Green Dot Schools

As part of our effort to build bridges between non-profit excellence and for-profit projects in the education industry, we will be joined this year by three leaders in education start-ups in the non-profit sector, who will join a discussion that talks about how for-profits and non-profits can learn techniques from each other enhance each other's visions and execution.

Marco Petruzzi and Steve Barr from Green Dot will be joined at the forum this year by founder of Curriki, Barbara Kurshan, who I shared dinner with in DC last night.

There are many other interesting people coming on board each day. I will be listing them in the next few days, as I fly to Los Angeles.

Stay Tuned this week for:

Video interview I had with K12 CEO Ron Packard yesterday in their offices in Herndon, Virginia. A very interesting man, who had some great ideas about the next generation of online learning tools and assisstive tech materials. Surprisingly, it was not the future of tech that was on Ron's mind, but the future of teacher training. You'll get this gist when I post the video in a couple of days.

New York's Governor Mulls Public-Private Partnerships for Education Growth

On the surface of things, New York Governor David Paterson's statements last night during his state of the state address look set to give life to a drive to create new preparatory schools for college across the state.

His plan:

Create public-private partnerships to establish new early college prep high schools to prepare disadvantaged students.

Paterson also wants to expand a program that offers free college tuition to students who meet education standards and create a US$350 million state higher education loan program.

Education Industry Investment Forum

For eleven years, executives attending the EIIF have been finding ways to make new strategic relationships and build the for-profit education business into the booming industry it is today.

The EIIF is privileged this year to present discussions on for-profit ideas and businesses that foster the kinds of developments mentioned by Paterson in his State of the State Address.

We have for the first time in the 11 years of the forum a discussion helmed by a leader of a successful non-profit high school system, Green Dot Schools, who will be giving ideas to the for-profit industry on how for-profits and non-profits can learn from each other.

Marco Petruzzi, President and Chief Operating Officer,
Green Dot Schools, will join three other professionals in the following panel session on March 10, 2009 at 9.55 am:

A Non-Profits and For-Profits Bridge Builder Conversation: Answering the Sustainability Question

• What kind of report card does the private sector receive and how effectively is the private sector bringing up achievement?
• Achieving self-sustainable operations through value add in services or through capital raising projects
• Using student achievement assessment as the ultimate measure of quality and value
• Can the organization marshal and organize the other necessary resources – namely people – to become sustainable? How can it structure its operations in order to ensure that quality remains consistent and high?

Moderator: Ted Mitchell, CEO, New Schools Venture Fund

Larry Berger, CEO, Wireless Generation
George Cigale, Founder & CEO, Tutor.com
Keith Oelrich, CEO, Insight Schools
Marco Petruzzi, President and Chief Operating Officer,
Green Dot Schools

Your Chance to Interact with Speakers

Join these executive speakers and leaders in the industry by registering for the Education Industry Investment Forum, held March 9-11, 2009 at the Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Arizona. You can also download the full brochure by clicking on this link.

For a few registered delegates, the FuturEd Symposium, now in its second year, offers five entrepreneurs a chance to sit on a panel to discuss the advances their companies bring to the education industry. More information about the FuturEd Symposium and ways to register here. We look forward to reviewing your application after you have registered for the conference.

"Philanthropy is the Gateway to Power!"

That's perhaps a cynical view. If you are a cynical person you might think that people get into philanthropy becuase they want to advance their own social status and the ethical brand of their company.

Is it time for a re-assessment of why people get into business, and what they do when they get there, in the first place?

A post at the Fast Company blog "Leading Companies for Good," made me wonder.

One thing has changed, however. By the 1980’s, corporations shifted their giving and service programs to be more aligned with the corporate mission and more strategic in accomplishing measurable outcomes for the company and the community. Volunteerism also became more inclusive involving employees of all levels, fostering team-building and community spirit, as well as productive service.

Look Deeper

Non-profits are not just exemplary institutions because they do something for the social good. That's a non-starter conversation. Of course, that is what they are known for. That may bring a considerable amount of social value to your company, if you are involved in one.

Non-profits a lesson in doing business

A large measure of financial and business methodology experimentation and laboratory work happens in non-profits. Non-profits are just as much a businesses as any other business. Cost efficiency, outcome efficiency and streamlining and scalability are just as important.

Look at the successful non-profit charter schools like KIPP and Green Dot Public Schools.

Successful non-profits in education like these schools are really good at pinpointing where education is failing, and driving a solution that leads to measurable outcomes, better efficiency in training, educating, maintenance and blending study materials with student choices and needs.

Those are lessons that from a macro point of view any business would want to learn to enable better strategies in reaching its consumers and driving profit and brand value. Success, even if it is not for profit, is about knowing what you are doing and doing it well within a confined set of restrictions, whether those restrictions are economic, cultural, regulatory or otherwise.

Entrepreneurs in Education

Fred Smith started Federal Express. Some people, including his professor, thought he couldn't do it. I've always marveled at the unknown -- at the time -- people being told they can't do something because, well, it hadn't been done before. As if the world is a finite, fully formed, always the same, entity.

Most everyone thought what he wanted to do was impossible—even the professor who gave him a C on the paper he wrote outlining the concept as an undergraduate at Yale University(the professor allegedly noted, “the concept is interesting and well formed, but in order to earn better than a C, the idea must be feasible”). Federal Express went on to become a successful shipping company that changed customer expectations by demonstrating that overnight delivery was possible. And the Postal Service responded by introducing similar services much more quickly than they would have otherwise.

That paragraph comes from The New Schools Venture Fund, which launched a white paper in 2005 on the subject of "Fueling Entrepreneurs in Education."

It's written by fund employees Kim Smith and Julie Landry Petersen and it's basically about the Entrepreneurs in Education territory that is getting increasing amounts of attention internationally and in the US, especially in the worsening economic cycle that we call 2008.

A pullout:

Green Dot Public Schools, a charter management organization in Los Angeles, designed its own employment agreement with its unionized teachers. These innovative new contracts are one-year contracts that can be modified as needs change.

Adaptability and something different. That breeds success.