Parents evaluate high schools in part based on which colleges the graduates attend. Students evaluate business schools in part based on what jobs the graduates receive. Similarly, employees may start to evaluate companies according to the success of their employees in terms of career growth. Companies may need to establish explicit services to place employees in new jobs that promote growth, whether those jobs are within the company or with other firms. How Schools Need to Change Schools have been somewhat insulated from the rapid changes that affect the business world.
Business is characterized by what economists call ease of entry and exit.
Turnover and the threat of turnover serve to bring new technologies and new efficiencies into use. Businesses cannot remain alive if they hang onto obsolete processes and ineffective workers. In contrast, at universities, the only individual whose job is at risk is the basketball coach. In the public school system, monopoly power and teacher tenure also are the norm. These institutional rigidities will create an ever-increasing gap between expectations and performance, until the educational system begins to exhibit greater ease of entry and exit than is the case today.