These promising school improvement programs provide a framework for the business community to leverage resources and add value unique to employers. The question is how to optimize business leadership and effectively take employer participation to scale at the regional level. This finding is underscored by the fact that the Bay Area economy and labor market are regional in nature. However, a new framework is needed for employer participation that reduces fragmentation, rationalizes investment, and aggregates investors. Such a framework would not interfere with the decisions of an individual business to participate in certain educational program, but rather would provide chief executives with information and feedback in order to make strategic investments for optimal results.
Unique value lies in bringing business-related expertise to the table.
While standards and assessment are very important and essential to improving school performance, they are not sufficient in and of themselves. Thus, effective involvement in education reform by employers should involve participation in an initiative which both improves the learning experience for students and takes advantage of a unique added-value role. Further, any initiative to improve the learning experience must recognize that the teacher is the key player in the process and must be a central participant in the effort. While business involvement must be focused to be effective, it may be appropriate for business leaders and employers to participate in more than one way at the regional level to improve school performance, either sequentially or simultaneously, because of synergistic or complementary effects that are achieved. For business leadership and employer participation to be effective, it must be consistent and persistent over a sustained period of time.