Welcome to our continuing TrendWatcher series with Peter Clayton reporting. Total Picture Radio has formed a strategic alliance with The Institute for Corporate Productivity, i4cp, allowing us to publish on our site the compete weekly research report in their TrendWatcher initiative, as well as record a weekly interview with the lead author of the article. Joining us today from St Petersburg, FL, is analyst Judy London, the lead author of this weeks’ article titled Can Businesses Fix Our Schools? TrendWatcher examines the business and social trends that are likely to influence the future of work. "Last week, many recruitment professionals probably let out a collective sigh of exasperation. Once again, the SAT scores for the most recent U.S. high school graduates were stagnant and at their lowest levels since 1999 (Zagier, 2008; CollegeBoard, 2008). This was largely because more students - including low-income students - are taking the college entrance exam than in the past ("Average SAT," 2008). The expansion of this pool of college-exam takers is generally viewed as good news, but it highlights the fact that many would-be college graduates are starting off with a lower level of skills, especially reading skills." This could spell trouble down the line. After all, the Institute for a Competitive Workforce (2008) reports that 90% of jobs in the fastest-growing job sectors will require some post-secondary education. The urgency of the matter isn't lost on today's business professionals. Three-quarters of 580 respondents to the Institute for Corporate Productivity's recent 2008 Major Issues Survey said that the quality of primary and secondary education is either important or extremely important to the management of people in their firms, and the importance of the issue is only expected to increase over the next 10 years. Moreover, four out of five respondents to a recent i4cp Pulse survey on education said that the quality of primary and secondary (K-12) education is critical for the future workforce. Yet, the K-12 system is often viewed as failing to properly prepare many of today's students for either college or the workforce. The i4cp Pulse survey found that about two-thirds of 298 respondents identified "quality of teaching" as the K-12 issue that is most critical to the future workforce. Given these circumstances, it's no wonder businesses are trying to influence and improve the K-12 system via sponsorship, partnerships and other initiatives. Sixty-five percent of those responding to i4cp's Pulse survey said their organization engages in a K-12 education partnership or initiative of some type. Other sources confirm that schools have recently seen a surge in private-sector sponsorship (Hills & Hirschhorn, 2007), and there is growing business investment in K-12 math, science and technology instruction... visit www.totalpicture.com for the complete transcript Less