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Public Management Program

 

25th Anniversary

Innovation in Education Session

Moderator
Michael Kirst, Professor, Stanford School of Education

Panelists
Lisa Daggs, Director, Educational Operations, New Schools Venture Fund
Julien Phillips, Co-Founder/Executive Director, Partners in School Innovation
Lauren Dutton, Director Western Development, The Edison Project

Student Organizer of the Panel
Bill Tucker

Michael Kirst
Professor, Stanford School of Education
Ernie Arbuckle and Arjay Miller started (via a fellowship from Ford and the US Department of Education) an Urban Management Program. Students who got just doctorate degrees went on to education, policy. In the 1970's and 1980's they changed over to MBA/MA degrees (simultaneous dual enrollment). Lately, people have combined policy with public administration: 7-9 grads with dual degrees.

In the 1990's, students sat down with the faculty, realizing that we need to go beyond policy to tailored. Education in international development education (psychology, etc.). The late 1990's has seen 10 students a year do the degree and many go on to start ventures (new profit or nonprofit ventures). Example: new business opportunities in education and training.

Julien Phillips
Co-Founder/Executive Director, Partners in School Innovation
In 1968, I came to Stanford business school straight out of the Peace Corps. I formed a student initiative on public sector management since everything was business oriented. I worked at the state education level as Deputy Director. I also worked with McKinsey on education and change management. I felt McKinsey was doing public service but wanted to do something more directly connected to education—so I founded Partners in School Innovation.

Redeem the promise of America for all citizens, especially low income citizens. Many people in these misunderstood communities have talent, vision to make change at policy level. There are many talented people who wanted to work on education issues but not a lot of opportunity.

Provide people to help strong leaders in school to help actualize improvements which the schools want to implement. Provide the school with 4-7 partners for 5-7 years. Agree on the school's highest priority for change. Engage parents in enabling the partners to introduce and spread innovation that contributes to higher learning.

Be results oriented, use project management skills. Public schools will be the dominant delivery system for America's children—at least in the near future. Education is like the car industry in the 1960's. Charter schools, etc. are good because they provide lessons to public education. Teacher training is important.

The individual school is the unit which determines teacher quality and engagement on teams. "Individual heroism" cannot deliver in the long term. We need systems and structures that can sustain increased education outcomes.

Needs: A shorter cycle time to determine whether or not a school is working. Keep working units small (schools look like factories in the 1960's). Students must be engaged as active shapers of a school. Find a way to create systemic leadership systems. Develop alternative educational institutions that challenge the existing system. Stay humble. MBA's can't solve the education problems as MBA's—you need to be an "educator"

Lauren Dutton
Director Western Development, The Edison Project
In 1991, a team of 40 people came together to think about how to let the public own the schools but hire the Edison Project to run the schools. Money goes to:

New curriculum
5-week training
Technology in schools
Make sure all families have a computer in the home

Set up 5-year contracts, cancelable with 60-day notice. Why for-profit? More financial resources to do research and development. Access capital markets to provide sustainable service. Makes Edison prove outcomes, in order to deliver value and return. High standards are a necessity.

Profile: 65% children of color; 60% free/reduced lunch. Many schools: 20+ across the country. Staffed executive team where all or most are educators (superintendents and professors). One of Edison's cornerstones is the use of research based best-practices.

Elements:

Research based organization/curriculum
Commitment to the arts and language
Longer school days and school year (7-8 hours, 195-200 days)
Huge investment in professional development, school support visits(90 minutes daily with team)
The school within a school turns it into an academy (?????), a team of teachers
Focus on technology
Laptops for teachers
Linking teachers, families, staff across the country
Teacher support sharing on intranet
National network system
Principals stay in the district system but have national networks of Edison schools

Outcomes:

5% gain per year in their percentile—which is significant
Nationally, it's flat
The mobility rate is low at 7%: parents are keeping their kids in school

Innovations:

They serve as a pilot program for the system to demonstrate new ideas and then share them
Now every elementary school in Wichita focuses 90 minutes/day on reading
Creates a national community of principals and administrators

Lisa Daggs
Director, Educational Operations, New Schools Venture Fund
Mission: to improve K-12 education by supporting education entrepreneurs. How: Create/support strong sustainable communities of educational entrepreneurs and invest in scalable, sustainable education models that can improve educational outcomes.

Five Criteria:

Scalable?
Sustainable?
Passionate leadership?
Can the NSVF make a difference?
Can this venture significantly improve K-12 education? Sweet spot? Measurable? Address at least two drivers?

New economic leaders lead to new schools which leads to emerging educational entrepreneurship.

How NSVF operates:

Review the incoming business plan
Due diligence on promising ventures
Materials to investment partners at quarterly
Final board sign-off
Incubate projects, network building (ex: monthly dinners, annual conference)

Questions

Q. Why is everyone focused on K-12, not early education?

A. from Lisa Daggs:
K-12 was a place to start.

A. from Lauren Dutton:
We do some pre-K: we may get further later.

Q. Are New Schools calculated return on investment (ROI)or social return on investment (SROI)?

A. from Lisa Daggs:
We're looking at the double bottom line. The Haas school did research on the SROI issue. If you back out social cost, the financial return is greater than zero.

Q. How does Edison compensate teachers? How did that change go?

A. from Lauren Dutton:
We created a career ladder for teachers: mentor (has been there for 8-10 years); senior teacher (in curriculum area); teacher (has been there for 3-6 years); and resident teacher. Teachers can move up a lot faster in Edison.

Q. Edison has more staff and more resources–how do they make money?

A. from Lauren Dutton:
Edison will not make money until it reaches scale—maybe four years from now.

Q. How about revenues?

A. from Lauren Dutton:
The Fisher Fund helps defray Edison's costs in California.

Q. How does Edison deal with the complexities of ESL?

A. from Lauren Dutton:
There's a full-time community coordinator.