Goals

The ABEC "Best Practices" Initiative was created to better advocate for effective public/private partnerships in support of student achievement in public education. The goals of the initiative are:

1. To seek out and promote best practices in business-education partnerships that improve student achievement;
2. To foster relationships and better understanding of the needs between the business and education communities; and
3. To be a credible resource for engaging business-education partnerships.

ABEC recognizes that partnerships may be short-term or long-term, as mutually agreed to by both businesses and individual schools or school districts. ABEC also realizes that partners often provide much more than financial support. Other contributions may include staff expertise, goods and services, and exposure. ABEC's primary interest are those partnerships that increase student achievement, regardless of the type of support. For any business-education partnership, "best practice" guiding principles can be beneficial for success.

Key elements of the ABEC "Best Practices" Initiative include:

1. Promoting "best practice" guiding principles for local businesses and school districts in order to create partnerships;
2. Providing information resources to and about business mentors and speakers;
3. Surveying business and schools throughout the state about partnerships and programs that are currently in place, especially those that are focused on improving student achievement;
4. Recognizing successful "best practice" partnerships;
5. Conducting workshops where educators and business leaders can come together to learn more of each other needs and begin to build relationships based on a shared understanding that support the mutual needs;
6. Maintaining a library of business-education partnerships in Arizona; and
7. Developing public policy, if needed, in order to make programs successful.