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A Primer on School-Business Partnerships
By Stuart Nachbar
Two decades ago, I worked as an urban economic development professional in a good-sized city, interacting between a business community and city government. It was not the easiest job I ever had, but in some ways, it was the best. I developed many communications, organization and political skills that I regularly use, as well as resources for the stories I write today.
I didn’t have a primer, a written guide for my work, to help me along, but sometimes I wish I did. There were many types of public-private partnerships back then, including school-business partnerships, but the work was trial and error; you have to have the right mix of volunteers and career professionals to made things go smoothly—and that was my hardest challenge.
Today, there are more anecdotes about successful public-private partnerships and more information to help business people and educators along, but I’ve just read one of the few “how to” books that is reader friendly. Most anecdotes are major media stories or academic studies, but give you little direction as to how you—as a new person charged manage a partnership—can succeed.
This “how to” book: Facing the Future Together: Forming Successful School-Business Partnerships is written by Jim Leatherwood, a former teacher, school counselor and administrator who has formed 50 school-business partnerships throughout his career, most notably in California. Leatherwood organizes Facing the Future along 12 commandments for a successful partnership, eleven “do’s,” with one “don’t”: don’t ask for money right away.
Leatherwood has done an excellent job in helping each actor, businessperson and educator, in the difficult job of relating to each other and understanding each other’s needs and as well as their levels of patience. That is important: businesspeople cannot be expected to understand educators and their jargon in little time, nor can educators expect businesspeople to treat a partnership as a “good cause.” Both have vested interests and need incentives to succeed, such as quality workers, more modern technology, or job relevant academic coursework. Both also need accountability measures to take to their superiors to justify and sustain their relationship. And both don’t have the patience to read a lengthier book than Facing the Future.
Leatherwood has included “nitty-gritty” suggestions for
details, such as chamber of commerce endorsements and partnership
certificates. These details might seem trivial at first, but they are
quite important, because they make both sides feel committed and
confident their participation will bear fruit. These details symbolize
the importance of success, even to the most altruistic of parties.
Facing the Future is reader-friendly, but is missing a couple of
important sections that would make it stronger, albeit longer, book.
The first is research; both educators and businesspersons need to know
the organizations that might have similar programs, and whether these
programs are working or failing, and why. Research also helps both
sides understand past failures and pessimism; that was one critical
issue I had to address in my job. The second is succession planning;
the persons who coordinate these partnerships don’t stay on the job
forever. They move on, and a new executive must be hired. Advice on
writing an effective recruitment ad for the internet or professional
association media would also be consistent with the intentions of this
book.
With the passage and continued support for No Child Left Behind and the
rising concerns over the competitive standing of our students versus
students in other nations, school-business partnerships are not going
away. They will become more important as our economy gets better.
Facing the Future should give the newest entrants to the field a head start.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on
education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book,
The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New
Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
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About The Book 
