Business Has Failed To Report Needs, Educators Say

By Jonathan Weisman

WASHINGTON--While business has posited its involvement in education largely on the contention that its needs for a capable workforce are not being met, the corporate community has neglected to communicate specifically what it needs from the schools, business and education leaders agreed at a conference here last week.

"You're not good reporters," Sue E. Berryman, director of the Institute of Education and the Economy at Teachers College, Columbia University, chided some of the 350 business leaders at Fortune magazine's fourth education summit.

At a session called "What Business Wants From Education," corporate representatives conceded that they had not given the...