Big Business Becomes Big Brother

By Ellie McGrath

Companies adopt hard-pressed schools to expand student horizons

Chicago's Commonwealth Edison Co. is generating a little extra electricity these days. Twice a week 16 representatives of the utility firm visit the Michele Clark Middle School in a poverty-ridden district on Chicago's West Side to teach the principles of supplying energy to the neighborhood. Youngsters from eight classes survey the school's area, christened Clark City for purposes of the project, and assess the needs through scale drawings and detailed models, complete with wiring, batteries and lights. Says Anton Anderson, 12: "I know all about kilowatts now and B.T.U.s. That's British thermal units." During the past year, pupils in the Clark City classes boosted their reading-skill level by 14 months, compared with the eight-month increase recorded by other students. In turn, the Commonwealth Edison volunteers have learned firsthand about the concerns of their inner-city customers. Says Division Vice President Robert Manning: "It's turned out to be a kind of Dale Carnegie course for our people."

The Clark-Commonwealth collaboration is part of Chicago's Adopt-a-School program, designed to shore up urban public schools at a time of financial crisis with aid from the private sector. The ground rules: companies must make a one-year commitment, promise to work with students on the average of once a week, and develop programs that try both to improve student motivation and beef up the basics of reading, writing and mathematics. So far this year, 102 companies and organizations have adopted 116 of Chicago's 604 public schools. Says Superintendent Ruth Love of the program: "It's been a roaring success."

Corporate help to public education is on the rise elsewhere. In Houston, 42 companies are working with 37 schools; in Los Angeles 103 firms, including such giants as ARCO and Prudential Insurance Co. of America, have befriended 115 institutions. The aid can come in the form of monetary contributions, donated supplies or volunteer teachers. Programs ranee from field trips for the underprivileged to lessons in offshore engineering for the gifted. In Boston, the Bank of New England donated $300,000 for a five-year program to recognize and reward outstanding teachers. In Atlanta, Rich's department store has helped start an academy in an unused portion of its downtown store to teach basic courses as well as black history to 100 high school dropouts and potential dropouts. The Dolores Canning Co. in East Los Angeles provides monthly prizes for a good-citizen program at the nearby Hammel Street Elementary School. Says Principal Charles Lavagnino: "The Dolores people help us any way they can, be it with eyeglasses or just treats for the kids."

Some of the most successful programs find new ways of stressing the importance of diligence and study. In Chicago, Abram Nicholas Pritzker, whose family controls the Hyatt hotel chain, has set up a trust fund to pay the $50,000 yearly expenses of the after-hours program at

Wicker Park Elementary School. The money has been used to set up highly popular courses in cooking, darkroom techniques and computer science. The Los Angeles Dodgers have adopted the Solano Avenue Elementary School near the stadium, sending in such stars as Second Baseman Steve Sax and Pitcher Fernando Valenzuela to talk about developing good habits. Says Dodger Coach Mark Cresse: "You know how kids are. Their parents can tell them 100 times that they should study, and it goes in one ear and out the other. If a Dodger tells them, believe me, they listen."

One major contribution companies can make is providing role models for minority students. Chicago's Blitz Corp., a metal-working shop whose main business is recycling buses, sends employees, most of them blacks, to nearby Marshall High School to give shop-class students real nuts-and-bolts .experience in riveting, drilling and welding. The program has sparked interest in a school where the 200-student freshman class typically dwindles to 25 graduating seniors. Last June, Blitz hired four Marshall alumni, the first it had ever taken on. Says Plant Manager George Little: "These kids realize it is possible to succeed."

At the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School in Lexington, Mass., part of the school's cafeteria space was converted this fall to a McDonald's restaurant, complete with golden arches. Culinary-arts students study the fast-food business and spend time in the kitchen. They also learn about competition, since the other half of the school cafeteria serves subsidized school lunches. After graduation, students who finish the fast-food management training program will be given preferential consideration for jobs by McDonald's.

The emphasis on job training in some programs has been criticized by a few academics who fear that corporations may be out to gain too much influence over the schools. But the growing number of Adopt-a-School advocates point out that vocational courses can stress mathematics and English. The approach has won the support of Philosopher Mortimer Adler, who believes that U.S. schools should concentrate more heavily on the fundamentals. Says he: "The corporations are making a contribution. I don't see any need to be skeptical about it or cynical."

Ranee Grain, editor in chief of Grain's Chicago Business, a financial weekly, admits that an element of self-interest is behind his firm's decision to teach journalism in Carl Schurz High School. But Grain defines that self-interest broadly: "A weak school system means weak students, and that means weak employees, weak managers--and a weak society." --By Ellie McGrath.

Reported by Ken Banta/Chicago

With reporting by Ken Banta

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