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Communities: Business Resources

Achieve, Inc. — www.achieve.org
Achieve, founded in 1996, is an independent, bipartisan, nonprofit organization that helps states raise academic standards, measure performance against those standards, establish clear accountability for results and strengthen public confidence in our education system.

America's Promise — http://www.americaspromise.org/
The mission of America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth is to strengthen the character and competence of America's youth. The organization wants every child in America have the fundamental resources he or she needs to be ready for the future. America's Promise was founded after the Presidents' Summit for America's Future in 1997, where Presidents Bush, Carter, Clinton, and Ford—with Nancy Reagan representing Ronald Reagan—challenged the nation to make children and youth a national priority. President George W. Bush reaffirmed that commitment in 2001.

Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Business-Education Partnership
— http://www.acteonline.org/career/skills/partnership/index.cfm
The Business-Education Partnership, sponsored by ACTE, is a group of business and educators leaders engaged in a common goal—enhancing the quality of the nation's future workforce. The Partnership is designed to forge a solid connection between businesses and schools in order to build a robust workforce that has the skills the nation will need to excel in the global marketplace.

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) — http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/index.jsp/
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that represents 175,000 educators made up of superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members from more than 135 countries and 58 affiliates.  This site has resources covering various aspects of effective teaching and learning—such as professional development, educational leadership, and capacity building.

Business Education Network — http://www.businesseducationnetwork.com/bclc/ben/default
The Business Education Network (BEN), created by the Business Civic Leadership Center of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is a coalition of businesses, chambers, educators, and education-focused nonprofits that is dedicated to advancing the global competitiveness of the U.S. education system and of America's future workforce.  BEN focuses on promoting business-education partnerships to accomplish local, regional, and national objectives.

The Council for Corporate & School Partnerships — http://www.corpschoolpartners.org/about.shtml
The Council for Corporate & School Partnerships, established in March 2001, serves as a forum for the exchange of information, expertise and ideas to ensure that partnerships between businesses and schools achieve their full potential for meeting key educational objectives. The Council works with educators and businesses to identify, create, recognize and support exemplary school-business partnerships that improve the student experience for all children in the K-12 system of education in the United States.

The Daniels Fund — http://www.danielsfund.org/sevenstrategies/Strategies/
The Daniels Fund has researched why some school partnerships are more effective than others. This report highlights seven strategies for successful partnerships based on the findings. Researchers reviewed more than 40 Web sites; interviewed nearly 40 educators, business leaders and partnership experts; and conducted focus groups of principals, business representatives and district stakeholders in Denver, Colorado, where the Daniels Fund is headquartered.

Education Development Corporation (EDC) — http://main.edc.org/theme/communities.asp
EDC projects strengthen the ties between schools and parents; they build relationships between corporations and community services. Our projects extend learning opportunities after school and off-campus, reach out to adults with literacy projects, and make information and communications technology available to underserved communities.

The Education Partnership — http://www.edpartnership.org/
The Education Partnership was born out of a combination of two active and effective Rhode Island organizations: The Business Education Roundtable and The Public Education Fund. In July 2003, these organizations merged to create a common vision and mission: to increase academic achievement in all public schools through improved leadership and governing policies at the state and local level.

Edutopia: The George Lucas Educational Foundation — http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=Art_1497&issue=apr_06
Article: Risky Business — by James Daly, editor in chief of Edutopia
With the economic future of the U.S. tied to our public education system, business leaders are scrambling to push for change.
The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF) was founded in 1991 as a nonprofit operating foundation to celebrate and encourage innovation in schools. Since that time, the GLEF has been documenting, disseminating, and advocating for exemplary programs in K-12 public schools to help these practices spread nationwide.

(257 KB)How Business and Civic Leaders Can Make a Big Difference in Public Education — http://www.ceosforcities.org/rethink/research/files/Leaders_Can_Make_a_Big_Difference.pdf
White paper by Paul T. Hill, Center on Reinventing Public Education, Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington, Spring 2004:
Everyone talks about the need for reform of urban schools, but little progress has been made in overcoming the institutional, demographic and financial obstacles that stand in the way. Paul Hill writes that "meaningful reform is virtually impossible within the existing school board-union-superintendent orbit." Effective solutions, Hill suggests, must include the active engagement of business, civic and philanthropic groups.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills — http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has emerged as the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. The Partnership encourages schools, districts and states to advocate for the infusion of 21st century skills into education and provides tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.

Partnership for Reading — http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/recommended.html
The Partnership for Reading recommends publications designed to help teachers, parents, policy-makers, and other educators implement the findings of evidence-based research with the children, adolescents, and adults with whom they work. The Partnership for Reading is a collaborative effort by three federal agencies—the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the U.S. Department of Education—to bring the findings of evidence-based reading research to the educational community, families, and others with an interest in helping all people learn to read well.

Rhode Island Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (RI-ASCD) — http://rhodeisland.ascd.org/
Rhode Island ASCD (RI-ASCD), a diverse community of educators acting as a dynamic force for educational excellence, improving the quality of teaching and learning for the success of all learners. RI-ASCD is an organization for Rhode Island professionals who are committed to equity and quality for all learners.

The Rhode Island Mentoring Partnership/Chamber Education Foundation — http://www.rimentor.org/
Since 1990, the Chamber Education Foundation has coordinated mentor programs to help students of all ages achieve their goals. Mission: To create, implement and support a statewide career mentoring delivery system for children, youth and adults.

Sloan Career Cornerstone Center — http://www.careercornerstone.org/
The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center is an ever-expanding resource center for anyone interested in exploring career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computing, and medicine. Almost everything on this site is also downloadable in PDF and PowerPoint formats. Explore degree fields, comprehensive education, networking, job hunting, career planning resources, and personal interviews with hundreds of people who offer candid insight into their own diverse careers.

States' Career Clusters Initiative: National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium — http://www.careerclusters.org/
A Career Cluster is a grouping of occupations and broad industries based on commonalities.  The sixteen career clusters provide an organizing tool for schools, small learning communities, academies and magnet schools. Career clusters identify pathways from secondary school to two- and four-year colleges, graduate school, and the workplace, so students can learn in school and what they can do in the future.  Partnerships involving state, schools, educators, employers, industry groups, and other stakeholders are creating curriculum guidelines, academic and technical standards, assessments, and professional development materials for 16 career clusters.

Tapping America's Potential (TAP) — http://www.tap2015.org/index.html
TAP is comprised of 15 prominent business organizations, led by Business Roundtable, that represent the largest and most innovative companies in America. They have set the goal of doubling the number of U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates with bachelor's degrees by 2015.

Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education — http://www.trianglecoalition.org/
The Triangle Coalition is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization comprised of more than 100 member organizations with representation from three key stake holders: business, education, and scientific and engineering societies. Triangle Coalition's Mission is to bring together the voices of government, business, and education to improve the quality and outcome of mathematics, science, and technology education.

United States Department of Education — http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml
Links to reports on all aspects of the work of the United States Department of Education, including student aid, legislation, statistics, school locator, and many others.

Working in Partnership with Business, Labor, and the Community — http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/stw/sw6refer.htm
A resource list from the North Central Regional Educational Laboratories' Pathways to School Improvement Critical Issue: Working in Partnership with Business, Labor, and the Community.

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