Crisis assistance: with public schools struggling to improve, CEOs are convening to promote innovation.

• Author: Blake, Kathy
• Position: UNDER FIRE

Some of North Carolina's most influential business leaders, hoping to exert more influence on state education policy, are backing a nonprofit advocacy group that is responding to what it calls a "crisis of mediocrity" in the state's public schools. Formed two years ago, Business for Educational Success and Transformation NC, or BEST NC, has a 15-member board chock full of notables spread across the state, including Lowe's Cos. CEO Robert Niblock and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina CEO Brad Wilson. The group's chairman is former Wachovia Corp. executive Walter McDowell, who helped recruit board members from throughout the state and raise funds from more than a dozen North Carolina companies, including SAS Institute Inc., Allen Tate Cos. and Bank of America Corp.

BEST NC's profile will rise this month with a Sept. 28 conference in Cary, expected to attract 120 representatives of various interest groups such as the N.C. Child Care Coalition, Duke Endowment and N.C. School Superintendents Association. At a so-called "Innovation Lab," officials who have worked to develop education-improvement visions will present ideas for an action plan. BEST NC has a lofty goal of steering North Carolina to "lead the nation in academic achievement and the number of young people who are well-prepared to succeed in school, work and life by 2020," says Brenda Berg, the group's CEO. They hope to emulate similar business-backed efforts in Massachusetts and Tennessee that have led to rapid, steady and significant improvements, she says.

After meeting with hundreds of educators, parents, lawmakers and others, the group concluded that improving N.C. schools encompasses several key tasks, Berg says. The list includes higher pay for good teachers, recruiting and rewarding talented principals, and motivating students to develop higher expectations. "Consistency and alignment are essential, as is being comprehensive and operating with a high sense of urgency. North Carolina's students cannot afford further delay," she says, pointing to fourth-grade test scores that are barely above national averages and not improving.

BEST NC, which has a five-person staff, will have significant clout because of its stellar board and corporate support, says Jane Smith Patterson, a longtime adviser to former Gov. Jim Hunt, whose intense focus on public schools led supporters to call him "the education governor." While Patterson is a staunch Democrat, there is bipartisan...