Does Business have any Business in Educational Leadership?

The relationship between the school and the business world has been present since the Industrial Revolution. Industry has long depended on society’s educational system to provide it with skilled, competent workers. However, as the world grows more technical, the skills of modern-day workers and students must rise to meet the growing demands of a very industrialized America. In a nation that seems to believe that its public schools are failing to meet this standard, some educational practitioners have advocated bringing in leadership from businesses outside of the educational field. However, while the input from industry may be helpful from an advisory standpoint, educational leaders must have a solid background in education to be effective

Those who believe that a teacher is not the best candidate for the role of an educational leader do not fully understand the depth and breadth of a teacher’s expertise and skill. The first year teacher experience is one only rivaled by boot camp as to its test of an individual’s strength of knowledge, character, and determination. This idea is reinforced by research by Richard Ingersoll, a professor of sociology at the University of Georgia. He states that “11 percent of teachers leave the occupation after one year on the job. After two years, 21 percent have quit; after five years, 39 percent have quit” (Ashford 1). A leader of any educational institution must be able to understand and appreciate this experience to fully be able to identify with the plight of his or her faculty members. Many schools suffer from low teacher morale simply because the teachers feel undervalued, unappreciated, and misunderstood. Having an outsider come in and lead the school without having the benefit of teaching experience would be certain to lessen teacher morale and further cement their belief that Americans have no faith in their skills and give no credence to their opinions. Any business leader will agree that a key component to any profitable industry is the morale of the workers. IBM Europe discovered this in a study of employee morale; “The statistics based on 360 responding organizations from 15 European countries show that employee
morale correlates strongly with both delivery performance and quality performance levels” (Biro and Remzso 1).

It is impossible for a leader to gain the trust and respect of his or her teachers unless the teachers feel that there is a bond of common experience between faculty and administrator. A leader from a field outside of education would have absolutely no credibility with a group of seasoned educators. Even administrators who have only three or four years experience teaching and then move into a formal leadership position do not command the same respect from their teachers as those who have years of proven experience in the classroom. The consensus among faculty is usually that the inexperienced principal was not sufficiently competent to survive in the classroom and therefore took the pathway to more money and less interaction with students. For these reasons, a principal or other leader without an appropriate background in education is incapable of creating the necessary trust and rapport with his or her teachers that is needed to be successful. Rakesh Khurana, a professor of Business at Harvard “points out in Searching for a Corporate Savior that pinning an organization’s hopes to a high-profile savior can backfire by stirring employee resentment and distracting attention from fundamental problems” (Hess 15).

It seems unlikely that many members of the business world, which is a profit-driven community, would contain the sufficient stamina to endure in the less-profitable world of public schools. Education is a calling. No matter how passionate a person may be when entering the field, so many factors work to diminish the fire of a new teacher. Bureaucracy, paperwork, unmotivated students, overcrowded classrooms, and low wages make up the shocking reality with which most new educators are surprised to face. A new principal is confronted with even more demands. The hours are unfathomable, there is little positive interaction with students and parents, and legislation creates ever-rising amounts of paperwork and data to wade through.

Most administrators have education levels that would make them substantially more money in the private sector. There must be an educator’s heart at the center of each individual working in a public school or the career of such an individual will be short lived. One should question the motivation of anyone who is coming into education as a second choice. Some people have the arrogant belief that they possess the answers to all of education’s woes without ever having truly experienced public school. Therefore, to look at this foreign creature from the outside and attempt to hack one’s way through a surgery of a body that one does not truly understand can only lead to damaging consequences. Before jumping to a quick-fix solution, one should ask:

Why then, do we need to open the doors of the principalship to non-educators, especially at a time when principals indicate that that the instructional leadership demands on them have dramatically increased? How is private-sector management experience adequate preparation for the instructional demands of the principalship? (Fenwick and Pierce 2).

The role of principal has shifted since the inception of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. Whereas in the past, a principal was perceived as a manager for the business end of a school, the paradigm has shifted to a view that he or she is a leader for instruction. Whether this is a wise assessment or not, the growing concern of all administrators, superintendents, and teacher leaders is academic performance. Therefore, a principal with little academic background will be poorly equipped to analyze, assess and evaluate the instructional needs of his or her students and the strengths and weaknesses of his or her faculty. Principals have a variety of responsibilities, however,

The essence of their managerial work is strikingly instructional. When asked in national studies to rank their most important and time-consuming responsibilities, principals listed the top three as supervision of instruction, curriculum development, and student discipline/management. (Fenwick and Pierce 1)

The most dangerous assumption of those who believe that an educational leader can swoop in from the industrial community and create a model school system is the belief that a school should be structured like a business. Education is not a business. Educators and business
tycoons are likely to have very different ideas about the goals of public school. In The Blackboard and The Bottom Line, Larry Cuban reflects upon these differences and suggests,

While most teachers and principals see teaching and learning as complex activities intertwined with what children bring to school, and think of schools as places where children become literate and well-behaved, learn to display solid character, and get connected to their communities, many corporate leaders … see schools as places producing a product (Cuban 2).

This perception of students as products is both impractical and dehumanizing. Students are not identical raw materials that come to schools ready to be shaped into a proscribed form. “Education is not a product: it’s supposed to be a learning experience” (Johnson 1). Larry Cuban recalls an incident with former CEO, Jamie Vollmer who espoused at a school meeting the common idea that “If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business very long!” (Cuban 3). He was met with a wise response from the crowd. As an ice cream manufacturer, Vollmer was asked by a woman in the crowd if he used fresh ingredients in his ice cream. His response was, of course, in the affirmative. She then posed the clever question as to what he did if he received a shipment of blueberries for his ice cream that were inferior. Vollmer recollected, “In the silence of the room, I could hear the trap snap. I knew I was dead meat, but I wasn’t going to lie” (Cuban 4). His response, of course, was that he sent them back. This example encompasses the primary flaw with the perception that a business leader could effectively operate a public school. Statements like Mr. Vollmer’s reflect ignorance on the part of the business world of the complex nature of the problem that is education. Public schools, as any teacher would know, do not have the ability to choose which students they will serve. The woman who posed this insightful question to the corporate executive explained to him the dynamics that anyone with the slightest experience in a school would see as obvious. She replied,
We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with attention deficit disorder, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all! Every one! And that is why… it’s not a business. It’s a school! (Cuban 3).

The belief that a business leader is preferential as a school leader to a seasoned educator could only be held by members of a society that has no value whatsoever for the skills and experiences of teachers. Unfortunately, that paradigm is growing in the United States. As a society, Americans have more regard for those who have spent their lives chasing the bottom line, than those who have spent their lives in front of the blackboard with children. This lack of understanding and appreciation for the role of educator in this country is one of the greatest obstacles to school improvement. Long has our country listened to politicians, bureaucrats, and businesses and their special profit-driven interests and their opinions about schools. The truly neglected voice in the valiant pursuit of a world-class educational system is the voice of America’s teachers. The experiences of a teacher cannot be bought or sold, but can only be achieved through years of perspiration, reflection, and trial and error with living, breathing children. Businesses will never see children through the professional eyes of a veteran teacher, and therefore a teacher is the only fit leader for an educational community.




Works Cited
Ashford, Ellie. “Without Support, First-year Teachers More Likely to Quit." National School Boards Association.. 02082000. 11 Jun 2007 < http://www.nsba.org/site/doc_sbn.asp?TRACKID=&CID=329&DID=7656>.


Biró, Miklós and Remzsö, Tibor. “Business Motivations for Software Process Improvement.” ERCIM News.No.32. January 1998. 10 June 2007< http://www.ercim.org/publication/Ercim_News/enw32/biro.html>.


Cuban, Larry. The Blackboard and the Bottom Line: Why Schools Can't be Businesses. Harvard University Press, 2005.


Fenwick, Leslie T. and Pierce, Mildred Collins. “The Principal Shortage: Crisis or Opportunity?” The Principal Crisis – An American Perspective. 1-3. 11 June 2007. http://www.appa.asn.au/cms/uploads/gold/the%20principal%20shortage%20v2%20no%2 010%20dec%202001.doc


Hess, Frederick M. “A License to Lead? A New Leadership Agenda for America’s Schools.” Progressive Policy Institute. January 2003. http://www.ndol.org/documents/New_Leadership_0103.pdf


Johnson, Thomas, L.. "Government Can’t Run Schools Like Businesses." Freedom Daily. 05062005. The Future of Freedom Foundation. 8 Jun 2007 .