School to Business Association

The Crisis of Relevance

Something's wrong with American schools. Nearly everyone realizes it, especially the students, but it's not easy to identify the source of the problem, let alone how to correct it. Based on our research, we believe the key issue is one that almost no one is considering - schools are less relevant than they were yesterday and will become increasingly so tomorrow...unless we make BIG changes - FAST.

Why Relevance?

Dr. Willard R. Daggett's research on successful schools in the 2008 book "Rigor and Relevance from Concept to Reality" outlined a clear need for 3 important elements in school success: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. Of these 3 elements, Relationships tend to be the most often attained in schools. Rigor, in work and content, is strived for but rarely attained, and Relevance tends to be completely forgotten. Yet, it's Relevance, the process of proving to students what we want them to learn matters, that often holds the key to unlocking Rigorous learning. To the kid who annoyingly asks the question, "How are we going to use this in the real world?" we must answer well.

The Underachievers

64% of high school students have GPAs lower than 3.0. When those students were asked why their grades were mediocre or worse, 5% indicated they were engaged and trying as hard as they could, but just couldn't seem to make the grade. 95% willingly admitted they were capable of much better, but weren't interested. Instead of studying or doing their homework, they were pursuing and doing the things they were interested in, passionate about, or thought mattered, and those things weren't represented at school. We don't blame them.

The Achievers

When the 36% of students with higher than a 3.0 GPA were asked the same questions, half of them indicated they had clear career goals that required them to do well in school in order to get them what they wanted in life. The other half reported simply loving school. These students liked nearly every teacher they ever had, intrinsically saw value in school, and enjoyed learning in the structured environment that schools provide. In nearly every case, performance was directly related to student interest or their perception of the value of school in the world outside of school. Relevance wins.

Why Don't Schools Change?

We're not here to blame, but simply to say that interest is a powerful motivator in the prospect of change. If someone doesn't see a clear benefit for themselves in a proposed change, they won't. There are many reasons why schools find it difficult to focus on becoming more relevant to the underachievers, but when we asked teachers which of the types of students mentioned above they identified as when they were students... ...80% of them said they were the students who simply loved school. This may be why many teachers see proposed changes to school as an attack on something they've dearly loved since childhood.

Standardized Testing

Legislators who rightly want to measure the performance of the taxpayers' largest annual expenditure have settled on a simplistic and inappropriate way to do it - by testing students once a year in mainly Math and Language Arts. This is the tail that wags the dog. Such a myopic way of evaluating school performance causes schools to focus nearly all of their energy on hammering these 2 subjects home, often devoid of real-world application, and therefore, devoid of Relevance to most students.

Goal Misalignment

While schools proclaim the mission of preparing students for successful lives, the reality is often a mismatch. Their actions, heavy on academic work, grades, and standardized testing, clearly show a focus on college preparation. But going to and finishing college doesn't equal or even lead to a successful life for most. Colleges have relied on this perception (without research that backs it up) for years to drive their business, but that perception is finally starting to break down.

What is Life Success?

If schools are supposed to be aiming for it, we probably ought to at least try to define it. In the absence of longitudinal research that tracks student performance in life long term, the best method is to start with research on people who are archetypes of success and backward map their stories to determine what competencies led them to where they are. We believe these archetypes are people with a net worth of $1 million to $10 million. People financially secure and free enough to do and say what they want to without fear of losing their security.

The Millionaire Next Door

The research exists. In "The Millionaire Next Door" and its successor "The Next Millionaire Next Door" by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley, thousands of our archetype millionaires were studied across America, and the results were conclusive: most of them achieved their success despite their experience in school, not because of it. The competencies that led to their success were most often obtained through work in their areas of interest outside of school and included Confidence, Focus, Frugality, Planning, Responsibility, and our personal favorite, Social Indifference.

The Core Millionaire Traits

Confidence

Demonstration of confidence and collaboration in financial management, investing, and business leadership

Focus

Demonstration of the ability to focus on detailed tasks through completion without becoming distracted

Frugality

Financial behaviors associated with consistent saving, dedicated commitment to lower spending, and rigorous adherence to a budget

Planning

Behaviors related to goal-setting, planning, and anticipating future needs

Responsibility

Acceptance of the role of actions, abilities, and experiences in outcomes. Belief that luck plays a small part in achievement

Social Indifference

Behaviors that reflect immunity to social pressure to engage in the latest fads or group thinking

Real Business Relevance

We believe the best format for delivering relevant education to the 60% of disengaged high school students is a real-world business. We're not talking about job-shadowing or internships in someone else's business. We're talking about real work, making real money, serving real customers, delivering a real product or service that provides real value. And the students lead it, not the adults. If you want to increase interest and engagement, make it real, and give students the agency to create something they believe in.

Curriculum Development

We're building the curriculum that supports business development in schools. Our focus is on rapid business validation, marketing, and sales techniques that take advantage of the unique strengths of students and powerful position of schools in their community. Our content will include written, video, and interactive elements, be presented by students and young entrepreneurs, and be offered at no cost to schools and students. We will strive to certify courses to count for core graduation credit at the high school and college levels.

Longitudinal Research

We're doing the research necessary to validate the effectiveness of our programs and working closely with technology partners to build the systems that keep former students engaged with our research for life. The School to Business Association will be the first organization to obtain the "Holy Grail" of longitudinal research - once and for all proving what actions in school actually help students reach the goal of success in life.

Help Us Bring The Relevance!

We absolutely, positively can't change education for the better without you! It costs money to do the research and develop the programs that will find solutions to ensure every student has the opportunity to learn in the direction of their interests and passions and work in the areas of their strengths. It's time to prove our educational system is off track and reorient it toward evidence-based methods that work for all students and lead to success in life.