State Journal

Forty-three of the top business executives in Illinois sat down together recently to talk strategy. But they weren't discussing how to raise profit margins and encourage corporate efficiency, but rather how to improve reading, writing, and mathematics instruction in the state's schools.

Led by executives of such companies as State Farm Insurance and Motorola Inc., the business leaders met on March 26 to begin hammering out the elements of a unified education agenda--something they have never...