GE and the Jefferson and Stamford County Public Schools

The Project

 The GE Foundation Developing Futures™ in Education program takes a   new, comprehensive approach to supporting entire school districts in sustainable and scalable ways that increase impact, with the goal of improving student learning in math and science, improving college readiness, and closing achievement gaps.  Developing Futures seeks to create positive change using a systemic approach that begins with collaboration among key constituencies and integrates its grant-making with leveraging the expertise and deep resources within GE's talented workforce to give specific school districts access to resources and knowledge it otherwise could not afford.

The Opportunity

Access to an excellent education should be a right for all Americans, but there are huge discrepancies in quality among public schools, given factors including location, demographics of the youth they serve and the surrounding community, and ability to attract top teachers.  The rates of college-bound seniors vary widely as a result.  After a careful analysis of its education strategy, the GE Foundation determined that a more holistic, K-12 strategy was needed.  In response, GE Foundation integrated its grant-making with GE's unique ability to develop and share best practices to improve the management of central office functions.  GE Foundation's partnerships have provided access to the highest standards, most effective curricular material, strongest professional training and best teaching practices for chosen School Districts.

"I would like to thank you for your invitation and willingness to share best practices and security information with my staff and me.  My entire team was inspired by your presentations and hospitality.  This visit has already generated innovative thinking and strategies for the security of Jefferson County Public Schools."

-- Stanford T. Mullen, Jr., Director, Security and Investigations

Jefferson County Public Schools

GE's Pro Bono Investment

Each district that is part of Developing Futures seeks to achieve systemic change and improved student achievement. The program strategy starts with collaboration among the superintendent, the board of education, the teacher's organization and a full time GE grant manager.  Program components include constituency engagement, management capacity building, a common math and science curriculum, professional development and in-depth evaluation of the program. In addition, GE executives champion the program in each community and GE Volunteers bring their professional skills and capacity into the schools. The pro bono work done by GE in Louisville, KY, and Stamford, CT are examples that highlight the immense potential of the program.

At Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in Louisville, the GE grant manager worked with the District's administration to identify specific areas where GE's methodologies and employees' expertise could be leveraged to develop system-wide capacity to improve functional and financial efficiency and effectiveness within district central offices.  This focus helped strengthen management operations and improve leadership.  One example includes GE's security experts sharing best practices to enable the JCPS Security team to heighten school safety for its employees and students.  In fact, the District will be adopting the GE ID Card technology and electronic lock system as one of their programmatic changes.

Another GE team donates its resources in Stamford, CT, a city of considerable socioeconomic diversity with the fifth largest school district in the state. At the time of grant, the Stamford district had a relatively new central administration as well as new leadership at many of its schools, which presented a huge challenge to its aggressive agenda of improvement. GE stepped in to help strengthen key components of managing the schools.

The school year started with a GE management course called Change Acceleration Process, which was specially tailored to the educational environment and specific issues facing the Stamford Public Schools.  Additionally, with input from stakeholders, Stamford GE staff evaluated the effectiveness of the District's human resources department and invested significant time, including a day of training at a GE facility, refining the hiring process.  The stakeholders also will be trained on a standard GE management resource tool, the New Manager Assimilation process, a facilitated exchange which allows a team and its leader to align expectations as well as provide an opportunity to identify potential roadblocks to meeting expectations and how each can be avoided. With the degree of change throughout the Stamford district, these sessions will be crucial opportunity to develop a sense of trust within the district's new leadership team.