Westchester businesses invest in public education, smart future consumers
With New York state”™s commitment to implement a common standards-based curriculum in all public schools by next year, one nonprofit educational foundation in Yonkers is asking Westchester County business leaders to make a smart investment: provide financial and intellectual resources to the public education system.
Yonkers Partners in Education (YPIE) led a discussion Thursday on the partnership of business and education at a breakfast conference sponsored by The Business Council of Westchester at Xaviars X20 in Yonkers. The group, which hosted state education and business leaders, rallied around the idea that corporations are pivotal to helping students not only become college-ready but also become effective future employees in the workplace, too.
YPIE addressed the challenges of the state”™s Common Core Standards initiative, which outlines universal goals, concepts and procedures on what students should be learning at each grade level. The group sees ways that business leaders can collaborate with educators across multiple platforms even with the new standards.
“With changing technology, companies have new ways of doing business,” Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of The Business Council of Westchester, said. “Small businesses count on schools to produce students who can carry out what they need students to do on the job.”
JPMorgan Chase has partnered with YPIE to fund a software program called Naviance since 2009. The company tripled its initial investment to $90,000 last year, helping nine high schools and seven elementary and middle schools.
Naviance, a college-readiness tool that allows students to take career inventory surveys and upload college applications, is a worthwhile investment, JPMorgan Chase Vice President Dennis McDermott said. The software allows students to create personal profiles and submit college applications. During the 2011-2012 school year, Naviance drew about 25,000 student visits, and students altogether submitted 18,000 documents electronically to colleges, including transcripts, letters of recommendations and applications, according to Melissa Shuffield from JPMorgan Chase media relations. The software also allows the Yonkers Public Schools and YPIE to compile reports based on the data it provides about where high school students go after graduation.
McDermott said JPMorgan Chase provides not only financial support but sends in retired employees and company directors to work directly with high school students as guidance counselors.
“We”™re not just blindly sending in checks but bringing in the expertise of the people working in the business world,” McDermott said.
Other businesses are partnering with Westchester school districts to provide summer youth internships for about 200 students. Student interns shadow employees in companies ranging from biomedical engineering to software development.
“These companies are getting them business internship opportunities,” said John Ravitz, executive vice president of The Business Council of Westchester. “We work with kids and give them what they need to know when going into job interviews. We want to put the future force in the industries they have a passion for.”
State Education Commissioner John B. King said not every school has state-of-the-art tools, but schools can still standardize learning content with the new educational approach that will be implemented for incoming high school students in the 2014 academic year.
“Not every school district has the ability to administer computer-based assessments,” King said. “We”™re looking at how to get there in a reasonable way.”
Companies that came out to support the Yonkers school district, the fourth largest in New York, included JPMorgan Chase, IBM Corp., General Electric Co., Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Contrafect Corp.
Partnerships between business leaders and educators will become the vehicle to graduate students who will be skilled and effective in the workforce, said Robert L. Corcoran, General Electric Foundation president and chairman.