The Rice University Education Entrepreneurship Program. MBA Roundtable Innovator Award Program

Transcription

1 The Rice University Education Entrepreneurship Program Submission for MBA Roundtable Innovator Award Program September 20, 2013 Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business Rice University

2 BACKGROUND Today s public K-12 schools are multidimensional and complex organizations. School leaders face many challenges: they must master finance, operations, public policy, curriculum and discipline; they need to create a vision, foster a culture of achievement, and build relationships among diverse groups; and, they must use data to make decisions. School leaders must be creative, flexible, visionary, passionate, and persistent. They must build bridges and build communities. In short, they must be great educators, transformative leaders, and highly effective business entrepreneurs. To meet this multilayered educational leadership need in our communities, the Rice University Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP) was established to be the nation s foremost leadership development program for highly motivated educators committed to leading public schools. At REEP, we believe that the school is the unit of change and can operate most successfully under entrepreneurial leadership. The role of the principal or school leader is critical to school-wide performance and student achievement, and working in a decentralized, entrepreneurial environment requires leaders to have a broad knowledge base and skill-set. REEP s innovative curriculum enables educators from across Houston to reimagine what is possible and create effective learning environments for students, teachers, staff, and communities. The various REEP programs shape the next generation of transformational school leaders by first exposing them to world-class business training from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business to build organizational management and change management capacity. REEP then combines the business school education with an intensive K-12 campus-based leadership development curriculum to equip educators with skills and networks to implement change in their educational contexts. Through the rigorous REEP curriculum covering distinctive topics, educators learn the personal, interpersonal, and functional skills needed to accelerate their personal development and abilities to make a positive difference in their school environments. By the conclusion of the program, REEP graduates are ready to lead schools as effective CEOs. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF REEP REEP was launched in 2007 with a generous donation from Houston Endowment, Inc., one of the nation s largest philanthropic foundations. Houston Endowment was established by Jesse H. Jones in 1937 in order to improve lives of the people of greater Houston. With a mission of developing principled, innovative thought leaders in global communities, the Jones School s name is a tribute to the vision, entrepreneurship and dedication to excellence of Jesse Jones. 2

3 REEP was designed to meet the development needs of both current and aspiring campus leaders. A founding premise was that curriculum in most education leader programs is inadequate to meet the challenges and opportunities facing today s school leaders, and many educators do not have access to networks and problem solving techniques or exposure to other industries. The goal is to develop change agents who can evaluate and serve the needs of their community leaders who are enabled to think and operate as free agents in a market system versus a monopoly system. While some might question how a business school can prepare education leaders, Bill Glick, Dean of the Jones School, thought otherwise and observed that this is consistent with leadership development in many other industry sectors. We don t train technicians we train leaders. We don t know anything about engineering, drilling or how to save hospital patients. But, we do know about management, leadership and entrepreneurship. REEP grew organically in Houston as several education and business leaders recognized the need to develop autonomous school leadership, leaders trained in a different setting to get different results. The founders included both district and charter leaders, non-profit organizations, philanthropists and the faculty and staff of Rice University. The group was united by a huge sense of urgency about the need for post-secondary achievement in the ever-changing and diversifying Houston community. Recent research commissioned by Houston Endowment revealed that only 22% of 8th grade students enrolled in Texas public schools achieved any sort of postsecondary certificate or degree within 6 years of their expected high school graduation date. For our important growing Latino and African-American populations, that percentage drops to 13%. In a world where education is increasingly the prerequisite for career success, we need to create schools that inspire dramatically different results. And, this starts with the school leader. REEP is the first alternative certification program in the State of Texas to operate solely in a school of business. True to its entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to quality, REEP began recruiting students before the Texas Education Agency (TEA) had approved the program for principal certification, which it did with resounding praise as an exemplar for principal preparation. Rice University does not have a School of Education, so everything is orchestrated from the business school. REEP does, however, engage education experts to provide a full and robust educational and experiential learning experience. Additionally, the broader Rice University is very active in serving the Houston community, especially public education, by leveraging world-class faculty research and teaching and a general passion for unconventional wisdom. PROCESS AND EXECUTION At REEP, we believe that the school is the unit of change and can operate successfully under entrepreneurial leadership, the role of the principal or school leader is critical to school-wide performance and student achievement, and that decentralized, entrepreneurial leadership requires leaders to have a broad knowledge base and skill-set. Our programs are carefully designed to give the education leaders multiple opportunities to engage, connect, and investigate ways to make a difference in our community. By attracting extraordinary candidates from across the city and surrounding region and nationally-recognized faculty, we enrich the classroom environment and leverage everyone s diverse background. 3

4 Working as a team, our students challenge each other to act as catalysts for change in public schools. REEP students and alumni hold themselves to a higher standard and they are committed to transform public schools now, by improving one school at a time. This idea is centered on the importance of the school leader in improving education outcomes for children, especially under-served populations, in the public school system. The school leader serves in a role that is different from the instructional leader or head teacher. The school leader as a CEO mindset requires a leader who is able to take on and lead the full complement of organizational challenges with a robust skill set. REEP offers the MBA and a non-degree, comprehensive business fellowship. Both MBAs and Fellows participate in the REEP Summer Institute. During the Summer Institute, students focus on applying business skills in the education sector with precision and tenacity, using real world case studies. One of the hallmarks of the program is that no single approach to management is dominant. Leaders in the fields of organizational behavior, finance, operations, process management and marketing provide the instruction. We don t provide the right answers; instead, we focus on effective problem solving and asking the right questions. In addition to entrepreneurship at the campus level, the evolving educational technology space also offers an exciting and entrepreneurial market. Last year, the Jones School incorporated an elective into our MBA program for both REEP and non-reep students on this topic of leveraging technology in social entrepreneurship ventures. The Provost at Rice University, several Venture Capitalists, and education entrepreneurs have participated in the elective. The students in this elective develop a social entrepreneurship internet start-up. The start-up must have a "do good" focus and not only be measured with how it impacts the world socially but also how it offers a profitable, sustainable business model. The final class ends with a showcase and competition around the presentation of each group's digital product. Of note, the Jones School, with the Rice Alliance, also hosts the world s largest case study competition for technology entrepreneurs. Last year, the prizes and awards were valued in excess of one million dollars. We believe that these new technologies need to be integrated effectively into the broader school environment. We encourage our entrepreneurial leaders to consider carefully where technology can lower certain costs in order to better deploy the limited resources available to prepare children for post-secondary success. OUTCOMES: THE ONGOING IMPACT OF REEP IN OUR COMMUNITY REEP s mission is to dramatically increase the pool of school leaders who are capable of leading change and driving academic achievement in Houston area public schools. REEP is delivering on this mission while expanding its impact and influence. In fact, if the current REEP campus leaders were all in one school district, that district would serve almost 80,000 children. Following the graduation of our 4 th cohort in May 2012, we now have 147 alumni and 48 current students. Forty-six (46) aspiring leaders have been certified through REEP Map of Alumni and Current Students in Greater Houston Area 4

5 REEP for the Texas Principal Certificate. Almost half of students and alumni (46%) have been promoted since the start of the program, and roughly two-thirds (65%) of the entire group are already in positions of Assistant Principal, Associate Principal, or School Leader/Principal. THE LESSONS WE HAVE LEARNED Change requires persistence. We have had to build a market for this kind of professional development. With generous philanthropic support, the Rice programs are surprisingly affordable. Even though the programs offer tuition reimbursement in the case of the MBA and subsidy for the non-degree tracks, most educators do not immediately see the relevance of the program, especially if they are already certified. The Rice MBA is extremely rigorous and more like a terminal degree, like an EdD or PhD, but it does not afford a title or a pay increase for those who already have a Masters of Education. We built the program around our end goals and have adapted the means as we see results or gaps. We use a research-based competency model focused on leading people, leading change, building coalitions, building the business and achieving results. Our goal was to determine the knowledge, networks and kinds of skills that organizational leaders need versus to design our program to meet the current TEA guidelines. By leveraging a virtual faculty for the Summer Institute, we are able to bring in the latest ideas, knowledge and practice. It is important to note that Rice University did not develop this program alone. The original architects of the program included both district and charter leadership, local education nonprofits like Houston A+ Challenge and Teach For America, local foundation leadership, business leadership and, of course, Rice leadership, including the Dean of the Jones Graduate School of Business, the Associate Provost and adjunct professors. Over the course of a few months, an idea took shape, was funded and launched. Since the launch, we have cultivated more partners, individual districts and charters and non-profits like Raise Your Hand Texas, who are also interested in developing school leaders. In conclusion, the Rice University Education Entrepreneurship Program at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business is a curricular innovation that serves a much needed purpose in developing high capacity leadership in public education. We hope you agree. For more information, please contact Andrea Hodge (713) , [email protected]. I have been a REEP student within the MBA for professionals program at Rice for less than a semester, but in this short time, my way of thinking and evaluating challenges has changed dramatically. Building relationships with professionals in varied fields, being challenged academically, and learning from exemplary educators has already attributed to new teaching and leadership strategies on my campus I am honored I have to been have been a REEP given student this incredible within opportunity the MBA and for am professionals so excited to see program the personal at Rice and for professional less than development a semester, I will but achieve in throughout this short the time, duration my of way the program. of thinking This is and a unique evaluating experience challenges that I am so has grateful changed to have dramatically. been given. Mandy Building Rodgers, relationships Teacher, HISD, REEP with Cohort professionals 5, MBA Candidate in varied 2014 fields, being challenged academically, and learning from exemplary educators has already attributed to new teaching and leadership strategies on my campus I am honored to have been given The REEP program has been a wonderful addition to my professional life. The MBA coursework has given the opportunity to not only learn this incredible opportunity and am so excited to see the personal and professional development I will achieve about different businesses entirely, but it has also given me a greater appreciation for all of the details that are a part of running a successful school throughout (i.e., finances, the data duration analysis, of strategies, the program. creating positive This cultures). is a unique The coursework experience has challenged that I am me to so find grateful ways to apply to have theories been to my own given. school Mandy classroom, Rodgers, and will Teacher, undoubtedly HISD, help REEP to enhance Cohort the academic 5, MBA performance Candidate at 2014 my school as we begin to use more statistical analyses of our children's progress. Amy Stabile, KIPP Houston Public Schools, REEP Cohort 5, MBA Candidate 2014 The amount of information that I have learned so far through my REEP experience is unbelievable. Not only have I learned from my classes, but The from REEP my classmates, program as well. has Seeing been the a wonderful world through addition the eyes of to somebody my professional in a different life. industry The has MBA opened coursework my eyes to how has similar given and me different our two jobs are. It is extremely valuable to be working with classmates like this while taking classes such as economics, accounting, and strategy. the opportunity The variety of to innovative not only ideas learn and about critical different thinking has businesses helped me entirely, gain a better but understanding it has also of given how I me will a use greater this experience to effect change appreciation in my industry. for all Jesse of the Grimm, details Teacher, that Alief are a ISD, part REEP of running Cohort 5, MBA a successful Candidate school 2014 (i.e. finances, data analysis, 5