Partnerships Between Schools and Businesses

A recent national survey highlights nine school-business partnerships that are being seriously pursued.

The most well-known is the Boston Compact, begun in 1982. The compact is an example of a partnership aimed at a citywide school system, rather than a business-to-single-school relationship. It represents an ongoing agreement between business, education, and community leaders that specifies particular hiring goals for business in exchange for measures of educational improvement in the city schools. The program is based on summer jobs, apprenticeship programs, scholarships for post-secondary education, and other help with the post high school transition. Special programs include younger, dropout-prone students, but the bulk of the efforts are directed toward older youths. Recently the National Alliance of Business has provided seed grants to seven other communities to facilitate the transfer of lessons from the Boston Compact. Other localities experimenting with partnerships focused on entire school systems include the Atlanta Partnership of Business and Education, the Invest Indianapolis Compact embracing the city and surrounding county, and California's statewide Regional and Occupational Centers and Programs.

Other partnerships are more student-focused in the sense of serving smaller groups of carefully targeted youths, usually with special classes and part-time jobs outside the traditional high school curriculum. The New Horizons program started in Richmond in 1980 and the Teen Opportunities program begun in Birmingham in 1981 are examples. The Philadelphia High School Academies program is unique in that it serves disadvantaged students during all four years of high school.

The four Philadelphia Academies (Business, Electrical, Automotive, and Health) offer a structured curriculum with few electives and an emphasis on both basic skills and vocational training, together with work experience in the junior and senior years. The academies are housed in ten comprehensive high schools and enroll 1,200 to 1,500 students. Academy students are drawn from those with low academic achievement records, test scores in the twentieth to fiftieth percentile within the district, and moderate to good school attendance records in the past. More than 100 city businesses are involved, providing substantial financial support, job placements, and advice on curriculum and program development.