Opening Session

Annual Meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Rick Priory
Chairman, President and CEO
Duke Energy

Thank you, Lee (Lee Stiff, president of NCTM), for your kind introduction and for your leadership of this impressive group.

I must admit that during my student days, the prospect of spending an evening with 2,000 math teachers would not have been my first choice for a fun evening!

But over time, we mellow and mature, our perspective evolves, and old anxieties fade. Plus, I have it in writing from Lee that there will be no pop quizzes and you’ll grade my performance on a curve!

In all seriousness, I am immensely pleased and honored to be with you this evening. Math teachers, at every level of my education, have had a profound impact on my view of the world.

They introduced me to a field of study I found—and continue to find—richly rewarding. They revealed to me the inherent beauty of mathematical equations, which held great appeal for me. I appreciated their elegance, their precision, the closed form solutions they offered.

Sometimes it took hours, but running a set of equations always yielded an answer. And if that wasn’t satisfying enough, mathematical answers could be confirmed, and they built upon one another in logical progression. The teachers who unlocked that world for me, who taught me to explore, question and pursue both the exactness and the abstraction of mathematics, have my highest gratitude. As do each of you, for the worlds and minds you unlock everyday.

Before my career in the boardroom, I spent time in the classroom, as a professor of engineering, so I feel very much at home with this group. My colleagues and family would tell you that I still welcome any opportunity to lecture—in meetings or at the dinner table—so consider yourselves forewarned!

But my intent this evening is not to lecture. What I will try to do is to stimulate some creative thinking and discussion around the greatest business challenge confronting my company—and our society. That issue is education, and I do not overstate the case when I postulate that it is the single greatest business imperative of our time.

The Internet and e-commerce, global competition, customer retention, the introduction of innovative new product and service offerings—all take a back seat to ensuring that our educational systems produce literate, creative, informed and productive citizens.

The other business priorities I mentioned are not unimportant concerns. But without exception, they are driven by smart, well-educated men and women who have the curiosity and mental agility to make things happen.

That is certainly true at Duke Energy, a diversified, multinational energy company created in 1997 through the merger of two companies. Since then, we’ve undergone tremendous growth and change. Today, we are:

• Number 17 on the Fortune 500 list;
• The tenth largest energy company in the world;
• The second largest natural gas trader in the U.S.;
• The third largest electric power trader;
• The number one producer of Natural Gas Liquids in the U.S.
• In 2000, we generated revenues of more than $49 billion. Compare that to the $4 billion generated by

Duke Power in 1996, and you get a pretty clear idea of the rapid transformation we’ve gone through.
Our company is operating in a new industry and a new economy. And brain power—not power plants, not pipelines, not even the most elaborate e-commerce portal—is the greatest driver of our success in those new arenas. So we are keenly focused on the knowledge, initiative and innovation that begins when each of you sparks the interest of a young person.

And that is why I am with you this evening. As I look beyond our quarterly bottom line, beyond our three-year planning cycle, I am convinced that Duke Energy’s future depends on the success of our educational system.

We are already wrestling with the reality that there are fewer qualified individuals for the positions we need to fill. Every single line of business within Duke Energy has let me know—loud and clear—that sourcing key positions is a major challenge that affects their ability to meet both customer needs and corporate goals.

We have set aggressive growth targets for our company and we face promising market conditions worldwide. But we are severely handicapped if we are unable to build our workforce with competent, well-equipped men and women who can manage the demands of growth and change. The increasing shortage of skilled workers is the number one obstacle we face.

We are not alone.

Many U.S. employers consider the current shortage of skilled workers their most pressing business challenge. Of 92 issues listed in a recent survey by the Human Resource Institute, workforce skill level ranks 12th in importance today—but jumps to fourth in anticipated importance for 10 years from now.

In another national survey of 300 senior managers, more than half of the participants reported greater concern over the skills gap than any other business matter. Furthermore, they feared the skills shortage would worsen.

The current talent deficiency is compounded by the fact that the fastest-growing jobs require even higher levels of skill. Within Duke Energy, we’re not only struggling to fill jobs in engineering, information technology, environmental science, and accounting. We’re also in the market for newer, more specialized skills like international currency management, hydrocarbon trading, capital financing, energy derivatives, and risk management. You may not teach those subjects, you’re not expected to. You provide the important basics—from logic to numbers to thinking through solutions. You give us people equipped to learn. We can teach them the business.

The widening divide between desired and available skills is having a real and unwelcome effect on our economy as a whole. According to a joint survey by the National Alliance of Business and the National Institute for Literacy, U.S. businesses are losing an estimated $60 billion in productivity each year due to employees’ lack of basic skills. Another survey indicates that the lack of skilled workers is curtailing sales by as much as 33 percent.

You might say my interest in education is spurred by enlightened self-interest. And that would certainly be true! But I am also championing the cause because I strongly believe that the business community has a key role to play in improving the quality of education.

We cannot stand on the sidelines, complain or point fingers. We must lead where we are needed, and lend our ideas, experience, talent and resources to raise the level of educational achievement in this country.

You won’t be surprised to learn that I’ve got some ideas on how we might do that! I’ve been doing my homework!

First—Businesses can focus their philanthropic dollars and human capital on education.

This is basic, and in my mind, a prerequisite to anything else we should do. Businesses want to be responsible, involved members of the communities they serve. There are many, many social and human needs that require the backing of business, but perhaps none are as critical today as education.

Duke Energy’s partnership with education is longstanding. Over the past 38 years, we’ve provided millions of dollars in student scholarships. We leverage the educational gifts of employees through a strong matching gifts program. In 2000, we committed more than $1 million in matching gifts.

But the contribution of our human capital has far greater value and reach than the dollars we commit to education. So we commit our people, skills and experience to education efforts across the country. I won’t attempt to enumerate them all, but we participate in education foundations, public school foundations, Junior Achievement, NAACP Math and Science Initiatives, the Communities in Schools program, and many, many others.

We encourage our employees to take an active interest in their children’s school—or any school for that matter! Every employee in our company has time available to mentor, volunteer, and otherwise assist in the betterment of our schools and the welfare of our children. With more than 20,000 employees, you can appreciate the potential impact. Last year, our employees approached a quarter million volunteer hours—and many of those hours were spent in local schools.

An example of our commitment of time and leadership is our work with Clemson University’s WISE program—Women in Science and Engineering. The summer course is designed to keep young women interested and successful in math and science fields, and is led by a woman engineer from our Information Technology area.

The possibilities for business involvement in schools are endless. I urge my business peers to get substantially, personally involved—and to not limit their involvement to the writing of a check.

Second—Apply, measure and act on high standards.

You are ahead of the curve on this one, by more than a decade, and I applaud NCTM’s leadership in the development and deployment of standards for school mathematics. The fact that most states have adopted such standards since the 1989 release of your groundbreaking model is testament that you filled a need.

Measurable standards and accountability are key to achievement in the private sector. They must also have a place in our public school system. We must establish threshold levels of performance for students, educators and administrators. There must be incentives and rewards for success, and remedial consequences for failure. And there must be room for teachers to be creative and responsive to the needs of individual students and classes.

No business can hope to survive without clearly defined performance expectations and outcomes. We have a wealth of experience in setting measures and fostering accountability that can be adapted and applied to education. I urge you to call upon your business partners to help.

The ultimate performance measures come with competition, and business leaders can help today’s educational system prepare to thrive in that brave new world.

The perspective of companies like Duke Energy, that have successfully made the transition from regulated public service provider to competitive leader, may have particular relevance. We know first-hand the challenges you’ll face; but we’ve also experienced tremendous gains. The refrain you’re hearing today—that competition in education is no longer a matter of “if,” but of “when"—is one we heard not so long ago. I urge you to listen and—as you tell your students—prepare!

The growing number of charter schools, now more than 1,200 in 36 states, offers choice to parents and a first taste of competition to our public schools.

Another word of advice from someone who’s been there: invite competition and the rigors that come with climbing the competitive learning curve. You’ll be stronger, more disciplined and more intently focused on exceptional teaching and student performance. I’ve seen my company and industry achieve levels of performance we couldn’t imagine when we worked within the confines of regulation.

Third, and most important—The business community can partner with educators to build and maintain competitive teaching skills.

Earlier I described the burning priority we feel at Duke Energy to attract, retain, and continue developing our workforce. I suspect that you’re experiencing those same critical needs in the field of education.

An article in our local paper just last week reported that one in three first-year teachers in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools left the district last year.

Nationally, 35 to 50 percent of public school teachers leave the profession within the first five years, and almost 10 percent fail to complete their first year.

It is estimated that two million teachers will be needed over the next 10 years to replace retiring teachers, and to accommodate a rapidly growing student enrollment.

Those trends present an enormous challenge and opportunity for ensuring teacher quality well into the 21st century. Business can and should play a role in helping educators maintain the learning edge they need. We’re demanding higher levels of knowledge and skills from our students. And as we do, we must support our teachers in the classroom.

Duke Energy has worked directly with teachers for many years, sharing knowledge, experience and resources. For example, for 27 years we’ve conducted weeklong summer workshops for educators on energy and the environment. The hands-on workshops provide teachers with practical ideas on integrating history, science, math and energy issues in the classroom. More than 1,500 teachers have participated in these popular sessions.

Our alliance with the NCTM is a commitment we feel especially passionate about. Mathematics is the foundation of many of our core competencies, and we want to be a contributing partner in helping you prepare students to succeed in their studies and careers.

One recruiting manager shared with me a recent story of the need for math skills in every corner of our business. She was touring a group of instructors from North Carolina State University’s math and physical science departments around our offices. In every area they visited, from our trading and marketing floor, to information technology and our finance group, she asked the Duke managers what skills they look for in new college grads. Without exception, they mentioned strong mathematical capabilities, analytical abilities, and problem-solving skills. If you need to feel needed—take their pleas to heart!

It is with great pleasure and collaborative purpose that I announce today an exciting new partnership between Duke Energy and NCTM. Together we are working to create a Web-based professional development program for teachers, called Reflections. The partnership is a five-year project, with an initial focus on building early algebraic thinking in Kindergarten through 8th grade students.

Reflections will provide online video examples of mathematics instruction, student work and assignments related to the instruction, and online discussions and lesson-study critiques. In addition, a moderated “chat room” about the lesson will be conducted following each Web-video segment.

NCTM plans to establish partnerships with schools of education so that you can use the Web-based system to earn college credit toward a master’s degree.

The system is currently under development, and our goal is to have the entire Web-based program in place by April 2002.

In my mind, this program has tremendous potential to revolutionize the way teachers receive training and share mathematics and teaching practices. It brings together dedicated professionals like yourselves, from across the country, in a productive forum built around excellent curricula. And it builds on the capabilities of each teacher, who, in turn, touches hundreds of students.

Duke Energy is proud to partner with NCTM on this initiative—and proud to stand alongside each of you.

Fourth—Value and promote the human dynamics of teaching.

This may sound odd, since I’ve just introduced a major program built on the World Wide Web platform. But I think it is critical that schools, businesses, parents, administrators and all who have a stake in education remember that the highest quality of learning comes when students interact with teachers.

We hear lots of rhetoric about computers in the classroom, and I’m not challenging the need to have the latest and best learning tools available for our students. Far from it! We’ve worked hard to wire and enrich our schools with access to worldwide knowledge. But I would make the case that those tools should support—not attempt to replace—the “live” instruction, interaction, questioning and encouragement that occur in our nation’s classrooms.

Consider this: The average American child lives in a household with three televisions, two VCRs, two tape players, two CD players, a video game player and a computer. Electronic abundance—and I shouldn’t discourage that accumulation since my business sets all those appliances a-whir with electricity!

But no amount of electronic tools and toys can take the place of involved parents and teachers.

You realize the value of technology—you also recognize its limits. The NCTM overview of Principles and Standards states that “Technology cannot replace the mathematics teacher.”

I couldn’t agree more. There is no greater responsibility than the one you have. Each morning, as you face a class full of children or young adults, you face and shape our future. We may automate many functions in our world, but teaching, nurturing, and motivating our young people shouldn’t be one of them!

I began my talk by describing the impact education has on my business. But the ripples widen further.

The prosperity and productivity of our entire economy rests in our ability to teach and learn effectively. The soundness of our nation’s public policy decisions relies on an informed and responsible citizenry. Quality-of-life advances in medicine, science, technology and infrastructure come about through barrier-breaking research and innovation. And taken to a not-unreasonable extreme, educational malaise threatens our very ability to compete and lead globally.

The challenges we face as a society are great. But so are the opportunities and ideas that come from public/private partnerships. As teachers, you must know that you are not alone in the enormous tasks ahead of you.

There’s a visionary quote from the late Margaret Mead that I find especially relevant this evening: “We are now at the point where we must educate people in what nobody knew yesterday, and prepare in our schools for what no one knows yet, but what some people must know tomorrow.”

Increasingly, our future is unclear and uncharted. We face a rate of change unprecedented in the past century. Preparing for a future we can’t begin to know is an undertaking that will require collective resources and energy. It will require new levels of learning—and continuous relearning.

That preparation for an unknown future begins with reflection on what we do know: We know that knowledge and cognitive ability are the currency of our future. We know that there are good teachers across the country at every level doing amazing things. We also know that there is much work to do—work that goes well beyond the classroom walls.

The communities of business and education pursue the same goal—critical, creative thinking and reasoning. The ability to solve problems, adapt quickly, make connections and deliver results. The ability to continually learn, from mistakes as well as success. And the ability to live rich, full, productive lives. For the sake of our young people, for the sake of our shared future, let us unite in the pursuit.

Thank you.