Strategic Ways to Lend Business Expertise

Companies have a tremendous amount of expertise and a unique perspective to bring to school improvement initiatives and education policy discussions. Companies with strategic education reform goals make it a priority to identify and support employees who have particular expertise needed by school districts and state policymakers. They also align their volunteerism policies to their education goals.

Companies can utilize employee expertise and willingness to help-and also achieve strategic education goals. The Maryland Business Roundtable for Education organizes and supports a speakers bureau that has galvanized more than 2,000 employees of MBRT supporting companies to spend time communicating to 8th- and 9th-graders with messages such as your choices now matter to your future and hard work in school pays off in life. Intel's approach is to encourage employees to volunteer in local public schools, so the company provides unrestricted cash grants to schools once an employee has volunteered at least 10 hours at the school.

Checklist of Aligned Education Corporate and Employee Expertise Strategies

Company executives and employees with subject-matter knowledge can lend their expertise to a myriad of education improvement issues. They can:

• Lend corporate influence and prestige to key organizations and activities
• Serve on local and statewide school boards, committees, strategy groups and task forces
• Define the skills and knowledge graduates need to get and keep well-paying, family-supporting jobs
• Advise on subject-matter issues, such as academic standards, curriculum and assessments, especially in mathematics and science
• Help schools, districts and states develop, improve and implement data systems and data-driven decision making
• Partner with school districts to upgrade educator professional development, in, for example, mathematics and science
• Partner with school districts and labor to upgrade career and technical education
• Focus on state-level  and school district policy and practice, or groups of low-performing schools, as the unit of change, rather than individual schools
• Serve as "loaned executives" in school districts
• Help school districts choose or improve operational, financial and information systems
• Help nonprofit organizations and school districts with communications, public relations, marketing, branding and printing of materials

Click here to search for snapshots of company and business coalition initiatives that make smart use of corporate expertise.