired M.B.A. Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice at HBS who led the project\u2019s education research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people say it\u2019s money, and there are certainly instances of money being the key need. But we\u2019ve actually increased our total spending on public education in the last 30 years by 100 percent in real dollars, and what we noticed is that there\u2019s some but very little correlation between high performance and more money,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s how the money is spent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman launched a joint venture between HBS and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard Graduate School of Education<\/a> (HGSE) called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/news\/ed\/13\/09\/pelp-decade-later\">Public Education Leadership Project<\/a> (PELP) in 2000 that helped inform this new research. He said this is the first time that the effectiveness of business\/K-12 education partnerships has been formally studied.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of data measuring the quantity and quality of business\u2019 engagement with K-12 education is a major barrier to improving and expanding such efforts, said Grossman. \u201cWe could not find virtually anything. Even when we tried to determine what is the \u2026 amount business gives away annually to education, we couldn\u2019t find a precise number. No one had any idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman hopes the report will form a baseline for future analyses that HBS and other research outlets can build upon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Among the findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Business support for K-12 education is often shallow, fragmented, and dominated by \u201ccheckbook philanthropy.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>While the 1,100 school superintendents polled said they liked the idea of the business community being involved in K-12 education, very few had ever measured whether such partnerships were successful. In most cases, they were not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Superintendents were frustrated by some of the approaches, noting that business leaders were often misinformed or under-informed about the actual complexity and scope of challenges facing K-12 education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>HBS alumni and superintendents held starkly different views of what the challenges are and how optimistic the nation should be about where K-12 education is headed, with businesspeople expressing far greater pessimism than superintendents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe findings suggest that there is great untapped potential in the alliance between educators and business leaders. But tapping that potential will require a concerted and coordinated effort, especially to build a mutual understanding and trust between the two sectors,\u201d the report concludes.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone  size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/k-12-infographic_jm_12_2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-164137\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic by John McCarthy and Christina Pazzanese\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>Grossman said the report\u2019s reception from both business and education leaders has been \u201castoundingly positive\u201d so far. For the business community, by quantifying what business is doing around K-12 public education and evaluating what works and what doesn\u2019t, the report offers reassurance that there are valuable ways to be involved. As for educators, \u201cThey are just delighted HBS [is saying] \u2018It\u2019s urgent; it\u2019s not ancillary to the welfare of American business; it\u2019s key.\u2019 So by our saying that, with the platform of Harvard, that\u2019s important,\u201d he said. \u201cIf not Harvard Business School, who\u2019s going to attack this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>No silver bullets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because business leaders often have enormous resources and significant political capital, they can and should play a leading role in helping reform K-12 public education, the study suggested, identifying three areas where business can be particularly useful and effective.<\/p>\n<p>First, business can be a credible public advocate for the urgency of education reform. Second, it can use its \u201cfranchising\u201d talents to help educators scale up effective programs across districts, states, or even the country. \u201cThat\u2019s how you grow your business, but school districts don\u2019t usually have the skill set,\u201d said Grossman.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, business can best contribute by supporting new initiatives like \u201cCradle to Career\u201d or \u201cCollective Impact\u201d that are now underway in nearly 60 U.S. cities and that take a holistic approach to address outside-the-classroom factors that weigh on student performance, such as social and emotional difficulties, medical issues, and hunger. \u201cYou have all of these issues, and then we\u2019re saying to the schools, \u2018You solve it,\u2019\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty impossible for them to do so. Some of them are making good progress, but it\u2019s still very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Businesspeople can also help by offering strategy and expertise to educators in areas like marketing and communications, data analytics, and leadership and motivation. While not every facet of business transfers to the education sector, many of the core concepts are valid and applicable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the key is it has to be a real partnership between business and the school district,\u201d said Grossman. \u201cIf business comes in with, \u2018You know, you\u2019re really hopelessly broken and let me tell you how to do it,\u2019 it\u2019s not going to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/faculty\/monica-higgins\">Monica Higgins<\/a>, M.A.\u201995, Ph.D. \u201995, the Kathleen McCartney Professor in Education Leadership at HGSE, agrees, adding that businesspeople need to better understand the unique confines under which K-12 educators operate. \u201cIt\u2019s a much more complicated sector than perhaps meets the eye,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t choose your customer in K-12,\u201d said Higgins, an M.B.A. who taught at HBS for 11 years before moving to HGSE in 2007. She helped in the early framing of issues for the research, but did not work on the report. \u201cThat means that some of the traditional business models don\u2019t apply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another difference that makes partnerships more difficult is \u201cleadership in education is about exercising influence without formal authority all the time. In K-12, because you have so many local stakeholders and constituencies: parents, school boards, site councils, local politics, etc.,\u201d it\u2019s much harder to reorganize because education leaders don\u2019t have the power to implement sweeping changes on their own, said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Even when educators identify beneficial reforms or programs, it\u2019s difficult to implement them in other districts or to get them to work as well under different conditions. \u201cEducation is a local market business. You have different laws and regulations, different processes for hiring and firing principals. It\u2019s very locally driven,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith those three differences, I don\u2019t mean to say that business shouldn\u2019t be involved, I just say it\u2019s an opportunity for us to be much more thoughtful about how we collaborate, and I think that level of understanding, or lack thereof, came out in the report,\u201d said Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Getting business to design and implement new education infrastructures to help systems such as staffing and purchasing operate more effectively is one promising area of collaboration, Higgins says. \u201cI know that it\u2019s appealing to get very close to the kids and read to them and come in and do a service day \u2026 but there are all sorts of very interesting organization and management possibilities for solutions so that business \u2026 could actually be quite helpful,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause we have to change the way we teach and learn, the systems supporting it have to change, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman conceded the naturally incremental pace of change in education is a barrier to greater participation by the business community. \u201cThis, like any major shift in public education, is long-term, hard work. And that\u2019s part of the frustration of it\u201d for the business community, he said. \u201cBusinesses like to come in, have a plan, a strategy, implement, and, if not a quick\u201d turnaround, then at least a moderate one, \u201cnot 20 years. They don\u2019t think in time frames like that. They can\u2019t. They\u2019re fired if they\u2019re thinking in those time frames.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite such barriers, Grossman said that significant student progress in cities like Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Buffalo, N.Y., where business and K-12 educators are working closely, gives him reason to believe that meaningful change nationally is possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been in this field now for 20 years looking at public education, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been as optimistic as I am today. I doubt I\u2019m going to be around long enough to see the major changes, but I think our kids and grandchildren will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":138809,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/05\/toward-a-more-competitive-u-s\/","url_meta":{"origin":163214,"position":0},"title":"Toward a more competitive U.S.","author":"harvardgazette","date":"May 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"At an event at Harvard Business School (HBS) that was three parts analysis and one part rally, participants tried to chart a new path forward for the sluggish U.S. economy \u2014 a move that may require a new definition of \u201ccompetitiveness.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nation &amp; World&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Nation &amp; World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/051513_paths_forward_177_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/051513_paths_forward_177_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/051513_paths_forward_177_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":126230,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2012\/12\/getting-down-to-business\/","url_meta":{"origin":163214,"position":1},"title":"Getting down to business","author":"harvardgazette","date":"December 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Advancing America\u2019s economic competitiveness should be a top priority for elected leaders, Harvard Business School professors Michael E. Porter and Jan W. Rivkin told a group of new members of Congress attending a weeklong Harvard Kennedy School crash course on the policy issues they\u2019ll face in Washington.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nation &amp; World&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Nation &amp; World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/congress_panel_605m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/congress_panel_605m.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/congress_panel_605m.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":184593,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/06\/new-home-for-executive-education\/","url_meta":{"origin":163214,"position":2},"title":"New home for executive education","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Officials gathered Monday at Harvard Business School to celebrate the opening of the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, a new multipurpose facility for students in HBS\u2019 popular executive education program.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Campus &amp; Community&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Campus &amp; Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/060616_chao_0636_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/060616_chao_0636_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/060616_chao_0636_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":153950,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/03\/business-school-expands-online\/","url_meta":{"origin":163214,"position":3},"title":"Business School expands online","author":"harvardgazette","date":"March 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Harvard Business School has announced the launch of HBX, a digital learning initiative aimed at broadening the School\u2019s reach and deepening its impact. In HBX, the School has created an innovative platform to support the delivery of distinctive online business-focused offerings.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Campus &amp; Community&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Campus &amp; Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/hbx_02_concept_dark.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/hbx_02_concept_dark.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/hbx_02_concept_dark.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":153120,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/02\/bad-bridges-to-nowhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":163214,"position":4},"title":"Bad bridges to nowhere","author":"harvardgazette","date":"February 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Harvard Business School brings together top leaders in academia, government, and business to consider and address the nation\u2019s transportation and infrastructure shortcomings, which have led to a lag in global competitiveness.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nation &amp; World&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Nation &amp; World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/hbs_dean.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/hbs_dean.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/hbs_dean.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":120206,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2012\/10\/chao-family-gives-40-million-to-hbs\/","url_meta":{"origin":163214,"position":5},"title":"Chao family gives $40 million to HBS","author":"harvardgazette","date":"October 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A family that sent four daughters through Harvard Business School \u2014 including former U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao \u2014 visited the School on Friday to announce a $40 million gift that will fund scholarships for students of Chinese heritage and support the building of the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Campus &amp; Community&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Campus &amp; Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/101212_hbs_chao_group_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/101212_hbs_chao_group_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/101212_hbs_chao_group_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271200,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163214\/revisions\/271200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163214"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=163214"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=163214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}