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Email Event
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Entrepreneurial ventures such as the New Teacher Project, New Leaders for New Schools, and the KIPP Academies are expanding the boundaries of traditional education models by creating innovative frameworks for schooling. Yet federal and state regulations and policies can often hinder rather than support the growth of education innovations. These barriers must be removed to better serve American students.
A new report by AEI, the Center for American Progress, New Profit Inc., and Public Impact offers politically viable solutions to these challenges. Through interviews with several education entrepreneurs and additional research, the authors of the report propose creative ways through which federal and state governments can support and invest in effective school reform. At this event, entrepreneurs will share their experience in changing the traditional education landscape and, together with education policy experts, offer their perspective on how federal and state policy can better support the success and growth of innovations in education.
| 10:30 a.m. | Registration and Refreshments | |
| 11:00 | Introduction: | Cynthia Brown, Center for American Progress |
| Frederick M. Hess, AEI | ||
| Remarks: | Michelle Rhee, District of Columbia Public Schools U.S. Representative Rob Bishop (R-Ut.) |
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11:30 |
Panel I: A Call for Greater State and Federal Support for Innovation | |
| Panelists: | Cynthia Brown, Center for American Progress | |
| Bryan Hassel, Public Impact | ||
| Frederick M. Hess, AEI | ||
| Julie Kowal, Public Impact | ||
| Kim Syman, New Profit Inc. | ||
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12:30 p.m. |
Panel II: A Perspective from Education Entrepreneurs on the Ground | |
| Panelists: | Larry Berger, Wireless Generation | |
| Derek Canty, College Summit | ||
| Deborah McGriff, New Schools Venture Fund | ||
| 1:30 | Adjournment | |
American Enterprise Institute
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 8, 2009--The American Enterprise Institute, the Center for American Progress, New Profit Inc., and Public Impact released a new report on May 5 entitled "Stimulating Excellence: Unleashing the Power of Innovation in Education." District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, who spoke at the launch event at the Hotel Monaco, lauded the report and urged policymakers to take a "more active and vocal role" in ensuring its recommendations help spur a rising generation of educational entrepreneurs.
The report, which offers creative solutions and ideas from a collection of leading educational entrepreneurs, is intended to jump start the conversation about how to support the emergence, success, and growth of entrepreneurial problem-solvers in K-12 schooling. On the heels of the federal 2009 Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which accords increasing importance to entrepreneurship in education through a $650 million "innovation fund," the report suggests how policymakers can open up the K-12 sector to innovation while maintaining a determined focus on quality and results.
Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at AEI, and Cynthia Brown, vice president for education policy at the Center for American Progress, discussed how federal, state, and local governments can promote the successes demonstrated by enterprising ventures such as the New Teacher Project, New Leaders for New Schools, and the KIPP Academies. An array of entrepreneurs, including Larry Berger, CEO of Wireless Generation, and Derek Canty, program lead of College Summit, also spoke about the on-the-ground challenges they face in attempting to penetrate new education markets and deliver their services at scale.
U.S. Representative Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said that the report illuminates many of the most critical chokepoints that inhibit entrepreneurial success in the K-12 sector, but he also cautioned that the problems facing the education sector "cannot be resolved by Washington." His vision for systemic change in education employs market forces to satisfy and empower parents, who he described as the real vehicles of change in education.
The AEI/CAP/New Profit/Public Impact report outlines several key policy prescriptions for how district and state superintendents, governors, and the Obama administration can support and invest in educational entrepreneurship. The authors noted that these recommendations are not a wish list of items to support entrepreneurs; rather, they represent a nonpartisan agenda for federal, state and local leaders to address the rules, procedures, and practices that hinder innovation in education. The recommendations include:
- Using dramatically better information to create a performance culture
- Opening the public K-12 system to a diverse set of providers
- Making districts and other buyers into real "customers"
- Using public policy to encourage financing for entrepreneurial ventures
In addition to the above recommendations, several overarching themes arose from conversations with leading education entrepreneurs:
- Use the "bully pulpit." Federal and state leaders must communicate a commitment to promising innovations. This can be done by educating philanthropists and private investors about the potential of educational entrepreneurship and by providing a forum for addressing the barriers that hinder the creation and growth of effective ventures.
- Inventory national and state agencies. This process can be used to assess agencies' openness to entrepreneurship, evaluate their performance metrics, and eliminate outdated rules and practices that today impose a burden relative to the benefits they convey.
- Engage foundations and private investors. Private funders can help jump start many of these proposals by providing seed funding for new initiatives and cofunding alongside publicly financed ventures.
- Reexamine the traditional structures of public schooling. Many of the recommendations are designed to make the traditional structures in public education more conducive to entrepreneurship. But by carefully revisiting broader assumptions--such as providing almost all instruction via teachers who work on-site with students--policymakers can begin to open up even more opportunities for entrepreneurship in K-12 education.
--THOMAS GIFT and GREG FRANKE
