PBLN Goes to School: Business Leaders Field Visit to Boston's Burke High School

"Turnaround" Headmaster Lindsa McIntyre (right) guides
Gloria Larson and PBLN around Boston's Burke High School

PBLN Education Chair Gloria Larson (day job: President of Bentley University) led a delegation of 20 PBLN members and friends to the Burke High School in Boston's Grove Hall section of Dorchester. The Burke has been designated a turn-around school in a new series of federal/state rubrics that bring resources, extraordinary latitude for change, and innovative strategies to schools that have simply not been getting good enough results. Schools around the country have received a new chance to succeed through the turnaround program.

The Turnaround artist and experienced change agent brought into the Burke by Boston Schools Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson is Lindsa McIntyre. After just two hours with her in which key issues, data and part of the way forward were laid out for our group, Gloria Larson described McIntyre as a "force of nature."

More detail to come on the issues raised, potential partnerships explored. But suffice it to say that it was a very valuable use of time for all involved. Simply put, we are all failing these children, and we are crippling our regional economy by failing to fuel the workforce we need to drive the great companies that are located here. Even with all the new teachers, methods and resources at the Burke, Headmaster McIntyre identified attendance as the number one challenge. If they cannot keep the kids in school to try to ignite a passion for learning, they cannot deliver the results we all demand. We are all looking at strategies to help meet the needs that Lindsa and her team identified, and also how the outcomes she is seeking drive the needs and priorities of the business community and the economy. More on this to come. Thank you to the Burke High School students, faculty and staff for welcoming PBLN!

Hearing a teacher's call for more classroom partnerships
 with science-based companies

In typical fashion for our team, this visit came together because many people stepped up and stepped out of role given what their busy day jobs are like. Among those to thank, in addition to Bentley University President Gloria Larson and the entire Burke School community: Eos Foundation President Andrea Silbert, Castle Group Co-Founder and Principal Sandy Lish, Boston Superintendent of Schools Dr. Carol Johnson, PBLN Education Coordinator Christine Williams of Bentley University, and PBLN President and Eduventures, Inc. CEO Tom Dretler.

This field visit was part of an ongoing initiative of the PBLN Working Group to understand and contribute to dramatic improvement in K-12 innovation. Part of that effort has been ongoing participation in the Race to the Top initiative to secure newly available funding for school innovation from the Obama Administration. For more information on PBLN's history with education reform see our website at www.pbln.org.

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Diane Hessan, President & CEO - Communispace
According to Advertising Age Communispace is one of the fastest growing marketing and technology companies in the country, with a Blue Chip client list that would make a Madison Avenue giant jealous. A pioneer in creating online communities to help marketers deeply engage customers, Diane helped found Communispace in 1999 and hasn't looked back.