Former 7-Eleven and Blockbuster CEO James Keyes: 5 Things That Should Be Done To Improve The US Educational System
STEAM vs. STEM…We can improve engagement in STEM by adding the A for STEAM. In other words, bring the creativity into learning. Einstein once said that creativity is intelligence having fun. Math and Science “can” be fun, but not in isolation. Bringing the art back into STEM will improve engagement.
As a part of our interview series about the things that should be done to improve the US educational system I had the pleasure to interview James W. (Jim) Keyes.
Jim Keyes is a global business, leader, philanthropist, artist, musician, author, and modern renaissance man. He is the former CEO of two Fortune 500 companies…7-Eleven and Blockbuster and today serves on several public company and philanthropic boards. His mission in life is to help everyone achieve their full potential through the power of learning.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share the “backstory” behind what brought you to this particular career path?
I have been fortunate to be a living example of the American Dream. Growing up in a challenging environment with too many children and too little money, I found that education was the path to overcoming obstacles and unlocking opportunity. Growing up without running water, the idea of college seemed to be an impossible dream. The cards seemed to be stacked against me…but the reality is that I was blessed to be born in America. Despite the obstacles, the opportunity was there for the taking. With the advantage of public school teachers who believed in me, I was encouraged to succeed, going on to the College of the Holy Cross, Columbia Graduate School of Business, and eventually to the privilege of leading two Fortune 500 Companies. The secret to my success? Education. I didn’t grow up with aspirations for a career in business. Instead, I took advantage of education and followed my opportunity to ultimately enjoy the American Dream. My learning during this journey was that success wasn’t about earning money…but instead was about earning freedom. I learned that freedom, one’s ability to control one’s own destiny, comes from learning. The more you learn, the more free you can be. This was my purpose in writing Education is Freedom…to share the roadmap to freedom with others.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
During September 11, 2001, I was CEO of 7-Eleven and had to put the entire company on emergency response protocol when certain of our stores came under attack from our own citizens. In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks, people turned to the immigrants at 7-Eleven to take out their frustrations. Bricks through windows and physical assault of store employees occurred. We took immediate action to partner with the American Red Cross to help 7-Eleven take on the role of “solution” rather than the image of the problem, ultimately raising $3mm in the first two weeks through the sale of red, white and blue ribbons.
This incident raised the natural question…why did we have a majority of franchisees who were immigrants? I decided to ask them and began exploring the reasons for 7-Eleven’s popularity among first generation Americans. It turned out that their answer was the same. Running a convenience store, a nail salon, a Subway, etc. were all forms of work that could provide an immigrant with a pathway to the American Dream. They would work in a store until they could afford to bring over more of their relatives with work visas, then eventually save the money to acquire their own franchise. Some of the franchisees were so successful, that they earned more than I did as CEO of the company. I also noted that the first thing most franchisees did with their earnings was to educate their children to give them an even better chance of enjoying the American Dream.
This learning inspired me to create a501c3 foundation called Education is Freedom. If first-generation Americans could find the American Dream in 7-Eleven, why not make the opportunity available to our own underprivileged children? Along with several other CEO’s, I put together the plan to go into public schools and to provide advisory services to help young students see the path through high school graduation, helping them secure funding scholarships, providing internships and ultimately helping them achieve their full potential. The success of this initiative ultimately inspired my decision to write the book, Education is Freedom: The Future is in Your Hands. My lesson from that post 9/11 experience is that the American Dream is alive and well and fueled by the power of life-long learning.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
The book, Education is Freedom, is more than a literary journey. It is a movement, intended to encourage everyone to fulfill their full potential through the power of learning. For those in the first third of their life, it is intended to inspire them to seek education as the key to unlock opportunity. For those in the second third of their life, it is to demonstrate the power of learning to change their trajectory. For those in the last third of their life, it is to encourage life-long learning to enrich their golden years. The book provides a common sense roadmap to help each of us leverage the power of learning into our own personal freedom. On a more macro scale, the book is also a call to action for society to embrace the importance of education to sustain a working democracy. It is also a call to action for corporations, who represent the ultimate “demand” for an educated workforce, to step up and invest in the technological changes that will enable us to transform the way we teach and learn.
Can you briefly share with our readers why you are an authority in the education field?
I am not an “authority” in the education field. I have spent the last twenty years in education using philanthropy to supplement and support the existing system. Through the creation of the Education is Freedom Foundation, serving as a founding board member of the Dallas Education Foundation and various ad hoc initiatives with public and private schools over the years, I have become closely involved with the challenges we face. Countless efforts are underway to improve our public school systems in cities across the country. This incremental improvement is essential, but insufficient. My mission is not to get involved in those day-to-day initiatives, but instead, I see myself as a disruptor. Just as Elon Musk transformed the automotive and commercial space industry or Jeff Bezos transformed the Retail industry, I hope to be a positive influence for the way we transform education. From the student perspective, it is all about individual initiative. There are sufficient technologies available at no cost today in every child’s phone or laptop to supplement their formal education process. My goal is to light up their curiosity and initiative to learn. From the perspective of society in general, our mission is a call to action for corporations and individuals to push for technology solutions to improve the way we teach and learn. With AI, for example, the delivery of content can be curated to provide the method (audio, video, written, etc.) that is most effective with individual students’ retention. Engagement can be dramatically improved with virtual reality, bringing subjects like science or history to life in ways that traditional books and blackboards could only dream of. The future is here, but we need to put it to work in our schools today.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. From your point of view, how would you rate the results of the US education system?
The US education system is, historically, the best education system in the world. Still, it is badly in need of transformation. Our public school system was created in the industrial age in response to the need for an educated workforce. In the desire to “mass produce” educated workers, the system adopted many of the characteristics of commercial mass production from process standardization to the very bells that announce the changing of shifts. As we move into the Information Age, the needs for education workers is dramatically increased, yet the methods of teaching and learning will be dramatically different.
Unfortunately, we are not moving fast enough to transform our education system to maintain global competitiveness. In fact, our ability to teach basic skills has fallen behind other countries. One of the world’s largest cross-functional tests is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that measures reading ability, math and science capabilities in 15-year-olds across both developed and undeveloped countries. The US places below 40 out of 71 countries in math and under 25th in science. Among developed countries of the OECD, the US placed 30th out of 35 countries in math. This performance has an impact on post-secondary performance with the US no longer in the top ten of industrialized nations in post-secondary graduation rates.
As a former leader of two Fortune 500 companies, I can assure you that this is a crisis of both national security and economic competitiveness. The ability to sustain a working democracy, per our founding fathers, is dependent upon an educated populace. In turn, the ability to maintain global competitiveness is dependent upon the ability for domestic corporations to have access to an educated workforce. Clearly, we must improve.
Can you identify 5 areas of the US education system that are going really great?
- Increased use of data: Access to data to measure results is finally available to many administrators and being used in unprecedented ways to improve performance. An organization called Commit, in Dallas, TX, for example, has brought analytics to the forefront resulting in dramatic improvement in teacher and student performance across many fronts.
- Philanthropic support: Unprecedented amounts of capital have been brought to the table by individuals and foundations that are increasingly investing in performance improvement in public and private schools across the country.
- Accountability: Availability of information has made it possible to track performance and hold both administrators and teaching professionals more accountable for their results in the classroom. This is just a beginning, but availability of data and improved tracking mechanisms alone isn’t the answer…the opportunity to provide incentives and reward success is also significantly improved.
- Technology: The pandemic had one silver lining. The closure of schools accelerated the adoption of technologies for teaching and learning by as much as 20 years. Wi-Fi Access, hardware and software solutions made it possible for the vast majority of students to participate in remote learning. While the effectiveness of digital learning was weak, at best, the foundation was laid to provide improved tools, greater integration, and improved engagement with those tools over time.
- Vocational focus: An increased awareness of the need for vocational employment ranging from dental hygienists, to airline pilots has caused many public school systems to step up their vocational training capabilities. Vocational training is no longer about “shop class” but instead offers a broad range of service training that provides a clear path to employment even without a college degree.
- Early college: Many school districts have teamed with local colleges and universities to provide “early college” access to high school students. Many of those students are able to complete an associates degree in college when they graduate from high school. This access provides enhanced education at an earlier age while also providing an accelerated path to post-secondary education.
Can you identify the 5 key areas of the US education system that should be prioritized for improvement? Can you explain why those are so critical?
- Early reading: Much of the challenge faced by students in public school systems stems from a slow start. This is especially challenging where English is a second language and students are unable to get English reading skills at home. As a result, a disproportionate number of students struggle with fundamental reading skill that becomes an impairment to the progression of their education.
- Integration of technology: Technology is the game changer, but today’s technology in education is similar to the days before Microsoft Office and other tools that we take for granted. In other words, education tools are stand alone and discrete products that don’t allow for smooth transition from one teacher or platform to the next, effective transfer of test scores and grading, or consistency in graphic presentation. It is time for the software developers to incorporate open coding to allow everyone to build on improved platforms for a more effective and fully integrated solution.
- Engagement: Student engagement is suffering across the board. The irony is that technology has become such an effective distraction that students prefer to play video games or use social media rather than focus on their studies. The opportunity, however, is there to meet them where they live. In other words, we can incorporate the same tools used by game makers and social media providers to secure engagement. Improved graphics, short form content, incentives, etc. are all possible in the world of technology but have not yet been applied to education technology to improve student engagement and retention.
- Soft skills (arts, PE): Students are adopting specialized studies far earlier than their maturity levels. In other words, a student focused on STEM from high school onward may be on a solid path to become and engineer, but the absence of the arts in their curriculum will make them less likely to draw from their right brain creativity in solving future engineering problems. Physical education, the arts and many other “soft skills” have been removed from our curriculum to the detriment of well-rounded students.
- Funding: Public education funding through local real estate taxes must be reconsidered. This approach will clearly bring more funding to areas with higher real estate values while starving those areas more economically challenged. This is a case of the rich not only getting richer, but also getting smarter because of their access to quality public education. The reinvention of funding must not only address the source of funds, but also the use. In spite of our perceptions that public school expenses are too high, our schools are physically deteriorating and our teachers remain underpaid. If we want high quality public education, which was the basis from which our country became a global leader, then we must rethink both the sources and uses of funds.
How is the US doing with regard to engaging young people in STEM? Can you suggest three ways we can increase this engagement?
- Use technology to stimulate engagement: STEM can be exciting if presented properly. With technology available today, we need to change the way we teach and learn Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Virtual reality, for example, can make science come alive. Instead of reading about the planets in a textbook, imagine the opportunity to do a fly-by of that planet via virtual reality. Instead of learning about heart surgery from a book, imagine the opportunity to observe a live heart transplant via technology. These are tools that can make learning come alive.
- Provide incentives: With today’s technology, we can use blockchain security to offer students scholarship dollars “before” they graduate, not after. In other words, we can partner with scholarship providers to use those funds as incentives to perform. Imagine, if you will, a student struggling in math who discovers the ability to earn scholarship money at $.20 per shot by passing a Kahn Academy test, with those funds going into a 529 account for future college tuition. We can change the game by providing incentives along the way.
- STEAM vs. STEM…We can improve engagement in STEM by adding the A for STEAM. In other words, bring the creativity into learning. Einstein once said that creativity is intelligence having fun. Math and Science “can” be fun, but not in isolation. Bringing the art back into STEM will improve engagement.
Can you articulate to our readers why it’s so important to engage girls and women in STEM subjects?
I once had the privilege of presenting to the Woman’s Foundation of Texas and spoke to the importance of educating women to the advancement of society. I used the example of a young woman born in the early 1900’s in a border town in S. Texas. She was orphaned as a child and bounced from foster home to foster home, but saw education as her path forward. She ended up with two masters degrees, served as a librarian in her small down public school system and raised 6 children…all of whom have advanced degrees including a doctor and a dentist. When I began the story, the crowd was loud and somewhat unruly. By the end of the story, one could hear a pin drop in a room with 1,000 women dining. At the end, I introduced my 95-year-old mother-in-law, Anjiolina Ramirez, to thundering applause. I closed with this message…
Teach a woman, you teach a family
Teach a family, you teach the community
Teach the community, you teach the world.
Apply this to STEM and you see the future. As we move into the Information Age, the role of technology is increasingly important. Equally important is the role of ethics and compassion as it relates to the use of technology and the future of humanity. Women must be front and center in this discussion for the good of all mankind.
How is the US doing with regard to engaging girls and women in STEM subjects? Can you suggest three ways we can increase this engagement?
The US is improving but still has a long way to go to engage women in STEM. Three ways this can improve will be 1) Add the arts to make the focus STEAM, 2) Use technology to increase engagement of women at an early age, and 3) curate STEAM curriculum to be more relevant and engaging for women.
If you had the power to influence or change the entire US educational infrastructure, what five things would you implement to improve and reform our education system? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Modify public school funding to eliminate reliance on local real estate taxes.
- Engage the teachers union to facilitate higher base pay combined with pay for performance standards.
- Leverage public/private partnerships to support educational initiatives.
- Use technology to transform the way we teach and learn.
- Eliminate 12th grade and makes at least two years of college available to all.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Education is Freedom…the more you learn, the more you can do.
We are blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Bill Gates…to engage with him on ways to bring collaboration across all technology platforms.
Sal Kahn, founder of Kahn Academy, to discuss use of micro-scholarships for Kahn Academy to provide incentives to learn.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Instagram, Facebook and TikTok: jkeyesauthor
Linked In: James Keyes
Website: JamesWKeyes.com
Thank you so much for these insights! This was so inspiring!
Former 7-Eleven and Blockbuster CEO James Keyes: 5 Things That Should Be Done To Improve The US… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.