Imagine….
Imagine you’re a high school
student.…
….Your
classes are taught by enthusiastic instructors who bring applied work
experience to their classroom in addition to subject matter knowledge. Your classmates include students from high
schools throughout the county as well as adults and community college students,
so there’s a higher maturity level in the class. You work on projects, as a member of a team,
and gain hands-on work experience using state of the art technical equipment
both in school and in on-the-job internships.
When you graduate, you’ll receive your high school diploma and a
certificate in at least one employer-recognized field. Chances are, a well-paying job will be
waiting for you.
Imagine you’re a teacher….
….Your
students are motivated and eager to learn.
Because of the flexibility you have in instruction, you are able to show
students the relevance of your subject matter.
You know that their learning is deeper and their retention will be greater,
because they see the connection between what they are learning and what they
will be doing once they graduate. You
are treated as a professional by your administrators and have the respect of
the community. Local employers want to
partner with you because they recognize you as the critical link between the
worlds of education and employment.
Imagine you’re a plant
manager….
….The
concerns you had about recruitment of new and skilled employees are beginning
to recede. You’ve met with school administrators
and explained the challenges you face with respect to a skilled labor market
and workforce development, and the administrators not only listened, they
acted. Now you’re working with high
school and technical college instructors to design and develop curriculum and
create new courses of study that will prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s
jobs. Your current employees, many of
whom have children of their own in school, respect the commitment their company
has made to improving education.
Imagine you’re a concerned
member of the community….
….Your
youngest child graduated several years ago and had to move north to find a
decent job. But with new companies
relocating to the area, you’re hoping she and her husband might be able to move
back to town and start a family of their own.
You’ve noticed property values are starting to go back up and there’s a
noticeable energy in the air when you shop downtown. It’s been months since you’ve seen your
neighbor’s son, who you sometimes caught playing hooky in your backyard, so you
ask his mom about him. “Oh, he’s
developed a real interest in graphic design.
He’s got an internship with a printing company here in town. He’s totally changed since he started at the
new school.” He always did have talent,
you smile to yourself.
Many in Coweta County, Georgia, no longer have to
imagine. A new approach to education is
becoming a reality.
Reconceptualizing Education
Educational
change starts with imagining new solutions to old problems.
Perhaps
you’re the superintendent of schools or the president of a technical college, a
teacher or guidance counselor. Maybe
you’re the mayor or the governor. You
might be the owner of a small business or a parent. How do you want education to be structured in
your community? What is education
supposed to accomplish? Can education
support the development of our young people and our communities at the same
time? What needs do you have that education, if it was organized just a little
differently, could meet more effectively?
These
questions led the citizens of Coweta
County, Georgia
to reconceptualize high school education—a reconceptualization that ultimately
led to the creation of the Central Educational Center (CEC), a unique
partnership based in Newnan among business and industry, the Coweta County
Schools, and West Central
Technical College. Through partnership, CEC addresses the mutual
concerns of educators, parents, business owners and managers, college
administrators, and the students themselves.
“Education is Everything”
A few years
ago, Coweta County was like many communities in the United States. Most educators and community members thought
college was the natural next step after high school. Therefore, high school ought to prepare young
people for college. And it had a school
system that did a pretty good job preparing the top students for just
that. But like most communities, close
to half of Coweta’s students don’t go to college. And about half of those who enroll, never
complete their degree. Thus we end up
with a K-12 educational system that is designed to effectively serve about
one-quarter of the student population.
What about the rest?
At the same
time, employers in Coweta and elsewhere began to notice two trends. First, the demands of the workplace were
increasing as a result of technological innovation and globalization. Employees need to have more advanced skills
to do the same type of work and to do it more efficiently. Second, employers were having a harder time
finding qualified employees, ones with fundamental skills and an ability to
learn. The problem was especially acute among non-college degreed
applicants. Though the employers may not
have recognized it at the time, their needs were changing—but the traditional
goals and processes of education were not.
More and more jobs in Coweta
County are requiring
special skills or technical training.
Inside the
schools, teachers struggled with two interrelated problems—a declining level of
motivation among students coupled with unacceptable dropout rates. Parents were likewise discouraged because
they knew their children “didn’t really like school and were not being
successful in school.” Still, while many
parents were not satisfied with the status quo, they were not necessarily
motivated or seemed unsure of how to promote change.
Meanwhile,
far beyond the school grounds, economic developers and county planners wrestled
with the challenges of attracting new businesses to the area while helping to
grow the businesses already there. It
was becoming increasing clear that the vitality of the community and
opportunities for economic development were inextricably linked to the quality
of education and training. It has become
a truism that the “currency of the new economy is knowledge and information.”
Along those
lines but at the state level, a similar round of deliberations were taking
place, exploring the strategic options to grow the state’s economy. What policies and practices could the state
employ to attract business and industry to Georgia? The QuickStart program, which provides
customized training services to relocating businesses, had already demonstrated
its value. In this model, 34 technical colleges throughout the state provide
the platform for education and training services to new and expanding
businesses, on everything from new technology to retention of employees. “QuickStart is high profile,” explained Dr.
Ken Breeden, Commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Technical and Adult
Education. “We’re a real part of the economic development team.” According to Breeden, the Governor has
regularly stated that “QuickStart is the economic development strategy for the
state.”
But more
needed to be done to develop the local workforce. “The market for skilled and trained workers
is growing so fast,” Breeden observed.
“We’re interested in competing for high-skill/high-wage jobs. The number one thing we need for economic
development is an available and well-trained workforce. Education is everything.”
“The Stars Aligned”
In Newnan and Coweta County,
the employer community, West
Central Technical
College, and the school
district each had distinct problems they were trying to solve. The employer community was having a hard time
finding qualified workers. West Central
Technical College (WCTC), a leader in workforce development serving four
counties in the region, had been grappling with how to strengthen programs and
reach more individuals in Coweta
County. As a start, WCTC leaders wanted to centralize
course offerings and activities in Newnan under one roof. At the same time, the superintendent of
schools and school board were struggling to find a way to improve programs for
non-college bound students.
Personal
conversations among individuals evolved into extended deliberations among the
organizations. Vague concerns evolved
into strategic goals. Others in the
community joined in the deliberations.
The deliberations evolved into a series of meetings. “Once this community’s leaders were
mobilized, we really started to see movement,” observed one employer. In 1997, the loosely affiliated group decided
to formalize a steering committee comprised of 20 influential movers and
shakers representing a broad cross-section of stakeholder groups. Said one member of the steering committee, “Within
a relatively short period of time, everyone was at the table.”
Interest
and excitement surrounded what appeared to be a unique opportunity to forge new
alliances among high schools, the technical college, and the private
sector. All the necessary ingredients
were on the table. All that was needed
was a process to help the group work together in a winning combination.
Dr. Joe
Harless, a nationally respected consultant who for 30 years helped business,
industry, and the military improve the performance of their employees, just
happened to live in town. In 1998,
Harless published “The Eden Conspiracy,” which explored how education could be
reformed around accomplishment-based curriculum, an approach that was uniquely
suited to addressing the multitude of concerns the various stakeholders brought
to the table. “I invited myself to get
involved,” confided Harless. Given his
experience and interest, Harless was designated as the chair of the steering
committee.
In
retrospect, when asked how CEC came into being, many of those involved
nonchalantly replied, “The stars just aligned.”
And with respect to gathering the input and commitment of key
organizations, this may be true. But the
ease of forming initial alliances belies a tremendous planning effort. The committee reviewed the literature on
successful school-business partnerships, explored promising and effective
pedagogical strategies, visited exemplary programs, was steeped in
accomplishment-based curriculum development, and most importantly, developed a
deep and authentic understanding of the unique needs of each stakeholder
group. From this understanding, a common
vision was formed.
Conceptual
Vision
CEC would be a
place where the highest levels of learning for all could be achieved. Drawing on the best research and practice
available, the Steering Committee identified the basic building blocks on which
CEC would be built. Expectations for
student performance would be high, given the expanding demands of the new
economy. Experiential learning through
applied and hands-on projects would be a common part of the daily
classroom. Young people would be given
new flexibility to “design” a program of study that prepared them for multiple
pathways beyond high school—pathways dictated by changes in the economy. These would combine advanced technical
training with a higher level of academic instruction than traditionally seen in
connection with vocational education.
Seemingly separated levels of education, secondary and technical
college, would be vertically integrated into a seamless mix through instructor
collaborations and dual-enrollment opportunities. This core instructional package would be
topped with heavy doses of work-based learning—real opportunities to practice
classroom learning in the local economy.
Along the way, local business would provide advice, counsel, direction,
and expertise in the classroom. The
effort at the secondary level linked to a technical college would provide both
competitive pressure and an opportunity to attract adults back into the
classroom for retraining.
After 18
months of intensive work, the committee produced an action plan. It would take approximately another year
before CEC opened its doors to students in August 2000.
Who are we and
why are we interested in CEC?
Founded in 1961, the Academy for Educational Development (AED) is an
independent, nonprofit organization committed to solving critical social
problems in the United
States and throughout the world. Major areas of focus include health,
education, youth and leadership development, and the environment.
The authors of
this paper are affiliated with the National Institute for Work and Learning
(NIWL), which is housed within the U.S. Education and Workforce Development
Group of AED. We focus our attention on
the intersection of education and employment.
Our projects regularly cross the traditional boundaries that separate
schools, workplaces, and communities.
Indeed, we seek to blur those boundaries by reforming education and
improving the interrelationships between education, work, and the surrounding
community—goals we believe are shared by CEC.
Our mission is
to help local, state, and national agencies transform the educational
enterprise by exploring new models of instructional practice, building
organizational capacity, and providing professional development opportunities
together with the tools to assess and improve effectiveness.
As part of our
ongoing work, we at NIWL believe it is imperative that educational research
focus more directly on documenting and quantifying
the economic benefits of educational innovations such as CEC to the county and region in which they are
situated. In doing so, we chose to
concentrate our attention more on the external relationships that helped
establish and sustain CEC rather than its internal components and
practices. Therefore, readers will not
find many details in this paper on instructional practice or student progress. Our
goal was to learn as much as possible about the promise and potential of the
CEC partnership model so that we can share developmental design features,
promising practices, and lessons learned with others.
Which
brings us back to how education was reconceptualized in Coweta County.
CEC As School
“It’s a
totally different atmosphere. Kids want
to be there, teachers want to be there,
and it
shows.” Ellis Cadenhead, Assistant General Manager, Newnan Utilities
The planning and development of
CEC began years before the first class enrolled. Coming to appreciate the related concerns of
education, workforce development, and economic development took time in and of
itself. From there, the relationships
between the public and private sectors, and among their respective organizations,
took shape. The story of how CEC was
formed, and to a large degree how it operates, is intimately wound up in
relationships among local community partners.
Later in this report we focus on the nature and value of partnership. In this section, we provide a general
overview of how CEC looks today, as it evolved from original concept to
reality. Details on instructional
practice are addressed in a parallel study by Florida State
University. Here we report on the following major
dimensions of CEC's organization: charter school status, leadership, course
offerings, student enrollment, and faculty.
Organization and Structure of CEC
In order to
understand how CEC was implemented and the reconceptualized structure of
education shared by community stakeholders, it is essential to recognize that
CEC was established as a charter school. Charter school status affords schools a
remarkable degree of freedom with respect to organizational structure,
management, and instructional practice.
Viewed as a vital strategy to address local educational needs, charter
schools have grown exponentially in the U.S. from 430 only six years ago to
over 2, 800 today.
Charter
school status gives school planners and administrators considerable, but not
unlimited, flexibility. The charter must
adhere to certain state and school district parameters and the school is
obligated to report to the superintendent of schools. Yet, CEC is deliberately positioned to be
directly accountable to business and parents.
In the case of CEC, flexibility is most visibly manifested in its
mandate to respond to business and community needs. CEC’s charter makes it possible for partners
to create and maintain a school culture and climate distinct from that of
traditional high schools.
In the
words of Dr. Peggy Connell, Superintendent of Coweta County Schools, “CEC is
not limited by the rules and regulations that have become ingrained in the more
traditional education system. Its
flexibility allows for actions that couldn’t be taken and decisions that
couldn’t be made when dealing with regular school. For example, in a regular school environment,
adjusting the number of hours of seat time a student needs while offering
work-based learning and off-site experiences would have been an arduous task. It’s doable in the CEC environment under the
CEC governance structure.”
The following organizational
chart delineates the lines of reporting and governance structure of CEC.
CENTRAL EDUCATIONAL
CENTER ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
Leadership
“Leadership
transforms vision into reality.” Warren Bennis, Ph.D., Professor of Business, University of Southern California
In our
studies of best practices and effective programs, we have consistently found a
correlation between success and strong leadership. Leadership can come in at least two major
forms. In the first case, it references
vision and the determination and ability to move that vision forward. Such leadership often extends beyond the
school and includes chief school and college administrators, civic leaders, and
other stakeholder groups, like parent and business organizations. Clearly, there was evidence of this dimension
of leadership in Coweta
County.
The second
type is organizational leadership. By
organizational leadership we are referring to building-level
administration. In the case of CEC, this
includes the CEO and the Directors of High School Programs, Technical and
Career Education, and College Operations.
The organizational chart presents the reporting relationships of these
positions to their respective Boards. It’s instructional to note the deliberate
use of nontraditional titles for these positions. For example, in a traditional high school,
the Director of High School Programs would be called the Principal. The terminology of “CEO” and “Director” is
more consistent with the business-like culture that pervades CEC.
At CEC, the
CEO holds responsibility for oversight and integration of high school,
technical and career education and college operations. Applying a matrix management model, he acts
as a facilitator, building and strengthening connections among business
partners, the school district, WCTC, parents, state and local political
officials, and the community at-large.
The CEO is the public “face” of CEC.
“Charter
school flexibility accommodates the idea of a CEO,” said a staff member. “It makes it possible to bring in a
businessman with real world experience to run the school.” Indeed, Mark Whitlock, the CEO, comes to CEC
with a strong background in banking and financial services. However, Whitlock is no stranger to the field
of education. His undergraduate degree
is in social science education and he continues to be well read in the field of
education. In addition, he played a
leadership role in the establishment of a Montessori school serving as a founding
member and chair of its board. But the
comment we heard most in interviews is that he “clearly brings a business
perspective through his training and practice.”
The fact that the CEO comes with a business
background is viewed as extremely beneficial.
“It didn’t concern us that the CEO was from business and not education,”
said one board member. “He brings a
healthy new perspective.” Perhaps more
importantly, the CEO’s business pedigree helps bridge the chasm between public
education and the private sector. He’s
fluent in both educational and business parlance and being from “their”
environment, he’s trusted by business partners.
Outsider and Insider
When asked to
describe the characteristics of good leadership, the individuals we interviewed
tended to cite strong communication skills, a clear commitment to quality
education, the ability to convey that vision to others while delegating and
empowering staff, sincerity and integrity, and the ability to manage
multifaceted projects. Though often
difficult to embody as effectively as the current CEO has, these are fairly
standard descriptors of good leadership.
Two other characteristics were identified as being especially important. First, the fact that “Mark is from Newnan but
has been outside of Newnan.” This was
described as a potent combination since it provides the important objectivity
of an outsider with the credibility of an insider.
The second
was a conscious commitment to extend a high level of autonomy and respect to
the administrative directors, with an emphasis on professionalism, that they in
turn extend to the instructional staff.
“You’d be amazed at how far this goes to help compensate for the low pay
educators have,” confided one staff member.
It’s worth noting that the terminology of “directors” is applied to the
classroom instructor, thereby elevating the professional status typically
afforded “teachers.” (For the purposes
of this paper, we employ the term instructor to reference the directors of
program instruction, to avoid potential confusion.)
The CEO
reports to a board of directors as dictated in the school’s charter. The board meets every other month to conduct
strategic planning and reflect on progress.
The board considers and advises on issues such as student attendance,
busing schedules, tracking outcomes, resource acquisition and distribution,
communications, and marketing. CEC
recognizes the need to generate parent support and include parental input when
setting policy. A majority (9) of the
seats on the 17-member board are held by parents, with four held by business
representatives and four by educators, features mandated by the charter. In addition, the school board reviews the CEC
curriculum at regular intervals. With
the charter ultimately awarded by the State, the CEO encounters three layers of
audit via the CEC board, the Coweta County School Board, and the Department of
Education for the State of Georgia. Additional layers of audit—through the West Central
Technical College
and its governing Board as representatives of the State’s Department of
Technical and Adult Education—stem from the design of CEC to seamlessly
integrate secondary and postsecondary education.
Seamlessness Between High School and Technical College
“During my
junior year of high school, I took advantage of a Health Occupations program
offered at Central
Educational Center
or CEC as we call it. Believe it or not, I graduated with a technical college
certificate before I even graduated high school! Most importantly (to me and to the economy of
my community) I am able to work as a Certified Nursing Assistant in a nursing
home or hospital.” Jamie Rodriguez,
Class of 2002
CEC itself
physically houses a high school and technical college under its roof. As a founding partner, West Central
Technical College
sought a physical presence in Newnan to serve its historically older population
of adults wanting to enhance their employability skills and gain
industry-recognized certification. The
co-location of WCTC on a high school campus provided the opportunity to deliver
an extended array of dual-enrollment options to a younger population. As a result, 52 percent of students enrolled
in West Central at CEC are under the age of 25.
Due to the influx of CEC graduates at other WCTC campuses, the average
age of technical college students is declining overall.
Dual
enrollment provides an excellent mechanism to create smooth, “seamless”
transitions between high school and higher education. This is a key feature of CEC and one highly
touted at the state level by the governor and others. On a practical level, dual enrollment offers
high school students the opportunity to obtain their diploma and a certificate
of credit simultaneously. As a result, students find themselves better
positioned to participate in the labor market immediately after graduation
and/or make thoughtful decisions with respect to postsecondary education.
The powerful
social and psychological effects of dual enrollment should not be ignored. Instructional staff reported that having high
school-age and adult-age college students in the same class has a positive
effect on the younger students’ maturity.
Graduates of CEC commented on the value of having opportunities to
interact with adult students while still in high school, claiming an increased
comfort level in the adult workplace and an increased sense of self-confidence
that is not generally derived from peer interaction.
Courses, Certificate Programs, and Curriculum
“CEC
doesn’t treat its students as just kids.
They are team members and are treated as such. The learning environment
at CEC emphasizes character, work ethic, and how to make it in the business
world today. By offering hands-on
educational experiences, CEC is meeting those standards while paving the way
for the future of education.”
CEC
Graduate
Through an
initial needs analysis, local business and industry helped identify the major
areas of concentration. Programs of
study are organized under four broad career paths: Business and Computer
Information Systems; Health and Medical; Technology and Engineering; and
Services.
According to
the Director of High School Programs, “Every course in the CEC curriculum
responds to needs in the local labor market.”
Students can choose from programs that range from high tech (e.g.,
computer repair, computer networking, and CAD) to construction and production
(e.g., certified manufacturing specialist, machine tool technology, and metal
joining) to health care (e.g., dental assisting, patient care assisting),
travel and tourism, and broadcasting.
With respect to curriculum development, teachers and
central office curriculum developers sit down with representatives from
business who serve as subject matter experts (SMEs) to identify skills,
knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors needed in the workplace. The curriculum is built around those
parameters. An important feature of this
reconceptualized education is the ability for business representatives to
inform, design, and help deliver the curriculum. To ensure that classrooms are adequately
equipped, discussions with employer partners include identification and
acquisition of state-of-the art equipment and technology.
Through open
lines of communication with the community and through the more formalized role
of the SMEs, business and industry have the opportunity to guide and influence
curriculum development. Subsequently, if
a program no longer aligns with labor market demands and does not have minimal
placement, retention, or graduation rates, that program can be eliminated.
In addition to
academic grades, students receive a “work ethic grade” comprised of scores
along ten factors or themes. These
themes rotate on a weekly basis.
Productivity was the theme during the week of our visit and a large
banner with the word “PRODUCTIVITY” in
big bold letters hung in the main corridor as a prominent reminder. All instructors are expected to work the
themes into their curriculum and lesson plans.
The work ethic grade does not currently appear on students’ high school
transcripts. In the future, the district
would like to see all high school classes give both academic and work ethic
grades, a strategy we would endorse.
Even administrative concerns
like attendance are used to convey an understanding of workplace expectations. For example, absenteeism and tardiness are
not considered behavioral problems, but performance related. At CEC, the thinking is that if you’re not
there, you can’t learn. This again
mirrors the business model—if you are not at work, you can’t do your job. A point reward and deduction system linked to
students’ class participation grade is used to drive the concept home.
Much of the
curricula is self-directed and self-paced, a feature that reinforces the need
for self-discipline. “I had access to a teacher when I needed it, but actually
I finished ahead of schedule. That
allowed me to do extra stuff,” explained one student proudly.
Research on
work-based learning, offered at CEC through internships, simulations in labs,
or paid work experiences, has shown that it helps students acquire general workplace competencies; explore and plan careers; and acquire
knowledge and skills in particular industries. But it also creates another level of learning
for the student, one that engages them in the learning process. Students report that, “The whole school has a
different atmosphere. You’re not a
student at your desk all day.” As expected, the work-based learning and
project-based learning approaches have made a strong impression on the
students. “Hands-on is just great,” one
alumnus beamed. She highlighted the
emphasis on developing products rather than testing while another commented on
her performance-based assessment in front of a professional RN. Both underscore the fact that performance is
what gets measured in “the real world.”
Student Enrollment and Demographics
“Most high
school students just want to get out.
The students at CEC are more motivated.
They’re working for a job or preparation for college. They act more grown up.” CEC Graduate
One student
described CEC as “a full-service educational hub.” Indeed, CEC offers a rich array of
educational services to a diverse student population. CEC serves students in both high school and
technical college. Some of the high
school students are dual-enrolled in technical college certification
programs. In addition, adult students
prepare for their GED in evening courses and high school students in need of
remediation and course make-up attend evening high school. Lastly, the well-resourced school offers
local employers the opportunity for off-site training. The FSU study referenced earlier focuses on
the dual-enrolled population. Our
interests are broader, but still generally limited to the high school and
technical college programs as the demographics presented below attest.
CEC draws
students from across the three high schools in Coweta County
and the school’s enrollment mirrors that of the county. About 28 percent of the students identify
themselves as a racial minority. As a
charter school, CEC is not allowed to establish admissions requirements,
however, individual programs can require specific criteria for enrollment. Transportation to and from CEC is not an
issue. About 85 percent of the students
drive to CEC. The remaining 15 percent
take school buses from their base high schools.
Since opening their doors in the fall of 2000, CEC has
witnessed substantial growth as depicted in the chart below.
Last year (2001-2002) about 10
percent of the student body attended CEC for the full day, but that proportion
increased to about 13 percent this year.
In 2001, CEC graduated 96 high school students with technical college
certificates of credit (TCCs) from WCTC (58 percent female, 29 percent minority). This past spring (2002) CEC graduated 128
students with at least one TCC from WCTC. That number, too, is expected to
increase. In the first semester this
year, 63 students are dual enrolled already.
In addition
to the 63 dual-enrolled high school students, WCTC enrolls 312 adults. Over half of these students are well under
the average age of typical technical college students. About 24 of these young adult students attend
classes with the dual-enrolled high school students while the remaining 288 attend
night courses through WCTC.
Approximately
190 adults attend evening classes generally focused on GED test preparation,
while 72 high school students attend evening high school, with 80 percent
taking classes in order to stay on track for graduation with their class.
Faculty
According to
the students, the instructors at CEC are among the best they ever had. Some qualities mentioned include: knowledge
of the subject matter, personally involved with students, with a knack for
making learning fun. The students felt
they were treated more maturely by their teachers, “like we’re adults,” said
one female graduate. Not surprisingly,
students tend to react positively to such treatment. In turn, the students tend to have more
respect for their teachers, a benefit not lost on the teachers themselves.
There appears
to be growing consensus that the ideal teacher has some real-world industry
experience. Indeed, applied experience
can be a real asset in the classroom. It
allows instructors to link academic concepts to occupational applications. In addition, students seem to respond more
favorably to those who have been in the real world. “I have a lot more credibility with the
students,” said a former plant manager.
It’s safe to say that the staff come from
diverse backgrounds. Charter school
status affords CEC the luxury of recruiting staff who might not hold
conventional teaching certification.
While some staff have a combination of academic and applied experience,
others come directly from the world of business or the military. Still, the majority of instructors appear to
have conventional teacher training and traditional teaching backgrounds. What makes instructional practice at CEC
unique is that staff have the freedom to
approach education in a non-traditional way.
The climate of the school, the direction from leadership, and the
school’s charter status encourage this flexibility. “The rule here is to be different,” said last
year’s teacher of the year.
Given CEC’s
career development focus, career guidance and career development are integrated
into the culture of CEC. That is to say,
guidance is not simply the counselor’s role, but rather a responsibility shared
by all. “Every Director is a counselor,”
says the CEO. In turn, the counselor’s
role is evolving to a managerial position focusing on course selection and
credit attainment.
It was
suggested, half-jokingly, that the staff was “hand picked.” In truth, many of the teachers who joined the
CEC staff during the first year volunteered for the position. However, now, as CEC adds new staff,
administrators are seeking out people who are creative—who are still motivated
and energized by the job.
Likewise, efforts were made to identify appropriate college
staff that would thrive in the CEC environment.
To support the recruitment process, administrators brought teachers from
other West Central campuses to tour CEC facilities.
The Student Experience
“What really stood out for me? I thought it was going to be easier. I didn’t think it was going to be as serious
with respect to job building and career building. I just thought I’d have something to put on
my resume. I have so much more
now.” CEC Alumnus
As mentioned
earlier, the FSU evaluation is concentrating on instructional practice and
student-level outcomes. While it would be premature to present detailed
statistics at this point in time, several early indicators point toward
success.
For
example, since CEC began operations, the annualized drop-out rate, grades 9 to
12 in Coweta County Schools, has dropped from around 7 percent to around 3
percent.
According to
graduates, “Students [at CEC] are more mature, more disciplined. And if they’re
not, they will be when they graduate.” A
good mechanism CEC uses to promote this trait is the emphasis placed on
performance-based assessment. For
example, students in the Health Occupations program demonstrate the skills they
have learned under the critical eye of a registered nurse. As one student acknowledged, “I was nervous,
yeah, but afterward, I felt more pride than if it had simply been a test.”
WCTC administrators suggested that students experience a
boost to self-esteem when they realize that they can perform at the college
level. Eighty percent of students in the
Class of 2001 graduating with a technical certificate indicated a likelihood
that they would pursue postsecondary education and anecdotal evidence bears
this out. The local average in Coweta County
is about 40 percent. What accounts for the large difference? Like the WCTC administrators, FSU researchers
attribute the high proportion to the familiarity CEC students gain with college
expectations and environment and a newfound confidence that they can perform at
the college level. Other contributing
factors likely include the benefits of smaller learning communities and a more
positive outlook toward education. At
the same time, it is possible that a more motivated student is attracted to the
CEC program.
Regardless, CEC is having an impact. One student described her experience as
follows: “Thanks to CEC and its business partners, I
have a great start on my future. They
have opened the door for me to launch my career as a physical therapist. I am one of many set apart from the average student,
and I have gained a greater sense of professionalism, self-esteem, and
purpose.”
CEC As Partnership
In Coweta County,
CEC is more than a school—it’s a partnership.
The relationships that key stakeholder groups in Coweta County formed to
develop the CEC concept, turn it into reality, and, now, provide ongoing
support to operations, strategic planning, and growth are a vital part of
CEC.
Over the past decade, NIWL has
examined dozens of partnerships between schools and businesses, primarily
through intensive case studies. From
coast to coast and from the most rural areas to the most urban, it has been our
experience that strong and meaningful collaboration and partnerships among a
wide range of groups in a community are necessary to create meaningful change
in educational practices and strategies. Formalized partnerships provide
stakeholders with clear goals; a concrete management and governance structure;
clearly delineated roles and responsibilities; networks to facilitate
communications; and mechanisms to broker connections and ensure fairly precise
coordination of activities. Through
partnerships, stakeholders function as one unified team in accomplishing common
goals.
With business involvement
contributing an estimated $2.4 billion and 109 million volunteer hours to
schools each year, these partnerships have an impact on the lives of an
estimated 35 million students. We have observed growing evidence that
today’s relationships between schools and business are notably different from
those of the past which resulted in one-way philanthropic efforts from businesses
to schools, or commercial relationships in which schools provided a marketplace
for the sale of products and services. Today’s thoughtful educators and
business leaders seek true partnerships that build on a shared understanding of
values and culture that support mutual needs.
A
Meeting of the Minds
We truly
believe that in order to effect change, schools need support and therefore must
rely on resources—human, financial, and material—from outside the school walls.
But establishing the necessary relationships and trust to build truly effective
partnerships is much easier said than done.
Who were the key stakeholder groups that came together to form the CEC
partnership and how did the partnership come about?
The School District.
While the community in general was satisfied with the quality and rigor
of the college preparatory programs offered at all three of the county’s high
schools, only a fraction of the county’s high school graduates were going on to
postsecondary education, and even fewer were finishing with degrees. With 65 percent of the jobs in the county
requiring special skills or technical training, district administrators knew
they needed to improve career and technical education programs so that students
not going on to postsecondary education would have viable and meaningful
alternatives. In order to offer the kind
of high tech career and technical education programs that would improve
postsecondary outcomes for “middle of the road” students, the district would
need to make major investments in equipment and facilities at the new high
school and revamp programs at the two existing high schools. Administrators began exploring possible
strategies for consolidating the career and technical education programs
offered across the county under one roof, with the goals of strengthening
programs and eliminating the duplication of costs and efforts.
Postsecondary Involvement. West
Central Technical
College had been trying
to establish a presence in Coweta
County for years. It had been “borrowing” space at local high
schools in order to offer night classes but wanted to provide more flexibility
in scheduling and maybe reach a younger population of students. It, too, was looking for a base for activities
in Newnan. But college administrators
wanted more than just a site for classes, they wanted to develop a business and
industry partnership to inform course development and ensure that programs were
truly responsive to local labor market needs.
Community Leaders. At the same time, local real estate agents
were having a hard time selling commercial real estate in Coweta County
and were just beginning to realize that a shortage of skilled workers and
limited training opportunities might be to blame. Faced with the possible loss of one of the
community’s largest employers, business leaders, educators, and representatives
from local government formed 21st Century Coweta, an economic
development initiative. Led by Scott
Frederick, 21st Century Coweta provided a framework to discuss what
might be done to encourage existing businesses to stay and others to relocate
and invest in the county. They began
developing Vision 2020, a plan for supporting “smart growth.”
Employers.
Don Moore, the plant manager at Bon-L, a major manufacturer in Newnan,
noticed that many of his employees—even the ones that had graduated from high
school—had limited academic proficiency.
While he was confident that his company had the subject matter expertise
to successfully train people in the technical skills needed to work in the
plant, he was hesitant to get into the business of providing whole-scale
remediation in the areas of reading and writing. He felt that the overall lack of basic skills
evidenced by his workforce was a symptom of a much larger systemic problem that
would be more appropriately addressed by the local school system. At Chamber of Commerce meetings, other
employers were voicing similar concerns.
In addition, some small business owners were complaining that their
employees would often miss work in order to meet with their children’s teachers
to discuss problems at school and that this was having a big impact on
operations and productivity. Business
leaders knew that in order to solve their problems something would have to be
done to change the way education was delivered in Newnan, and they wanted a
seat at the table.
On behalf
of the employer community and in the spirit of enlightened self-interest, the
plant manager at Bon-L approached the superintendent of schools with his
concerns and a partnership was formed. A twenty-person committee with
representatives of all of the key stakeholder groups—the school district, WCTC,
local government, business, and industry—met to identify a common solution to
their unique but related problems.
Because the superintendent had also been grappling with the need for
change, he was very receptive to the idea.
Active
Employer Involvement
“The
commitment of the employer community in Newnan extends beyond buying
donuts and t-shirts.” School District
Administrator
The business community is often
credited with being the catalyst for the partnership, with residents pointing
to the plant manager at Bon-L as the initial driver of change. When the steering committee needed to build
support for CEC at the state level and generate the additional funds that would
be required to renovate and expand their proposed site, the business community,
through the Chamber of Commerce, was instrumental in lobbying efforts. Chamber members successfully promoted CEC to
the governor and general assembly, requesting support and calling in
favors.
Since CEC’s inception, the
Chamber of Commerce has been a vehicle for sharing information about CEC with
its members, generating interest, and coordinating employer involvement. In addition, a number of local employers sit
on CEC’s board of directors and advisory bodies, while others donate equipment,
lend subject matter expertise to the curriculum development process, and
provide young people with access to work-based learning opportunities. To date, over 150 local employers have
provided CEC students with work-based learning opportunities.
There is a growing awareness
among business leaders that their active involvement in educational reform is
essential for their own survival and growth.
Indeed, the number of school-business partnerships is on the rise. Ed Rust, Jr., Chairman and CEO of State Farm,
has stated that “business leaders who are not actively involved in education
are short sighted.” Under the No Child
Left Behind legislation, the role of business is probably more crucial than
ever before.
However, it has been our
experience that it takes the combined efforts of a diverse cross-section of
individuals and groups, including educators, community-based organizations,
parents, and students, to improve education and employment outcomes for young
people. Each of these groups contributes
a distinct set of talents and resources to partnership activities.
Seamlessness Requires
Interinstitutional Relationships
We were frequently told that CEC
would not exist without the support of the business community. While this is
true, it was our observation that CEC’s existence is actually the result of
commitment from the highest levels of leadership on many fronts. It is clear
that in order to implement an initiative like CEC, the business community needs
to be on board to drive change, and its ongoing support is vital to sustain and
develop further efforts. Still, we feel
it is important to note that each of the major stakeholder groups was equally
important in the development of CEC, and their continued involvement will be
essential for future success.
For
instance, what would have happened if the superintendent and school board
hadn’t been willing to work with business and industry on addressing their
concerns? Business leaders would have
had to find alternative solutions, which may have included relocation. Across the country, businesses and schools
are constantly talking about the need to work together. In Coweta
County, the superintendent
was not only willing to hear the concerns of the business community, he really
listened. Then he took action so that
the outcome was more than just an amicable but meaningless dialogue. The school district’s involvement made it
possible for West
Central Technical
College to connect with a
much younger population of students.
Further, with the school district’s endorsement, parents were confident
that CEC programs would be academically rigorous and that their children would
not be left behind if they were to enroll in CEC. If the current superintendent didn’t
understand the links between education and economic development and firmly
support CEC’s efforts, the partnership’s activities would have been derailed,
if not stopped entirely.
Further, it would have been impossible to change
classroom practice if teachers hadn’t been willing to broaden their views on
the purpose of education and how it should be delivered. According to one teacher, “If we can employ
and keep graduates on the job, they stay and move up with a company. That’s good for everyone.” Another remarked, “It’s key to have people
from business who are very visible and very involved. It helps kids build a network.” It’s this perspective, and a willingness on
the part of educators to “step out of their comfort zones,” that makes
education at CEC different and effective partnership feasible.
From our
earlier studies of partnership efforts between businesses and schools, we found
that the best programs provide connections to post-high school education and
training options. These arrangements at
once greatly expand the training immediately available to high school students
and offer them a ladder of opportunity toward progressively more advanced
training and advantageous employment after high school. In Coweta, if the business community and
school district had decided to move forward without the assistance of WCTC,
they might have been able to strengthen vocational programs across the county,
but they wouldn’t have been able to provide students with a seamless transition
from secondary to postsecondary education.
Because
WCTC and CEC’s secondary vocational programs are housed within the same
facility, students can earn technical certificates while still in high school
and have an opportunity to get a head start on the next phase of life
regardless of whether that next phase involves a four-year college or
university, further technical training, community college, or the
workplace. Upwards of 80 percent of high
school students who are also dual enrolled in WCTC through CEC pursue
additional postsecondary education and training—twice the local average. Administrators, faculty, and staff suspect
that dual-enrolled students experience a “boost in self esteem” when they
realize that they can perform at the college level and the prospect of college
seems less intimidating. The partnership
with the technical college makes it possible to attract students who might
otherwise become disengaged from school and either drop out or squander their
senior year.
Nobody’s
Feathers Have Gotten Ruffled
When asked
why CEC partners had been able to build such a strong partnership, one observer
noted, “The funny thing is, there were two things that didn’t happen. First, there were no turf battles. Second, partners didn’t mind spending the
time to ‘do it right.’” The CEO of CEC suggested, “We don’t have
all of the answers, but we have the desire to figure it out. We run into barriers, sure, but we figure out how
to overcome them...”
One of the
most unique aspects of the CEC partnership is the way that partners recognize
the value of collaboration and work together without feeling the need to
establish “territory,” take credit when things go as planned, or point fingers
when they don’t—characteristics that are almost considered endemic to
partnerships in general. As a result,
everyone was eager to contribute, but no one felt the need to control
partnership activities. Each partner had
an area of expertise and took on corresponding roles and responsibilities. At the same time, partners felt empowered to
define strategies and policies that they felt would better serve students and
translate them into action. Partners
were accountable to one another, and with egos in check, seemed ready, willing,
and able to jump in, but also to cede control when necessary.
A second
aspect of CEC that distinguishes it from other partnerships we have studied is
that partners seem to understand that they are making a long-term investment
and that change will take time. They
made sure not to rush the development phase.
In fact, the original committee spent approximately three years
developing the concept, identifying and generating resources to support it, and
designing the model. Because
stakeholders were empowered to be active partners in supporting systemic change
from the very start, rather than passive contributors, all of the partners have
made considerable investments in CEC, and all are strongly committed to seeing
it succeed. We were told that, “Nobody’s
feathers have gotten ruffled. That’s
because people’s expectations have been met.
They’re being met because all of the key players are at the table. They’re actively involved.”
We feel that
one of the partnership’s most outstanding accomplishments was its ability to
merge the silos that traditionally separate K-12 and postsecondary technical
college systems. Across the country,
separate accountability systems established at the federal and state levels
have created unintentional barriers to joint efforts. It has been extremely
hard for people responsible for overseeing money for education and training to
merge funds into a common pot. Key
players in the CEC partnership were able to stay focused on the “big picture.”
In order for this to be possible, partners needed to really trust one another,
and a lot of energy was devoted to building the necessary trust ahead of
time.
The
Power of Working Together
“CEC demonstrates what can happen
if we all work together.” Greg Wright,
President, Newnan-Coweta Chamber of
Commerce
The president
of the Coweta County Chamber of Commerce observed, “If we can do this as a
community, there’s nothing we can’t do. Now that we see the success of this
effort, it will lead to future collaborations.”
Interestingly, the success of the CEC partnership is already having
carryover effects in the community. For
instance, employers have started supporting the local Boy’s and Girl’s Club and
some have become involved in adult literacy programs. Bon-L recently gave dictionaries to all third
grade students in the county in the hopes of enhancing the academic rigor of
programs at the elementary school level.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the school district and
business community are jointly developing a large plot of land in the county,
soon to be the home of the school district’s new amphitheater and the county’s
new convention center.
During one conversation, the CEC
model was described as “a grassroots movement,” a fairly astute
observation. In the beginning, everyone
came to the table with a slightly different agenda. People shared their unique problems but
solutions were developed in the sense of moving the group’s overall agenda
forward. Over time, people formed a
shared vision and began working toward the big picture. Partners were not just involved in the
creation, they continue to be involved in ongoing operations. Further, partnership makes sense—when
communities lose businesses, they lose their economic base, then there’s no
money to support schools, no money for taxes, and no money for goods and
services. The school district had a
vested interest in finding a way to make people and businesses productive. At the same time, employers realized that not
only do they depend on schools to provide them with a trained and well-prepared
future workforce, good schools mean that employees aren’t worried about their
kids’ education and can focus on doing their jobs.
Finally,
from a teacher’s perspective, the partnership makes it possible to tap into
other resources in the community to strengthen classroom content and
delivery. One teacher observed, “As an
educator, you need to work closely with business and industry. Education moves so slowly that without
business input in the form of equipment, facilities, and expertise, you can’t
provide a good education.” Another
echoed this sentiment, saying, “I don't
have to learn it all or to deliver it all.
I can't keep up on all the technology, the subject matter, all by
myself. I need to collaborate with business
partners and students, and the local community, parents, all these
non-traditional avenues. You can't just
do that anywhere. But I can do that
here.”
CEC As Engine of Economic
Development
“While CEC is bringing many desired results to the
local school system—almost single-handedly lowering the county’s dropout rate
from 7 percent to 3 percent in its first full year of operation—CEC is having
an even more dramatic effect on the interaction between the school system and
the county’s economic development efforts.”
Russ Moore, Business Owner, Consultant, Chamber of Commerce Member
The success of
our schools in graduating successful students is directly related to the
success of our communities. The more
economically prosperous our communities, the stronger the tax base backing our
school systems, which in turn offers more resources to provide a quality
education. It seems obvious. But the
relationship is a dynamic one as well.
Quality education produces successful graduates with talent and skills
that local employers can leverage to improve productivity and support economic
expansion.
Yet, for much
of the last century, schools operated as independent institutions. Schools receive state funding and
increasingly must administer standardized statewide tests, but for the most
part control rests in the hands of local school boards. Businesses have increasingly sought to lend
assistance, but that assistance, coming in the form of subsidized computer labs
and in-kind contributions, tended not to affect the instructional status
quo. Civic leaders, too, remained at
arm’s length. For example, John
DeStefano, Jr., Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut confided, “I’ve been in
politics a long time, and before I was mayor, I worked for the mayor. And in all my experience, I’d have to say
that the view from city hall was that education was something that took place
over there. It wasn’t really our job, it
was the job of educators.”
Reconnecting
Schools to the Real World
For their
part, educators have done a fairly good job of keeping “outside influences” at
arm’s length from the schools. Consider the language of our students when they
refer to the “real
world,” the
world that exists beyond the four walls of the school. Students clearly recognize a tangible distinction
between the world of school and the world that surrounds it. The phrase itself makes clear which one they
perceive as having more salience and relevance in their lives.
Our
educational system, structurally and culturally, has been insulated from
external forces of “the real world” that threaten to corrupt the academic
integrity of the educational process. In
the “ivory tower,” the entire process of teaching and learning is detached and
above the crude and mundane forces of the everyday world. Consider the negative connotations that have
been associated with vocational education, or career education, or more
recently, the school-to-work legislation.
The pervasiveness of viewing K-12 education as stepping stones to higher
education at a four-year college rather than as preparation for life benefits
the few at the peril of the many. It is
a simple fact that the vast majority of Americans do not hold a bachelor’s
degree. And the jobs with the highest
demand at present require some postsecondary training but not a bachelor’s
degree.
We do not mean
to imply that the resistance to social and market forces is entirely bad. We suspect that the commercialization of the
classroom could lead to more negative effects than positive ones, and to
maintain the mission of public education, quality must be made available to all
and not sold to the highest bidder.
However, protecting the sanctity of the classroom at all costs is not
without its own dangers. A position that
isolates schools from their surrounding communities prevents many positive
changes from taking place. We don’t
advocate tearing down the ivory tower, simply lowering a few of the
drawbridges.
Public schools
are not just for the students. They
belong to the community. As Joe Harless,
chair of the CEC Steering Committee, might argue, it seems self-evident that
everyone should benefit from them. We
believe that schools have an institutional role to play in addition to their
role of developing the academic growth of their individual students. That role
has a strong economic component in the form of workforce development,
supporting local business and industry, attracting new business, and
contributing to a general improvement in the quality of life within the
community.
Appreciating
the Relationship Between Educational Development and Economic Development
“Strong local economies support better education
systems; good education systems, in turn, strengthen local economies. School systems that can consistently prepare
students for today’s—and tomorrow’s—fast-paced, fast-changing workplace help
communities develop good businesses with good jobs. Those jobs lead to greater prosperity for the
whole community, which, in turn, leads to better schools. But how does a community get this cycle started?” Conference Program on Education and the
Economy
We
believe that Coweta
County has much to teach
us in answer to that question.
As with all
municipal leaders, Mayor DeStefano of New
Haven recognized that economic development was
definitely a part of his job. Somehow,
he and his colleagues just never made the connection between education and
economic development. Newnan Mayor Keith
Brady helps make the link. “The goal of
education is ultimately individualized for each student. But more generally, it boils down to
producing citizens who can effectively engage themselves in our society. It offers a grounding that allows them to be
productive.” Mayor Brady emphasizes the
importance of embedding teaching strategies that develop work ethic, pre-employment
skills, and job readiness in the school curriculum. But he closes by saying, “we need strategies
that produce not just job readiness, but society readiness.”
In this
manner, schools begin to depart from their singular focus on academic
achievement and move in the direction of Joe Harless’s “accomplished
citizen”—graduates who are prepared for the world of work, prepared to
contribute to their community, and capable of developing a healthy and safe
family and making informed decisions for themselves. While focused on applied outcomes, much of
this preparation requires a strong academic grounding.
To clarify the
point, Dr. Harless drew a Venn diagram with two circles, one representing
education, the other economic development.
They overlap to a considerable degree, but not completely, indicating
they are not completely mutual—and that education serves many ends in addition
to economic ones. He points to the
significant overlap between the circles.
“Here, education is key and paramount to economic development, for
attracting and keeping business. This is
manifested through a capable workforce that possesses relevant skills,
knowledge, and information.”
Workforce Development
“Workforce development is education.” Parent of CEC student
The most obvious
and direct relationship between education and economic development is through
workforce development. While workforce
development is an important and explicit role of the technical college system,
the relationship is less well-established and more controversial at the
secondary school level.
On the one hand, educators have long
recognized their role with respect to workforce development, however, this role
was delimited to a narrow band of students typically categorized as part of a
separate vocational education system. Responsibilities associated with
workforce development goals tended to be compartmentalized and discrete from
the core mission of the school (i.e., college preparation) and those students
identified as non-college bound typically channeled toward a vocational
track. The recent School-to-Work
Opportunities Act sought to challenge this bifurcation.
In contrast, a
more inclusive approach toward workforce development assumes that it is the
school’s obligation to help empower all of its students to effectively
participate in a global
economy as
world-class workers and citizens. Workforce development at CEC falls into two
broad
categories. The first is generalized
preparation for the world of work. All
students are better served by gaining transferable employability skills. The second is specialized training for
specific careers. Through specific skill
development, certification, and credentializing, graduates are better
positioned to launch fulfilling and lucrative careers.
By extending
the goals of workforce development down into the secondary grades, especially
in collaboration with community and technical colleges, some significant
benefits to both students and community stakeholders are gained. Through career guidance, career preparation,
college guidance, and more efficient alignment of personal skills and
organizational needs, students gain a better appreciation for the relationship
between education, training, and employment.
In short, it helps to tighten the linkages between school, college, and
the workplace.
A review of
the many statements expressed during our interviews in Newnan reflects a
similar orientation. It is noteworthy
that this orientation is shared by both those within and outside the school
system. A curriculum developer told us
that “CEC is a dynamic place that is responsive to its customers. This includes the students but extends to the
private sector as well. CEC can be envisioned
as a mechanism for workforce development, anticipating and addressing the
workforce needs of local business and industry.”
A technical
college instructor put it this way, “Education at CEC prepares students with
the skills to go right into work.
Businesses have a larger pool of potential employees to draw from. Kids who aren’t ready to go to college can
test a career path out.”
Effective
workforce development requires education to be responsive to local labor market
conditions. Community and technical
colleges have more experience in this regard than do high schools. The partnership with postsecondary education
and local business, therefore, is critical.
A high school instructor stated that “CEC programs quickly match up
employer needs with the education and training of the labor supply. As a result, it reduces the training time
employers need to provide, thereby increasing efficiency.”
Perhaps the
Commissioner of Adult and Technical Education summed it up best. “Our state is interested in competing for
high-skill/high-wage jobs. In that
competition, education is everything.”
Supporting Local Industry
“If we can employ and keep graduates on the job, they
stay with company, they move up within the company. That’s good for everyone.” CEC High School
Director
Developing the
basic and applied skills of young people equips them for productive careers and
self-sufficiency. However, the
advantages of workforce development at the high school- and technical
college-level translates into some very powerful benefits for local industry as
well. It is worth noting that today’s
business leaders have a deeper appreciation for the value of an educated and
well-prepared workforce. The early
experience of CEC helps bear this out.
Russ Moore, a local businessman and Chamber member, explains this story
best.
“The
traditional approach for cities and counties to recruit and retain large
manufacturers is for them to cooperate with states and offer significant
incentive packages, often including breaks on taxes and free land. Recently, Coweta County
was faced with the reality that its largest manufacturer was considering
relocating and was actively being courted by other Georgia counties and several
states. The situation was not helped by
a formal policy against offering incentive packages to industries.
“The
public-private entity [21st Century Coweta County] that was working
most closely with the manufacturer [Yamaha] to keep it in Coweta had its hands
tied until CEC stepped up to the plate with an offer to establish a lab that
would train students using the manufacturer’s actual equipment and products.
This lab would guarantee the company an affordable way to recruit and train its
own workforce locally.
“CEC’s
offer was enough to keep the manufacturer in Coweta. In fact, the company decided to build a $40
million expansion and create an additional 300 jobs. The fact that the economic impact of Yamaha’s
decision to stay and expand is many times greater than Coweta’s investment in
CEC makes the educational center something of a catalyst.”
CEC was the deciding factor to keep Yamaha and
encourage them to grow. Education and
training in the service of workforce development was seen as more valuable than
other incentives like deferred taxes, lower property taxes, even free land. Strong educational systems can be a
tremendous asset, since today’s workers have to be skilled to a greater and
greater degree. And if training is done
prior to employment, the employer can experience a tremendous savings in time
and money.
Other
communities have discovered the power of thoughtful school-business
partnerships in retaining major employers.
Louisville, Kentucky almost lost UPS before developing Metro College,
an outgrowth of their school-to-work initiative. Understanding that employee recruitment and
retention had been an obstacle for UPS, city and state officials along with
local education administrators pooled their resources to begin an education
program that would produce the workforce needed to operate its new mega-hub and
keep UPS in Louisville.
“Through
CEC, we have a real articulation between private sector needs and educational
delivery,” stated an educator. “There’s
a real connection between the two.” A
business manager offers the following perspective. “From an economic development point of view,
CEC moves us to the next level of flexibility.
We can customize and create curriculum on an as-needed basis. We can be targeted. You can’t turn the whole school system around
overnight; it’s like a big ship. CEC
affords a measure of maneuverability.”
Attracting New Industry
Coweta County possesses
a number of cultural and geographic advantages that help attract business. It is easily accessible via the interstate
highway system, it is within an hour’s drive to a major airport, and it boasts
a population of hard-working, conscientious people that are incredibly invested
in giving back to the community. Yet a
lot of communities within a fifty-mile radius of Atlanta tend to promote the same things. One of the more exciting dimensions of a
reconceptualized educational system is the role it can play in helping to
attract new industry. Initiatives like
CEC make Coweta County unique.
It is now
common for communities to tout their educational resources when attracting new
residents and businesses. The following
example from Virginia
is a case in point: “The Hampton Roads region contains a greater concentration
of learning institutions than any other area of Virginia.
Whether you're looking for a prestigious graduate program, training for
employees, or a good school for your third-grader, Hampton Roads provides a
long list of options.”
What is
less common, but becoming recognized as a viable economic development tool, is
the active partnership between educators, the private sector, and regional
economic development entities to strategically position and reconfigure
education. Much in the same way
communities develop their physical and technological infrastructure, Coweta has
decided to develop its educational infrastructure to offer potential new
businesses and industries a more attractive environment—in this case, an
environment characterized by a reconceptualized approach to education,
training, and workforce development.
Smart Growth
Coweta County
has given more thought to what type of industry it wants to attract and in turn
seeks to create the characteristics those industries are going to look
for. As a small business owner stated,
“People are trying to bring a higher tech focus and clean industries into the
community. Education can supply
employees to work in these jobs.” Proactive
approaches to economic growth such as this stand in contrast to traditional
ones of identifying what features a community has, advertising those, and
accepting whatever businesses that attracts.
Local
leaders recognized that the existing labor market in the county would not
support high-wage, high-tech employers.
This placed Coweta at a disadvantage with respect to its economic
development goals. By providing a platform
of operations for West
Central Technical
College and linking its
certificate programs to high school education, Newnan, and Coweta County
more generally, address this concern. As
a manager remarked, “CEC makes us appear more sophisticated. More importantly, CEC is a practical solution
to this problem.”
Direct and Indirect Benefits
In order to
fully appreciate the impact education can have as an engine of economic
development, it is important to recognize that the community gains through both
direct and indirect benefits. The most
obvious benefits are the direct ones—especially the ones that accrue to the
students and the graduates. As we saw
above, CEC students value the innovative educational experience, the
demonstrable gains in skill, and the employer-recognized credentials they earn. Indeed, the student effects of educational
reforms that embrace the principles of school-to-career are becoming
increasingly well documented.
In our own work that tracks the educational and career
trajectories of high school students, we have found that participants in career
development programs, in contrast to their non-participating peers, tend to
pursue postsecondary education at higher rates; maintain good grades; report
having been better prepared for the transition from high school to college and
employment; take more tangible steps toward achieving their career goals; and
report earning higher wages.
Of course, companies that hire the graduates of these
programs experience direct benefits as well in the form of improved
productivity, reduced turnover, and savings with respect to training
costs. Our work has uncovered additional
benefits for firms that actively partner with schools and colleges. For example, partnering firms reported higher
levels of morale among employees, increased levels of communication between
management and labor, reduced recruitment costs, and improved corporate image
within the community.
However,
our visit to CEC and Coweta
County drew our attention
to an entirely new range of benefits that often go undocumented in typical
studies. Individuals we spoke with, from
education, business, municipal government, and economic development alike,
referenced what can only be termed indirect benefits. These include the production of capable and
involved citizens, the secondary effects of industry staying and new businesses
arriving, increased property values, reduced brain drain, enhanced quality of
life, and a genuine sense of civic pride.
The importance of these indirect benefits came through
clearly during a conversation with the managers at Newnan Utilities, a strong
supporter of CEC, when they stated that “we’ve hired only one or two CEC
graduates. But CEC is nevertheless
critical to us, because we need companies like Bon-L to be happy, and to stay,
since they’re big customers of ours. For
our organization to thrive, we need a vital economic environment.”
In a
conversation with a hospital administrator, we learned that the major workforce
development issue facing the healthcare industry is a severe nursing
shortage. While CEC offers a Patient
Care Assisting certificate program, the school is not producing registered
nurses which would directly address this crisis. “Some of those graduates might decide to
continue on for their RN and that would be great,” said Steve Anderson of Emory Peachtree
Hospital. But the real benefits that Mr. Anderson
focused on were more indirect in nature.
“As a
hospital, we’re a catalyst for economic development and a recipient of it,” he
explained. “As people move in and new
company’s open up, those people will need healthcare, and we will have more
folks to serve. Economic development is
necessary for a robust healthcare system, otherwise we can’t afford to serve
our population. And as we grow, we
create more jobs, including those considered high tech and high skill.”
The
Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce, instrumental in gaining political and
financial support at the state level for CEC, clearly recognizes the connection
between education and economic development.
The president of the Chamber, Greg Wright noted that initiatives like
CEC “make a contribution to the entire community, a contribution to the
economic health of the entire area.”
An
Education Hub To Better the Economy
It is
important to recognize how educational institutions like CEC fit in to what has
been termed the knowledge supply chain.
By producing graduates with marketable skills, schools add value to
their communities that go far beyond the obvious. A focus on direct and immediate results often
obscures the value of indirect benefits. Worse, an emphasis on immediate results can
lead to a reduction in commitment and support since we rarely do an adequate
job of documenting outcomes that are a step or two removed from high school
graduation, college enrollment, or that first job placement. CEC staff and partners embrace a philosophy
that encompasses the bigger picture—one that is notable for its forward vision.
Coming to
consensus on this philosophy took lots of intentional work and
communication. A school administrator
stated that “we have educated our business community on what it takes to
support lasting change.” As if to prove
her point, a plant manager put it this way: “We have to take the perspective
that with CEC, we are seeding the field.
We’re not looking for major outcomes just yet. Overtime, as fewer kids drop out of our
schools, more kids will graduate and hopefully stay in Newnan. It takes time to seed change.”
The
instructional staff at CEC are not only comfortable with their reconceptualized
mission, they embrace it. The following
quote is fairly typical of responses we received. “Our number one goal is to provide a supply
of workers for the economy—people who can be productive at their jobs. We aim to employ and keep these graduates on
the job, staying with the company and moving up within the company.”
One of the
most intriguing findings from our interviews in Coweta and elsewhere is how
positively students react to a reconceptualized educational process that
intentionally places education in the center of an economic development
strategy. When asked how CEC differs
from her base school, one student’s reply reflects the value from her
perspective for tightening the linkage between school and work. “Teachers and
staff don’t let you slack off. They push
you. They show you all of your options,
you know, in school and in the work world.
It’s an education hub to better the economy. The kids are graduating with technical
credentials and are getting jobs. It
creates so many opportunities.”
Win, Win, Win
The
advantages gained by graduates of reconceptualized educational initiatives that
offer career building skill development and seamless transitions to higher
education and employment are significant.
Indeed, the life-long effects on graduates and their families can be
profound. However, it is important to
recognize that initiatives like CEC benefit more than the individual students
who attend them.
Such
approaches offer employers a means for recruitment and training of new
employees, a stronger pool of job candidates, upgraded skills for existing
employees, and improved retention.
Economic development agencies and government officials gain as well
since the model helps ensure the vitality and growth of the local and regional
economy by helping employers and supporting key economic sectors. The general quality of life within the
community is enhanced as employment and individual wages go up, smart growth
takes place, the tax base increases, and economic vitality is robust. To put it simply, “It’s a win-win-win.”
