The Ford Motor Company Fund can help your community come together to build better schools. The Fund has been involved in improving education for more than a century. Next Generation Learning Communities (NGLs) are the culmination of years of experience in education reform.
“What we have learned,” says Cheryl Carrier, program director of Ford NGL, “is that it takes an entire system to change education. If you can tie career academies and small learning communities to workforce and economic development, the business and postsecondary communities are going to be much more involved in and much more supportive of what happens in high schools, because they know that they’re investing in a skilled workforce.”
Here is what experts in the field and participants on the front lines of education reform are saying about the Ford approach:
Rick Delano, co-developer of Next Generation Learning Communities and president of Social Marketing Services
“From my vantage point, the Ford PAS Next Generation Learning Communities program is not just about greater student achievement. Motivating 9th and 10th graders to learn by allowing them to choose a career field in which to study is a very powerful ‘on’ button that the community can push. Creating this type of opportunity for students is a net positive, but there is also value to the community in workforce development.”
Dr. Kay Andrews, director of the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Chamber’s Education Initiative and a key partner in the Hamilton County/Chattanooga, Tennessee, NGL
“Here at the Chamber, we don’t draw a line between education issues and economic development issues. If our economy is to survive, business will need to take a greater role in education. I did six months of research with focus groups. Learning what the business community needed from public schools was the easy part. I also sat with foundations, nonprofits, city- and county-government representatives, with folks, obviously, from the educational community. And what I heard across the board was that we needed a partnership where we understood one another’s needs.”
Dr. Jim Scales, superintendent, Hamilton County Schools
“We are honored that Ford Motor Company Fund is recognizing the outstanding work that Hamilton County has already done in developing a career academy system. I am committed to working with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and Ford Motor Company Fund to take our academies to the next level. Together we will create a comprehensive system of career academies developed in partnership with the business community to ensure that our students graduate with skill sets that correspond to local industry needs.”
Dr. Kay Andrews
“The Ford group has lent us their vast experience, leadership, and national perspective. They recognize patterns in the educational reform process. And they’re totally accessible. You can’t buy that resource.”
Jennifer Grove, workforce development coordinator, Gulf Power Company, and a key partner in the Pensacola, Florida, NGL
“I was my company’s technical training manager and I was spending more and more of our diminishing training budget dollars on things that I usually consider pre-employment knowledge and skills. I just couldn’t afford to do that anymore, so I started to look for any opportunity that allowed us to get engaged in schools to be able to bring the industry relevance to what students already had to learn, and that tried to offer opportunities for them actually to get out in the workplace. We want to ensure that our students in northwest Florida are very well prepared to be able to move into high-skills, high-wage industries, careers within industries that we are actively targeting for northwest Florida.”
Natalie Prim, vice president of community affairs, Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce
“We have a team of about 15 people meeting at least once a month, and the minds are tremendous. These are really bright people. Believe me, I consider myself to be in great company. In this community, you just don’t do anything in a vacuum, so the best approach is to involve people. Several of us write it into our individual work plans in our organizations. Whether it’s my workforce board or myself or the school district, we all write in that we were going to make strides and a positive contribution towards the next level on our Ford career academy innovation community. Everyone has got the same goal and they all have a responsibility to follow through.”
Kim McNulty, program manager for career pathway initiatives, Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, Palm Springs, California
“The resources that Ford Motor Company Fund has made available to this career academy community program are really extraordinary and of great benefit. It’s not like they come and write a check and then walk away. They’re networking with all of us—I now am able to have a monthly conference call hosted by Ford with all of the other career academy communities across the United States. They help develop relationships that will continue to grow. It’s a really strong resource network that will have a long-lasting positive impact.”
Jim Whittamore, director for career and technical education, Lee County Schools, Lee County, Florida
“It is really a very strong partnership between industry and the school district in planning, designing, and implementing our career academy programs. When we started planning what we actually were going to do, what curriculum to use, what kind of equipment we were going to put in there, what kind of skills we want to be teaching, they really helped us put together exactly what we wanted to try to accomplish within the instructional process.”
Tom Besaw, Volusia County, Florida, coordinator of career and technical education, Volusia County Schools
“Thanks to our partnerships, we get to see the impact of our students’ success on the community and its businesses. We’ve got advisory partners and district folks who feel urgent about making change here. It’s got to work. The vibrancy of our economy, of our state, is at stake.”