The Case for K-12 Entrepreneurship Education

By Dr. Gene Coulson

In this age of educational accountability, where standards and assessments have only one right answer and success is measured by test scores, schools need a way to keep young minds open to alternative ways of thinking.

Students should be encouraged to generate innovative ideas throughout their school careers, and schools should create an entrepreneurial culture that will grow great people and great communities from the inside out. What is needed is entrepreneurship education for every student, every year. This can be accomplished through the America’s Entrepreneurial Schools program, which was piloted in Lincoln, Calhoun and Gilmer county schools last year and will continue this year.

America’s Entrepreneurial Schools is a school designation awarded by EntreEd, the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education, and can earned by any school that delivers entrepreneurship education to every student in the school building during an entire school year. Arnoldsburg Elementary in Calhoun County became one of America’s Entrepreneurial Schools last year.

“Entrepreneurship education was a perfect fit for the students of Arnoldsburg Elementary because it fulfilled one of our goals of developing hands-on career opportunities for students to explore,” says Charles Thomas, the principal at Arnoldsburg Elementary. “Through this program our students learned important lessons about budgets, business plans, profits and loss and money management.”

However, there is more to entrepreneurship education than just topical learning.

• Entrepreneurship education preserves creative thinking and problem solving. The exploration of entrepreneurial opportunities preserves the innovative and creative thinking skills that exist in early grades but disappear as students move toward high school graduation. There are pathways to entrepreneurial success that are accomplished by analysis and creative thinking, not by rote memorization.
• Entrepreneurship education benefits every student. In every graduating class, there are students who want to go into business right away. There are some who will consider it after college or after several years of employment. Some graduates aren’t considering it now but will at some time in their lives. There are even those who have thought about it and, with more knowledge about what it takes for entrepreneurial success, decide not to do it and do not put personal or family start-up funds at risk. Finally, there is the student that has no interest in entrepreneurship now and never will, but he or she will be a better employee by knowing what is important to their employer and knowing how businesses make money.
• Entrepreneurship education also supports academic learning. Using entrepreneurship education as a background for the teaching of academic subjects gives those studies a grounding in the real world. Entrepreneurship can be the answer to “Why do I need to study this?” Math, science, writing and communication, history, geography and even the arts can be connected to today’s world through a connection to entrepreneurship. How will a scientist turn a discovery into income? How will an artist turn their talent into a career that will support his or her family? Every career and technical student with a skill to sell in the marketplace should consider the difference between finding a job and creating a job. Every student should have the opportunity to make an informed decision about entrepreneurship as a career path.
• It addresses brain drain. Rural communities suffer from brain drain, and as a result, sharp young people are forced to leave the area to make a career. When these bright minds leave a community, it is a real loss. Those same communities have needs unmet by businesses in their area. Young people who are creative, entrepreneurial thinkers can turn those unmet needs into business opportunities and stay in their communities, generating employment and enlarging the local tax base.
• It provides career choices. Entrepreneurship education should begin in kindergarten. We need to nurture the creativity that the youngest of our students bring with them to their first days and years of school. There are many age- and grade-appropriate activities that introduce entrepreneurship to young children. Middle school is when most students begin to think about career choices, and entrepreneurship should be part of that consideration. High schoolers can begin their entrepreneurial career or participate in deeper study through activities like the West Virginia High School Business Plan Competition or an extended summer activity. Students should know that entrepreneurship offers them an additional career path connected to whatever their interests or passions are. They can get a job or make a job.
• It makes community economies healthier. Communities with an entrepreneurial culture are more stable, financially healthier and more dynamic. Think about any town or city with a healthy, thriving, dynamic business core, and you will find an entrepreneurial culture. Calhoun County Superintendent Tim Woodward was enthusiastic about his schools’ participation in the America’s Entrepreneurial Schools program. “In small rural counties like Calhoun, it is essential to our growth and economic well-being that we foster entrepreneurial skills in our children,” he says. How better to start building a more entrepreneurial culture than with the young people who are already in the community?

Entrepreneurship education means many different things to educators, from elementary schools to universities and vocational programs. At each level of education, it is reasonable to expect different outcomes as students mature and build on previous knowledge, but the overall purpose remains the same: to develop knowledge, then expertise, as an entrepreneur.

“Through entrepreneurial, real-world experiences, our students become equipped with skills, resourcefulness and motivation,” says Thomas. “It is our hope that the entrepreneurial activities will inspire our youth to become future business leaders that will change the economy in our impoverished area.”

About the Author

Dr. Gene Coulson has been the executive director of EntreEd, the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education, for three years. He served as the executive director of career and technical innovation in the West Virginia Department of Education for 35 years, supporting initiatives in entrepreneurship education, business, marketing and project-based STEM programming. He lives in Charleston with his wife and their three Keeshonden dogs.