Collazo Cove

Effective Partnerships with K-12 - Keith Krueger, CEO CoSN, Mark Nieker, Pres. Pearson Education Foundation, Bev White, CTO, Wake Co Schools

• Education typically largest recipient of funding from foundations, individuals (after religion)


• Essential to our competitiveness, our children's future, belief that K-12 needs help


• Many of today's partnerships don't take off, or meet the needs of participants


•  What doesn't work:
  
  
  
  • thinly veiled sales pitches
  
  
  • donated stuff schools haven't asked for
  
  
  • well intended/not thought out
  
  
  • unsustainable "model" programs with no plan
  
  
  • chasing money for someone else's priorities/make sure resources match your mission
  
  
  • higher ed partnerships:  major disconnect, tendency to do narrow proof of concepts, useless language, little dissemination
  
  
  • govt: complicated application process, different priorities, lack of dissemination
  
  
  
  


• What does work:
  
  
  
  • meeting real needs of K-12
  
  
  • high quality, vendor neutral information
  
  
  • working in coalition
  
  
  • using language of K-12 (not business)
  
  
  • foundations tend to be sustainable and provide freedom to be creative and think out of the box
  
  
  • govt:  some really good NSF (for example) projects have been done
  
  
  
  


• Self Criticism K-12
  
  
  
  • K-12 is totally unique and alone
  
  
  • "poor us" mentality - willingness to take anything that is given
  
  
  • historic suspicion about companies
  
  
  
  


• Need to have mutual vision


• Must have right partner(s)


• scalability & sustainability

Nieker, Pearson:

1.  Partnership must be commonly describable by all involved; must include flexibility


2. Good documentation - things that go well and things that don't


3. Scalability - is it replicable?

White, Wake Co:

1. Spoke about the partnerships with Centennial's 8th grade laptop initiative. (SAS, NCSU, Friday Inst)

Question:  How do we invite partnerships in rural areas where there is little industry/big business?

Answer:  Willingness to dialogue with business, not ruling out small business, parents that are involved in business, demonstrate the disconnect between the school classroom environment with the business environment, clarity of expression of needs.

Daniel Solomon, Dean, Physical/Math Sciences, NCSU

America Competes Act due to be signed by both houses.

Diversity is an issue in STEM - namely women and African Americans

Intentionally think about the problem from multiple perspectives