Farrell Center Surveys High School Entrepreneurship

UNIVERSITY PARK (February 25, 2005)—Although few high schools offer courses in entrepreneurship, all respondents to a recent online survey conducted by the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business said it’s crucial for students to acquire entrepreneurship skills prior to secondary-school graduation.

The 45-question survey, which was launched in November, elicited responses from teachers, principals, senior technology officers, and superintendents at high schools and K-12 schools in seven states. Participating schools ranged in size from 150 to 3,800 students.

According to the survey results:

• About 80% of schools do not offer a course with the word “entrepreneurship” in the title.
  
  
• Only 32% of schools have a course that incorporates some aspect of entrepreneurship in its learning objective.
  
  
• 80% of respondents said there is not an initiative at their school or school district to begin teaching entrepreneurship in the near future.
  
  
• Yet 100% of respondents find it “important” or “very important” that high school students learn about entrepreneurship.
  
  
• 72% of respondents suggested the need for teacher training to master e-course teaching techniques, with 89% of respondents willing to invest time and effort into learning to teach e-courses.
  
  

In 2003, the Farrell Center spearheaded the development of a computer-enhanced learning platform to teach entrepreneurship to a broader student population. Now, the Smeal College research center is in the midst of developing a Center for Entrepreneurship Learning (CEL) at the University, which will be used to train teachers not only from Penn State, but also from other two- and four-year colleges and high schools.

The role of the CEL will be to create a laboratory environment where teachers will learn how to use problem-based learning for entrepreneurship education and develop problems and courseware tailored to their own needs.

“At Penn State, we’ve successfully implemented a unique, technology-supported teaching method that increases by at least five-fold the number of students able to participate in entrepreneurship education,” said Tony Warren, director of the Farrell Center. “Now, we’re tackling an important need highlighted in our survey. Only through education can we prepare a sufficient body of teachers to address the need of providing entrepreneurship education to students at all levels.”