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Every business in North Carolina now has a chance to help students stay in school.

First Gentleman Bob Eaves has announced his Students@Work initiative. This state-wide program is scheduled for the week of Jan. 31 to Feb. 4. The goal is for North Carolina businesses to help middle school students see the opportunities that exist in the workplace.

“North Carolina high schools have a dropout rate of twenty-nine percent. When our students drop out, we all lose,” Mr. Eaves said. ”We need to motivate these kids and show them that there is a bright future.”

The dropout rate isn’t just a problem for our schools and our students; it’s a problem for our businesses, too. By talking with students, businesses can motivate and engage potential employees and build relationships within their communities. There is as much to gain by participating in Students@Work as our children have to lose.

There are two ways to become involved. Businesses can host students at their workplace or give presentations in the schools. Through job shadowing and on-site interactions, students can learn about the kinds of opportunities await them when they enter the workforce. For those businesses where on-site safety is an issue for students, sending representatives to make in-school presentations still offers great benefits.

To participate in Students@Work find your local school coordinator at www.studentsatwork.ncbce.org. The coordinators will arrange transportation, obtain release forms, and do whatever else is necessary.

Earlier this month, I was fortunate to be part of the team representing the North Carolina State Board of Education and the N.C. Business Committee for Education on a trip to the Jiangsu International Forum for School Principals in China.

This eight-day trip took us across China to meet with education leaders in Jiangsu Province, Shanghai and Beijing.

In 2008, North Carolina established a relationship with the Jiangsu Province Education Ministry. And in April 2010, Gov. Bev Perdue announced a partnership in which The Center for International Understanding at UNC and the State Board of Education established a network of Chinese language teachers in North Carolina classrooms.

At the forum in China, participants from the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and China shared ideas about the education issues we all face.

Our delegation, which also included Kevin Howell, assistant to the chancellor for external affairs from N.C. State University and Shijun Naour, China programs manager at the Center for International Understanding, participated in panels and interviews. We led discussions about assessment, school culture and the use of technology to enhance student achievement.

Our sessions showed that across the world, the best way to prepare students for a rapidly changing global economy is to light a passion within them to be excited about learning.

Motivating students with an engaging and relevant curriculum is a key part of Gov. Perdue’s Career and College: Ready, Set, Go! agenda, which seeks to ensure that every student graduates high school ready for a career, college or technical training.

Enhancing understanding and communication among global citizens will help prepare students for the unknown challenges of tomorrow and make sure they are Career and College ready.

Recognizing the importance of leadership in our public schools, Gov. Perdue recently announced the creation of a new leadership program geared toward turning around rural schools in northeastern North Carolina.  Data from our state’s Teacher Working Conditions survey proves that leadership is critical for strong schools. 

The N.C. Principals and Assistant Principals Association(NCPAPA) is also working to enhance school leadership.  Executive Director Shirley Prince and Wake County Principal Muriel Summers are developing a program called Distinguished Leadership in Practice.  This program, sponsored by NCPAPA, the Department of Public Instruction and Learn NC, will further enhance the leadership skills of talented principals from across the state. 

The North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE), a nonprofit consortium of business leaders in Governor Perdue’s office, has partnered with Dr. Prince and Ms. Summers in this effort.  NCBCE member companies SAS, Progress Energy, RBC, GlaxoSmithKline, BB&T, and WakeMed hosted principals in their workplaces as part of the new program.  

Following the principals’ visits, I participated in a debriefing session that helped to identify many of the lessons learned such as: the importance of a mission and values; the importance of behaviors tied to values; the value of communication skills; keeping the customer first; having a culture that decreases the likelihood of mistakes; leadership participation in new employee orientation; recognizing staff for outstanding work; the power of leaders to change business culture; and the difficulty in motivating employees when there is failure to reach a goal.  

It’s clear there is great value to connecting education leaders with business leaders.  While there are differences in the issues, many of the leadership qualities valuable in business, work for school leaders as well.  We must keep that conversation going.  

Last week, 120 policy, business and education leaders gathered at the Friday Institute on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus for the annual meeting of the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE).   NCBCE is a public private partnership within the Office of the Governor that gives business leaders across the state opportunities to support and become involved in public education.  

NCBCE Chair Albert Eckel opened the meeting by identifying the day’s theme: Building Collaboration to Produce a Globally Prepared Student, Teacher and Workforce.  Gov. Perdue spoke about the importance of strong collaboration between business and education.  Her education agenda is focused on one goal: Every child, no matter where he or she lives, must graduate high school with what it really takes to succeed in a career, in college or in technical training.  The Governor stressed the value of working together to make this a reality---in order for North Carolina to continue to thrive.

First Gentleman Bob Eaves thanked NCBCE for partnering with him in the Students@Work initiative which gives middle school students a chance to see what the real world of work requires.  Visit www.governor.state.nc.us/studentsatwork for more information about ways middle school students are connecting their academics with the workplace. 

Meeting participants were asked to identify the most important skills needed for success in the global economy.   As that list of skills was developed, Superintendent June Atkinson facilitated a discussion led by NCBCE members Jeanene Martin (WakeMed) and Francisca Yanez (Inspire).   These experts talked about assessing skills and making employment decisions.

The final panel of the day focused on a few of the successes in North Carolina.  Abel Real, a student at East Carolina University, testified about the ways technology transformed his learning and directed his life.  Abel benefitted from teachers who changed learning environments to better engage students when those students were given laptops in rural Greene County. James Blackwell, a junior at North Carolina Central University described his experience at the Early College High School located on that campus---and what raising expectations for his performance meant to him.  Finally, Hiller Spires talked about the changes in preparing teachers to take advantage of all of the new learning tools that are available.

Prior to leaving the meeting, attendees were asked to help develop action steps for NCBCE by leaving behind their notes on what can be done to help students acquire the skills described.

Convening these leaders and giving them ways to share their expertise will help ensure that education progress continues---and that we prepare every student to succeed.

Check www.ncbce.org to find actions that will be emerging over the next few weeks!

Yesterday, First Gentleman Bob Eaves joined North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE) board members for a 21st century classroom experience hosted by SAS.   The meeting featured students, parents and Cary teachers who described how technology affects their teaching and learning environments.   They talked about experiencing science and mathematics rather than just hearing about those subjects.  And who needs to buy notebooks and pencils when you can organize all of your information and materials on your notebook laptop?  

Participants experienced this one-to-one laptop learning when we completed a history assignment to create a virtual civil rights museum.  Thank goodness for the middle school students who were our “coaches” and helped us navigate the technology to find primary documents, access videos, use pictures and even create our own Avatars for the museum.   Mr. Eaves worked on his portion of the assignment with staff and their student “coach.”  It seemed like they enjoyed this online research more than simply copying information onto index cards.

The session gave everyone the opportunity to experience how differently today’s students think, learn and communicate in a global environment by using technology.   Mr. Eaves and NCBCE members were so engaged in our assignment, it was hard to stop.   Imagine classrooms where all students are this excited about learning – so excited, in fact, they don’t want to stop working on their assignments. This kind of classroom already exists in many North Carolina public schools, thanks to the collaboration between private and public partners.

Governor Perdue continues her efforts to make sure schools are ready for 21st century students – all K-12 public schools now have access to broadband technology and work continues to expand the one-to-one laptop project. If we’re going to keep students excited about learning, we need to realize that they don’t remember life before the internet – Skype, Twitter and blogging are part of their everyday life outside school, so we can’t expect them to shut down those tools during the time they spend at school.   How would your life change without the technology you use at work and play?

The NCBCE Web site features videos that communicate how students, business leaders and teachers feel about today’s schools.  Please visit www.ncbce.org and look for the Having Our Say video series.