Business Leadership of Education Reform

Reforming public education is a local, state and national priority—and business leaders have been at the vanguard of this long-term commitment. Over the last 20 years, companies, corporate executives, and business-led education groups have led the charge to improve public education from the schoolhouse to the statehouse—and have accomplished tremendous results.

Business has:

• Articulated a powerful and steady vision for the standards-based reform movement to policymakers, educators, parents, students and the public about the urgency of school reform. This school reform movement rests on high academic standards, rigorous assessments that measure achievement and real accountability for results at all levels of the education system.
• Successfully advocated for staying the course with standards-based reform in the face of resistance to change and pushback from the small but vocal minority of political, education and parent groups opposed to measurement or accountability in education. When the going has gotten tough, business leaders have stayed tough.
• Helped ensure that politics did not impede school improvement by providing a consistent voice for reform with both political parties and across changes in presidential and gubernatorial administrations.

Keep reading to get a brief overview of achievements at the national and state levels – and to learn “who’s who” among state and national business groups involved in education reform.