In 1995, Renee Lerche, director of Ford Motor Company's adult education training, got an unusual message from then-chairman Alex Trotman. Trotman had just received a call from Michigan governor John Engler asking Ford to create a charter high school on company grounds. "We don't want to start a school," a skeptical Trotman told Lerche. "See what else we can do." But Lerche, who has a doctorate in education, was intrigued by Engler's idea. She brought it up during a lunch meeting with the director of the Henry Ford Museum and the head of Wayne County's Regional Educational Service Agency, the county's charter-granting body. The lunch turned into a brainstorming session about a high school whose curriculum would be closely linked to the museum's exhibits. The trio put together a plan and convinced Trotman that Ford should join the charter school movement.

This fall, the Henry Ford Academy will begin its fifth school year. The school is integrated into the campus of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, across the street from Ford's world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. Museum visitors can look through glass walls and see groups of students collaborating on school projects in classrooms that look out onto exhibits. "This school is operating in the middle of a business. It's not off in some secluded location," says Lerche. "They're getting attention from the staff and the administrators, as well as from mentors and tutors from Ford."