Educational Policy Practice: Facing Competition Against Complacency.

This article calls for colleges and schools of education to become more market-responsive to the specific needs of urban school districts. The authors warm of the emergence of "corporate universities" effecting the education training sector. A balance must be developed between what professors want to teach and what students need to learn as both groups face increased complexities in urban settings.

The Public Policy and Practice Problem

In an era when graduates from programs in educational administration are entering the increasingly competitive marketplace of education, it will become pointedly more critical for schools and colleges of education to respond to the surrounding market and create automatic (and measurable) systematic linkages between the public-subsidized universities and the constituent school districts. This is particularly paramount in the state's urban center and metropolitan venues. Public educators, in Florida as well as the rest of the U.S., are now facing, with the emergence of competitors to reach their tax-paying clients. These competitors range from voucher advocates to charter school enthusiasts; and private entrepreneurs to parochial school leaders. And, of course, the acceleration of "virtual high schools."

The Paradox at Precedent

In the corporate sector, there is a profound escalation of "corporate universities" as the result, in part, of schools and colleges of business failing to meet the required needs of the corporate sector. Like educational institutions, they too, exist in an increasingly competitive market and they must produce the measurable results to sustain that existence. Corporate universities grew from 400 ten years ago to 1600 today, and 90% have gone to virtual offerings of courses online. Ninety-two percent of large corporations plan web-based training in 1999, according to Buckman Laboratories, Inc. This only reinforces earlier findings referenced by Shane (1987) in Teaching and Learning in a Microelectronic Age. In a survey of 200 companies, 75% indicated that they found it essential to provide classes in remedial education to high-school graduated workers. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (1985) in U.S. News and World Report has also reported that nearly eight million adults were in training programs funded by business. Although theses sources are somewhat dated, there is substantial evidence and widespread agreement that this condition has not recessed; but rather, progressed in business and industry. More recently, Linkage, Inc. estimated that corporations of all sizes will invest more than $60 million in external corporate training at a time when their higher education counterparts continue, in part, to remain steadfast with academic tradition and conventional methods to instructional program delivery.

The Paralleling Analogy

This shift could occur in the education sector, particularly in Florida, if business continues to be conducted "as usual." We, too, must produce results that yield progress and success of our outcomes. That is, learning outcomes that produce higher test scores and improved student achievement. The transformation in the corporate sector could serve as a prototype for what is to come in Florida and the rest of the U.S. As highlighted by colleagues in Florida, "the state enters the next century with educational attainment in the lowest quartile of the fifty states ... Florida educational system must creatively confront these challenges over the next four years, if it is to fulfill its obligation to provide a quality education to all its children."

Toward Resolve and Remedy

What is needed is a blueprint for developing a "public policy for practice" between Florida public institutions of higher education and public school districts. This policy "audit" would provide a timely, productive, and market-responsive process for pre-collegiate and post-secondary educators to meet the economic and educational needs of the state. The policy would be conceptualized and recommended based on survey data derived from opinions of those who receive the products of graduate education (superintendents and principals) and those who provide it (deans and directors). As both educational segments become more interdependent, so, too, will there be a need to build systemic accountability that advances meaningful and purposeful leadership. In 1979, the Florida Legislature charged universities with teaching the fundamentals of knowledge associated with educational leadership. Nearly two decades later, the Management Training Act was revisited and improvements were suggested in 1999. Among the observations that have been made by both practitioners and academicians that brought change were; university programs have not been generally challenged to move beyond traditional curricula; university programs need to offer foundations in more critical areas; articulation and collaboration between school districts and university have not generally emerged; and duplication of resources to support training frequently occurs at the local and state levels. Moreover, studies have shown that school principals learn more on the job, feel their academic experiences are frequently inadequate, and that they need training in education coupled with skills commonly used in business and industry. The state's Association for University Professors of Educational leadership also recommended that "competency-based, continuing education" be part of training reform for school principals with varying skill and competency levels. Based on the service of these two educators, and informal communications with the district leaders, policy is needed to reinforce school districts to develop more autonomy from regulatory certification and post-secondary licensure, and to outsource training that could be provided in a myriad of cross-disciplinary, mix-mode instructional deliveries (non credit) ranging from online programs to onsite academies by practitioners as well as academicians. The Center for Urban Education & Innovation at Florida International University is presently developing a model that focuses on knowledge management and the above modern characteristics. Readers should look for the model in a future issue of Education.

Joseph M. Stevenson, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs, Jackson State University. I. Ira Goldenberg, Ph.D.,Florida International University.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Joseph M. Stevenson, Office of Academic Affairs, PO Box 17199, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS 39717-0299