Educational Everest: Climbing Up from the Covid Lost Learning Cliff

For the second year in a row, McNair Academic High School in Jersey City participated in the innovative Cases in the Classroom program, organized by Mentoring Mission non-profit based in Chicago.

Dr. Steve C. Michael, PhD, Harvard Business School, currently Professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, flew to New Jersey on June 20. He led three McNair Economics classes taught by Robert Thomas through the final discussions of Harvard Publishing cases dealing with American Airlines and Nike.

Also on June 20, Marc Pershan, B.A. Harvard and MBA NYU, led the discussion via Zoom with a McNair World History class taught by Franky Maldonado about the Harvard Publishing case dealing with Commonwealth Joe’s Coffee.

In the past, these real-life business cases, written by Harvard and other business school faculty, were studied exclusively at the college level.

Cases in the Classroom is a Mentoring Mission program that is innovative and exciting for students and faculty alike. The mentors who lead the final discussion of each case – in Socratic style - are graduates of Harvard Business School and other business schools. They are energized by the students and impressed by their thoughtfulness.

“The most valuable commodity in the world is judgment,” said Dr. Michael. “Case instruction causes the student to develop judgment in real time and to defend that judgment. McNair's students were outstanding in their performance,” he concluded.

Bringing business mentors into the high school classroom has been the passionate pursuit of Carol Valentino-Barry since 2012. She is a former high school business teacher, subcontractor for the Education and Training with the Department of Labor and founder/executive director of Mentoring Mission.

Valentino-Barry saw the disconnect for students between school and the real world and wanted to inspire them to consider all the possibilities that are available for their futures. Her wake-up call was reading the “Lasting Impact Student – A Business Leader’s Playbook for Supporting American Schools” by the Gates Foundation, The Boston Consulting Group and Harvard Business School.

"When I first got the report, I tossed it to the side. Then I realized: this is a call to action. The time had come for American business leaders to work with educators for the good of the students, our workforce and the economy."

Last year, McNair was one of the first high schools outside of Chicago to participate in Cases in the Classroom.

McNair history teacher Franky Maldonado and his classes participated in Cases in the Classroom in 2021 and welcomed the opportunity to do it again this year. Teachers Maldonado and Thomas did the preliminary work with the students in the days leading up to the final discussions with the mentors. “The case studies gave my students the opportunity to meet with experts that know the details of these cases. Students were able to interact in meaningful discussions that expanded their understanding of the content,” Maldonado said.

Economics teacher Robert Thomas believes this year's Cases in the Classroom was “an informative experience for me, my students and a worthwhile opportunity to bring economics to life.”

“Following the lock-down during Covid, innovation is more important than ever,” said Carol Valentino-Barry. She referred to the April 4, 2022 McKinsey & Company report “How Covid-19 Caused a Global Learning Crisis.” The report states (among other things) that schools need to respond across multiple horizons and double down on fundamentals while innovating to adapt.

“Cases in the Classroom is one way of shaking up the status quo in the classroom and creating meaningful interactions between students and business mentors,” she said.

Marc Pershan summed it up: “We often talk about ‘giving back’ in the business world but often it feels like no one really benefits from our activities. Teaching live cases to students is more than giving back; it is passing on direct knowledge to high school students. Their appreciation is obvious and the impact tremendous.”

For more information about Mentoring Mission and Cases in the Classroom, visit www.mentoringmission.org or contact Carol Valentino-Barry at carolvalentinobarry@gmail.com