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Business Leaders Gathering in Boston April 2 to Increase Student Achievement and Improve Education
Business Leaders Gathering in Boston April 2 to Increase Student Achievement and Improve Education
Published 04-02-05
Submitted by KnowledgeWorks Foundation
Grogan, a pioneer in Boston's neighborhood revitalization efforts in the early 1980s, will address the ways in which Boston's experience is instructive for corporations across the globe that hope to create effective partnerships with their education communities. Under Paul Grogan's leadership, the Boston Foundation is leading an effort in the Boston Public Schools to encourage the formation of pilot schools, a kind of in-school charter school with greater freedoms around management and operations, curriculum and school design, and its governance system. Mr. Grogan also co-chairs the recently launched Great Schools Campaign the latest large-scale civic effort to address education in Boston since 1993, to improve underperforming public schools and reexamine the educational standards that will ensure Boston's competitiveness in the new knowledge economy.
More than 75 business leaders from across the nation and globe will gather to discuss how business and education partnerships can improve academic success for all students. The one-day symposium hosted by The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College in partnership with KnowledgeWorks Foundation, Booz Allen Hamilton and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Corporate Citizenship. This pre-conference working session will be held prior to the 20th annual International Conference on Corporate Citizenship on April 3-5.
"With education ranking as a top issue receiving philanthropy support by U.S. corporations, this will be a powerful day," said Chad P. Wick, president and CEO of KnowledgeWorks Foundation. "Bringing together leaders from across the nation to discuss education is one of many steps we all need to take to ensure all students have access to quality education and achieve at high levels."
The event will create a stimulating environment for corporations and thought leaders in the education field to come together and examine partnerships between business and schools, ways to be involved with education policy, and networks among corporations to support education. Participants from 15 states, DC, Korea, and Canada will identify strategies and activities to implement in order to improve schools and learning opportunities in various communities. Powerful questions that will be tackled by the participants today include: if your business could change the US education system, what would you do; what lessons could we share across local communities to enhance the role of corporate citizens in education; and what lessons could we share across the globe to enhance the role of corporate citizens in education?
"Corporations want very much to make a positive impact on education in the communities in which they work and serve," said Bradley Googins, executive director of the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College. "Collaborating with Booz Allen Hamilton, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, and the US Chamber of Commerce Center for Corporate Citizenship, we are happy to host this symposium for company's to explore this facet of corporate citizenship."
Corporate citizenship simply explained is the business strategy that shapes the values underpinning a company's mission and the choices made each day by its executives, managers and employees as they engage with society. Good corporate citizens work to improve the effects of business activities and decisions on stakeholders, contribute to societal and economic well-being, and build relationships of trust that involve becoming more transparent and open about the progress and setbacks businesses experience.
The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College is a membership based research institution committed to helping business leverage its social, economic, and human assets to endure both its success and a more just and sustainable world. The Center works with corporations to help them define, plan and operationalize their corporate citizenship. Booz Allen Hamilton, a strategic management and consulting firm, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, a foundation dedicated to universal access to education, and the US Chamber of Commerce Center for Corporate Citizenship are co-hosting the symposium.
