Entrepreneurship in Education Reform

Course Number 1602

Lecturer Stacey Childress
Winter, 30 Sessions
Exam

Entrepreneurship in Education Reform (EER) is an elective course for second year MBA students and cross-registrants who are interested in creating, leading, or supporting education enterprises with the purpose of driving higher levels of academic achievement for all K-12 students in the United States. The course architecture is driven by the following questions:

  1. Why is there an entrepreneurial opportunity in a sector that is publicly funded and historically has been publicly delivered?
  2. In what specific areas of the sector are opportunities arising and why?
  3. What possibilities and constraints are faced by entrepreneurs across all the opportunity areas?
  4. How might we evaluate the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial approaches at work in the sector?

EER challenges students to consider these questions by examining the complexities of the existing education system, the strategies of entrepreneurial organizations that are attempting to address root causes of the performance problems in urban education, and the entrepreneurial behavior of leaders and managers trying to affect systemic change in both traditional and new types of public schools.

Audience

EER is appropriate for students with a variety of backgrounds and career aspirations who are interested in the course content. No prior experience in public education is required, but an interest in exploring the questions posed by the course with an open mind is necessary. Entrepreneurs planning to launch education ventures and general managers interested in working in established for-profit or nonprofit education enterprises will find the course particularly helpful, as will those who plan to work inside the public system as leaders and managers. Others who would like to better understand the system so that they can contribute effectively from their role in private sector companies as school board members, volunteers, or more informed citizens and customers are also welcome. International students interested in comparing the U.S to their own country context might also find the course of interest, but we will not focus on that point of view in our class discussions.