Stig Leschly is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School (HBS) where he teaches entrepreneurship.
From 2001-2004, Stig was also on the HBS faculty as a lecturer in entrepreneurship. At that time, in addition to teaching entrepreneurship generally, Stig did research and course development work on the applicability and adaptability of entrepreneurial management practices to the reform of the US system of K-16 education. That work led in part to a 2nd-year course at HBS, called Entrepreneurship and Education Reform.
In the late 1990s and after graduating from Harvard's business and law schools, Stig was the founder and CEO of Exchange.com, an early competitor to eBay.com. Exchange.com primarily operated web-sites for buyers and sellers of hard-to-find books and music titles. In 1999 and in lieu of persuing an IPO, Exchange.com was purchased by Amazon.com where Stig went on to work in various general management and strategic planning capacities and to report to Jeff Bezos.
Stig has worked extensively on public school reform in the US. From 2011 to 2018, he was the CEO of Match Education, an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that operates high-performing charter schools, an innovative graduate school of education that trains and grants Master's degrees to unusually effective first-year teachers, and several nationally prominent web-sites that share curriculum and teaching practices for free with US school teachers and school leaders. Prior to running Match Education, Stig was the founder and CEO for four years of the Newark Charter School Fund, an operating foundation dedicated to public school reform and improvement in Newark, NJ. Stig is the board chair and a cofounder of Duet.org, an innovative college and jobs organzation that helps young adults from low-income households earn high-quality, affordable college degrees and qualify for career-track jobs. Duet.org was incubated at Match Education.
Stig holds a BA in Comparative Literature (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Princeton University (1992) and a combined JD-MBA degree from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School (1998). He lives with his wife, Sherry Riva, and their three teenage daughters in Brookline, MA.
The KIPP Academies are, two high-performing public middle schools founded in 1995 by Michael Feinberg and David Levin in Houston and New York. In January 2000, Feinberg and Levin meet with Scott Hamilton, managing director of the Pisces Foundation, to discuss the possible national replication of the KIPP school model. In addition to covering the wisdom and nature of a possible expansion strategy, they need to assess their common understanding of the essential attributes of the KIPP school program. The history of Feinberg and Levin's efforts to open their schools and the characteristics of their mature schools are presented.
Stacey M. Childress, Stig Leschly and John J-H Kim
Surveys educational outcomes among public school students in the United States. Educational outcomes are categorized as achievement outcomes (measured primarily by students' performance on standardized test results) and attainment outcomes (measured primarily by students' completion rates at various grade levels). Deals with outcome trends within the general U.S. school-aged population and covers educational outcomes in various subpopulations of students, including ones defined by race, income, family background, and gender. Describes student outcomes in U.S. public education; it does not explain them. For example, the first half of the note presents data on stagnating achievement levels in the general U.S. population over the last 30 years, but it does not cover in any detail the debate that surrounds the causes of this trend. Similarly, the second half of the note summarizes, but does not interpret explicitly, certain stark correlations between students' educational prospects and their race and socioeconomic status.
Describes the revenue structure of U.S. public education. Covers funding by federal, state, and local governments. Examines in detail two federal education laws: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Although these laws account for less than 7% of U.S. public funding for education, their mandates strongly influence the activities of schools and school districts. Includes a bibliography. A rewritten version of an earlier note.
Following the largest state takeover of a local public school district in U.S. history, a new governing body must find a CEO to effect a large-scale turnaround in the Philadelphia school district. This case examines the context of large urban public schools and explores the educational and general management challenges facing leaders at the senior management and governing levels. Covers issues such as the politicization of urban school boards, school finance, nontraditional candidates for superintendencies, privatization and educational management organizations, improvement of educational outcomes, state-mandated testing, and stakeholder management.
This case is set in the summer of 2002 in a recently approved charter middle school in Boston. The school's founders face a choice of compensation plans as they finalize the initial teaching team in the school. In particular, the founders are actively considering two performance-based compensation plans as alternatives to the standard salary structure of public schools. These schemes vary in the degree to which they reward individual and school-wide performance, and both are controversial in principle and in practice. The protagonists' consideration of the topics range from specific implementation concerns about how to specify and gather performance data on teaching to the most general of inquiries about the nature of excellent teaching and teachers. Rich in biographical data on the schools' founders and on their educational and managerial philosophies. Exhibits include benchmarking data on performance compensation plans in selected charter schools in the northeast. Exhibits also profile compensation and promotion provisions in the Boston Public Schools.
Set in the fall of 2003, covers managerial challenges facing the CEO and COO of Aspire Public Schools, a nonprofit charter school management company. In operation since 1999 and funded by prominent national foundations and venture philanthropies, Aspire operates 10 public charter schools in northern California. The leadership team at Aspire is contemplating expanding to Los Angeles, a move rich with operational and strategic complexity. Covers in detail Aspire's financial, operating, and instructional models.
This note surveys school choice in the United States. School choice characterizes the school assignment of approximately 56% of U.S. school-aged children and, in order of popularity, can be categorized into seven types: residential choice, private schools, intra- and inter-district choice programs, magnet schools, home schooling, charter schools, and voucher initiatives. Presents data and description on each discrete category of choice. They vary considerably in their purposes and design, in the students they attract, and in their funding and legal posture. Summarizes the history and policy debate to school choice and current research on its effects. Includes a bibliography.
Surveys the history, structure, and activities of the two dominant U.S. teachers unions—the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The NEA and AFT represent approximately 90% of U.S. public school teachers and have grown rapidly since the widespread legalization of collective bargaining among public sector employees, beginning in the 1960s. Focuses on noncontroversial data related to the growth and functioning of the AFT and NEA. Presents but does not evaluate the policy debates and research that cover the effects of unionism on student achievement and other attributes of the U.S. system of public education. Includes a bibliography.
Continues the history of the KIPP Academies--two high-performing public middle schools founded in 1995 by Michael Fineberg and David Levin in Houston and New York.
Covers the origin, evolution, and nature of the KIPP Academies, two high-performing public middle schools founded in 1995 by Michael Feinberg and David Levin in Houston and New York. In January 2000, Feinberg and Levin meet with Scott Hamilton, managing director of the Pisces Foundation, to discuss the possible national replication of the KIPP school model. In addition to covering the wisdom and nature of a possible expansion strategy, they need to assess their common understanding of the essential attributes of the KIPP school program. Covers in detail the history of Feinberg and Levin's efforts to open their schools and the characteristics of their mature schools.
Covers the evolution of the Gates Foundation's multibillion dollar effort to influence reform in the U.S. public education system since 1999, particularly the foundation's recent decision to invest heavily in the breakup of existing urban high schools and the creation of new small high schools. Examines the merits of that strategy and various implementation issues associated with it. Tom Vander Ark, who oversees the foundation's education initiative, prepares for a meeting with Bill Gates in which he will review the foundation's track record and propose targeting future investments on small high school reform. For background and context, the case covers the contemporary small schools movement in the United States and the consolidation of high schools and districts in the United States since 2000.
Stig Leschly, Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Todd H Thedinga
Describes the evolution of Amazon.com and its business model since its founding. Specifically, discusses Amazon's transformation from an e-Tailer to a commerce platform and its marketplace initiative, which has driven this. Also describes the economics of various commerce models that Amazon employs and discusses a decision confronting Jeff Bezos regarding how the company should participate in the apparel segment.
Leschly, Stig, Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman, and Todd H Thedinga. "Amazon.com-2002." Harvard Business School Case 803-098, November 2002. (Revised February 2003.)
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Describes the founding, early growth, and expansion plans of New Leaders for New Schools, a nonprofit public education venture that recruits, trains, places, and supports principals in U.S. urban school districts. This case presents the strategic, financial, and operating issues that arise as New Leaders' senior management team tries to transition their organization from a start-up two years after the creation of the company, to a mature and fully stabilized company capable of influencing national reform of school leadership practices. Focuses significantly on New Leaders' choice between two alternative ten-year growth strategies. One plan calls for New Leaders to expand aggressively by raising approximately $100 million in outside investment, opening principal recruitment and training programs across the country, and reaching millions of students through its principal corps. An alternative plan envisions New Leaders as a smaller and more focused organization that works closely with carefully selected school districts and charter school operators to demonstrate the impact on student achievement of well-designed school leadership practices.
Describes efforts in Seattle Public Schools, under the leadership of Superintendent Joseph Olchefske, to replace the district's centralized budgeting process with school-level budgets. Olchefske's decentralization effort, referred to locally as the Freedom Agenda, allocated funding to schools on the basis of student enrollment and sought to give principals increased flexibility in managing resources, hiring staff, and designing education programs. The central aim of the Freedom Agenda was to equip principals and their leadership teams with the resources and authority they needed to implement educational programs tailored to individual student needs. Focuses significantly on the interaction of Olchefske's decentralization plan with the incentives and constraints that accompany public funding.
Describes the implementation in Seattle Public Schools, under the direction of Superintendent Joseph Olchefske, of a systemwide standards and accountability scheme, known as the Performance Agenda. The Performance Agenda set academic standards for students and defined professional expectations for teachers and administrators. A primary goal of the agenda was to align teaching practices with academic outcomes for students and to introduce performance-based practices into the management of teachers and staff. Focuses significantly on the interaction of the district's labor contracts with efforts to introduce teacher accountability.
Describes the abolition, starting in 1995, of Seattle's mandatory busing and desegregation program in favor of an in-district choice program. Presents the mechanics of Seattle's choice plan, including the controversial formulas that allocate space in the district's most popular schools. Summarizes correlations between academic achievement, race, and class in Seattle Public Schools. Reviews the socioeconomic, demographic, and political context in Seattle and discusses the district's contentious history with various desegregation policies.
Presents the decision by the Federal Court of Appeals for the ninth Circuit in the spring of 2002 to invalidate Seattle's use of race as a factor in allocating space in Seattle's oversubscribed schools. Summarizes the posture and content of the litigation, including its pending review in the Supreme Court of Washington and its origins in Washington's anti-affirmative action movement. Data are presented on the reconcentration of students by race and class that will result from the court decree.
Investigates the reform of the Seattle Public Schools from 1995 to 2002. To initiate reform in 1995, the district hired John Stanford, an Army general, and Joseph Olchefske, an investment banker, as the district's superintendent and chief financial officer, respectively. Under the direction of Stanford and Olchefske, the district launched a long-term reform plan, the centerpieces of which were influenced by market theory and general management principles. The first priority of the reform plan was to decentralize the district's budgeting process. Decentralization, referred to locally as the Freedom Agenda, reduced the involvement of the district's central office in school-based activities and delegated to individual school principals increased flexibility in managing resources, hiring staff, and designing education programs. The aim of the Freedom Agenda was to equip principals and their leadership teams with the resources and authority they needed to implement educational programs tailored to individual student needs. A second phase of the reform, known in the district as the Performance Agenda, set academic standards for students and defined professional expectations for teachers and administrators. A primary goal of the Performance Agenda was to align teaching practices with clearly defined academic outcomes for students and to introduce performance-based practices into the management of teachers and staff.
