Schools Are Like Businesses
Schools are like businesses, but not in the way most think.
I have found myself in many conversations comparing “how it works in business” with “how it works in education.” A popular version of the analogy goes something like this:
“Schools are like factories. They take raw materials (kids and textbooks) and, through years of education, forge a valuable product: young adults prepared for college, life, and work.”
Most educators bristle when schools are compared to factories. The analogy doesn't work.
In this analogy, teachers work the assembly line, supervised by the principal. This analogy has some big problems. Are teachers really like factory workers? Are students really products? If they are defective, asks Stanford education professor and author Larry Cuban, can we send them back?
Here’s a more useful analogy
“Schools are like consulting businesses. The students are knowledge workers, organized into teams to analyze and solve problems. In the process, they demonstrate their mastery of valuable learning standards.”
In this more useful analogy, teachers are the managers, not the workers. This analogy seems closer to the mark. After all, schools function only if it is the students who do the work of learning. Teachers cannot do it for them.
In this more useful analogy, teachers are the managers, not the workers
Like any managers of inexperienced workers, teachers’ truest aim is to bring out the best in their charges. They organize, assign, challenge, cajole, and motivate. Through success and failure, teachers develop their students’ capacity to take on bigger challenges with better results and increasing independence.
Principals are executives
Thinking of teachers as managers also helps to shed light on the complex responsibilities of the school principal. Imagine running a knowledge-sector organization with hundreds of young, inexperienced, and sometimes unruly employees. Now imagine that your budget compels you to organize the business with a very flat structure, with only one group leader for every thirty or so beginners. This is the structure of most elementary schools.
A Reorg for middle school
Middle school changes everything. In business terms, it’s equivalent to a massive reorganization. From middle school onward, our young knowledge workers are assembled into six or more different teams per day, switching academic contexts each hour like fully-booked consultants jumping from one project to the next. They no longer have a clearly defined manager; teachers in middle and high schools often interact with more than a hundred students per day. What’s more, the relationships among teachers and students shift once per semester as students complete courses, or fail them.
Few if any knowledge-sector businesses would put managers in a direct reporting relationship with such a large number of workers, especially inexperienced ones. Nor would they shift workers among assignments with such casual speed, especially if they are struggling to complete the work. Schools do so every day. Is it any wonder students get lost?
Who is the customer?
Finally, the analogy faces this challenge: In education, who is the customer? Who demands the work that students produce with their teachers’ guidance?
For lucky students, the answer is an engaged and prepared adult. A discerning customer demands good work, appreciates it and provides useful feedback. Some parents know how to play this role well, but not all can or will.
Parent and engagement is deeply helpful to high-functioning school communities, and it feels like this is where the analogy to business falls apart. When school systems invest in parent training and engagement, are they training their customers?
What do you think?
- In what important ways are schools different from businesses?
- Are there practices from business that could help your school?
- Do students in your school feel that there is a "customer" for their hard work?
Tags on this post
Business Leadership ParentsAll Tags
A-G requirements Absences Accountability Accreditation Achievement gap Administrators After school Algebra API Arts Assessment At-risk students Attendance Beacon links Bilingual education Bonds Brain Brown Act Budgets Bullying Burbank Business Career Carol Dweck Categorical funds Certification CHAMP Change Character Education Chart Charter schools Civics Class size CMOs Collective bargaining College Common core Community schools Contest Continuous Improvement Cost of education Counselors Creativity Crossword CSBA CTA Dashboard Data Dialogue District boundaries Districts Diversity Drawing DREAM Act Dyslexia EACH Early childhood Economic growth EdPrezi EdSource EdTech Effort Election English learners Equity ESSA Ethnic studies Ethnic studies Evaluation rubric Expanded Learning Facilities Fake News Federal Federal policy Funding Gifted Graduation rates Grit Health Help Wanted History Home schools Homeless students Homework Hours of opportunity Humanities Independence Day Indignation Infrastructure Initiatives International Jargon Khan Academy Kindergarten LCAP LCFF Leaderboard Leadership Learning Litigation Lobbyists Local control Local funding Local governance Lottery Magnet schools Map Math Media Mental Health Mindfulness Mindset Myth Myths NAEP National comparisons NCLB Nutrition Pandemic Parcel taxes Parent Engagement Parent Leader Guide Parents peanut butter Pedagogy Pensions personalized Philanthropy PISA Planning Policy Politics population Poverty Preschool Prezi Private schools Prize Project-based learning Prop 13 Prop 98 Property taxes PTA Purpose of education puzzle Quality Race Rating Schools Reading Recruiting teachers Reform Research Retaining teachers Rigor School board School choice School Climate School Closures Science Serrano vs Priest Sex Ed Site Map Sleep Social-emotional learning Song Special ed Spending SPSA Standards Strike STRS Student motivation Student voice Success Suicide Summer Superintendent Suspensions Talent Teacher pay Teacher shortage Teachers Technology Technology in education Template Test scores Tests Time in school Time on task Trump Undocumented Unions Universal education Vaccination Values Vaping Video Volunteering Volunteers Vote Vouchers Winners Year in ReviewSharing is caring!
Password Reset
Search all lesson and blog content here.
Login with Email
We will send your Login Link to your email
address. Click on the link and you will be
logged into Ed100. No more passwords to
remember!
Questions & Comments
To comment or reply, please sign in .
LeeAnn Corral April 15, 2024 at 4:00 pm
vpeterson_2001 April 28, 2015 at 4:03 pm