Direct from Washington, March 2009

Entrepreneurship Education

Proposing federal investments in a new high school reform initiative is iffy at this point. Struggles to maintain what already is there could be challenging enough. On the other hand, if something fits with the Obama Administration’s themes of change and preparing for the future, perhaps there is a chance to be heard.

That’s why a call for greater and wider attention to youth entrepreneurship seems possible in a troubled economy. The Aspen Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy Group (YES Group) argues that the skills young people need and the incentives to complete high school can be met by giving all students, particularly those in low-income communities, access to good entrepreneurial education programs.

In a recent report, YES points out that 15 years of focused attention to school reform has not stemmed the dropout rate among students of color or resulted in them being better prepared for college, on the average. Moreover, employers criticize the poor communication, teamwork, and creative skills of young job applicants and new hires.

Entrepreneurship education has the potential to develop skills for the shifting American economy, the report says, and to hold students’ interest in completing high school. Evaluations of high-school-level curricula in youth entrepreneurship indicate the students increase their occupational aspirations, interest in college, reading, and leadership behavior after participating in a program. In one evaluation, 70 percent of the students in the entrepreneurial program were in college, 63 percent had jobs, and one in three ran a small business. This was six months after completing the curriculum.

The critical outcome, according to the report’s synthesis of research, is that the students acquired a sense of “ownership” over their lives. It was four times higher for those who had been in the program than for those who did not take the courses. In this society, say the leaders of the YES Group in their foreword, “we value both financial ownership and psychological ownership—being in control of resources and lives that are of our own choosing. (The YES chair is Stephanie Bell-Rose, president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation; and the vice-chair is Tom Payzant, former superintendent in Boston and now a professor at Harvard University).

Federal policy makers, the report recommends, should revise existing statutes to include entrepreneurship skills as a desired competency in educational standards (No Child Left Behind Act or its successor, Higher Education Act, Carl D. Perkins Act, and Workforce Investment Act). They also should:

• Expand funding for youth entrepreneurship in key programs operated by the Department of Labor, the Small Business Administration, and other appropriate agencies.

• Create a federal Office of Entrepreneurship Education and provide it with resources to share best practices in the field and also serve as a nationwide advocate for youth entrepreneurship.

• Consider adding entrepreneurial literacy to the President’s Council on Financial Literacy.

The report also outlines an agenda for local education leaders. It should introduce entrepreneurship education in all schools, especially those with large populations of youth from low-income communities; increase funding for teacher development, as well as curriculum and program evaluation; and develop strong partnerships among schools, businesses, and other community organizations.

State-level policy makers should adopt statewide standards for youth entrepreneurship education and create formal entrepreneurship education partnerships among K-12 schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions.

(“Youth Entrepreneurship Education in America: A Policymaker’s Action Guide,” Aspen Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy Group, www.aspeninstitute.org)