The Case for Educational Entrepreneurship
Hard Truths About Risk, Reform, and Reinvention

Resident Scholar Frederick M. Hess
Resident Scholar
Frederick M. Hess
To an unprecedented degree, this is the era of educational entrepreneurship. Unconventional thinkers have waded into the world of K-12 education, founded influential organizations, and upended conventions. They have developed new models for delivering instruction or recruiting teachers and have applied old-fashioned practices with inspired fidelity. While their efforts constitute a still-minuscule portion of schooling, they are responsible for many of the most exciting developments in 21st-century education.

Is this a good thing? What does it really mean? And what does it imply for policy and school improvement?

Consider Wireless Generation, a New York-based firm that provides schools with diagnostic software. The system operates on handheld computers, allowing teachers to diagnose student needs and chart progress while circling their classrooms. Growing Stars is a California-based firm that provides tutoring for American students using dozens of instructors based in Cochin, India. Able to hire educated Indians at a steep discount, Growing Stars and its competitors are charging Americans $20 an hour for personal tutoring, less than half of the prevailing rate in much of the U.S.

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Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies.

About the Author

 

Frederick M.
Hess
  • An educator, political scientist, and author, Frederick M. Hess studies a range of K-12 and higher education issues. He is the author of influential books on education including The Same Thing Over and Over, Education Unbound, Common Sense School Reform, Revolution at the Margins, and Spinning Wheels, and pens the Education Week blog "Rick Hess Straight Up."  His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, New York Times and National Review. He has edited widely-cited volumes on education philanthropy, stretching the school dollar, the impact of education research, and No Child Left Behind.  He serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the Review Board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education, and on the Boards of Directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 SCHOOLS, and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University, and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum.

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  • Email: rhess@aei.org
  • Assistant Info

    Name: Rebecca King
    Phone: 202-862-5904
    Email: Rebecca.King@aei.org
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