Microsoft's new project: Building a better high school

School districts around the country have Coca-Cola machines and Nike-sponsored basketball uniforms. What makes Philadelphia's brand of privatization unique -- besides its being the largest ever in the history of American public education -- is its relationship to the national "small schools" movement, the trend of replacing the large, anonymous schools of the past 30 years with intimate campuses of 400 to 800 students. Throw in a $1.5 billion capital program, and the district is looking at 28 new high schools in Philadelphia by 2008. That's a lot of opportunities for diverse providers. In fact, district CEO Paul Vallas intends all 28 new schools to benefit from some kind of partnership. Nearly half will have corporate partners, and all will have at least one university partner.

"We're creating multiple school options in every region," Vallas said last December. "We want them all to have unique programs: I.B. [international baccalaureate], advanced math, science, technology and engineering, health sciences, etc. All college prep, with unique programs -- dual language."

According to the district, privatization opens opportunities that would never have been available to students otherwise. It also brings naming rights (the School of the Future is a working title; its name is available for $5 million) and philanthropic gifts. But to an increasing extent, the privatization of the district's schools has a hands-on nature. Last April the district announced the Sunoco-sponsored Academy of Petro-Chemical Sciences and Technology, a special curricular program within a vocational tech high school. According to official remarks of chairman and CEO John Drosdick, among its other achievements, "the Petro-Chemical Science and Technology Academy will respond to the need that Sunoco and the industry continue to have for qualified process operators." And Lockheed Martin is trying to convert its internship program in engineering into three similar academies in the city.

"Hey," says district spokesman Cameron Kline, "we're not going to turn anyone away with a checkbook. We'll find a way to make it work."

Sometimes the district doesn't even turn away companies without checkbooks. "We've always had external partners," said Vallas, "but never one quite like this."

What Microsoft has to offer the district isn't money -- after all, if it funded the Philadelphia program, the argument goes, the School of the Future couldn't be replicated. Could the company realistically traverse the globe, handing out checks in Bora Bora and Belize? No, what Microsoft is providing is better than money. It's Management 101.

"Microsoft has more to offer than just technology," Vallas said. "Microsoft has their creativity to offer, their process -- the Microsoft process, the Microsoft system."

The company is helping the district streamline and modernize all of its internal bureaucratic processes -- its business operations. From record keeping, communication and information sharing to transportation, human resources and billing, Microsoft is doing what the private sector has always done for the public sector: increasing efficiency.

The School of the Future is the first high school Microsoft has offered to build from the ground up, but Philadelphia is not the first district it has tried to improve. The company has also helped Washington state train teachers and administrators to use technology effectively; contributed $4 million to help Michigan teachers achieve their No Child Left Behind requirements and make students aware of opportunities in the workforce (ahem); and allocated $3 million for professional development for principals in Virginia, including a special emphasis on "business management skills."

According to Salcito, Microsoft is working with districts in New York City, Miami-Dade County, Fla., Orange County, Calif., and Chicago on collaborative Web portals, student information systems and tracking programs. And conveniently for districts facing increasing pressures to meet No Child Left Behind standards (and scrambling for funding if they don't), Microsoft's Web site now offers information on "Microsoft Solutions in Support of NCLB" and funding sources for education.

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