By Stephanie Banchero
(The Wall Street Journal, August 1st 2011)
This fall, New York City will open P-Tech, a unique six-year high school where students can earn a diploma and an associate’s degree in a computer-science-related field and then first crack at a job with IBM.
Located in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights section at the former Paul Robeson High School, which was phased out after years of failing performance, the new school was in large part created by the IBM International Foundation. The foundation helped develop the curriculum, select the principal and promises graduating students a shot at a job at the International Business Machine Corp.
The technology titan’s close involvement in the planning and creation of the high-tech high school represents a trend in public-private partnerships in education: As U.S. students fall further behind global counterparts, and as companies seek skilled workers, big businesses like Microsoft Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and IBM are taking an active, strategic role in education. For them, the benefit is a better-trained work force. Skills that IBM finds lacking in job applicants include writing, problem solving and working collaboratively.