Education: Key to Making Oregon’s Economy Stronger

By Geraldine M. Power

At the Oregon Business Plan Summit held January 2006, the overarching theme, surprisingly, was not on how businesses are faring, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of different businesses across Oregon’s landscape. The overarching theme, overwhelmingly, was the importance of education, from pre-K through 20. The summit emphasized that education holds a powerful potential role in strengthening Oregon’s economy and helping the state compete in a global economy, by graduating people with stronger educational backgrounds that meet the needs of local industries.

The Northwest Education Cluster is working to address the education needs of today and into the 21st century. This cluster meets regularly to foster and share ideas, not to compete, but to gain perspectives from all the companies involved and leverage time and talent to help the companies move forward. Over 35 companies in Oregon are actively involved in this cluster. It is estimated that up to 50 companies across Oregon are targeting products and services to the education industry. The figure increases to about 100 companies in cases where only a segment of a company is devoted to meeting the needs of the industry, such as Intel Corporation.

The education cluster includes companies involved in e-learning, visual learning, curriculum content providers, testing and evaluation services and educational institutions.

The Northwest Education Cluster was formed in 2003 as a sub-cluster of the broader software cluster. Key individuals involved in forming this cluster included Mona Westhaver, co-founder and president of Inspiration® Software, Inc, 2005 chair of the SAO board of directors and current member of the SAO executive committee; Bill Kelly, CEO of Learning.com; and Fred Phillips, former professor and founding head of the Management in Science and Technology school at the Oregon Graduate Institute and former member of the SAO board of directors. Currently, Phillips is professor and associate dean at the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands.

The cluster established several objectives. One is to explore the potential of the education industry as an economic driver for Oregon. Another is to secure funding for K-20 education to support student learning. Another objective is to create partnerships between educational institutions and the education industry. Other objectives include promoting the visibility of the education industry and the cluster activities, as well as fostering a business climate in this region that is conducive to competing nationally and globally.

The education industry’s impact on Oregon’s economy

Most of the companies profiled for this article receive less than five percent of their revenue from within Oregon, with most of the revenue from sales to other states as well as internationally. However, the local economy benefits from these education-related companies, in that the companies pay income taxes on revenues generated to the state of Oregon. In addition, all the companies primarily recruit employees from within this state.

One key element fueling a stronger market for certain companies within this cluster is the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. While this act remains controversial, the Oregon Business Plan Summit emphasized that the education system needs to be redesigned to better meet the needs of students today. The NCLB act is one piece of legislation that can be viewed as a start to addressing key issues within the current school system.

For example, the NCLB act emphasizes the need to assess each student’s progress as the student moves through each grade level. This, in turn, has fueled a much stronger market for assessment tools. As one illustration in point, under the provision Title IID in the NCLB act, districts are required to test the technology literacy of students through eighth grade. The NCLB legislation has provided some additional funding for companies involved in technology education, though funding sources have been locally controlled (so quite varied in the application of technology education and oversight).

One caveat is that while districts are required to conduct certain testing, some see funding for certain areas within the education sector as rapidly diminishing. Yet, if the one legacy that the NCLB act leaves behind is the emphasis and importance of assessing student progress, and inversely, assessing if the education system is meeting the needs of students, this indeed may be a start to redesigning the school system. In addition, this act brings to light the need for scientifically based, proven practices in teaching various subjects in the classroom.

Three companies profiled have benefited from this act, with the exceptions being Vernier Software and Technology and Learning.com. Intel Corporation doesn’t charge for its products and services, with the company’s philanthropic focus on education worldwide. The following profiles include varying perspectives on funding and marketing strategies, as well as varying perspectives on the NCLB act.

For more information on the NCLB act, go to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/nclb, http://www.fldo.org/nclb and http://www.doe.mass.edu/NCLB.

• Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA)
• Learning.com
• StudyDog
• Vernier Software & Technology
• Inspiration Software
• Intel Corporation

To learn more about the education cluster, go to http://portlandedcluster.com. Or contact Jim Snyder, director of the Northwest Education Cluster, at (503) 624-1951 or email at jlouiset@msn.com.

About the author

Gerrie Power worked at Intel Corporation in marketing, editing and writing and has an M.A. in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon University. She is based in Portland, OR. For questions and comments, email gerrie@powercommunication.biz.