Brenda Musilli is just the sort of no-nonsense executive who has helped build Intel Corp. into the world's largest computer chip company. A 30-year Intel veteran, she's done stints in marketing, finance and other corners of the corporation.
And she has a swift no-nonsense answer if you ask her what will be one of the themes at Intel as the company works its way through the current global economic crisis: It's got to keep up its support for education both in the U.S. and abroad.
"These kinds of investments are about remaining competitive as a company," says Musilli, president of the not-for-profit Intel Foundation, which was founded in 1988 and devotes more than half its resources to supporting education efforts in the U.S. and overseas.
Yet even the best-intentioned programs in education face some thorny challenges. On the top of the list: high-technology companies figure their future workers will need a complex set of skills that go far beyond the classic reading, writing and 'rithmatic. But U.S. public schools are still wrestling with how to deliver even those basic requirements--and under the Bush Administration, they face severe penalties if they do not raise their standardized test scores in those subjects. The concern within educational circles is that schools are becoming obsessed with test-taking at the expense of teaching more flexible critical thinking skills.
Those pressures are likely to become even more extreme as school budgets grow more pinched in a chilling economy.
Musilli points out that Intel has supported education since its days as a start-up and that its leaders--starting with Chairman Craig Barrett and Chief Executive Paul Otellini--are deeply supportive of education initiatives.
See "Intel's Chairman On Innovation."
About 10 years ago, Intel dramatically stepped up its education programs. It now values its annual support for education programs supporting math, science and technology at $100 million, a combination of cash grants, equipment and services. (Although we only published the top 10, Intel would have ranked 13 on our list of the most generous corporations in terms of total cash donations.)
When Intel went through layoffs in 2006, the foundation scrutinized its programs, too. "We looked at how we could scale more efficiently and at which programs were getting the biggest impact," Musilli recalls. But the $100 million commitment--about 1% of its fiscal 2007 operating income of $8.2 billion--stayed steady, she says.
That support goes into a host of education programs, both ones aimed at grabbing headline attention and ones providing more subtle backstage efforts.
In 1999, Intel took over the grandfather of all science fairs--the now 66-year-old "Science Talent Search" contest, which attracts something like 1,600 entries each year from U.S. high school students and a similar program internationally that attracts another 65,000 students around the world. The programs aim to make student scientists into heroes--a sort of "American Idol" for the geek set. The financial awards are significant, too: The winner gets a $100,000 scholarship and, each year, the top 40 U.S. winners split prizes that together are worth $1.25 million.
Additionally, Intel annually awards prizes to schools that demonstrate strong science and math programs. In September, Intel lauded Sojourner Elementary School, a 170-student magnet elementary school in Milwaukie, Ore., as a "star innovator." (Sojourner will share cash and prizes worth about $1 million with five other finalist schools.)
There are also fun programs, such as a constellation of more than 100 "computer clubhouses" that Intel sponsors around the world. (Two-thirds of those are in the U.S.)
But Intel's also counting on its behind-the-scenes efforts to pay big future returns. Since 1999, it has offered workshops on how to use technology in the classroom for teachers of grades K through 12. Originally, then-Chief Executive Barrett set a goal of training "100,000 teachers in 1,000 days."
But no company understands how to scale projects better than the computer chip giant. By developing workshops that train senior trainers to teach "master" teachers, who then convey those lessons back to teachers at local schools, Intel estimates that its program has now touched 5.5 million teachers in 40 countries.
"We don't charge for it; it's not for sale," notes Stephen Andrews, the U.S. manager for the Intel Teach program. The programs are technology "agnostic." "We provide the professional development that teachers need, no matter if they're using Macintosh computers or PCs. It's all about the subjects and [grade-levels]," Andrews says. Local school districts have to put support into the programs, too, by giving teachers time off to take the programs and encouraging technology use.
But then there are those standardized tests.
Driven by the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind program, which demands increases in test scores at the risk of withholding funding, schools have become obsessed with tests, even spending scarce funds and school hours to practice test taking and working on skills such as "bubbling"--properly coloring circles on multiple choice tests forms.
By contrast, high-technology companies are strong advocates of developing what they call "21st century skills," namely the skills and knowledge that they feel will be needed in the coming years. These involve improved communicating and thinking skills, problem solving skills, creativity and "self-direction" skills.
Intel tries to dance between those two demands, using its funding to help schools with the basics while steadily emphasizing the skills that its executives feel will be essential in the future. It has poured significant efforts into coming up with its own metrics for grading the success of its programs, contracting with outside organizations to assess and monitor its programs. "We believe the metrics and evaluation of the program are critically important," Musilli says.
Intel's assessors look at whether teachers who have gone through its workshops are working more collaboratively with other teachers, using technology to advance the curriculum in interesting ways and are engaging the minds of their students.
"But no, it's not directly correlated to test scores," Musilli concedes. "If you believe the research that talks about why the 21st century skills are so important, then one would hope those skills would lead to improved test scores," she says.
And that classic, long-term investment strategy may be one of Intel's greatest gifts to U.S. schools.
